4 comments about Lithuanian Dictionary: English-Lithuanian/Lithuanian-English (Bilingual Dictionaries).

1. This English-Lithuanian Dictionary is very easy to use in translating from English to Lithuanian and I really like the abundant selection of words. There are also example sentences for almost every word. The introductions are written in English and Lithuanian, but the English instructions help the best and are more thorough. What I find very helpful is the middle section which has about 30 pages of notes on grammar. This is a quick and easy reference guide in case you forget the declension or conjugation of a word and then you won't have to look it up in another book. There is also a section on Geographical areas and Acronyms. If you are looking for a book with Dictionary, English AND Lithuanian instruction, and a short section on grammar reference, this book is for you. However, I must note that this Dictionary is for intermediate speakers and writers of the Lithuanian and English Language. If you are not familiar with the language, you may have problems understanding the dictionary and the concepts it is trying to convey.



2. If you're unaware of this language, then this really isn't for you. Otherwise for the intermediate lugan speaker, GO FOR IT. I have a Lithuanian Dictionary that I purchased in Lithuania, Its good. But this is MUCH better. This has both Lithuanian and English Dictionary in it. Great job to Bronius Piesarskas, Bronius Svecevicius. Knowing of the language they have performed a great task in putting this all down in print. Sveikas!



3. No criticism of the authors, but it would be fair to say that the dictionary could be much better.

   In essence, it is just an improved version of the Soviet-time Lithuanian dictionaries, compiled at the time when authors had little chance of travelling to an English-speaking country and had little familitarity with living language (you can still feel that most of the English vernacular relates more to Dickens than to modern life).

   There is evidence of badly lacking knowledge of anything remotely economic or scientific: you will be referring to specialized dictionaries very often. It is fair to say that the book is good for a student or a casual user; any professional translator or linguist should have low expectations to avoid disappointment.

   Significant work has been done improving the dictionary compared to previous editions, but not nearly enough. At the same time, publishing dictionaries is a notoriously expensive business, involving years of work by many people - something that no publishing house in Lithuania can afford at the moment. In the circumstances, it is the best dictionary available and it will have to do; there is still enormous room for improvement.




4. Routledge's LITHUANIAN DICTIONARY is a reprinting of the dictionary by Bronius Piesarskas and Bronius Svecevicius originally published by the Zodynas press in Vilnius in 1994. The material contributed for Routledge's edition comes to only a new cover, and a brief supplement by Ian Press on Lithuanian grammar which says no more than would the decent textbook you should already have.
   
   As far as dictionaries go, this is pretty comprehensive and well-edited, not the paltry list of one-to-one translations that one finds in e.g. Hippocrene dictionaries of smaller languages. I believe this is the best option for English speakers learning Lithuanian. HOWEVER, as the dictionary was originally written for Lithuanians learning English, one important matter is missing from the Lithuanian items: the accent. The accent is especially important for scholars of comparative Baltic or Indo-European linguistics, one of the larger audiences for a Lithuanian dictionary, and it's a real pity not to see the accent indicated here. Students of the Lithuanian language should ensure that they make sure the accent of newly-learnt vocabulary items from a native speaker.
   
   I strongly suggest avoiding the Routledge printing of this dictionary. It is a fragile paperback whose binding cannot lie flat and which will soon begin to crack. It is also very overpriced, something that one regrettably comes to expect from Routledge. There's a 2002 hardbound edition from Zodynas that is very durable and can be had from Lithuania for cheap if you can pick it up there or acquire it from a Lithuanian bookshop in the U.S.

No comments about Easy Way to Lithuanian (audio CDs & text).

No comments about A Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German and Sclavonic Languages.

No comments about A Comparative Grammar of the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German, and Sclavonic Languages.

1 comments about Talk Now! Lithuanian.

1. Overall, I think that they did a decent job of putting this language program together. However, I would have liked it if they would have put in a section that covered the alphabet.

2 comments about Pimsleur Lithuanian: Learn to Speak and Understand Lithuanian with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur).

1. I should probably start out by saying that I've been an avid language learner for about fifteen years now. I know my faults, my high points, and what the best method FOR ME is when it comes to studying a language. I bought the Pimsleur Lithuanian program mostly to improve my pronunciation, but also to learn a few key phrases as I go along. (Anybody brave enough to start learning Lithuanian will notice almost immediately that there aren't very many materials on the market as of yet- but it seems to be slowly improving.) The Pimsleur programs are quite possibly the most boring, repetetive audio programs on the market. I'm on unit 7 as I write this, and after seven units, roughly 25 minutes long apiece, I have learned only about a dozen phrases and words total. Even as an absolute beginner in learning Lithuanian, I can hardly get through one lesson without losing my mind from the repetition. I can honestly picture myself sitting in a padded room someday mumbling "Is your pronunciation like the speaker's?- Listen again..." over and over again. After you finish the first lesson, at least half of each following lesson is review, which they throw in even when they're teaching you a new word or phrase, so in the end, you end up learning practically nothing new. For the 35 bucks I paid for this program, I don't feel like being able to say "Hi, how are you? Would you like to eat something?" after SEVEN lessons is worth my money or even my time. Anybody interested in learning Lithuanian at a faster pace should try www.slic.org.au-Language-LLL_index.swf where one can not only hear but also SEE what they're learning, and the lessons (24 in all- where you'll learn about eighty times the amount you would with Pimsleur) are informative and entertaining.
   On the plus side, though, I used Pimsleur Russian to learn some Russian about four years ago, and I can still remember most of it. Then again, I repeated it SO MANY TIMES while listening to the program...



2. I really like the pimsleur method. I knew a lot of the languag already, but Pimsleur's helped me to get a good hold of the correct grammar.

1 comments about Eastern European 12 Language Phrasebook (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian and Ukrainian)(Phrasebooks S.).

1. This guidebook is a handy, compact reference for simple survival and simple courtesy-based conversation. It is suited for the traveler who intends to visit the countries that feature these 12 languages, but not for the student who is trying to learn one particular language. Alternatively, the book will serve well the student of a language who needs a quick reference for simple phrases, should he stumble.
   
   The book features simple greetings and situational phrases, such as at the airport or the restaurant, along with a brief history of each language. It also has a section devoted to telling time, which I found lacking, since it did not cover all the times of the day (just the times within 9 o'clock, and how to say "noon," "afternoon," and "evening," for example). One of the book's strengths is its phonetic pronunciations for each translated phrase. Although I found some pronunciations were incorrect (in the Lithuanian section), it will help you in a bind.

5 comments about Beginner's Lithuanian (Beginner's (Foreign Language)).

1. I have read the reviews for the book, and was quite disappointed. I myself am a Lithuanian, and I have been teaching Lithuanian for the past three months to an English speaker. From what i have seen published, even recently, there is not any other book that would cover grammar and vocabulary as well as this one does. Most likely, i would arrange the topics differently, but over all, this is a great book for a guided or independent study of Lithuanian language.



2. I received this book as a starting place for my year long study of Lithuanian with the ultimate goal of going there for my Master's Degree, which will be taught in English, but I figure most of my fellow students will be locals. Despite the lackluster reviews and other grumblings, I found this book to be an excellent beginning text. It stresses proper grammar and does include many spoken phrases. I have previously bought Jurgita Batushaityte's Lithuanian Dictionary & Phrasebook and found it quite lacking. Perhaps good in a pinch while stopping through the country on a whirlwind tour of the Baltics. I visited Estonia for about 3 months over the course of 2 years and enjoyed the experience and it whet my appetite for more. I have yet to go to Lithuania, but when I do I will stay for a year or two and need to know how to communicate in letters as well as speech. This book accomplishes that goal very well. I also was able to grab a copy of the Po Truputi CD-ROM recently, which is only in Lithuanian and includes many phrases and words pronounced by native speakers.



3. I used this book to learn Lithuanian before going there to spend five years studying culture and traditions. Over time I have become familiar with (I believe) all alternatives for studying Lithuanian. Despite its age, this classic method still remains the best.
   
   There was one thing missing: recordings to go with the readings and exercises. But this is no longer so! Five hours of .mp3 files indexed to the full text can be downloaded at a nominal charge. IMHO these make the book much more suited for sustained self-study. There is also a free online Lithuanian-English dictionary:
   www.afoto.com/lith
   
   To hear a sample and see the interface between the book and the recordings, take a look at: afoto.com/lith/lith.htm
   
   Lithuanian is not an easy language to learn. But I found that by listening and reading regularly for half an hour mornings and evenings over a period of a year I was able to have basic conversations with people once there.
   
   There is one final reason to choose this book. While some reviewers here construe the text as hopelessly outdated, I have a different view. The authors are scholars with a long and sustained grounding in traditional Lithuanian life. As you immerse yourself in the stories and conversations you are also getting an intimate cultural encounter. This dimension is, as a rule, completely overlooked in more "modern" methods. It has been my experience that awareness of these "non-discursive" dimensions is what opened the doors to experiences and friendships I otherwise would have missed.



4. A must to try to grasp the Lithuanian language, one of 2 baltic languages left.



5. The is the reprint of "Introduction to Modern Lithuanian" that I have used for many years. Still the best text available. Also, get the Routledge "Lithuanian Dictionary," actualy three books in one.
   
   These two books will be an excellent "Lithuanian Language Library" at your
   fingertips.

2 comments about Lithuanian-English/English-Lithuanian Dictionary & Phrasebook.

1. A handy dictionary and phrase book for a beginning student of the Lithuanian language.



2. This is a good book for getting your point accross when there is a Lithuaian / Eighish gap.

5 comments about Teach Yourself Lithuanian Complete Course Package (Book+ 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Complete Courses).

1. This is a welcome addition to the Teach Yourself series, but for some reason authors in this series seem to make their books unnecessarily dense, especially at the beginning.
   
   Lithuanian is a complex language, so there is no getting around that. I have studied it for several years casually and know it takes some getting used to. What is so frustrating is that this book continues the almost-universal trend in language books of authors who promise to keep it simple and nix the grammar jargon, but do nothing of the sort.
   
   For example, from the introduction: "We wanted to write this book in such a way that it would not be difficult to study for a person who is not especially interested in grammar or linguistic matters or who does not necessarily know linguistic terminology." So far so good, even acknowledging that when it comes to studying Lithuanian, you have to face some tricky grammar eventually.
   
   But just a few pages later we get: "Remember that there are three main forms of the verb; the question word of the case governed by the verb and the most popular prefix of completed action are introduced:" and some examples are then given next to an infinitive.
   
   Can someone please decipher this for me? While no Ph.D. in linguistics, I have studied enough language books to know most grammar terms, but I have no idea what "the question word of the case governed by the verb is," let alone how to recognize and translate it.
   
   So what we have is a mixed bag. Beginner's will be frustrated, no doubt, but the layout and overall thoroughness of the book are both welcome and necessary for those wanting more than 10 lessons of Pimsleur or the baffling "Colloquial Lithuanian." This may be the best Lithuanian book/audio package out there, which itself is kind of disappointing.



2. Very good program for learning Lithuanian. My mother had learned Lithuanian from her parents and at school. She enjoys the program very much. This progam has been a great review for her.



3. I own a couple other Lithuanian books and while this one's layout is certainly not atricious, it's not the best. They make a concerted effort for the reader to understand the words and to be able to replicate them accurately, but it gets to the point where even the last sound file goes so slowly and painfully that I at least was ripping my hair out. Nevertheless, I was incredibly grateful for the sound, the presentation, and the fact that while it did need to be supplemented, it complemented all of my other books (Beginner's Lithuanian, in particular). And indeed, I'm very pleased with it so far.



4. First off, this course is for beginners who know their grammar. If you aren't familiar with noun cases and verb conjugations, this book is not your starting point -- "Beginner's Lithuanian" takes a step-by-step approach that would be more ideal. Short Lithuanian courses can also be found online, complete with audio, that can teach you the basics for a smoother transition into this course.
   
   If you have some prior knowledge of how the language works or feel comfortable with taking on unfamiliar grammar, then this course is ideal for you. The first two units alone are daunting with the amount of information packed into each one, but the truth is that the rest of the coursebook is organized the same way. It teaches an impressive amount of vocabulary that works both for getting by in tourist situations and for everyday conversation. Each unit begins with a list of vocabulary terms (not recorded), followed by four or five short dialogues (all recorded) followed by a mix of grammar notes, exercises (a number of which on the recordings), and cultural notes. An answer key to the exercises, a listening guide to the recorded exercises, an appendix on stress/pitch, and a short dictionary are supplied at the end of the book.
   
   I'd strongly recommend getting the full course, i.e. the book and CDs instead of just the coursebook itself. The native speakers speak carefully and intentionally through the entire course, often so slowly that it becomes annoying. This is done to ensure that you learn the correct pitch and vowel length of the words spoken -- take note of the slightest differences in pronunciation of noun endings and verb forms. Of the thirteen units, only the last one has the dialogues spoken at a normal rate of speech. Had this technique been incorporated a few units earlier in the course to teach learners how the language is actually spoken, it definitely could have been a five-star course. Understanding the faster pace of normal speech is a big gap to jump after this course.
   
   From this point, if you complete the course and want to continue studies, I'd recommend "Colloquial Lithuanian". It emphasizes both grammar and spoken language and as is slightly more advanced. The accompanying audio to the course teaches the normal rate of speech, so it can definitely prepare you for what you'll actually hear.



5. This book with CDs seems to be very useful. Very distinct pronouniciatin, not too fast and subsecuently easy to follow. Grammer well explained.