5 comments about Swedish: An Elementary Grammar-Reader.

1. My girlfriend is swedish and I have decided to learn the language to the best of my abilities so that she can't speak to people behind my back.
   
   On a more serious note, I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning this beautiful language. The lessons are straightforward and you will be surprised just how much you have learned, even by lesson 6! Even my girlfriend is impressed with the ease that I am learning swedish, and she knows 12 languages!
   
   If I had to recommend only one book to people that want to learn the swedish language, this would be it. It can be a little dated at times, but only occasionally. You'll be glad that you spent a few extra dollars for it. I know that I am.



2. This is a great book for learning Swedish but you had better be up on your grammar terms to use it. It's more like elementary swedish grammar for the college english student. The great things about it are that it lists noun declensions and verb conjugations when it gives you new words. It also teaches you swedish culture as you work through the lessons and translate paragraphs. The worst things about it are there are no answers to the questions! How are you suppose to know when you're messing up? Also, it is dated in places. It hasn't been updated since 1980. I'm lucky that I have a swedish friend to help guide me through the lessons. There is also very little to help you with Swedish pronunciation. The book pretty much expects that you'll have access to language lab thus only passes briefly over information on it. I definitely feel the book is worth the money. It has a wealth of information but I don't think a beginner can use this book by itself to learn the language. Unless you only intend to write it and not speak it.



3. This book uses the classic method of teaching language: introduce a reading passage that might occur in the real world, then translate the vocabulary used in the passage and explain the grammar so that the student will understand the passage.
   
   The explanations after each passage explain the elements of the Swedish language by showing how the vocabulary and grammar combine to form sentences in Swedish. The nouns are usually shown with the definite and indefinite article, and the when the conjugated verb forms are defined, the infinitives are also provided so the reader knows the infinitive form and can begin to see which verbs are regular and which are irregular.
   
   This textbook moves very smoothly from the basic elements of the Swedish language - nouns, definite and indefinite articles, general forms of infinitives - to the more complicated grammatical elements such as dependent clauses and relative pronouns. The technical details of the grammar are always clearly explained, and the reader never feels that significanat grammatical concepts are overlooked or skipped. Having the grammar explained in the real-life context of the reading passages makes it easier to use and remember.
   
   A good companion book to this grammar reader would be "201 Swedish Verbs Conjugated in all the Tenses." As the reader moves through the textbook, the companion verb book will quickly show how Swedish forms compound tenses such as the present perfect and conditional perfect. Using the verb book also helps the reader quickly see the word order in dependent clauses.
   
   One last note. Although the grammar is defined very well, it would be very helpful to have more examples illustrating the Swedish grammar and then translating these examples into English to reinforce the grammatical ideas and to help build vocabulary.
   
   Overall an excellent book based on a solid approach to language acquisition. If you know the contents of this book, you will probably know 90 percent of all grammatical structures you will encounter in real-world situations, and will have a good start on the vocabulary. Buy this text along with "201 Swedish Verbs" and enjoy.



4. This is a great little grammar-reader, demanding in its exercises, informative in its cultural pieces. One has the sense that the lessons build on each other carefully, and that the most has been done with the pages at the authors' disposal. You finish the book with an intermediate level of Swedish, which allows you to read a simple newspaper article without too much difficulty, generate decent sentences that will help you get around, and pretty much understand people speaking at a natural pace.



5. I was a bit surprised to see that a paperback would sell for so much, $35?! But as I was determined to learn Swedish, and the reviews were good, so I went for it. Glad I did! I'm on chapter 5 so far, and doing good. The only thing I'm having trouble with is the plural form (though not the book's fault; there just aren't any completely set rules for determining the correct form, it's mostly memorization). Each chapter begins with a short story in Swedish, and a vocab list is included shortly after. It also includes in parenthesis which group each noun belongs to (en or ett). I find it helpful to highlight each different noun according to it's gender (I do blue for "ett" and orange for "en", but that's up to you). It then moves on to key grammar points, and what I love the most are the exercises at the end of each chapter. The last having to translate a paragraph into Swedish (and everything you need to know for how to do this is talked about, so it isn't hard, and you're like, "hey, I can really do this!"). And at the end of the book there are several short stories, each a few pages long. Which is nice to have something "real" to read once you've mastered a decent amount of Swedish.
   
   And since there's no CD included with this, I would recommend the Teach Yourself series Swedish version for pronunciation (comes with CDs). I'd also advice getting Åke Viberg's "Swedish: Essential's of Grammar". I especially find it helpful with my issues of the plural definite and indefinite forms, but it pretty much covers any trouble you may have.

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

1. Excellent program. So good, it was almost scary. I felt I was being transformed into a native in minutes. Very exciting! Thank you, Herr Pimsleur!
   Hilsen,
   James



2. This course is very basic. It is pretty much all audio - there is a word list to read after each of the five sessions, but often those words are not used in the dialogue nor are they defined. Apparently the Pimsleur method is tried and tested. For someone who knows absolutely no Norwegian, it is probably a good starter course (learning to greet others, ask for food, say that you don't speak Norwegian, etc.) There are other courses that are just a little more advanced that are less expensive.



3. These Pimsleur CDs are great to learn some basics before going to non-English speaking country. You learn good things like "thank you", "excuse me", and of course "I don't understand Norwegian". Some of the more advanced lessons were not very helpful like saying I want to eat at your house. They also got faster with each lesson.



4. Pimsleur is the best language program out there that I have ever found. I have used their Norwegian, Japanese, Russian, Greek and Mandarin programs, and been very happy with them.
   
   You will not be fluent after doing just this set, but it will definitely get you started.



5. I love this! I listen to it every day on my way to work. It focuses more on the oral aspect of the language, but it does have a booklet that has a page for each section to learn how to pronounce things. It is easy, and the speakers you're learning from speak at a normal rate(not too fast, not too slow) to get a realistic idea of how native speakers communicate. I found I remembered everything I learned after each lesson too, which is a first. I would definitely recommend this to anybody who wants to jump right in and learn a language who's limited on time/patience.

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

1. It was three years ago that I started with this small course.
   
   I figured I was going to spend 10 days in Sweden and may as well speak a few sentences. And I was hooked ! This book got me going quickly.
   The key is to repeat and repeat the CDs until you follow what the speaker is saying.
   
   Now I can easily say that I hear Swedish Radio P1, watch Swedish TV, and read newspaper via internet fluently. And I live in the US!
   
   Granted, I bought some extra courses.
   
   Suggested follow-up courses: Nya Mål and Svenska Untifrån from the Swedish Institutet. ( www.swedenbookshop.com. )



2. if you are an absolute beginner, find another product. the book is poorly laid out, difficult to navigate, and has few reinforcement excerises. the cds are great for learning pronunciation but they rarely speak slowly enough for you to repeat the sentences. two thumbs serioussssly down.



3. this book as seen in other reviews moves really fast and would only be reccomended as a supplement to other (slower) courses. there is no spoken section that focuses on how to pronounce the 3 new swedish sounds and it seems heavy on phrase memorization rather than language understanding. the book & cds are not all bad, it does help the reader/listener pick up some vocab rather quickly and is good training for training your ear to begin understanding certain phrases that would be spoken to you in swedish. i purchased 5 courses and books on swedish and the best one by far is the free/public domain one Swedish: Basic Course from the Foriegn Service Institute/ U.S. Dept. of State. it seems i've been using everything i purchased as a supplement to that, and those being this book along with 201 Swedish Verbs, Essentials of Swedish Grammar, and An Essential Grammar, and Rossetta Stone.



4. When I began graduate studies at Helsingfors Universitet, I was keen on learning some Swedish. I examined a number of different resources, including TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH, the most widely available self-teaching textbook in the English-speaking world. Unfortunately, Vera Croghan's work must be one of the poorest volumes in the entire Teach Yourself series.
   
   I had already learnt some basic Swedish for another textbook before opening TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH for the first time, and so I was shocked by how Croghan chose to begin her course. Right from the first chapter the reader faces a deluge of highly colloquial and idiomatic language. There's no gentle start from the very basics; instead, it's like you are dumped right into a Swedish crowd. Total immersion is a good language-learning technique in a classroom environment where a trained teacher can skillfully direct the group's activities, but I imagine most home learners will swiftly give up. Worse yet, many of the colloquialisms are already obsolete, and the use of several words Croghan claims are everyday will result in laughter from your Swedish friends.
   
   The exercises make too few demands of the reader, requiring him only to utter a few phrases. Sweden is not a country where you need survival language skills. If you try to use overly simple language on the street, people are just going to answer in English. So, the learner might as well work towards as rigorous a command of the language as possible. It is therefore a pity that Croghan doesn't include exercises that really challenge you and force you to start thinking in Swedish. Furthermore, as Swedish word order is so different from that of English, the reader should do long prose translations from English into Swedish to flex his syntactic muscles. But you won't get that here.
   
   Now, even though the course is completely useless for the beginners that it is marketed to, TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH does have some value for people with some amount of experience with the language already. The dialogues, especially as heard from the cassettes or CD, make one more comfortable with colloquial speech and popular expressions.
   
   The book I eventually used to reach an intermediate level of Swedish is Gladis Hird's Swedish: An Elementary Grammar-Reader (Cambridge University Press, 1977). Hird's textbook is among the best for any language that I've ever encountered, and teaches one both everyday Swedish and the basics of the literary language. Even when it goes for quite a bit on the used market it's worth seeking out more than TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH.



5. I used this book and CD set as part of an independent study in Swedish. I had little to no experience with Swedish beforehand but I found it relatively straight-forward. However, due to my own negligence I suppose, I did not realize that this book is based on British English and not American English. As a result, a few of the pronunciations were a bit tricky, but really nothing to worry about.

5 comments about Beginner's Norwegian with 2 Audio CDs.

1. This is the best beginners' language book I have ever found in any language. I like to learn a little of the language before I visit a country, and since I travel frequently, I have a lot of experience with beginning language books. I spent a month with this book before going to Norway. The lessons were enjoyable and well-presented. I was amazed how much grammar and vocabulary I could absorb in so little time. When I got to Norway, I was able to speak and understand a wide variety of phrases.



2. This is an excellent book for learning beginning Norwegian. It goes thru the lesson at regular speaking pace then repeats allowing time for the student to say the sentence. Then reviews words and phrases. I find it an excellent suppliment to go along with the once a week language class I am taking.



3. I recently reviewed the Teach Yourself Norwegian course/book, and would like to now review the Beginner's Norwegian book/CD's and make some comparisons. In the other review (Teach Yourself), I mentioned that it was my favorite of the Norwegian books I use. This is true, but Beginner's Norwegian is an excellent book and in some ways superior to TY (Teach Yourself Norwegian). I'll also briefly mention the Colloquial Norwegian book here, as well.
   
   Let me start with the superior points of this book:
   
   * If your learning style tends to be visual (meaning: written word) and/or analytical, and you like to see things organized and categorized, you are in for a pleasant surprise here. This book is better organized than other Norwegian courses. Hippocrene has done a magnificent job with their recently published Beginner's Series books (the Danish course is organized in the same way as the Norwegian book).
   
   * Each chapter starts out with a dialog. On the facing pages, there is a complete translation in English. TY does not have this translation (it only has a list of new words presented in the dialog). TY forces you to thumb back to the glossary if you forget a word. I don't want to debate whether, pedagogically, this is good or bad. But I will say that having the translation right there with the dialog saves a LOT of time that would be otherwise wasted flipping back and forth to a glossary--time that could have been spent drilling words with flash cards, which is far more efficient than looking words up in a glossary. You are either going to learn a word or not--having to flip back to a glossary will not help you learn it any faster, it will only waste time and cause frustration. Thank you Hippocrene for providing full translations.
   
   * On the CD, the dialog is spoken at normal speed and then it goes through the whole thing again, slower and with pauses to repeat it. Very nice.
   
   * Each chapter contains a vocabulary list of manageable size and also gives the written approximate English (US) pronunciation. I know many people think this is a bad thing, but I don't. You will not be pronouncing words as English once you have the sounds of Norwegian in your head--the reason I like this feature is that it's invaluable for showing you which letters are silent or pronounced non-phonetically until you are able to remember them on your own. If you start out pronouncing a "t" or "r" that isn't supposed to be sounded, it's hard to break the habit. The written pronunciation helps with this a lot. And if you are just learning pronunciation from the Norwegian spelling, good luck. It isn't as phonetic as it's cracked up to be. Things won't go so well for you at times.
   
   * This book tends to have more exercises than the others--still not enough, but better than most.
   
   What is perhaps not as good about this book?
   
   Well, you will get a more rigorous treatment in the TY book--I'm not sure if that's good or bad because, at times, the Teach Yourself book tends to be a bit overwhelming (at least for me)--mostly with the vast amounts of vocabulary thrown out. I've had to stop, back up, take a deep breath, and relearn vocabulary several times with TY. So with Beginner's Norwegian you will not get as many vocabulary words (or as much grammar) in any given chapter. But, really, I almost think that's good. You get less, but it's drilled into you more completely. I do think that the TY does a bit better with the grammar, though. And TY is definitely more entertaining (the CD and dialogs). Then again, I don't know if that really means anything when it comes to learning a language.
   
   Probably your best bet is to work through both Beginner's Norwegian and TY if you have the time. Then there is Colloquial Norwegian. This is an okay book. I like the varied dialects on the CDs, but truthfully, the presentation in the book is a bit scatter-brained. It's not horrible, but both TY and Beginner's Norwegian are far better organized.
   
   Now for the big question: If you were to buy just one of the books, which would it be???
   
   That depends. If you want the path of learning Norwegian to be a smoother one from the start, I'd say go for Beginner's Norwegian. It's a great book. If you are up for some frustration along the way and are willing to deal with a lack of practice problems (meaning you have to be creative to find your own ways of drilling yourself), go with TY. You'll have at least double the amount of vocabulary and a more complete picture of the grammar when you are done.
   
   But still... bottom line if you're serious: get both and maybe go through Beginner's Norwegian first, then TY. Or you could even get all three (along with Janus's Norwegian Verbs & Essentials of Grammar).



4. For those who prefer memorization learning of grammar, syntax, and useful phrases over more recent teaching methods, Hippocrene's "Beginner's Norwegian" will be of assistance. This package include synchronized lesson plans and two audio disks for beginners in Norwegian.
   
   The lessons build rapidly from basic phrases to social niceties and more practical matters such as ordering meals and shopping through being able to travel around Norway. The dedicated student should emerge from this self-paced course with a survival level of Norwegian for touristing. The good news is that although many Norwegians speak good to excellent English, they are apt to respond very positively to a visitor who is prepared to meet them halfway with basic Norwegian language skills.
   
   This course in beginner's Norwegian is highly recommended to those with the self-discipline to teach themselves, with a little help.



5. I liked this book and CDs very much. I consider it an excellent help in my study for the language because it contains lively conversations and this is what I need in the stage that I am now. The only thing is that I wouldn't recommend it for the complete beginner who studies by himself. I would suggest that you start with a simpler course to learn the first words and phrases. This introductory material you can find in several sites on the Internet. But after that very first stage, get this book. It is live and real language that you will find in it.

1 comments about Berlitz Danish Dictionary: Danish-english / Engelsk-dansk (Berlitz Pocket Dictionaries).

1. If you are looking for a pocket-size Danish-English dictionary, this is the one for you. I am able to comfortably bring it with me when I go to the libary to do geneology research. I like it.

5 comments about Icelandic-English/English-Icelandic Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary).

1. Most people who study Icelandic, buy this little book, but it's absolutely useless, because:

   *1. It contains too few words.

   Only 5,000 one way (a good dictionairy should contain at least 50,000).

   *2. There are no inflection indications.

   The most essential thing of the whole Icelandic language lacks (only gender is stated, and the strength of verbs, which is absoutely useless without other information).

   *3. No word combinations, no proverbs whatsoever.

   Needed for a good use of the language.

   *4. Old-fashioned.

   No modern words.

   --------------

   The problem is, THERE ARE NO OTHER ICELANDIC DICTIONAIRIES AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. ...I hope I have helped you.




2. The demand for Icelandic dictionaries is pretty small. Because of this, you will have to pay 60 dollars or more for a great or out-of-print edition. The hippocrene version is not a great dictionary by any stretch of the imagination, however, it retails for around 10 dollars. If you are serious about learning Icelandic, you will need a dictionary. Pick this one up and use the glossaries from you other books (such as Teach Yourself Icelandic, Colloquial Icelandic, Icleandic, etc...) to supplement what this edition leaves out. The other reviewers seem to have alot of money, which explains their disdain for this cheap edition and absurdly expensive recommendations. Which one would you choose: a brand new $10 dictionary or a $60+ out-of-print dictionary. Just be sure to check Half Price Books and other used bookstores to see if they happen to have any large college or complete Icelandic dictionaries in stock.



3. This dictionary is better than what most of the other reviewers have said. It is not a big dictionary, it has 177 pages, and it only has one column of print, but it has many words in it. Someone said it still uses the letter z, which Icelandic no longer uses. But I did not see the letter z in the Icelandic section.
   
   This is not a great dictionary, but it will go along just fine with other books' glossaries.



4. I don't know the background of the nay-sayers of this little gem, but it's a pocket-style dictionary. DUH!
   
   Anybody who's used pocket-dictionaries knows that they are limited in capacity.
   
   Me, I use this to look up the English - Icelandic and then go over to Zoega's to look up the Old Norse version of the modern Icelandic. It usually gets me in the ballpark.
   
   I am self-teaching Old Norse so I can create more accurate "Rune" stones for SCA awards for Norse personas. While my Old Norse isn't perfect, it's gotten a lot better with this nice, POCKET sized dictionary.



5. Although the earliest date in the book is 1990, a little bit of knowledge of the language will reveal a number of anomalies in spelling and word choice that clearly date the book as much older. On the lcelandic side, there is at least occasional use of the letter 'z' in words such as Þýzkaland (Germany), which according to wikipedia at least (URL excluded per guidelines, but search for "Icelandic Language") indicates that the reference to that spelling dates from before 1974, at which time the letter 'z' was removed from the language. On the English side, spellings such as 'to-day' and 'to-morrow' also seem to date the book as being much older than even the 1970s. Even the appearance of the text and the distinction in the printing between the bulk of the book and the last few pages seem to indicate an older text.
   
   That said, it's not useless as a reference, but as others have noted, it is quite limited. I don't have occasion to test whether the translations it provides are as archaic as I expect they might be -- imagine someone speaking to you now in English as it was spoken in the 30s or 40s, for example -- but for a beginner it does fill in some of the gap that would otherwise require a much more expensive dictionary costing at least 10x as much. In that vein, it is a "you get what you pay for" product to me. I use it, but get somewhat limited use out of it.

2 comments about Berlitz Swedish English Dictionary/ Engelsk Svensk Ordbok: Engelsk - Svensk (Berlitz Bilingual Dictionaries).

1. Simple, serves the basic purpose. Most Swedish dictionaries are more expensive. If you are just starting to learn Swedish and you don't need an extensive reference, then this dictionary is a good start. At this point I prefer only one word/explanation per entry, where multiple translative options can complicate learning.



2. This dictionary is just the right size for when you want to learn Swedish. It should cover all the words you need for a beginners course and some for an intermediate course. The grammar is not entirely extensive nor is the idiom list. It's easy to carry and I don't mind taking it with me.

1 comments about Langenscheidt Universal Dictionary: Danish.

1. This pocket dictionary really will fit in your pocket! It has a flexible plastic cover which should wipe off easily if need be. It also has blue headwords. It appears to be as comprehensive as one would expect for this size. It includes both American and British usage (the American usage is indicated by Am). The introduction and guide to pronunciation are in both languages. There are also 31 pages at the back with information for travelers (in both English and Danish): basic (travel) phrases, abbreviations, a mini-grammar with irregular verbs, numerals, how to tell time, and metric conversions including a thermometer showing both Fahrenheit and Centrigrade/Celcius.

5 comments about Icelandic: Grammar, Text and Glossary.

1. The good points first:

   - Very complete. Everything is included in a huge grammar.
   - Lots of readings. Not just the sagas, not just the everyday dialogues - actually, you get a lot of both.
   - quite a lot of exercises.
   - much better than the OTHER book. (which, I believe, you should have as well.)
   - a glossary so large that it would cost about the same if you were to buy it separately.
   - where else do you get 500+ excellent pages for this price?

   However, this book is not written the way you would expect it. Of course, it is about as old as my grandmother. For starters:

   - A topical index and a bibliography at the very BEGINNING of the book.

   - A rather thorough and very technical grammar before any introductory exercises. (Yes, I know, it says right after the preface that the absolute beginner should start by the exercises, but it is not very usual to start a book on page 181)

   - No discussion of vowel changes before a lot of exercises where they are needed. "Teach yourself" has the same problem. However, it is not something easy to explain, but future authors should at least try to either discuss each vowel shift just before it is needed or to use as few as possible in the first exercises.

   - You need a good memory. As an example, in order to go through the first group of exercises, you have to memorize (I couldn't do it in any other way) 6 different forms of the verb to be, about 40 different pronoun forms and about 12 different kinds of endings for nouns. Of course, no one said it was going to be easy. Icelandic has three genders, four cases and a huge amount of different verb forms... but this is HARD.

   - An old-looking rather small font that makes you read slower than on a modern book. Besides, it does not have a lot of white space. Pages are thick with text. This gives you the impression that you are going very slowly.




2. Just so you know this book is as colloquial as you can get. It is worth every penny i spent on it. Information & all. Icelandic text is hard to find, but as of this moment to the next Liguist around will help bring more and more products to the states. trust me i have searched, Here and there THis site has good material to start with. Very precise for the retentive.



3. I begin with telling this is not a book for beginners. To grab the basics, buy Daisy L. Neijmann's Colloquial Icelandic. After you have completed that, this book will become your ultimate authority on this difficult but beautiful language. The reason for that is, this book assumes you have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of language in general, needed for learning the Icelandic language as well. The Colloquial Icelandic book introduces you this very gradually, whereas it is presented in bigger fragments in Stefán Einarsson's book.
   The book is: very good-looking, very thick, very complete. However, is also very old (written around the second world war), so for newer words, you have to look elsewhere. This said, its biggest impediment is also its biggest advantage: everything is presented in a very thorough way (like only could have been done long ago), accompanied by beautiful pictures of various texts and exercises.
   The book has been devided in various parts, and not in chapters:

   ---------------------------------------------------
   1) INTRODUCTION (page I - XXVII)
   * preface
   * preface to the second edition
   * how to use the book
   * topical index
   * bibliography
   * abbreviations
   * contents
   * list of illustrations

   The target of the introduction is to learn how to use the book. Everything is well done here, but it's a pity that the bibliography does almost only mention books that are out of print.
   ---------------------------------------------------
   2) GRAMMAR AND TEXTS (page 1 - 293)

   * contents of grammar
   * grammar
   * texts I
   * texts II

   This is of course the actual heart of the book. The grammar is build up of three parts: pronunciation, inflexions, and syntax. The pronunciation is very profound and every possible sound is mentioned. The inflexions teach the possible forms of ANY wordtype (and is therefore very valuable), while the syntax focusses on WHEN everything is used, and also explains what "cases" are, etc. etc.
   The texts come in two varieties, the one kind being texts with references to which grammar to learn, the other kind being texts without that. While the themes of the first are sometimes unsignificant, the latter are really about parts of Icelandic society. And, remember, each text comes with a separate glossary to learn.
   ---------------------------------------------------
   3) GLOSSARY (page 295-502)

   The glossary may be the best reason to buy the book. In fact, it's an Icelandic/English dictionairy, with reference to the grammar part for the inflections of the words. Honestly, this is the only book which contains (something close to) a dictionairy, with the full forms of any word. Too bad it isn't English/Icelandic!
   ---------------------------------------------------

   I hope I've helped you with my review, just remember that you won't regret buying this book! =)




4. Icelandic is not an easy language to learn and this book is a real antique in its approach to language learning, so I can imagine the frustration of a student whose previous experiences are high school or college courses (say beginning Spanish or French) or a Berlitz or Teach-Yourself course with tapes or CDs. Be warned, this is not that kind of book. If you speak native-level English and have studied Greek, Latin or German, this book will do you much good. If you know something about grammar and linguistics, so much the better. No phonetic descriptions are going to teach you to speak Icelandic or any other language. For that you'll have be around a native speaker, and you might do well also to get a phrase book and tapes. If, however, you want to learn to read Icelandic(and also old Norse)this is the best book I've found. It's surely an indispensable reference work to accompany other Icelandic programs as well. I don't know where else you'll find so much information to help unravel the complexities of Icelandic. Get it, but be prepared to work. It will take even an experienced language learner a couple of years to digest half of what it has to offer.



5. As was mentioned above, this book is best for people who already have the 'sound' of the language in their heads. It's not worth the trouble to try to use the pronunciation guide in the beginning of this book; with easy access to CDs, etc., it's quicker to learn from them.
   
   After that, however, this book is a great resource. I recommend skipping over the grammar sections (at least at first) and beginning with the first text. What I did was I looked at the words in the word list and said them all out loud with their definitions, then went and read the text out loud right after that. This helped me remember what the words meant as I read them, and so the text was comprehensible right from the beginning.
   
   I didn't bother with the exercises (as they necessitate using the grammar portion of the book, which is too abstruse for most learners, I think). I just happily learned about Icelandic culture reading the texts.
   
   I went all the way up to the end of Texts I (the part with the wordlists), then went back and did it again, this time only using the wordlist to check words I couldn't remember. After that, I took on Texts II (which don't have wordlists and rely on the glossary). This meant that I needed to look up the words in the glossary when I got stuck. It was a bit slower than using the wordlists, obviously, but this was outweighed by the enthusiasm of being able to read and enjoy real Icelandic after only about 75 hours of learning (that includes learning pronunciation through the Teach Yourself series)!
   
   My plan after this is to finish going through all of Texts II, then pick up an Icelandic-Icelandic dictionary along with a real Icelandic book and I'll be on my way! I'm certainly not done yet, but this book was a vital step and much appreciated.

5 comments about NORWEGIAN in 10 minutes a day® with CD-ROM (10 Minutes a Day).

1. "Norwegian in 10 Minutes a day" is designed for the person who is self-motivated enough to devote at least ten minutes a day to the lessons and who is familar enough with the study of foreign languages to pick one up without outside coaching. The study guide is highly portable and can be used anytime the student has the opportunity.
   
   The guide covers the basics of the Norwegian language in a self-paced manner. Dedicated study should enable the traveler to Norway to acculmulate a basic vocabulary sufficient to read signs, menus, and other public displays, handle money, and to ask and answer simple questions. The lack of an audio feature with this guide would make it pretty challenging to master conversational Norwegian without resort to other training materials, classroom instruction, or practice with someone already familar with spoken Norwegian.
   
   This guide is highly recommended to the beginner in Norwegian looking for a basic introduction to the language, and to the student with some pre-existing familarity with Norwegian who is looking for a refresher course.



2. My boyfriend, who is from Norway, willingly speaks great English to communicate with me. So I figured, why not do the same for him? At first I tried Teach Yourself, but that was wayyyy too difficult for me at the time, so I decided a beginners workbook like this would be best. Yes, this is a WORKBOOK... it reminds me of Elementary/Junior High school, but remember when you had to write down things over and over? And you remembered it well? That's how this book works.
   
   We looked through a bunch of books, with and without the help of Audio CDs. He thought this would be a nice book to start with, and then move on to a higher level. I bought a used, older edition of this book (1988), so I wasn't sure what to expect... but he promised me everything is more or less the same now. I know this to be true because I tried a few phrases and sure enough, he understood me!
   
   Since I'm used to hearing him try to vocally teach me, I was more ready for the pronunciations of the words and phrases than if I'd never heard them before. I'd recommend actually HEARING Norwegian first before you try to read the pronunciations above the words, or else you might be really confused! In the instruction paragraphs, they will substitute a Norwegian word for an English word (Example: "Use these *nummer* on a *daglig* basis. Count to yourself *på norsk*...") This can either help or not, depending on whether you're good at remembering words that suddenly occur in another language.
   
   Whenever I come across a new word I write it a lot in pencil near it. It helps. But that's just what I do. In yellow boxes on the bottom of each page are words that are easy to learn because they're similar to English. The stickers and flashcards are very cute and helpful, though you may have a difficult time finding where to put some of the stickers! It also has a neat menu and a small glossary of all the words/phrases you learn in the book.
   
   I'd definitely recommend this book to absolute beginners, and keep it for reference, but then move on to a higher-level audiobook like Teach Yourself or Pimsleur so things will be more familiar to you, which is what I intend to do once I finish this book!



3. I bought this book for my boyfriend who had recently been to Norway and fell in love with the language and wanted to learn. He has told me only wonderful things about it and uses it every day. He says it is easy to follow and provides for great practice. He has even been able to hold a conversation with his Norweigan friend quite well since using it. I would highly recommend this book.



4. Has stickers for putting around the house. Practical when you want to learn the language fast.



5. This book could be good for a very new learner, but I think you could get more out of a travel pocket guide. The Cd is a waste of time, you just move around labels but dont fill in anything or utilize your actual memory, it's more guessing. The stickers do not stick to anything well, not even paper but especially not my cat or my dog which they have stickers for, rediculously enough. They even said "Get creative" and if I stuck it to my milk or my oil, I guess that only gives two weeks to memorize it, which I could do without the stickers. Where do you stick "How are you?" I question some of the pronounciations as I have been to Norway and pronounce kj more sh/ch than hy. So i'm definitely not at all impressed, I'd also recommend studying more than ten minutes to learn any language seriously.