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

1. Beginner's Norwegian (with CDs) is laid out with dialogs on facing pages. One page is Norwegian. The other is English. This is followed by a section called "Footnotes" devoted to a topic in usage. The lesson also includes a page on grammar, vocabulary, expressions and exercises. Very comprehensive. CDs useful for correction pronounciation.



2. 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.



3. 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.



4. 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).



5. 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.

No comments about Berlitz Danish Phrase Book And Dictionary (Berlitz Phrase Book).

3 comments about Pimsleur Danish: Learn to Speak and Understand Danish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Compact).

1. I bought this CD set because I am going to Denmark soon, and I wanted to be able to at least ask where the bathroom was.... :)
   
   My mom (who is a Danish national) said that my pronunciation is great - I guess that's because I have listened to each lesson at least twice... so far anyway... It helps to have her, so I can see how her mouth is formed during words, because SOME of the Danish words I couldn't quite make out - that's why I only gave it 4 stars... well, that and the fact that people were looking at me crazy when I was sitting at traffic lights, repeating phrases... ;)



2. This was my first Pimsleur course. It is remarkable how well it teaches you a spoken language - all of which you can do in your car. Because they are constantly asking you how to put together words and phrases that you know, they reinforce what you have learned and force you to invent new combinations. Very effective. Unfortunately there isn't a longer version of this available. It is just 10 lessons.



3. Unless you are incredibly terrible with languages do not waste your money on this. It will not teach you anything very useful. You end up learning about 20 very basic phrases that are not so flexible in various situations. I recommend borrowing it from the library as a first step, to get used to danish pronunciation and purchase Bente Elsworth's Teach Yourself Danish.

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.

3 comments about Norwegian: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars).

1. This book is an excellent Grammar book, in fact, language would be easier to learn if a book was made in this format for every language. The Authors, Ase-Berit and Rolf Strandskogen, are professors of Norwegian as a foreign language at the University of Oslo. This book tells nothing about Norweigan culture, it is not a Norwegian dictionary, it alone will not help you learn Norwegian. But, when used specifically for Norwegian grammar, it is the best book you can buy; and because grammar is essential in learning a foreign language, and speaking a native language correctly, this book is a must-have if you are learning Norwegian on your own.



2. Åse-Berit and Rolf Strandskogen have put together one of the best organized grammars in any foreign language. Organized by part of speech; it highlights all the basic rules as well as some subtle pearls of the Norwegian language. Not a course in itself, but a wonderful addition to any of the comtemporary Norwegian language courses currently published. I highly recommend it for any level learner.



3. Åse-Berit and Rolf Strandskogen have put together one of the best organized grammars in any foreign language. Organized by part of speech; it highlights all the basic rules as well as some subtle pearls of the Norwegian language. Not a course in itself, but a wonderful addition to any of the comtemporary Norwegian language courses currently published. I highly recommend it for any level learner.

1 comments about Berlitz Swedish Phrase Book & Dictionary (Berlitz Phrase Book).

1. IT'S GOT ALL THE THINGS YOU NEED TO SAY OR UNDERSTAND ON YOUR TRIP, THE PICTURES AND THE LAYOUT AND THE PAGES ARE VERY NICE, I RECOMMEND IT!

5 comments about Prisma's Abridged English-Swedish and Swedish-English Dictionary.

1. I have been looking for a decent but lower in price Swedish-English dictionary that is helpful for engelska speaking people. Most I have seen are for Swedes that want to learn English.

   This dictionary has English-Svenska Swedish-Engelska as well as codes so that you can figure out whether the dang noun is a neuter or common noun and their declension class i.e. Ett bi, bit, bin etc. Hippocrene was of no use for that.

   Overall good.




2. I bought this dictionary in order to learn Swedish.
   Unfortunately, although the title on the cover is in English and seems not to assume anything about the reader's knowledge in Swedish, the dictionary is clearly targeted at Swedish speakers.
   The introduction is in Swedish only and there are no pronunciation keys under Swedish entries.



3. This dictionary is crammed with material. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into making it as usable as possible. I especially like the way the margins are marked so you can easily see where "A" ends and "B" begins.
   
   Prismas indicates pronunciation of Swedish words where it is not obvious (e.g. is "o" pronounced "o" or "u"?) but does not waste space where it is. It indicates word accent (single tone vs double tone)!
   
   There are lots of abbreviations, and Swedes are clearly a large part of the target audience. This is not a "beginner's dictionary."
   
   I'm an Engish speaker and have been studying Swedish on my own for a few months now. This is the first Swedish dictionary I have owned, but I have browsed others in bookstores. This is as good as any I have seen, and better than most.



4. Well written.
   Not all the terms but more than enough for the average student.



5. As several other reviewers have said, the main problem with this dictionary is it isn't really geared toward English-speaking students (such as me).
   
   My main problem was with how it deals with verbs and nouns. For nouns, gender is strangely not given in the English-Swedish section. When I look up a word, I have to then look it up again in the Swedish-English section to find if it's common or neuter gender and how its plural is formed. These are both things that must be learned with each noun, so it's very irritating to have to do this for such basic information.
   
   How it lists verbs is even worse. Say you want to look up "to eat". You find "äta" in the English-Swedish section. Then you need to find it in the Swedish-English section. You see "äta åt -it". You have to be fairly experienced to know what to do with this information. If you're a new or intermediate student, it makes very little sense.
   
   But it's even worse if you find a regular verb. Say it's "to buy" (köpa) in the English-Swedish side. You then go and find it in Swedish-English to see if it takes -er or -ar in the present tense. Instead of a concise answer, you find "köpa v3", which means you have to consult a separate part of the dictionary to find out what the heck a "v3" verb is. This is three steps for one word! Most online dictionaries will list a verb like this as "köpa köper köpte köpt" with all the important forms laid out for you instead of making you go on a manhunt. They'll also show "äta äter åt ätit" instead of the cryptic "äta åt -it" that this dictionary provides.
   
   The whole point of using a dictionary - looking up words - is made into a chore with poor design. Even using the Swedish-English side is difficult as important context clues are given in Swedish, no help to beginners.
   
   For experienced learners, however, there might be some use to be had in here. Each definition is replete with examples and context clues in parentheses. There are compound nouns and wide-ranging vocabulary as well.
   
   The bottom line is, for beginners of Swedish or for those wanting an easy-to-use dictionary, this isn't a good choice. Even if you're an advanced student and can speak some Swedish already, I'd recommend looking this one over in a bookstore or library before buying it.

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.

No comments about Berlitz Danish Dictionary: Danish-english / Engelsk-dansk (Berlitz Pocket Dictionaries).

4 comments about Dic Prisma's Swedish-English Dictionary.

1. The first time I saw this book was when I decided to buy it,being that there is a great lack of useful Swedish Dictionaries published in the English language. However, when I received this dictionary it well out-did itself. Not only does it have a section on Swedish pronunciation, noun endings, and other grammatical features at the beginning, it gives numerous phrases and other helpful words associated with most every word you look up. Beware, that if you think this book is Swedish-English, English-Swedish (as I mistakingly did), you're in for a surprise. However, if you do decide to buy the complement edition to this book-the English-Swedish version-you are once again in for a treat, as it presents the same quality as this book, only for English-Swedish translations.

   This really was a great investment, and I urge anyone interested in the Swedish language to pick this (as well as the companion volume) up, along with either Routledge's Comprehensive Swedish Grammar (if you're really serious), Routledge's Essential Swedish Grammar (if you're just interested or need a small review)in addition to a good Swedish course (Colloquial Swedish-with the cassettes of course-is a good beginner's course).




2. The first time I saw this book was when I decided to buy it,being that there is a great lack of useful Swedish Dictionaries published in the English language. However, when I received this dictionary it well out-did itself. Not only does it have a section on Swedish pronunciation, noun endings, and other grammatical features at the beginning, it gives numerous phrases and other helpful words associated with most every word you look up. Beware, that if you think this book is Swedish-English, English-Swedish (as I mistakingly did), you're in for a surprise. However, if you do decide to buy the complement edition to this book-the English-Swedish version-you are once again in for a treat, as it presents the same quality as this book, only for English-Swedish translations.

   This really was a great investment, and I urge anyone interested in the Swedish language to pick this (as well as the companion volume) up, along with either Routledge's Comprehensive Swedish Grammar (if you're really serious), Routledge's Essential Swedish Grammar (if you're just interested or need a small review)in addition to a good Swedish course (Colloquial Swedish-with the cassettes of course-is a good beginner's course).




3. As a dictionary it is very comprehensive - my biggest problem with it there is no English-Swedish it is just a one way dictionary and therefore not as useful as it could have been



4. I find myself getting absorbed in this book every time I look up a word! There are many useful idiomatic phrases for the word, along with the various related prepositions, endings and assorted definitions. Just browsing through this dictionary is a substantial language lesson. I will get the English-Swedish volume also but am glad the two books are not in one volume, as that would be too much to handle. Readers should go through the notes at the beginning of the book, to get full advantage from how the entries are presented. I highly recommend.