No comments about The Isizulu, a grammar of the Zulu language.

No comments about Instant Immersion 33 Languages.

No comments about Masikhulume Isizulu (Let's Speak African Language Series).

No comments about Communicating With The African Patient.

No comments about My Zulu, Myself.

No comments about Zulu: A Comprehensive Course (Revised Edition).

1 comments about Scholar's Zulu Dictionary: English-Zulu/Zulu-English.

1. Lacks many basic word meaning.e.g. "Impela" Dict. "Truely"
   Lit. "Good","correct","right". Could also add phonetics of each word

1 comments about Halala Means Welcome! A Book of Zulu Words.

1. I was disappointed. This is a book for very young children, it contains few words, and simple ones at that.

   Halala means 'congratulations' according to my zulu dictionary...which is wrong?

2 comments about Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa: Zulu High Sanusi (Profiles in Healing series).

1. In this monograph are contained a plethora of poetic nuggets expressing wisdom and power. Though Mr. Mutwa fairly skims over a lot of territory, at critical junctures he dips into the fountainhead of traditional and experiential knowledge which he has become heir to during his long life.

   There are items of spiritual knowledge that I came into contact with while studying to take initiations from Peruvian shamans of the High Altiplano eight or so years ago, which I found echoed in rather precise detail here. I have never seen them anywhere else. And this book was only published a couple of years ago.

   Please note that there are less than 100 pages of actual written text (the rest of the book is filled with lots of color photos of his giant sculptural work and various other photos of his environs, himself, his friends and relatives.

   On the CD (also 5 stars):

   "Call of the Sacred Drums" 1:48 [inspired, traditional Zulu drumming/singing, medium tempo]

   "The Incredible Credo Mutwa" 4:11 [speech honoring Mutwa, by Otsile Ntsoan, in English and Zulu: very beautiful & inspiring]

   "Nduli" 2:11 [traditional Zulu drumming/homophonic choral singing, medium tempo]

   "Isindawo" 3:43 [traditional Zulu drumming/homophonic choral singing, medium tempo]

   "My Initiation Story" 38:29 [Mutwa tells part of his story, mentioning the severe purification practices one must undergo, and ritual dancing, 'kundalini' experiences, astral travel, unity consciousness and beyond, development of compassion and experiences of ecstasy, distant sensing. Note that this story is transcribed as part of the text of the book.]

   "Umtchongola" 3:04 [traditional up-tempo Zulu dance drumming]

   "Makhosi Asevukile" 2:59 [traditional Zulu homophonic choral singing with drum accompaniment, slow tempo]

   "Sele" 3:27 [traditional Zulu dance drumming/singing; with a long, very slow recitative sung as an introduction, punctuated with drum rolls; and with a similar postlude]

   "Blessing by Vusamazulu" 6:31

   "African Friends" 3:05 (lighthearted music & lyrics by Keeney, in American folk-pop style, sung by the Wade Sisters)




2. I picked this book up to read over the summer as a friend of mine had this who is about to travel to africa. I was absolutely mesmerised by the tales being told of Credos life. I could not put this down i finished this book withtin half a day. Great insight into a Zulu sharmans intiation processes he had to go through to become what he is today, poignant in parts. Not having much political knowledge about Africa this has book has given me a thirst for me more.

4 comments about Teach Yourself Zulu Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language).

1. As a student of various languages, I have always been intrigued by the languages of South Africa; in particular, their click consonants. I was looking for resources in Xhosa, and instead came across this book. Zulu, I have been told (and can affirm), is easier than Xhosa. This book begins with a decent introduction to Zulu's phonology and orthography; but I think it could have been more detailed and with more examples (especially on the CDs). The course is decently structured and seems to cater to both serious students and casual students (ie, those going to South Africa or a neighbouring country). It goes beyond the language itself, into topics such as some aspects of the Zulu people's culture. This book is a great reference for beginners of Zulu; and worth the price.



2. I've just gotten into the book, and it seems fine to me. Definitely a beginners book, but that's what I wanted. I was under the impression it came with a cassette or CD (the book even refers to listening excercises on the cassette), but this one doesn't come with it. There is another item on Amazon (same book or at least the same general title and authors) that says Audiopackage specifically in the title - buy that one.



3. Overall, this is not a bad course but, unfortunately, I do have a couple of niggling peeves I'd like to get off my chest that will hopefully be of some help to others considering purchasing it.
   Generally the TY series is very good at balancing its presentation of functional language (phrase-book style "chunks") and grammatical explanations. This course however, leans too much in the "phrasebook" direction. It teaches a lot of good and useful language but too much of the structure of the language is explained in too cursory a manner or not at all. I am an experienced learner of languages with some linguistics training so I found myself able to "read between the lines" and deduce some of the rules from context but a beginner learning a foreign language for the first time would surely get lost.
   The other matter, that I would consider an especially important point for a book teaching a South African language, is the illustrations. The illustrations invariably depict white, European-looking people who for some bizarre reason, chat with each other in Zulu. Is it really that hard to draw black people, or, if you want a more "rainbow nation" feel at least make fewer whites than blacks!
   Some people may see this last point as "politically correct niggling" but anyone who knows anything about the history of apartheid in South Africa and the struggle of the black majority for basic human rights will surely see my point. Zulu is a native, black language not the everyday idiom of whites who mostly speak English or Afrikaans among themselves, and to depict white people going about their daily lives in Zulu is just plain misleading if not offensive.



4. I have read several books in the Teach Yourself language series, and have found most of them very helpful. I give especially high marks to the ones covering Norwegian, Dutch and Afrikaans. I can now read books reasonably well in all those languages.
   This one, however, turned out to be almost a total waste of my time. I thought I was following the lessons well enough, but when I was finished I found that I was still almost totally ignorant of the Zulu language. My grasp of the grammatical points and my command of the vocabulary were next to nil.
   This could be at least partly my fault, of course. Maybe I didn't work hard enough. Or it may be that, for me at least, Zulu is too different. Certainly it is a tough language for an English speaker to learn.
   When I had finished the book and had seemingly come up empty, I went back over every chapter, and made meticulous notes of the principal grammatical points. I kept my notes handy as I tried to read Zulu material -- including Zulu newspapers available on the Web and a Zulu-language novel.
   Zilch! I could scarcely get through a single sentence, even with the help of a good Zulu-English dictionary. Despite my gloss of the key grammatical points in the book, there seemed to be many more grammatical devices that hadn't been covered. I found them impenetrable.
   Maybe Zulu and I were just not cut out for each other. But I feel obligated to say that it's also possible the teacher did an inadequate job.