Customer Reviews

Basic Course in Estonian

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I borrowed this book to learn the rudiments of the Estonian language to prepare for a trip to Estonia. This is a college textbook, and it is very thorough. Each unit divided into (1) basic sentences in Estonian (with English translations), (2) notes on grammar, (3) exercises with answers, and (4) conversations. The back of the textbook has an excellent glossary (dictionary). In the preface, the author says "[T]he availability of a native speaker of Estonian for covering the material....would be especially important at the initial stage of study, for going over the pronunciation exercises and the first units." For self-study, this book is rough going. There are no maps of Estonia, no photos, and no charts or tables; the book consists of only typewritten pages. There are also no accompanying cassettes for practice. The glossary in the back of the book lists the Estonian words with the English translation. A suggested improvement: have a second section where the English words are listed with Estonian translations (a "reverse-glossary"). This text is an excellent resource for the serious student of the Estonian language. It is an excellent textbook for a language course with an instructor, but, in my opinion, less useful for the self-learner (like myself).

This book is described on how-to-learn-any-language.com as "the most comprehensive Estonian course available". Unfortunately Amazon does not offer the 32 audio CDs/tapes that are integral to the course. Eight of the first nine units of audio are available free online at Indiana University. The complete course (text and audio) is available at Audio Forum and Multilingual Books.

See you at the Song and Dance Celebration in July 2009!

For some reason, the Indiana University has published two different courses in Estonian. This one, and the Estonian Textbook by Juhan Tuldava. While this book is certainly as good as many other language courses on the market, it falls short of the level reached by Tuldava's course, both in terms of user friendliness and in depth cover. For this reason, I would recommend Tuldava's Estonian Textbook rather than this course.