Customer Reviews

Beginning Kazakh (Critical Languages Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been studying Turkic languages on and off (mostly off) since 1981, have managed language programs for a number of years, and now teach and course direct in a Russian language program. I have also been a regular visitor to Central Asia. So I can say with some authority - these CD's are great! They are so much better than any other Kazakh materials (or those for any of the Turkic languages that I am familiar with), that I am sure the Dr. Ibrahim's course will quickly become a standard for anyone with a fairly serious interest in the language. As a teacher, I am sure this material could, with a bit of work, easily become the primary text for a good basic course in the language. Someone with only a passing interest in Kazakh should probably save their money and buy the Lonely Planet Central Asia phrasebook, but ex-pats, FSO's or students who would like to actually be able to say something in Kazakh should definitely cough up the money for this. On a personal note, I was pleasantly surprised to realize, upon receiving my CD's, that Ablahat Ibrahim was a TA at UW when I was a grad student there in the late 80's. I'm sure he has long forgotten me, but I still fondly remember this kind and patient teacher, and am glad to see he is still in the business of education. Kudos to him, the U. of Arizona, and anyone involved in funding this project.

I'm not sure why the previous reviewer thought "where is the book?" to be an artificial question - it's really rather a practical question. I ask it constantly, and sometimes it's "on the table". It's true the dialogues have the flavour of the language lab. But there are so many good things here - word-for-word or sentence-for-sentence translations at the click of a mouse, recordings played at word, sentence or paragraph level, concise grammatical notes where helpful. For me the best is the word-by-word then whole sentence "listen, repeat and then compare" drills that do help one improve one's pronunciation and fluency. And for a language that otherwise has only textbooks or books like "Learn the Kazakh language in 70 steps using 200 sentence models" (!), this is a fantastic aid.

[Stop press: Sept 2005] I've just been sent notice that intermediate and advanced courses are being released. I've not seen them, though.

I bought all three levels of this course in mid of 2006. The second and third levels are on DVD's instead of multiple CDs. The program is just excellent. Only missing thing is that they would add pdf books including the course material.

Great tool for learning the Kazakh language. The best and most reasonably priced I've found (though there are, understandably, not many choices). Uses native speakers, not Russians speaking Kazakh, so you can learn to hear the spoken word accurately. Introduces grammer along with cultural background, which ultimately effects the language. Gives plenty of practicle exercises and examples and encourages the learner to be create his/her own dialogues. Sure, it's like any other language system. There's nothing really original. It begins with simple, practicle conversations... "Hi, how are you.' 'I'm good. Yourself?" that lead to the more complex ones. And you won't learn to speak or understand it unless you practice... over and over and over... The program also allows you to record your voice alongside the native speakers' and compare the two. My only frustration is that I cannot (or haven't yet figured out how to) print the footnotes, which contain the grammer and cultural information.

Difficult to give material that features such incredibly artificial language as: "Where is the book?" "The book is on the table." (not kidding) any more than one star. This course contains stilted dialogues typical of older textbooks, heavy with overly formal greetings and pointless questions and answers: "Where is the Kazakh teacher?" "He's in the library." "Goodbye."
Doesn't U. Arizona review the material they produce? How can so much money and technological expertise be invested in something that is fundamentally so backward? Were any native Kazakhs consulted for authenticity? Were any learners on location consulted as to the usefulness of this material?
This is essentially just your traditional OUTDATED grammar course in CD format.