Catalan (Teach Yourself) [Paperback]

Teach Yourself Publishing (Author), Alan Yates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993

This double CD accompanies the book 'Teach Yourself Catalan' (0 340 87055 9). It is also available in a pack with the book (0 340 87056 7).

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Catalan

About the Author

Alan Yates is a former Lecturer in Catalan at the University of Sheffield and well-respected author of the current edition. He has recently received a prize for his services to the teaching of the Catalan. Anna Poch is a native speaker of Catalan and an experienced teacher of Catalan and Spanish. She has been teaching at universities and schools in France and England since 1996. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 385 pages
• Publisher: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844237558
• ISBN-13: 978-0844237558
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,321,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Catalan Made simple, July 7, 2000

By 

Luis Hernandez (New York, New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Catalan (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

After my return from eastern Spain, I took up the study of learning Catalan, which was the language many of my ancestors spoke before they settled in the New World. While at a bookstore in Madrid, I encountered this book on a shelf and found it fascinating to read and study. while the language is primarily spoken in 4 countries (Catalonia, Spain; Southeastern France; Sardinia, Italy; and Andorra (its' official language) it still holds plenty of power in Europe, being one of the top ten most spoken in the European Union (although not official.

The author took his time in researching the language and he clearly states the dialect taught in the book differs from other Catalan dialects such as Valenciano or Mallorquin. This is very important, especially if traveling and/or doing business in this region of Europe, where dialects are plenty. I read the book, and after a while, I surprised my pen pal near Barcelona with a letter in Catalan. He was blown away that I wrote the language so well on my first try.

This book will help you learn grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure, however as the other reviewer of this book said, the only thing negative is that there is no audio tapes to accompany this book. Many language books in the Teach Yourself! series have audio tapes, however it is very difficult to speak Catalan without listening to a native speaker. I had to go on the web to hear some examples, and even this is difficult, because only a few phrases are said.

I contaced the publisher by mail, and I got the same response. There is not an audio companion to the book. I am so disappointed about this, however this shouldn't be a reason not to buy this book. Mr. Yates, who has written other books on the series has done an excellent job covering this once-forbidden language (Franco prohibited its' use in public during his regime).

If you are interested in learning this language, I recommend the following books:

(1) Cambridge Word Selector : English - Catalan

(2) Catalan sin Enfuerzo (for Spanish speakers who want to learn Catalan)

(3) Catalan Dictionary :English-Catalan/Catalan-English (by Routledge Press)

Let's hope in the future that NTC Publishing will change its' mind and release an audio tape companion to this book, but for now, the best way to learn phonetically is to find a private tutor.

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Catalan, A Complete Course for Beginners by Alan Yates, February 15, 2000

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catalan (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

I bought this book over a year ago and found it immediately useful for my limited purpose. I was learning a song cycle in Catalan and the pronunication guide at the beginning of Alan Yates's volume served me well, mainly because he uses International Phonetic Alphabet. Having studied IPA and other Romance languages, I was able to make a good phonetic transcription and then sing successfully in a langage I'd never heard spoken. If you know French and Spanish, you can read Catalan for comprehension, especially if you have a dictionary handy, which I did. When I got ready to move on to actually learning something about the spoken language I hit a snag. There are no audiotapes to accompany this book, and Catalan is not a language you can learn to pronounce well without an audio model. Transcribing every word in Yates's examples into IPA would take forever. So I called up the publisher, NTC, near Chicago. I was told that no tapes are available and there are no plans to publish any. Apart from this significant limitation, Yates's Catalan tutor is well organized and written. He admits to having used Kathleen Speight's Teach Yourself Italian as his model. I learned Italian from her book many years ago, and it's a gem; but Italian is much easier to learn to pronounce than Catalan. Bottom line: if you have a native speaker who can coach you on pronunciation, this would be a great book to use for your Catlan language study.

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There are better ways to learn Catalan, February 26, 2001

By 

S. K. Schladow (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Catalan (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

As anyone who has tried to learn Catalan knows, this is the most available book. However, it is often difficult and pedantic. I found that the University of Girona website was far more useful. As mentioned by other reviewers, trying to learn Catalan without language tapes, is nearly impossible. I am currently taking Intensive Catalan courses, and learned more in a week than I learned practicing with the book. If one is able to aquire a dictionary, and a copy of Xuriguera's "Els verbs Catalans Conjugats", you will move faster. The University of Girona, has the best formed intensive language class I have found. Check out their website and try to get a copy of their book. Adeus