Colloquial Danish (Colloquial Series) [Paperback]

Kirsten Gade (Author), W. Glyn Jones (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415079667 | ISBN-13: 978-0415079662 | Publication Date: December 1993 | Edition: 1

Colloquial Danish is easy to use and completely up-to-date! Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Danish. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

What makes Colloquial Danish your best choice in personal language learning?
* interactive - lots of dialogues and exercises for regular practice
* clear - concise grammar notes
* practical - useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
* complete - including answer key and special reference section

By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in a broad range of situations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a solid and most welcome new entry into the market. The next time I teach beginning Danish, I intend to use it as my text." -- Frank Hughes in Scandinavian Studies

Language Notes

Text: English, Danish

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415079667
• ISBN-13: 978-0415079662
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,413,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Danish
  • #54 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > More Languages > Danish
  • #56 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Danish > Instruction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK except for pronunciation, April 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Colloquial Danish (w/ audiocassette) (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

Though Colloquial Danish is in some respects a good introductory book, it is seriously lacking in the one area of the language most challenging for English speakers, namely, pronunciation. Unlike most other textbooks in the Colloquial series, there is no introductory section on pronunciation guiding you through sound-spelling relationships-only a very inadequate four-page section in the back. (It is quite misleading in its approximation of most of the vowels-just listen to the native speakers on the tapes-and its dismissal of the glottal stop-"a slight coughing-like stop that can turn up almost anywhere"-is inexcusable.) This deficiency would be somewhat remedied if there were lots of text material on the tapes, but unfortunately there isn't. In contrast with, say, the Swedish and Dutch volumes in the Colloquial series (which share some of the dialogue content), none of the reading passages in the book are on the tape, which disappointed me greatly. If the book is ever redone, I suggest the authors/editors include a simplified phonetic transcription of ALL the words used in the book, either with the lessons or in the vocabulary at the end, plus recordings of the reading passages. Danish spelling is difficult enough for Danish schoolchildren, and foreigners can hardly be expected to master it without more help than this book gives.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs some improvements, December 22, 2003

By 

J. Weber "Indy Tar Heel" (Westfield, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Colloquial Danish (w/ audiocassette) (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

I normally really like this series for helping to learn languages, but this one leaves a lot to be desired. The tape is good, but the book needs work. You spend about a 1/3 of your time looking words up in the dictionary because the lessons have no real vocabulary lists to help you build a vocabulary. (around chapter 4 they start listing key words you may not know). Its terribly hard to learn vocabulary when it is never introduced and you have to constantly look things up. Get vocabulearn or Berlitz to learn vocabulary and then get this later to learn the grammar.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good companion, April 23, 2001

By 

delta "3rd-I" (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colloquial Danish (w/ audiocassette) (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

If you have a good introductory book this will be an excellent companion. Otherwise I can't recommend it.