Most Helpful Customer Reviews
56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Buy this book..., December 3, 2002
...if you're serious about learning Icelandic, or at least being able to comprehend it to some small degree. There are so few Icelandic study aids available to the autodidact that _anything_ is useful -- but this one is not only useful, it's invaluable, if only because it's the only known audio/text learning guide to the language that I know of. But this doesn't get high marks purely by default. It's actually a fairly compact little book with extensive dialogue and grammar exercises that the student will find useful. The tape dialogues are invaluable for learning pronunciation of words and individual phonemes. The latter is especially important, as there are many counterintuitive bits to Icelandic pronounciation which, if not done properly, can make one sound like a total fool when attempting to speak. The dialogues are useful as well, in that they illustrate what seems to be an unfortunate tendency on the part of Icelanders to completely gloss/glide over certain words in conversation. At the risk of sounding like the back cover of a Berlitz language guide, with only two lessons in this book I was able to understand written Icelandic much better than before, and was even able to pick words out of conversations here and there. (Be warned that Icelanders seem to have a tendency toward speaking _very_ fast; thus, repeated attention to the dialogues will be useful.) Most importantly, I was able to function in Iceland without having to rely totally on English. While most Icelanders speak English to some degree, anyone planning to do any amount of exploration in the countryside had better know some Icelandic, if only to be warned of perils such as driving offroad into geothermal areas. And it always helps to exchange pleasantries in your host country's native tongue.
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50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshingly well written, March 3, 2003
I've been to Iceland a couple of times and been ashamed to find that the language is so alien that barely a single word of it filters through. I'm going again soon and I've decided I want to at least understand a little of what I hear and read, even though "talarðu ensku?" (do you speak English) is a question you hardly need ask in Iceland. Learning a little of the language is all part of the fun! Having tried and discarded the impenetrable "Teach Yourself" book, I came across this, and find it much more approachable. I highly recommend getting the tape/CD that goes with this book. It really helps you understand how words sound when they are strung together in phrases and sentences. And it helps you get a handle on the subtleties of pronunciation. Without the tape/CD, it would be much less enjoyable. Thankfully, the book starts out very simply, with greetings, pleasantries, "my name is" etc. The progression is well judged, so you don't quickly feel out of your depth, and it's satisfying to realise that the things you learn early in the book make sense later on. There are exercises to do, here and there, if you want. I'd definitely recommend this to beginners who are more interested in starting to understand day to day Icelandic than studying Icelandic grammar. It doesn't give you lists of conjugations and declensions to learn, but gradually and gently introduces new elements of the language so that you don't feel overwhelmed, and genuinely feels like an aid rather than a hindrance. A warning though: if you're not quite familiar with ENGLISH grammar, you'll reach a point in even this book that could be a stumbling block. Make sure you at least know the difference between the direct and indirect object before you get to the chapter about declensions!
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Feedback Regarding the CD Recordings, October 27, 2007
The Icelandic language has a complex morphology that requires some dedicated study in order to master. And this book does a decent job of introducing elements of the language through engaging topics about daily life.
The two CD recordings, however, have some disappointing quirks:
1. The publishers have added fairly noisy sound effects of background commotion to the CD recordings such as those that you would find in moving airplanes, fuzzy telephone lines, and other crowded public places; the logic most likely being that we sometimes encounter background noises when we are trying to communicate, so why not make us learn the pronunciation with this same kind of interference. The result is that the sounds of Icelandic are presented in a muffled and indistinct way on the CD. It would be more logical to use the recordings to present the sounds of the language in the purest way possible during the learning phase so that the listener might stand a chance of acquiring them. I cannot imagine a classroom teacher bringing in recorded sound effects to play during class time. We have enough practice in listening to background noises in real life without having them manufactured and thrown at us during our learning phase of a language.
2. There is a lot of English on the CD recordings. First of all, every Icelandic conversation has a lengthy, detailed presentation of the setting in English. Second, the Icelandic conversations are often interrupted with bits of advice such as "Now see whether you can understand the name of the company that the speaker will mention next" or "Try to understand the numbers in the next sentence." This kind of information could easily be included in the textbook or in an accompanying flyer. There is no way of blocking this interference; and after multiple listenings, when a listener might like to hear only the spoken Icelandic, the listener is forced to hear the presentations and the interruptions repeatedly.
3. It should also be noted that the Icelandic phonemes are presented once, and the dialogues are presented at a normal rate of speech by the speakers. This is probably neither good nor bad, but if you prefer to listen to slower-paced Icelandic while learning the sounds, the recordings will disappoint you.
With the background noises, the introductions, and the interruptions removed, the recordings could be a satisfactory adjunct to the textbook.
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