Customer Reviews

Colloquial Somali (Colloquial Series)

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To paraphrase the publisher's commentary, what makes this the student's best choice for Somali is that it is almost the only choice. It is not a bad book, but to call it a "complete" language course is a stretch.

It is, however, a good introduction for the rank beginner, such as myself. It emphasizes the aspects of pronunciation that are difficult for English-speakers, such as tone differences that signal grammatical change. It shows methodically how words and sentences are constructed and it presents dialogues for speaking. Having mastered this course, the student may want further study, perhaps by searching the offerings of American universities that have programs in African area or language studies.

Somali is a language with many features that will seem exotic to most English speaking learners. Accents are based on pitch (rather than stress) and the placement of the pitch accent often determines the gender of the noun. In addition, nouns can flip genders when they are put into the plural. We're definitely not in Kansas any more.

That being said, this is an extremely user-friendly approach to a formidably difficult language. The explanations of the most unfamiliar grammar are very clear and easy to follow. The exercises, which in the beginning lessons are not too difficult, get more challenging as the course goes on, but always remain close to the material already presented.The dialogues start out pretty formlaically- there's a lot of "How are you?" "Come in!" "How's the family?", but they gradually get more interesting, as they follow an English teacher's journey to the Horn of Africa, where he eventually takes up his duties in a Somali town. Do get the CDs, though- a student who knows Arabic would probably find the sounds of Somali pretty familiar, but the stress-tone patterns are likely to be very different and unfamiliar and without a lot of practice it would be difficult to reproduce them acceptably. The author is, incidentally, a scholar of Somali poetry; his website is also worth checking out.

Great book to start with in Somali, which is a complex language.
There is a new edition (2007), get that one instead of the 1995 edition. In 2007, it has been packaged with CDs instead of tapes.
if you want to go on in Somali or learn in parallel with a more detailed book, get those great Somali books from Dunwoody Press.

Those of us Somalians who live outside our country, we often face the difficulty of finding the time and energy to teach our children their language. Books like this help us achieve this. I would recommend to all Somali parents to buy this for their children.

If you're trying to learn Somali, this is one of the best books that you can find. It's one of the few English-language books that goes into depth about Somali grammar (such as conjugating verbs and proper syntax). As the Somali communities grow in places like the UK and US, hopefully someone will write a more advanced textbook. You will need a dictionary to go along with this book as the glossary is small. Additionally, it is EXTREMELY important to practice speaking with native Somali speakers and learn words and phrases from them.

Somali is very much an oral language. Its spelling is also highly phonetic and, in my experience, the language is not particularly difficult to learn as long as you spend some time studying and practice with native speakers. I work with many Somali clients and have several Somali coworkers. In my experience, most Somalis are very helpful toward people trying to learn their language and are understanding if you have trouble pronouncing things correctly. Most Somalis will be presently surprised if a non-Somali person can great them with "Iska Warran?" ("What's the news?") or "Sidee ta haay?" ("How are you?") as few people try and learn anything in their language.

The book is helpful for beginner learners.Well organized and easy to use.