Customer Reviews

Colloquial Yoruba BK/CD PACK (Colloquial Series)

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

 

 

It was a very pleasant surprise to discover this really thorough and well-prepared introduction to Yoruba. The author has addressed all of the difficulties of learning the language that English speakers are likely to encounter- the tones and many elisions in the everyday spoken language are a particular sticking point for most learners- and an excellently crafted pair of CDs provides invaluable listening practice. The dialogues and comprehension exercises that accompany every chapter are not only lively and interesting, but also provide an unsparingly honest view of life in Yoruba land, contemporary Nigeria, and of the lives of Nigerians living in America. All in all a great value.

This book is great for beginners and has a very logical format. It's a good complement to Beginner's Yoruba (Hippocrene Beginner's Series) by Kayode J. Fakinlede. Just don't buy it without the CD's. This particular item is sold WITHOUT the audio CD's and is basically useless without it! Amazon currently doesn't have the CD's for sale at all so I recommend purchasing the book and CD's pack from B&N. Another word of caution, the narrator introducing the dialogues and lessons has a HORRIFIC Yoruba accent. He isn't a native speaker--he sounds British--and he butchers any Yoruba word that passes through his mouth. It is very distracting when you're trying to listen to CDs to IMPROVE your accent!

oh my GOD, words cannot describe the way i feel about this book! IM IN LOVE. i've learned more in one day then i have all my years of living. i would recommend this book to anyone who is SERIOUS about learning this language. i am a Nigerian my self and i did not know my language, and no one had the time to teach me so i bought this book. THE BEST DECISION EVER! on a scale 1-10 i rate this book 100.

PLEASE BUY THE ONE THAT COMES WITH THE CD! it will be more helpful. they sell that one on amazon as well, it comes packed together and its around 40-50 dollars. yeah its a little costly but its worth it. ive learned so much and its been like 3 days already. i can finally have a conversation in yoruba!

I ALSO RECOMMEND BUYING A YORUBA DICTIONARY. they sell those on amazon as well. i recommend "modern practical dictionary yoruba-english, english to yoruba" by kayode j fakinlede. the price is from 14-25 dollars. its a great investment.

im very happy with this purchase!

Before buying you should borrow the book and compact discs from the library. I thought the format of this book was horrendous. The vocal lessons didn't correspond to the book. I would often try to read along with the verbal exercises, but the English translations would be on the next page. It was very hard to visualize the English translations for the Yoruba words.

I wouldn't suggest this learning guide to anyone.