Customer Reviews

Hmong for Beginners

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This book is so badly organized that it is fair to wonder who the authors thought was going to use it- or how. You open the book to the beginning section, and in the first lessons there are whole sections with Hmong only- no English. Remember, the title of this book is "Hmong for Beginners." There are some pictures, with Hmong words underneath, but you can't look up the Hmong in the back because the only glossary the book has is English to Hmong. So you guess at what the picture is (in English) and look it up in back. If you're right, good job- you learned a new Hmong word. You have, that is, if the English word is listed in the English-Hmong glossary. There is a grammatical section in the back, with some not-too-bad explanations of Hmong grammar, including some interesting comparisons to other languages, interspersed with some more show-and-tell picture games, but the grammatical section is not correlated with any of the lessons in the front half of the book. Do I need to say any more? Well, the tape is lousy too- the quality is so poor that in many cases one can't distinguish the different tones (and since Hmong has eight tones, being able to distinguish between different tones is of fundamental importance).

What is a truly a shame about this is that Hmong is a language of extraordinary interest and is a window on a fascinating and little known culture. Hopefully, in the future someone with sufficient knowledge of (and appreciation for) the language will offer a more professional (and usable)presentation.

For those interested in a clear and concise White Hmong Grammar book, one may be bought by calling (559) 304-1549 (ITI) who sells this grammar. The author taught Hmong for 2 years at BYU and has worked as a Hmong interpreter for 8 years.