Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Afrikaans Complete Course

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book teaches the fundamentals of Afrikaans. The dialogues and grammar notes enable one to begin using this language (both in oral and written communication). The pronunciation guide at the front is not enough to learn adequate pronunciation (nor is the pronunciation guide in any language book). Without the presence of a native speaker, one may get by with the tape "Afrikaans" from conversa-phone (also sold by Amazon). The Hippocrene Afrikaans-English/English-Afrikaans dictionary is a good first dictionary.

Why learn Afrikaans? As the newest Germanic language, its relationship to the other members of this family is fascinating. With a good knowledge of German, Afrikaans may be learnt in a short time. One reason for learning Afrikaans may be as a stepping stone to learning Dutch, as the two languages are closely related.

For English speakers with no prior foreign language experience, Esperanto is easier to learn but won't help you learn other Germanic languages to the extent a knowledge of Afrikaans will.

The main differences bewteen this book (TYA) and Donaldson's Colloquial Afrikaans (CA), is that TYA (a) doesn't have cassettes available, (b) TYA introduces a much broader vocabulary (almost too much at times), and (c) CA is more modern, both in terms of vocabulary presented and dialogs. If I wanted to learn to speak Afrikaans, I would go with CA.

I think a good combination is to get both CA (first) and then TYA as a reinforcement/vocabulary builder. Even given that there aren't many books on learning Afrikaans out there, TYA isn't bad.

One thing that some (esp. female) readers might find amusing or insulting (depending) is that many of the dialogs cast characters in very traditional gender roles : men play/watch sports, women shop and worry about their hair and makeup. Sentences like : "As 'n dame mooi wil lyk, moet sy grimmer" (If a woman wants to look nice, she has to wear makeup) on pg. 103 might not make the author (a woman!) many friends in some circles.

Still, not a bad book, especially if you're interested only in reading, but otherwise I would only use it as a supplement to TYA.

(Incidentally, the (much) older edition of TYA is a very good book for the more linguistically-oriented learner who's not overly concerned with speaking Afrikaans, especially one that already knows Dutch or German. Unfortunately, it's also hard to find).

Before I purchased my plane ticket to Cape Town, I decided to purchase a book that taught Afrikaans. After searching local bookstores to no avail, Amazon.com suggested the selection of Afrikaans books and tapes that almost everyone reading this review has found en route to bumping into the period at the end of this sentence.

'Afrikaans (Teach Yourself)' is a decent book. It provides a chunk of vocabulary, and some peripheral grammar notes. Vocabulary and grammar are good enough, I suppose; but self-instructed language methodology isn't very successful without sufficient drills and answers (and a cassette tape wouldn't hurt, either!).

Yes, there is a pronunciation guide. No, a native speaker of English will not be able to pronounce Afrikaans by reading it. Don't believe me? Just try! (: Americans in particular must also be aware that most (if not all) Afrikaans textbooks present Afrikaans pronunciation through English words as pronounced by an Englishperson.

As I had no native speaker of Afrikaans on hand here in California, I decided that I would pronounce Afrikaans incorrectly, but at least keep my inaccuracies consistent, as written. In other words, I made up my own pronunciations, guessing as well as I could. After my arrival, my Capetonian friends pointed out my *gross* verbal discrepancies, and generalizing their corrections to the rest of my mispronunciations became easy.

I strongly recommend this book, as I have not found anything better.. I would purchase a more comprehensive book in a heartbeat.

I feel uniquely qualified to review this book as an American who used it to develop a basic knowledge of Afrikaans. I was able to become quite proficient in Afrikaans, but without the help of my Afrikaans speaking wife in the areas of pronunciation and grammar, I would have probably been able to develop at best a reading knowledge of Afrikaans.

Teach Yourself Afrikaans is a reasonable attempt to provide a basic knowledge of Afrikaans to someone who knows only English. (Native Dutch speakers will not benefit from this book.) There is a section on pronunciation which is intended for *South African English* speakers, so some of the examples won't make sense to Americans. For example, the Afrikaans "stap" (meaning: walk) sounds just like the American "stop" to my ear, but is explained as a soft "a" as in "fat". If you are an American, then language tapes are an essential supplement to this book.

Otherwise, the sections are broken down into learning things that you would need to know to navigate situations such as restaurants, banks, business calls, etc. These are at least moderately interesting, but there is too much emphasis placed on vocabulary and not enough on grammar. You really must read most or all of the book before even a reasonable idea about how to form sentences is imparted.

In short, understanding the entire contents of the book will not allow you to have more than rudimentary conversations with people in Afrikaans, but it will teach you something about communicating in certain situations. If you really want to learn Afrikaans and you know someone who speaks it and will help you, this book gives a great starting point. (If you don't know anyone who speaks Afrikaans, then why in the world would you want to learn it?)

For a long time this was the best and most easily available book for learning Afrikaans. Certainly it does the basics very competently. Within 3 months I had reached a reasonable level of understanding. The vocabulary is very helpful, and the chapters do try to cover a range of normal situations. However, what this book really lacks is an accompanying tape. The pronunciation can be difficult and understanding spoken Afrikaans can be even harder. The grammar covered is perhaps too limited in its ambition, especially for a comparatively uncomplicated language like Afrikaans. I soon found myself wondering how to express more advanced ideas. Also, the book could do with locating itself in a more contemporary cultural setting. The fact that this was written in the 1980s really shows - for example, there is no mention of that fact that Afrikaans is the first language of more than 6 million people of all races throughout southern Africa. Overall though this book is helpful, but there is now a better book out there.

The entire Teach Yourself series can be very hit or miss, and TY Afrikaans is more of a miss. The book presents grammar and vocabulary in reasonable amounts, and is generally pretty good about introducing them in situations the reader can realistically expect to find him-/herself in.

However, there are no culture notes (a great feature found in newer editions in this series), and some of the language presented can be bizarre ("Ek gaan saans eiers uithaal vir tant Dora" - "In the evening I'll collect eggs for Aunt Dora" - how often would you even say this in English?). The main drawback is the fact that there are no tapes to model prounciation. Unlike languages like Spanish, where there is a strong correspondence between written and spoken language, Afrikaans is much less predictable. There is a pronunication guide at the start of the book which is utterly useless. The only remedy I could suggest would be to see if you can track down some old Language/30 Afrikaans tapes. While there won't be much overlap with the book, it will still help you acquire an ear for the sounds of the language. Should the publisher ever include tapes with it, it would be a great set.

In other words, if you're really fired up about Afrikaans, give it a shot, but if you want to learn speak it with any degree of certainty and confidence, then you should either hope they put out an edition with cassettes or find other Afrikaans tapes yourself.

Good but was written in 1992. Some of the content is outdated. Used to be a must have because it was the only one. But now with Colloqial Afrikaans, it's not a good buy. I reccommend Colloquial Afrikanns with the tapes.

I have found this book to be good but outdated when compared to course books used for English or other European languages. For self study it is not good as there is no tape with it. Afrikaans is my mother tongue and I also teach it here in Austria. Leona Lehner

It helps to have strong German instruction prior to purchasing this book. Once a year of German is under the belt, this book will enable you to master Afrikaans in 3 to 4 months, if you read it diligently every night. The pronunciation is difficult to master, as the book attempts to give examples of the many strange vowel combinations found in Afrikaans. The vocabulary, however, is simple and the verb tenses even simpler. I made friends in the Johannesburg area and continue to write in Afrikaans after studying this book. The lessons are relevant and the short stories enable the reader to learn new words quickly. Do NOT study Dutch and think you will be able to get by in Afrikaans, as Dutch has bizarre gender differences and strange verb tenses. This language is easy to learn and fun to practice.

This older edition of the "Teach Yourself Afrikaans" textbook is out of date in most contexts. I wouldn't recommend using this book for learning the language if you're brand new to it (instead, opt for either "Colloquial Afrikaans" or "Teach Yourself Afrikaans" : both are available with accompanying audio, and the two are easier to use than this course). However, if you already have a good working knowledge of the language, this book can be an excellent guide to building your vocabulary and learning the grammar more thoroughly.

If you know how to use this course to its full advantage, it'll benefit you tremendously to learn the vocabulary it teaches, especially in the latter half of the book when idiomatic and more formal language is introduced. A disadvantage is that you won't find recorded material to this course, but pronouncing the words and understanding the intonation of normal everyday speech shouldn't be a problem if you have a separate course to refer to. Some of the words used aren't in the back of the book, but don't let this deter you -- purchasing an Afrikaans-English dictionary (or just using one online) should do the job. If you have a native speaker to consult, one of the best ways to really learn the vocabulary isn't to just ask what words mean but to ask how they're used -- if you're stumped and having a native speaker to help you, ask for example sentences so that you fully grasp the meaning of what you're learning.

This course is by no means a comprehensive guide to the formal side of the language, but it's the closest you might find as far as self-study goes. The reading passages are often lengthy and pack in plenty of new vocabulary, most of which is clearly defined and still in everyday use. In one of the last lessons, there's even a short grammar guide that's written in Afrikaans entirely -- if you know your grammar, you'll figure out the vocabulary and terms fairly easily. (Overall, you should have a good idea of how grammar works before using this course. If you don't know what an adverb or a dependent clause is, it'll without a doubt slow your progress.)

In short, this book is resourceful and a strong asset to any learner if you know how to use it.