Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Basic Danish : Complete Course Package (Audio Cassette)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I loved the native speakers from de audio cassettes; even though danish pronunctiation is very hard, you get to understand it and learn it rather easily from this course. I would have liked, though, to have had some more exercises on each unit.

Great book to get an excelent pronounciation, however the vocabulary is not enough.Outstanding book for the new student.

My husband first got me this book several years ago as a review for me before returning for a trip to Denmark. I first learned Danish while as an exchange student 20 years ago, so it's been a long while since studying the language and I'd forgotten quite a bit. I found the book excellent for (re)-learning vocabulary, and grammar, and the tape is just wonderful for going over pronunciation and getting a real feel for how the language is spoken on a day-to-day basis.

One thing I liked is that the tape starts out with how to pronounce the Danish alphabet (just like the English alphabet but with three extra vowels). Then the tape goes over how to pronounce different letters together and dipthongs. A handy tool for reading when you get to that point. I found it best to start off reading the book, then listening to the tape while reading. Later, I would listen to the tape again in my car and practice speaking. Danish is a difficult language to pronounce - my Danish friends used to laugh and joke that Danish is "a disease of the throat!"

Other exercises in the book include listening to a short conversation and answering questions with regard to the conversation. There are written questions in the book to do as well.

In sum, I'll end by saying that this system of book and tapes is excellent for learning basic grammar and vocabulary, as well as pronunciation. Danish pronunciation is difficult, however, so keep practicing. It does help to remember, however, that an honest attempt will get you a long way in a Dane's eyes.

Ha' det godt!

This is a good starter set for one who is looking for beginner's Danish. I think this is a great book/cass set for anyone, and it's also probably one of few Danish book and tape sets. IMHO after going thru half the book, Norwegian is a lot easier to learn, esp. for me. Although, Danish and Norwegian are very similar in written language, the pronounced language is quite different. I also like the Teach Yourself Norwegian a lot. It reads thru very quickly.