Teach Yourself Dutch Complete Course Package (Book + 2 CDs) (TY: Complete Courses) [Paperback]

Gerdi Quist (Author), Dennis Strik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0071413863 | ISBN-13: 978-0071413862 | Edition: 2

Bestselling language courses now with audio CDs!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary

The new editions also feature:

• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Website suggestions to take language study further

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gerdi Quist

Extensive experience in language teaching at various levels and currently lecture in Dutch at the university level

Dennis Strik

Extensive experience in language teaching at various levels and currently lecture in Dutch at the university level

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 2 edition (March 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071413863
• ISBN-13: 978-0071413862
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, But..., October 3, 2002

By 

Daryl A. WESTFALL "buitenlander" (White House, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teach Yourself Dutch Complete Course (Audio Cassette)

I have this course (book plus cassettes), and it is good. However, I've found the "Colloquial Dutch" set by Bruce Donaldson to be a much better choice - especially if you're only planning to invest in a single self-study course. I found that the supplemental casssettes in the Teach-Yourself course are VERY short and provide only a meager amount of the kind of active listening exercises necessary to acquaint your ear (and tongue) to the idiosyncracies of Dutch pronunciation. And believe me, it is impossible for an English speaker to learn proper Dutch pronunciation with a book alone - and the cassettes in this set don't offer much more. A good back-up course, but I wouldn't be first on my list.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It really worked, that's the best recommendation, July 1, 2002

By 

Weary Traveller "swampstomper" (Enschede, OV Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dutch: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Books) (Paperback)

I moved with my family to the Netherlands five years ago. Both my wife and I worked hard on this book before we left the USA, and it turned out to be time well invested. The amazing thing is that the dialogs we encountered (supermarket, neighbors, job search) were extremely close to the ones in this book, so we were really prepared. The grammatical explanations help without being too cumbersome, and the practical tips were right on the mark. It's hard to see how the book could be better for its purpose. The lessons are in manageable chunks and give plenty of useful pratice. There is nothing in those book I haven't used!

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Schrikaanjagend! (Terrible!), May 10, 2006

By 

The Grumpy Hacker (Milwaukee - Top 5000 Reviewer!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Dutch Complete Course Package (Book + 2 CDs) (TY: Complete Courses) (Paperback)

I've studied four foreign languages and used all kinds of learning methods: audio-only, audio and text, high school and college courses, and immersion. The Teach Yourself Dutch Complete Course with CD is the absolute worst learning tool I've ever encountered. I have to assume the reviewers here who gave it good marks either haven't tried any other method/product or they reviewed an older (different) version. Dutch is a difficult language to learn. It resembles a highly irregular mish-mash of German, French, and English with lots of slurring, idiom, and colloquialisms. Spoken Dutch also often doesn't resemble written Dutch (or vice versa) due to pronunciation. Combine a difficult language with a poor learning tool and you will get nowhere fast.

Try to imagine you're in a room with strangers, one who speaks English with a British accent and Dutch, and several others who speak only Dutch. You think you're there to learn Dutch. Unfortunately the others think they're there to engage each other in casual conversation while you sit there listening, unable to understand a word. That's what these CDs sound like to me. The audio lessons move entirely too fast and simply cannot be used without the accompanying text, plus the native speakers speak too fast without the enunciation needed for a non-speaker to hear and repeat adequately. Definitely unsuitable for learning in your car.

If you want or need to learn Dutch you should NOT start out with this set. It might work for you after you've gotten familiar with some basic spoken and written Dutch and can understand native pronunciation at typical conversational speed. If you haven't got that much knowledge or confidence in Dutch, I recommend you start with the Pimsleur course. Pimsleur doesn't try to teach you to swim by dropping you into the ocean like this Teach Yourself course does.