Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Danish Complete Course (Book Only) (TY: Complete Courses)

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

 

 

I have only had this program for 2 weeks and I've learned a TON of danish, very well laid out, excellent audio quality, and I live in Denmark, and even my friends here are saying its quite well done. Its apparently a bit formal in the language, but far less so than any other language guide I've come across. Great book - the book is essential.

There aren't many Danish language books available in English but this is the best that I've seen. It has a good balance of conversational Danish and theory, presented in units of a good length so that covering 1 per week is achievable. Each themed unit contains 3 or 4 dialogues followed by relevant vocabulary and grammar points. It does make a reasonable attempt to cover pronounciation despite some of the other comments on this website. You definitely need to use it with the CDs though.

I have found this book and CD set to be very valuable for learning Danish. I only use it in my "spare time", and when I traveled to Denmark a second time, after only a few months of using this program off and on, I was amazed at what I could understand and read. I hope to see an advanced level course of this program very soon. (hint, hint)

In my limited experience, I've noticed there are two distinct ways to learn a language. There's the "phrases first" way in which you learn a bunch of touristy phrases and then work your way backwards to the grammar/structure/vocab, etc. as you need it. Then there's the "grammar/structure/vocab first" way in which you're learning how to build your own phrases right off the bat. If you're looking for the first method, this book is as good as any, I guess, although the CD's are obviously thrown together and overall poorly done. The female narrator speaks with a fairly thick English (i.e. England - the book is published there) accent that's at times hard to understand. The actual audio on the discs only refers to blocks of text in the book and has very little translation in it at all. This means forget about any "learn in your car" approach. The discs are pretty much useless unless you have the book right in front of you. They switch constantly from a woman speaking Danish with with a UK accent to a man speaking UK with a Danish accent. About all they're good for is if you want to listen to people speak Danish for a few minutes at a time and have no idea what they're saying. Both the discs and the book are full of obscure UK references and high-brow situations (i.e. "Jens and Maria are having lobster on a yacht while discussing afternoon tea. Jen asks when the servants will be changing the silverware for dessert.") If you really want to "learn" the language and not just memorize enough phrases to get you by and impress your friends, I'd recommend the Hippocrene "Beginner's Danish" book + 2 CDs set Beginner's Danish with 2 Audio CDs (Danish Edition). It is MUCH better organized and is meant for people who are serious about actually developing the building blocks to create their own phrases instead of memorizing and poorly pronouncing mostly useless and silly touristy ones. If you're just trying to "get by" and don't mind translating everything from Danish to UK to American, this set will do you just fine.

I became interested in learning Danish to further explore my Danish roots. This has been the best guide to help me with that. The language is very useful, and there are a lot of phrases and vocabulary so you'll have to pace yourself so that you don't become overwhelmed. Danish is comparable to English in that the way it is spelled differs from how it is pronounced. Without the audio, you will not be able to speak Danish. The audio is essential. However, the audio does sometimes go a little slow. Real life Danish is a little faster and so you'll need to expose yourself to it to get used to the speed. But this is definitely a great book to have if you intend to actually learn Danish.

My father is Danish, and this spring when I went to visit my Danish family, I promised myself I would learn some Danish. Every day in the car to and from work I did the "sound it out" exercises, and at night I would do the book work. I learned Danish pretty well (speaking and understanding at least, not really with the writing), and impressed my family!

I would definitely encourage using this system! It's great for anywhere and you can learn fairly quickly, as long as you dedicate yourself to it.

The approach is terrific. There are some typos and a few missing word definitions but all in all I have found it most helpful in learning danish and I am not that great at learning languages.

well i got this book with cds to help me learn danish so i could speak to my friend in her native languge..well she even said that the way they teach new people danish is crap... I dont understand what is going on I end up having to have her explain everything they are saying in the book so a waste of money..she is just teaching me online... i learn more just talking to her.. the book is alittle help but not recomended for you if your just learning and never spoke or heard danish...