Teach Yourself Dutch Complete Course [Box set] [Audio Cassette]

Teach Yourself Publishing (Author), Gerdi Quist (Author), Lesley Gilbert (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0844238570 | ISBN-13: 978-0844238579 | Publication Date: January 11, 1995 | Edition: Pap/Cas

Functional and fun, this course offers full pronunciation guides, grammar summaries, dialogues, cultural notes, vocabulary charts, and irregular verb tables. Ideal for complete language study from comprehension, to speaking and writing skills, to understanding the culture.

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary; Pap/Cas edition (January 11, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844238570
• ISBN-13: 978-0844238579
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,730,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Books on Cassette > Languages > Dutch

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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.