Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Estonian Complete Course (Book + 2CDs) (TY: Complete Courses)

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

 

 

PROS
- Uses native speakers in the recordings
- LOTS of exercises for a book of its type which are linked to the answer key at the back of the book. Exercises include asking for translations between English and Estonian, true-false listening comprehension questions and "fill-in-the-blank" sets.
- Useful appendices on cases and Estonian-English/English-Estonian glossaries which include core case endings for each noun or adjective and hints of the conjugation pattern for each verb in the glossaries.
- Some comments on Estonian culture that break the monotony of notes on linguistic matters.
- The course's approach is best suited for tourists or people wanting practical or "relatable" situations as dialogues cover greetings, shopping, asking for directions, renting a car or talking about hobbies

CONS
- Questionable presentation of the imperative ("command" form - e.g. "Go to the store!" "Buy that loaf of bread!"). Because of consonant gradation (it's a type of sound change that involves consonants), constructing the imperative in Estonian is not as straightforward as in English. The authors show how to construct the imperative for informal situations involving one person at an early stage of the course. They then revisit the imperative in the final chapter of the book because constructing the other forms of the imperative depends on understanding consonant gradation which is a relatively difficult topic for a beginner. What's more is that the book never clearly explains how to construct imperative forms such as "let's go!" or "let them come to the party!". I had to consult a different book to figure out the full use of the imperative.
- It doesn't explain how to use the pluperfect tense even though it does mention the tense's existence when first discussing the past tenses of Estonian. The course only goes into detail for two of them - imperfect and past perfect.
- There's no mention of the oblique mood (i.e. how to conjugate verbs which are used to describe actions that were not observed by the speaker/writer. In other words, these conjugations are used for reported actions). However it's probable that the authors omitted mentioning it as its use is not expected in beginners.
- There's very little discussion about Estonian sound length. The length of Estonian syllables can be short, long or "overly-long". However the course leaves the impression that syllables are either short or long. Not understanding how Estonian uses "overly-long" syllables may cause problems with understanding how to use different case forms which are distinguished by syllable length alone (it's usually genitive versus "short" illative).

For example, 'linna' in print can mean either "of [the] town" (i.e. genitive case) or "into [a/the] town" (i.e. "short" illative - "normal" illative would be 'linnasse' but this "normal" form is used less frequently than the shorter form 'linna') Estonians however distinguish between 'linna' (genitive) and 'linna' ("short" illative) with syllable length. The first 'linna' meaning "of [a/the] town" is pronounced with the double "n" pronounced double (in other words it's long) as you would expect per the spelling. However, the second 'linna' meaning "into [a/the] town" is pronounced as if the double "n" were printed as triple "n" - in other words it's an "overly-long" syllable. Unfortunately Estonian spelling does not usually reflect the difference between long and "overly-long" syllables unless you deal with special dictionaries or certain textbooks for foreigners.

When compared to its main competitor "Colloquial Estonian", "Teach Yourself Estonian" is a quantum leap ahead of the former. "Colloquial Estonian"'s shoddiness (see Amazon reviews of that course) is very apparent when compared to "Teach Yourself Estonian". I find that the main feature that sets "Teach Yourself Estonian" apart from other language courses in the "Colloquial..." or Teach Yourself..." series is the high quantity of exercises that allow you to practice or apply what you've learned. While Estonian grammar seems daunting to the target user (i.e. someone who's fluent in English), having the chance to do a lot of practice with the book's assigned exercises goes a long way with helping the user gain confidence via retention of the material and begin to approach Estonian study with a more positive attitude. Skimping on exercises doesn't do any favours for the prospective learner of Estonian.

If you use this course, I strongly recommend that you also get at least one good English-Estonian/Estonian-English dictionary. The only ones worth getting are those published by TEA (FYI: TEA is a publishing house in Estonia that specializes in language courses and dictionaries) or edited by Johannes Silvet. If you can afford them, get both the English-Estonian dictionary and the Estonian-English dictionary that Silvet edited (each dictionary has about 1000 pages). Don't waste your time or money on Hippocrene's Estonian dictionaries that are edited by Ksana Kyiv and Oleg Benyuch. Those Hippocrene dictionaries are terrible and even the glossaries at the end of "Teach Yourself Estonian" are better than the junk that's published by Hippocrene. If you have a hard time understanding the grammar notes in "Teach Yourself Estonian" then get "Estonian Textbook: Grammar - Exercises - Conversation" by Juhan Tuldava. Tuldava covers the same grammatical topics as those in "Teach Yourself Estonian" but also deals with more advanced Estonian grammar and may provide a helpful second opinion that could help you understand Estonian grammar better.

In conclusion, if this course had handled the cons in a better way, I would have then given 5/5 stars to the course. As it is I give 4.5/5 stars (Amazon won't let me give half stars so according to Amazon "Teach Yourself Estonian" still gets 5/5 stars from me).

Have fun with this course!

I bought this book and some other materials based on a review here that seemed insightful. I can honestly say out of all the course material I've researched this is the best for learning Estonian language.

FYI Estonian language learning is almost non-existent outside select universities.

I just got the book and CDs yesterday and I think they are valuable tools for learning Estonian.The other widely-available Estonian Language Course in English has not recieved very good reviews.One criticism was that the CD dialogues used speakers who clearly were not native Estonian speakers.I would like to hear feedback from any native Estonian speakers as to whether the "Teach Yourself Estonian" CDs use native speakers or not.

Excellent book. Very well organized and learning with it is very interesting and pleasurable.
I certainly recommend it!