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Teach Yourself Dutch Complete Course Package (Book + 2 CDs) (TY: Complete Courses) 2nd Edition
There is a newer edition of this item:
$76.98
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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
- ISBN-100071413863
- ISBN-13978-0071413862
- Edition2nd
- PublisherMcGraw-Hill
- Publication dateMarch 27, 2003
- LanguageDutch
- Dimensions6.25 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
- Print length320 pages
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Gerdi Quist
Extensive experience in language teaching at various levels and currently lecture in Dutch at the university levelDennis Strik
Extensive experience in language teaching at various levels and currently lecture in Dutch at the university levelProduct details
- Publisher : McGraw-Hill; 2nd edition (March 27, 2003)
- Language : Dutch
- Audio CD : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0071413863
- ISBN-13 : 978-0071413862
- Item Weight : 15.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,776,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,054 in Study & Teaching Reference (Books)
- #7,782 in Foreign Language Instruction (Books)
- #11,613 in Books on CD
- Customer Reviews:
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If you're planning a trip to Belgium or the Netherlands, this book will certainly get you started on Dutch - - if the natives let you speak it. But it's flawed in various ways, and I'm reviewing an old edition of the book. Check newer editions to see if these have been corrected.
Despite the audio CDs, the book is very weak on pronunciation. This is unfortunate because Dutch pronunciation, especially of vowels, is trickier than you might expect. The CD pronounces examples of the difficult diphthongs (ui, ou/ow) only once each, giving you no repetition or variation in color depending on the vocal environment. The book provides no guidance for sounds sometimes describes as triphthongs, like ieuw. There is no guidance for common sounds such as those in "mooi" (beautiful).
Many basic pronunciation rules are not mentioned. The book does not mention the fact that word-final consonants are devoiced. It does not mention the common pronunciation of -en as -e in the spoken language. It does not mention assimilation of consonants across phoneme boundaries; Dutch voices or devoices many consonants preceding voiced or unvoiced consonants in many (not all) settings. The pronunciation of the diminuative -je is not described, nor its variations in -sje, -tje, and so forth.
One of the readings mentions that Dutch has dialects, but it provides no guide to dealing with them. The pronunciation section mentions some variation in pronunciation of ui, g, and r, but does not tell the reader anything about this variation. Since one of the first things a novice will notice is that the g in Flanders sounds smoother than the g in the Randstad, even an introductory book should mention these things.
Finally, the dictionary is very incomplete. It does not include all the words from the vocabulary lists, nor all the words in the book. (Some of the words in dialogues and readings are not found in the vocabulary lists in the chapter or in the dictionary at the end of the book.)
The rest of the book is well designed, with a good progression of grammatical topics and introduction to cultural and practical matters. I can see why some readers might want more "signposts" (why this topic, where are we going), but experienced language learners will find the method familiar. It probably goes too fast for many people, but if you already have German the pace will be fine.
In fact, its very presentation states quite clearly that it is intended to bring the student to higher levels at a fast pace. So, if you want a slow introduction into the Dutch language, this course is not for you.
On the other hand, the course is useful to people knowing some Dutch. I partially undertook two self-study courses in the past and a classroom course of three months in Dutch - up to intermediate level. Now I am using this one.
Well, the problem is that this course will *not* bring me to the advanced level. It keeps my knowledge fresh, it teaches me a few new things, but that's it.
To summarize: if you are an absolute beginner in Dutch, this course is *not* for you. If you know some Dutch and want to get to the advanced level, this course is *not* for you either.
The question remains: whom this course is for?

