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Colloquial Latvian: The Complete Course for Beginners
Colloquial Latvian is a practical course in everyday written and spoken Latvian requiring no prior knowledge of the language. This book is ideal for study independently or with a teacher. Cassettes recorded by native Latvian speakers are also available.
This paperback in the Colloquial Language Learning Series is available individually here or as part of a cassette pack. To purchase the book and the cassettes, please refer to the cassette pack listing for this language.
This paperback in the Colloquial Language Learning Series is available individually here or as part of a cassette pack. To purchase the book and the cassettes, please refer to the cassette pack listing for this language.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 21, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 16, 2021
I think is this is the only Latvian book and audio combination out there. Latvian is similar to Lithuanian and belongs to the Baltic language family. Both languages have a unique and beautiful sound in my opinion.
Comparatively here is an example:
Good morning,
Latvian: Labrīt
Lithuanian: Labas rytas
The audio is superb and is spoken at native rhythm with native speakers. The book follows the usual listening passage/grammar/exercises. I would highly recommend this to anyone serious about learning Latvian! The book is smaller in comparison to 'Colloquial Lithuanian' but is still a great book.
You can never go wrong with the Routledge Colloquial Series books and audio. Thanks!
Comparatively here is an example:
Good morning,
Latvian: Labrīt
Lithuanian: Labas rytas
The audio is superb and is spoken at native rhythm with native speakers. The book follows the usual listening passage/grammar/exercises. I would highly recommend this to anyone serious about learning Latvian! The book is smaller in comparison to 'Colloquial Lithuanian' but is still a great book.
You can never go wrong with the Routledge Colloquial Series books and audio. Thanks!
January 20, 2022
ㅤㅤ This does not seem like a good stand-alone material for solo Latvian learning. It would be best suited as a reference book for grammar and maybe for translating some of the passages under a teacher's guidance.
ㅤㅤ The book has some exercises that seem difficult enough to a point, where they lose their fun aspect. But as a native Latvian speaker, it's difficult for me to judge on how qualitative and beneficial the exercises are. (No idea about the audio either; did not have that addition to my ebook version.)
ㅤㅤ Also, one would have to be fairly knowledgeable in English grammar terminology to easily follow the explanations and grammar aspects of this book.
ㅤㅤ It's been ~25 years since its publishing and there are some word forms and vocabulary that have become archaic. Though, the main issue is that the book heavily (especially, in the latter part) focuses on cultural environment of Latvia, and things have changed a bit. (*sobs about lats having been replaced with euro*). So, it's more like reading a history book. (I mean, for fuck's sake, it has a marinaded herring recipe – do you think zoomers or millennials will know where to buy a whole fresh fish?)
ㅤㅤ Though I learned a good lesson: currency may change, problems do not. We are still a piss poor country, where oldies have to live on kапейки and for most buying a flat is a very faraway dream.
ㅤㅤ Language learning books love to make travelling to the designated country a theme and they suppose that through that one will learn the necessary vocabulary. However, touristy trips throughout Riga and the countryside just won't pass in our now "plague"-ridden world. In fact, if someone is going to learn Latvian, their first real practice will be online with a stranger discussing Pokemon traits, rather than dainas/folklore (even for adults).
A short rant (mildly unrelated to the book):
ㅤㅤ There was a slyly inserted passage from a news article about how journalists/politicians etc. no longer care about the 'cleanliness' of the Latvian language and that one should read (more than a century old) Latvian authors (R. Blaumanis, A. Brigadere, J. Jaunsudrabiņš etc.) and have in one's arsenal a specific Latvian dictionary from the last century. Sweethearts, language changes and it's OKAY. I doubt Mīlenbahs or Endzelīns would have been able to discuss THE INTERNET in any form or way without stealing words from other languages.
ㅤㅤ No one will want to learn Latvian, if they are told to read oldie books that are mostly unrelatable to the new generations (sure, the subtext is important, and this is how we learn history, but this is also how you keep young literary talent in a constant state of suffocation). The whole reason, why I chose to read this grammar book, was because I knew English and Latvian grammar terminology, but both were disjoined, and so all the 'past perfects, 'superlatives' etc. needed a sorting. But it was mainly, to be able to understand ENGLISH better, not Latvian.
ㅤㅤ So, as a young person I rather choose to read and consume media in English, because it is more relatable and more accessible, and oldies shouting about how reading Rainis or Aspazija will make ones Latvian superb makes me want to move to another continent. Not because I hate Latvian as a language.
ㅤㅤ The book has some exercises that seem difficult enough to a point, where they lose their fun aspect. But as a native Latvian speaker, it's difficult for me to judge on how qualitative and beneficial the exercises are. (No idea about the audio either; did not have that addition to my ebook version.)
ㅤㅤ Also, one would have to be fairly knowledgeable in English grammar terminology to easily follow the explanations and grammar aspects of this book.
ㅤㅤ It's been ~25 years since its publishing and there are some word forms and vocabulary that have become archaic. Though, the main issue is that the book heavily (especially, in the latter part) focuses on cultural environment of Latvia, and things have changed a bit. (*sobs about lats having been replaced with euro*). So, it's more like reading a history book. (I mean, for fuck's sake, it has a marinaded herring recipe – do you think zoomers or millennials will know where to buy a whole fresh fish?)
ㅤㅤ Though I learned a good lesson: currency may change, problems do not. We are still a piss poor country, where oldies have to live on kапейки and for most buying a flat is a very faraway dream.
ㅤㅤ Language learning books love to make travelling to the designated country a theme and they suppose that through that one will learn the necessary vocabulary. However, touristy trips throughout Riga and the countryside just won't pass in our now "plague"-ridden world. In fact, if someone is going to learn Latvian, their first real practice will be online with a stranger discussing Pokemon traits, rather than dainas/folklore (even for adults).
A short rant (mildly unrelated to the book):
ㅤㅤ There was a slyly inserted passage from a news article about how journalists/politicians etc. no longer care about the 'cleanliness' of the Latvian language and that one should read (more than a century old) Latvian authors (R. Blaumanis, A. Brigadere, J. Jaunsudrabiņš etc.) and have in one's arsenal a specific Latvian dictionary from the last century. Sweethearts, language changes and it's OKAY. I doubt Mīlenbahs or Endzelīns would have been able to discuss THE INTERNET in any form or way without stealing words from other languages.
ㅤㅤ No one will want to learn Latvian, if they are told to read oldie books that are mostly unrelatable to the new generations (sure, the subtext is important, and this is how we learn history, but this is also how you keep young literary talent in a constant state of suffocation). The whole reason, why I chose to read this grammar book, was because I knew English and Latvian grammar terminology, but both were disjoined, and so all the 'past perfects, 'superlatives' etc. needed a sorting. But it was mainly, to be able to understand ENGLISH better, not Latvian.
ㅤㅤ So, as a young person I rather choose to read and consume media in English, because it is more relatable and more accessible, and oldies shouting about how reading Rainis or Aspazija will make ones Latvian superb makes me want to move to another continent. Not because I hate Latvian as a language.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews