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Afrikaans: Real-Life Conversations for Beginners (with audio)
Real-Life Conversations for Beginners Real-Life Conversations for Beginners book enhances your conversation skills in Afrikaans language.
30 conversation units considered for beginner to pre-intermediate Each unit is broken down into dialogues, thematic words, phrasebook, and exercises. Here is the flow of book
Each unit starts with a short dialogue for warming up and a longer dialogue for more reading.English translation follows the Afrikaans sentences to ease your understanding. This ensures that you fully understand what is written there.Thematic vocabulary words taken from conversations and phrases, as well as additional words will come after to broaden your word basis.Useful phrases with English translations provide relevant and useful expressions under the context.Figure It Out section provides a set of exercises to practice what you have learned and memorized.The dialogues, words, and phrases are voiced by native speakers at an understandable speed. Audio tracks can be streamed on www.lingvora.com.
30 conversation units considered for beginner to pre-intermediate Each unit is broken down into dialogues, thematic words, phrasebook, and exercises. Here is the flow of book
Each unit starts with a short dialogue for warming up and a longer dialogue for more reading.English translation follows the Afrikaans sentences to ease your understanding. This ensures that you fully understand what is written there.Thematic vocabulary words taken from conversations and phrases, as well as additional words will come after to broaden your word basis.Useful phrases with English translations provide relevant and useful expressions under the context.Figure It Out section provides a set of exercises to practice what you have learned and memorized.The dialogues, words, and phrases are voiced by native speakers at an understandable speed. Audio tracks can be streamed on www.lingvora.com.
146 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 29, 2021
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January 22, 2023
This book is trash. As in, I literally just threw it in the trash.
I am learning Afrikaans because my partner is an Afrikaaner, and I want to learn it to speak to his family. Unfortunately, as a minor language from a small country with a problematic history, it's not exactly a super popular language to learn. This means there is a notable lack of study materials. At the time of this writing, they are basically only 2 legitimate books to learn Afrikaans from. One is nearly $70 in softcover, and the other is out of print and thus nearly as expensive. Additionally, I live in Korea, and neither of those books are for sale in this country. I would have to ship them from America and pay a lot for shipping. However, *this* book *is* available in Korea. It's something like $15-20 US dollars, so I took a chance.
Oh, how I wish I had not. My partner and I are pretty sure this book was "written" with google translate. The author is not a native English speaker and also clearly cannot actually speak Afrikaans.
Here are the issues:
1. The pronunciation chart is wrong, both in English *and* in Afrikaans. For example, it says the Afrikaans "W is pronounced [wee] as in world, volen". First, W makes a V sound in Afrikaans, so it does not make a [wee] sound. Second, in English World and Violen do not make the same sound. Also, VIOLEN IS NOT EVEN A WORD. Violent? Violin? Who knows. "d" is supposedly [dee] as in "dull, tea". Not pronounced the same in English. And "V" is pronounced [vee] as in "vocal". Again, not true.
2. The cover advertises "grammar points". There are no grammar explanations in this book.
3. Numerous typos throughout. "Goeie middag" is written as "Goeie middag n". "Ek is bly om jou te sien" is written as "Ek is bly om jou to sien." "Aangename kennis" is written as "Aangername kennis". By the way, I'm only up to page 16 with these complaints. Oh, and it's translated as "pleasently". There is at least 1 typo on every single page.
4. Incorrect translations throughout. Medical doctor is written as "doktor" instead of "dokter" (these are different words in Afrikaans). Capital city is written as "kapitaal" when it's actually "hoofstaad". Middestad is translated as citystaad which is not a word in English. Gawe is translated as kind instead of generous, aantreklik is translated as handsome instead of attractive. Om te lyk is translated as "to seem". Should I continue? Just like, it's literally wrong. I had to have my partner go through to book to edit it for typos and incorrect translations because otherwise, it would teach me point-blank wrong things.
5. The English is...confusing. "Translate the following shortcuts from the dialogue". (It wants you to translate sentences). Or take this gem: "One may ask a question how we know whether a vowel is short or long vowel. By dividing the word into syllable, we can found out the position of the vowel."
6. Even when things are technically translated correctly, they are very strange google translate sentences. "Groot! Wat maak jy?". This means "Big! What are you doing?" Or "Hoe is u bui vandag?" means "How is your mood today?" It's used to ask someone how they are doing in a dialogue. But this is not what an Afrikaaner would say to ask how you are doing. They would simply say "Hoe gaan dit?" According to my partner, this sentence would not be said at all. But he says it has a very "clinical" feel, like what a psychiatrist in a mental hospital would say to check in on your progress.
Should I go on?
You literally cannot use this book without a native speaker editing it. Literally single page has at least 1 error, and most pages have 3-5 errors on them. Save your money and your time. Avoid this like the plague.
I am learning Afrikaans because my partner is an Afrikaaner, and I want to learn it to speak to his family. Unfortunately, as a minor language from a small country with a problematic history, it's not exactly a super popular language to learn. This means there is a notable lack of study materials. At the time of this writing, they are basically only 2 legitimate books to learn Afrikaans from. One is nearly $70 in softcover, and the other is out of print and thus nearly as expensive. Additionally, I live in Korea, and neither of those books are for sale in this country. I would have to ship them from America and pay a lot for shipping. However, *this* book *is* available in Korea. It's something like $15-20 US dollars, so I took a chance.
Oh, how I wish I had not. My partner and I are pretty sure this book was "written" with google translate. The author is not a native English speaker and also clearly cannot actually speak Afrikaans.
Here are the issues:
1. The pronunciation chart is wrong, both in English *and* in Afrikaans. For example, it says the Afrikaans "W is pronounced [wee] as in world, volen". First, W makes a V sound in Afrikaans, so it does not make a [wee] sound. Second, in English World and Violen do not make the same sound. Also, VIOLEN IS NOT EVEN A WORD. Violent? Violin? Who knows. "d" is supposedly [dee] as in "dull, tea". Not pronounced the same in English. And "V" is pronounced [vee] as in "vocal". Again, not true.
2. The cover advertises "grammar points". There are no grammar explanations in this book.
3. Numerous typos throughout. "Goeie middag" is written as "Goeie middag n". "Ek is bly om jou te sien" is written as "Ek is bly om jou to sien." "Aangename kennis" is written as "Aangername kennis". By the way, I'm only up to page 16 with these complaints. Oh, and it's translated as "pleasently". There is at least 1 typo on every single page.
4. Incorrect translations throughout. Medical doctor is written as "doktor" instead of "dokter" (these are different words in Afrikaans). Capital city is written as "kapitaal" when it's actually "hoofstaad". Middestad is translated as citystaad which is not a word in English. Gawe is translated as kind instead of generous, aantreklik is translated as handsome instead of attractive. Om te lyk is translated as "to seem". Should I continue? Just like, it's literally wrong. I had to have my partner go through to book to edit it for typos and incorrect translations because otherwise, it would teach me point-blank wrong things.
5. The English is...confusing. "Translate the following shortcuts from the dialogue". (It wants you to translate sentences). Or take this gem: "One may ask a question how we know whether a vowel is short or long vowel. By dividing the word into syllable, we can found out the position of the vowel."
6. Even when things are technically translated correctly, they are very strange google translate sentences. "Groot! Wat maak jy?". This means "Big! What are you doing?" Or "Hoe is u bui vandag?" means "How is your mood today?" It's used to ask someone how they are doing in a dialogue. But this is not what an Afrikaaner would say to ask how you are doing. They would simply say "Hoe gaan dit?" According to my partner, this sentence would not be said at all. But he says it has a very "clinical" feel, like what a psychiatrist in a mental hospital would say to check in on your progress.
Should I go on?
You literally cannot use this book without a native speaker editing it. Literally single page has at least 1 error, and most pages have 3-5 errors on them. Save your money and your time. Avoid this like the plague.
Displaying 1 of 1 review