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Colloquial Danish
This new edition of Colloquial Danish has been completely rewritten to feature the contemporary language of Denmanrk with new material on new technologies and topical information on the country. This interactive, clear and practical approach to teaching the spoken and written language is suitable for independent learners of all ages. These cassettes accompany the course to help you with listening and pronunciation skills.
- GenresLanguageLinguistics
304 pages, Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 20, 2022
Best after finishing the free
Duolingo Danish course
because this book isn't suited for anyone starting from zero and studying on their own.
Not for beginners - despite the title.
This is my fifth/sixth language. I’m serious. Do the Duo first. You need to get your ears used to the sound of it. I was listening to the first dialogue on slow and still unable to follow the transcript.
On the plus side, the Colloquial series offer a good sense of structure for a serial language learner like me, that one can get used to - kind of like the McDonalds of language textbooks: easy to find, cheap and standard. Not to mention that if you have a even so-so grasp on the language, the books are great for improving vocabulary, strengthening grammar and helping with speaking and listening accuracy.
On the down side, when I started this book as a complete zero it was a particular fail. Now, Danish is my sixth language, I have a really good natural memory and still it was quite bad. The lessons are about 10 or so pages long, containing two dialogues, some 20-30 new words and a handful of exercises, which is too succinct for a beginner. Also, the listening audios - especially for Danish - are too short for a language that is written like a mix between English and German and read as if it were French. For this, Duolingo is considerably better, as it breaks down the words, instead of one continuous audio.
Reading this now (post-Duo), I'm going a chapter a day; Colloquial is more review and summary than textbook, hence the rating.
Not for beginners - despite the title.
This is my fifth/sixth language. I’m serious. Do the Duo first. You need to get your ears used to the sound of it. I was listening to the first dialogue on slow and still unable to follow the transcript.
On the plus side, the Colloquial series offer a good sense of structure for a serial language learner like me, that one can get used to - kind of like the McDonalds of language textbooks: easy to find, cheap and standard. Not to mention that if you have a even so-so grasp on the language, the books are great for improving vocabulary, strengthening grammar and helping with speaking and listening accuracy.
On the down side, when I started this book as a complete zero it was a particular fail. Now, Danish is my sixth language, I have a really good natural memory and still it was quite bad. The lessons are about 10 or so pages long, containing two dialogues, some 20-30 new words and a handful of exercises, which is too succinct for a beginner. Also, the listening audios - especially for Danish - are too short for a language that is written like a mix between English and German and read as if it were French. For this, Duolingo is considerably better, as it breaks down the words, instead of one continuous audio.
Reading this now (post-Duo), I'm going a chapter a day; Colloquial is more review and summary than textbook, hence the rating.
September 26, 2020
Simple guidance, good exercises, most important subjects are fully covered.
November 17, 2021
Overall, this book is quite disappointing - much like the rest of the Colloquial language series.
Colloquial Danish starts off promising. The audio recordings are of fairly good quality, though the voice actors are unenthusiastic at best. The book progresses relatively slowly at first, giving the learner enough information to pick up the challenging nuances of the spoken language in a somewhat natural manner.
Things start to fall apart, however. If you pay attention, you'll discover that there really isn't anything even remotely resembling grammar in this book. Grammar is touched on, though only vaguely, and this book misses the grammatical exercises that one normally would expect from a beginning textbook.
The audio recordings are also very spotty. Some passages in the book have no corresponding audio text. The CDs also include extra audio not referenced in the text, most of which consists of questions and comments made in English, of all things. One wonders when the publishers of mainstream language textbooks will learn that customers would rather hear the target language more than their mother tongue.
For me, the most bothersome aspect of this book is the lack of English dialogue translations after around the halfway point. I don't understand why more difficult passages should not be accompanied by any translation at all. It's extremely perplexing, and yet is sadly a remnant of a largely broken approach to language that we have yet to move away from.
There aren't many English language Danish courses out there. This book isn't awful, though it really helps to have a background in a Germanic language - or, even better, another Scandinavian language. Perhaps one day we will have a proper introductory text for autodidactic students of Danish.
Colloquial Danish starts off promising. The audio recordings are of fairly good quality, though the voice actors are unenthusiastic at best. The book progresses relatively slowly at first, giving the learner enough information to pick up the challenging nuances of the spoken language in a somewhat natural manner.
Things start to fall apart, however. If you pay attention, you'll discover that there really isn't anything even remotely resembling grammar in this book. Grammar is touched on, though only vaguely, and this book misses the grammatical exercises that one normally would expect from a beginning textbook.
The audio recordings are also very spotty. Some passages in the book have no corresponding audio text. The CDs also include extra audio not referenced in the text, most of which consists of questions and comments made in English, of all things. One wonders when the publishers of mainstream language textbooks will learn that customers would rather hear the target language more than their mother tongue.
For me, the most bothersome aspect of this book is the lack of English dialogue translations after around the halfway point. I don't understand why more difficult passages should not be accompanied by any translation at all. It's extremely perplexing, and yet is sadly a remnant of a largely broken approach to language that we have yet to move away from.
There aren't many English language Danish courses out there. This book isn't awful, though it really helps to have a background in a Germanic language - or, even better, another Scandinavian language. Perhaps one day we will have a proper introductory text for autodidactic students of Danish.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews