Re: Learning languages

Chris Bates wrote:

<< DON'T BUY "TEACH YOURSELF" BOOKS/PACKS.>>

I have to wholeheartedly second this motion.   If you want to learn about the
culture of the country where the language(s) you're interested in speaking
is/are spoken, then maybe you should consider getting a TY book (though there
are probably much better cultural resources out there, like, I don't know,
people who live in the country, or just going there yourself).

Now, the *old* TY series (the blue books or the green and yellow books) I
like.   Those were pretty much straightforward, grammar-oriented books, and if
you can find one (usually in a very large used book store), I recommend picking
one up.

As for the current TY, though, I find them utterly impenetrable.   All this
cultural information, conversations where they define each word but identify
the paradigms presented by the conversation, cute exercises like crossword
puzzles and wordsearches--this I don't need.   Plus, they're written with a British
English speaker as its intended audience, so, for example, when they're
discussing the sound of a typical /a/ phoneme, they'll often say something like,
"This is a pure 'a' sound, like the 'ar' in 'car'."   Not cool.

On the other hand, I think the format would lend itself interestingly to
fiction.   I've been working on idea for TY Zhyler, where the whole thing is
actually a novel with a story, but it follows the exact format of a TY book.

Anyway, that's my piece.   I also don't have any useful info on Latin, French
of German.   I took German and French in a class, so I just had school
textbooks, and the Latin book I have is long out of print (it's red, put out by
Barnes & Noble press.   Not too bad).

-David