Re: Language Lessons

On Wed, 1 Aug 2001, Thomas R. Wier wrote:

> > I'm with you Amanda. Not only do I *want* grammar tables, I actually
> > *love* grammar tables. They're so nice and neat and concise, and
> > everything you could possibly want to know is right there in front of
> > you. That's why I love those "501 [insert-language-here] Verbs" books.
> > Now if I could just find the one for Classical Greek, I'd be a happy boy.
Ge swa!  And furthermore, nothing annoys me more than a book that doesn't
have a good phonology section.  Don't tell me "the t is soft."  What the
hell does that mean?  Softer than what?  Tell me it's an aspirated
alveolar stop.

I actually have in  my posession a French textbook that describes the
french "eu" as "a good natured sound, as if one just sat on a sofa."  What
the hell?

Often, I don't want to learn how to speak the language at all; I just want
to look at the paradigms, enjoy interesting features, maybe piece together
a few phrases or sentences.  It's har dto do that when the book is too
"user friendly."

--Pat

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