|
Colloquial Dutch 2: The Next Step in Language Learning (Colloquial Series (Multimedia)) | 
 enlarge | Author: Bruc Donaldson
Publisher: Routledge
Category: Book
List Price: $41.95
Buy New: $34.94
You Save: $7.01 (17%)
New (4) Used (4) from $32.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1440349
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.7 x 2.1
ISBN: 0415310768
Dewey Decimal Number: 439.3183421
EAN: 9780415310765
ASIN: 0415310768
Publication Date: June 23, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: C20080921063804C
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Do you know Dutch already and want to go a stage further? If you're planning a visit to Holland, need to brush up your Dutch for work, or are simply doing a course, Colloquial Dutch 2 is the ideal way to refresh your knowledge of the language and to extend your skills.
Colloquial Dutch 2 is designed to help those involved in self-study; structured to give you the opportunity to listen to and read lots of modern, everyday Dutch, it has also been developed to work systematically on reinforcing and extending your grasp of Dutch grammar and vocabulary.
Key features of Colloquial Dutch 2 include:
Revision material to help consolidate and build up your basics
A wide range of contemporary authentic documents
Lists of idioms and proverbs, as well as cultural information in each unit
Lots of spoken and written exercises for practice and consolidation
Introduction to more advanced grammar structures, a Grammar reference and detailed answer keys
Supplementary exercises and Dutch language web-links at www.routledge.com/colloquials/dutch
Audio material is available on two 60-minutes cassettes and CDs to accompany Colloquial Dutch 2. Recorded by native speakers, this material includes scripted dialogues and texts as well as interactive exercises, and will help you perfect your pronunciation and listening skills.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Not really all that bad.. January 26, 2007
Like the name says, this book is for beginning dutch students who want to advance to the next level. I never bought colloquial dutch 1 so I cant really say what its advancing from, but from going from the "Teach Yourself Dutch Series" (which i would not recommend at all) to this series has been a great improvement. This series is of course, for those who want to improve their beginners dutch. Don't expect any frills or fun activities- its purely textbook-like. I have no problem learning the new vocabulary and grammar but thats because im already familiar with most of it. I suggest perhaps going through two different beginners dutch series and then work your way through this book. I really like how i can easily navigate where i'm at in the book and what the objectives of the lesson are. I wanted to buy the rossetta stone series but they are outrageously high, so no hope there. For its price, id say its a pretty good bargain.
 Poorly planned December 7, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is perhaps the only sequel for the basic self-study Dutch courses available out there. At least I found no other titles when I was looking for something to help me go on with my studies. So, Colloquial Dutch 2 seems to fill a market gap that would otherwise let students down. Unfortunately, the course falls short of what it could have been. I would even say that it fails on all main counts.
1) TEXTS
A good language course should have a progressive content. In other words, what you learn in Chapter 2 should build on what you learnt in Chapter 1 and prepare you to face Chapter 3. Besides, texts should be chosen according to the chapter level and illustrate the grammar points under study.
This course does nothing of that. Most texts are directly taken from newspapers and other sources, without a concern to present language gradually. Texts in the end of the book are not necessarily harder than texts in the beginning. More serious than that, however, is the fact that they are not presented to illustrate any particular language structures. You read them and that is all. There are no exercises to allow the student to practise new constructions or improve on grammar points. Such exercises as follow the texts are focused rather on the content than on the language, so that you will be asked to remember facts and tell whether assertions are true or false. At most such exercises will make you read again a paragraph; they are rather tests of memory than of language acquisition. The only advantage they have over texts that we can read in any Dutch sites is that they come with audio.
2) GRAMMAR SECTIONS
There are sections devoted to grammar, but they are often out of tune with the texts. More than once you will find a text demanding a reasonable command of grammar side by side with a grammar section explaining very basic points. If you needed the explanation, you probably couldn't face the text. And if you could face the text, the explanation is inane. Moreover, grammar sections also provide few or no exercises.
3) THE AUDIO
Besides the reading of texts, you will find audio exercises which don't feature in the book. And they are often at odds with the written material. The very first exercise involves the use of the imperative, which will be explained in the book only two chapters ahead. It also expects the student to hear a sentence, understand it, memorise it and repeat it while changing the verb mood. The book, at that time, is teaching personal pronouns. Here too, if the student is able to do the former, he doesn't need the latter; and if he needs to learn personal pronouns, he will never be able to understand the audio in the first place.
So, if you are really looking for a sequel, I think you will have to make do with this one. But if you find anything else out there, I encourage you to give it a good look. Chances are that it will be better than Colloquial Dutch 2.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
