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Foreign Language Resources
Pimsleur Language Courses
Pimsleur courses are the only competent language tapes that
can be used without redubbing and are the best way to get
started in the languages they cover. Of the Pimsleur courses I
have used, there aren't any that I don't highly recommend,
although there is variation in quality and difficulty, as noted
below. My estimated times for mastery of the courses assume no
prior experience with the language and diligent, daily study of
at least one hour per day.
Each course includes 30 half-hour recorded lessons and
supplemental reading material. The point of the Pimsleur courses
is to teach you how to speak and how to understand speech. For
reading and writing, see the additional resources below.
The "US" and "CA" links are to Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
respectively. Used Pimsleur tapes and CDs are frequently offered
on Amazon, often priced more favorably than prevailing auction
prices on eBay. Earlier editions should be much less expensive
but sometimes politically out of date (ie, "Good morning,
comrade policeman. Where is Red Square?")
I find tapes much easier to use than CDs because CD offers
nothing equivalent to the "review" button on tape recorders.
While the audio quality may be better on CD, the audio quality
of the tapes is fine. The
Sony TCM-5000EV is an excellent tape recorder for
studying languages.
To encourage children to study foreign languages, I have put
up a page of
Harry
Potter books in foreign languages. |
Spanish I (Latin American). Too easy: 30
days or less.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
Spanish II (Latin American). Excellent: 45 to 60 days.
3d. ed. 2003.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
Spanish III (Latin American). Excellent: 45 to 60
days. 2d edition, 2004.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Portuguese I (Brazilian). Excellent: 45
to 60 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CAPortuguese II (Brazilian). Excellent: 45
to 60 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
Portuguese III (Brazilian). Excellent: 45 to 60 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
French I. Too easy: 30-45 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CAFrench II Very good: 45 to 60 days. (3d
ed. 2003):
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
French III (2d ed. 2005). Excellent: 45 to 60 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Chinese (Mandarin) I. Excellent: 4 to 6
months. Quite difficult, but well worth the investment of time.
No attempt is made to teach written Chinese. Mandarin is the
official language of China and Taiwan, but Cantonese is spoken
in Hong Kong and by most overseas Chinese in Malaysia, Indonesia
and the US. Spoken Cantonese differs at least as much from
Mandarin as German from English.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CAChinese (Mandarin) II. 2002.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
Chinese (Mandarin) III. 2003.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Chinese (Cantonese) I. (I have no
experience with Pimsleur Cantonese.) Cantonese is useful in
Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as in Canton and Hong Kong. Many
Malaysian Chinese who attended Chinese schools do not speak
English. Even though the Chinese language is banned in
Indonesia, many Indonesian Chinese can speak Cantonese.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Russian I. Excellent - 60 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CARussian II (2d ed. 2003)
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
Russian III (2d ed. 2004)
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Japanese I. (I have no experience with
Pimsleur Japanese.)
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CAJapanese II (2d ed. 2004)
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
Japanese III.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
Japanese III (2d ed., forthcoming 2006)
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Vietnamese I.
2005.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Polish I. 2004.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Czech I. Forthcoming 2006.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Korean I. 2005.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Turkish I. Forthcoming 2006.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Eastern Arabic. 2003.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
German I. Very good: 30 to 45 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CAGerman II. Excellent: 30 to 45 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
German III. Excellent: 45 to 60 days.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
German III. 2nd edition, forthcoming 2006.
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Italian I. (I have no experience with
Pimsleur Italian.)
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CAItalian II (2d ed. 2004):
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
Italian III (2d ed. 2005).
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
Greek I. (I have no experience with
Pimsleur Greek.)
CDs:
US |
CA
Cassettes:
US |
CA
|
To see what else may be available or forthcoming, check the
Simon &
Schuster website, then plug the ISBN numbers (if any) into the
Amazon search box.
Many of the Pimsleur courses are poorly indexed and incorrectly captioned by
Amazon and are findable only by using the ISBN numbers.
Other Useful Language Resources
 Michaelis
Moderno Dicionário English-Portuguese / Portuguese-English.
1735 pages.
Details. (Melhoramentos, 2000). The most complete bi-lingual
dictionary, with more than 167,000 words. Most
Portuguese-English dictionaries are woefully inadequate, even
for translating newspapers and websites.
US |
UK |
CA |
| Le Petit Larousse illustré 2005. 1855
pages.
US |
UK |
DE |
FR |
CA |
JP |
| Christopher Kendris. Master the Basics:
French. Barron's. 2d edition, 1995.
US |
UK |
CA |
| Christopher Kendris. Master the Basics:
Spanish. Barron's. 2d edition, 1995.
US |
UK |
CA |
 Bob
Burleson & David H. Riskind. Backcountry Mexico: A traveler's
guide and phrasebook. Not a language instruction book, but a
good Spanish phrasebook and dictionary for birding trips. 311
pages. U. of Texas Press. 1986.
US |
UK |
DE |
FR |
CA |
JP |
| Lusin Natalia & Susan Follett Lusi. Master
the Basics: Russian. Barron's. 1995.
US |
UK |
CA |
| Paul G. Graves & Henry Strutz. Master the
Basics: German. Barron's. 2d ed. 1995.
US |
UK |
CA |
| Marcel Danesi. Master the Basics: Italian.
Barron's. 2d ed. 1995.
US |
UK |
CA |
| Sutanto Atmosumarto. Colloquial Indonesian
Pack: The Complete Course for Beginners. 2 cassettes, 2 CDs
and book. Routledge 2004. The 2 yards and a cloud of dust
approach to language learning: painful and time consuming, but
the only alternative in the absence of Pimsleur Indonesian
courses.
US |
CA |
|
|
![WORLDTWITCH.com Home Page - Finding Rare Birds Around the World [Logo by Michael O'Clery]](http://www.worldtwitch.com/images/worldtwitch_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
Emma
Eberlein O.F. Lima et al. Avenida Brasil: curso básico de
português para estrangeiros.