TYS: Foreign Language Learning Series Reviews
Alexander Arguelles presents a series of video reviews and demonstrations of those foreign language learning series that he has found most useful in his own studies. For further information about the series, please refer to www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com
I love these, especially the first generation ones. I have to admit I like to jump from one language to another, so I like books which read more like grammar guides than “learning books”. The first generation does this quite well, but the second generation (especially the 2000 series) I find lacking.
Despite not giving proper instructions for some of the sounds (á!), I’m glad I picked a copy of Glendening’s old TYI in time. It works nicely as a “simplified” reference grammar, definitely beating the modern “duh” stuff with its clearly laid-out tables and a RICH idiomatical trove — the stuff you’d want in any language X book. You can find things easily there in minimal time. The margins also serve nicely as a place for those fast-forward and “repetition of the day for busy people” notes.
i see books for gujarati, yoruba, and hausa… what other languages were not included in the most recent editions?
I notice in the forums you have mentioned that the recordings for “Teach Yourself Beginner’s Latin” are quite authentic-sounding. I am curious to know how you think they compare against those of “Lingua Latina per se Illustrata”. Are the latter worth getting, or would George Sharpley’s TYS manual be most preferable as a model for Latin pronunciation?
Thank you for your time.
I do not hold that the TYS recordings are necessarily more “authentic” than others, but rather, to my subjective ear, they are far and away the most pleasing I have ever heard, and thus that they made the language finally come alive for me. Most other recordings I have heard are actually unpleasant to listen to. The LLpsI course is the best text for in-depth study, but while the recordings are better than most, I still prefer the sound of Sharpley’s course.
Just got my TY German and French!
I notice you have many catalan books, do you ever travel to the Cataluna region in Spain?
It has been all too long, but yes indeed…
To call the Teach Yourself series little more than “phrasebooks” is a little extreme, in my opinion. In fact, from what I have read in my Teach Yourself Russian book, there is plenty of grammar.
The Teach Yourself range of languages is enormous and their quality varies greatly. Some are, unfortunately, little more than phrasebooks, while others, thankfully, are outstanding in their depth and didactic structure. With some series there is a more or less uniform presentation, while with this series, the authors seem to have a great deal of freedom. Thus, you cannot assume anything about any TYS text, but must judge it on its own merit.
Why do you think the little blue hardcover books contain a scripture?
Proverbs 9:9
So what,s the Icelandic for ‘polyglot’ then?
I noticed the same things you mentioned about the newer TYS books. The lack of translations and the “phrasebook” format annoy me a great deal but it does seem difficult to find learning resources that aren’t like that without being $100 or more.
Thanks for the review. Very helpful. Now when I look at the older TYS to the newer ones, theres no comparrison. I can’t help but notice you don’t have any writing, highlighting, ect. in the books you show. Seeing as how my TYS Japanese looks like a coloring book, I was wondering how (or if for that matter) you made notes of important points.
Thanks
i can’t stand teach yourself. i listen to the recording for a minute and get irritated. the exercises are idiotic, and the explanations arent really clear. yick.
My cd also broke….
These are by far my favorite ‘new’ series. They are about the only language books that can be bought new that actually teach grammar and are not complete phrasebooks. Unfortunatly, some of them are, indeed, essentially a phrasebook, like the new Greek model. Some of these books are simply referance grammars, like the ’80s Norwegian book. While I don’t really like the books a whole lot (I would rather buy an older book that’s not part of a series), they are quite useful and economic.
@concertmatell i severely damaged my Disc one out of the plastic box the professor shows. Thankfully after a few tries it detected in my cd drive and i was able to save the audio to my PC without using the discs.
Its like a trap to break the discs :S
Fjöltyngdur
It’s polyglot.
I’d love to hear you speaking Catalan! If you need a native to talk to, HERE I AMMM!
I look forward to watching you speak Catalan on one of your videos
why is it so hard to get the CDs out? all u gotta do is squeeze that little thing in the middle and pull the CD out. honestly it’s no rocket science.
@ProfASAr
“while others, thankfully, are outstanding in their depth and didactic structure.”
The 2003 edition of TY Hindi by Rupert Snell is a great example of that, simply outstanding. The Bengali book in the same series is also exceptional (in that you’re actually reading an excerpt of the writings of a Nobel Prize winning author by the end of the book), although its teaching method does leave a lot to be desired.
I like the phrasebook presentation better because its more useful to actually communicate in the language than just learn grammar. I don’t think grammar should be something that is heavily studied but rather occasionally looked at as a reference.