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Teach Yourself Bengali Complete Course | 
 enlarge | Author: William Radice
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Category: Book
List Price: $20.95
Buy New: $14.96
You Save: $5.99 (29%)
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 1524806
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 6.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0071420037
Dewey Decimal Number: 401
EAN: 9780071420037
ASIN: 0071420037
Publication Date: January 14, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Bestselling language courses! From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly. Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including: - Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
- Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
- Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
- Practical vocabulary
- Regular and irregular verb tables
- Plenty of practice exercises and answers
- Bilingual glossary
The new editions also feature: - Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
- Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
- Website suggestions to take language study further
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Strangely organized and frustrating November 12, 2007
Readz Alot (USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I would disagree with the reviewer who complained that the book focuses on reading and writing, rather than speaking/listening. I found it to be the reverse.
At first glance, the book seemed to be very well organized. The first dozen or so chapters introduce you to the letters and sounds of Bengali, a few at a time, and let you practice reading/speaking single words and brief phrases. Then you move onto the typical "Teach Yourself" format of dialogues, grammar lessons and practice exercises. The final section offers brief literary excerpts.
The problem is with that first section. The author provides almost excruciatingly detailed explanations of how to pronounce each letter, and shows how the letter is written. But the 'single words and brief phrases' are NOT written in Bengali script, but are transliterated, with some odd symbols intended to stand for sounds that are not easily transliterated into English. Result being, that when you finally make it to the dialogues, (written in Bengali and translated, but NOT transliterated) you are suddenly plunged into reading Bengali ... having had NO practice. Wouldn't it have made more sense to put the 'single words and phrases' in Pt.1 IN Bengali, so the learner can get some practice in reading the script and become familiar with the letters?
Poorly Organized but Workable August 13, 2007
South Asia Reader (USA)
I used this as a textbook in a 2 month intensive laguage study program. The information is basically good, although there are some annoying details that are frustrating - such as using very small font when introducing new letters (it makes them hard to see clearly) and using random strange vocabulary (ie. "Come with a shirt on." as an example sentence)when covering the script.
Once the script is covered, the book progresses at an awkward pace if you follow the chapter order as presented. Some chapters are packed with seriously heavy grammar and others spend 2 pages on how to make something plural. Overall, the material feels very scattered about. Also, verbs and verb conjugation are introduced very late- which means you won't be able to form sentences until well into the book. I recommend skipping ahead to simple present tense as soon as you have the script down. Finally, Radice uses english transliteration for too long in the book. Sometimes it feels like an exercise in transliteration more than bangla.
This is a good start, but you will need more than this book to learn Bengali. Use this as a resource, but don't expect to become a good Bangla speaker based on this book alone.
 Not practical. Too much emphasis on writing/reading, not enough on speaking June 26, 2007
Traveler (New England)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This set appears to be somewhat academic oriented as it focuses on the use of the text and not enough on the audio and just learning how to speak the language. The average user I would imagine wants to focus on learning how to speak and understand Bengali. Reading or writing it, given its unique script, is another matter and not necessarily that important for day-to-day communication.
I've used Pimsleur language programs in the past and I found them to be extremely effective - the most effective actually. Pimsleur's audio programs are self contained. No books are required. They introduce basic words and you have to repeat them over and over and you slowly build up to bigger words and then sentences. They can be expensive, but they're worth every penny. Unfortunately, Pimsleur doesn't have a Bengali program.
I was hoping this set would copy Pimsleur. It doesn't. The CDs are not self contained. You have to use the book along with the CDs which means listening and repeating the words in the car is waste of time. And you have to ask yourself how you learn a language. I'm quite disappointed and skeptical about this set as a result. A child learns by hearing the words and learning the meanings long before they learn how to read or write the language. That seems like a logical way to learn for adults as well. But this set doesn't follow that natural flow.
According to the text, Bengali is the sixth most spoken language in the world. If that's the case, I don't understand why it's so hard to find a good teaching resource. According to many reviews, here and elsewhere, this book and CD set is "the best on the market" for learning Bengali. If that's the case it's unfortunate, because this is not by any stretch the best way to learn a language.
I did find that Transparent Language has a computer program (Languages of the World: Bengali available only directly from TL's web site) that's not sold on Amazon. It's primitive in its interface, limited in scope and I've used it only briefly. But so far I would say that it is a better choice than this set which I immediately saw as useless in terms of learning how to speak Bengali. There's also a 4 CD and book set called "Easy Way to Learn Bengali" by Som N. Konar and Dr. Meera Heera Smith which I have been unable to find anywhere.
 helpful tool January 13, 2007
Donald S. Katz (raleigh, nc)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
used it in class. very useful for reading practice. not so much for the practice exercises.
To Bangla or not to Bangla October 1, 2005
Gloria Merritt (Arkansas)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
The cd for this book has some great conversations to practice.
However, the time allowed to repeat is minimal. It would be SO much better if more time were allowed.
The book is written, it seems, by a professor using college type language. I had studied Bangla many years ago and was using this as a refresher. If I had been brand new to the language...I would have been lost in the wordage.
It has, however, been very helpful to me and I would recommend it to someone who plans to be in the country for awhile.
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