The First 100 Chinese Characters: Simplified Character Edition: The Quick and Easy Method to Learn the 100 Most Basic Chinese Characters (Tuttle Language Library) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am learning to speak Mandarin but felt I needed more knowledge of the written language to get a more comprehensive feel for the language. I looked around and settled on this one and it was a good choice. It has just enough information for me to learn the character and its meaning as well as some commonly used phrases in which each character appears. It gives ample space to practice the strokes of the character. The characters are also in a type size that makes it easier to read than some other books I've looked at.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The First 100 Chinese Characters: Simplified Character Edition: The Quick and Easy Method to Learn the 100 Most Basic Chinese Characters (Tuttle Language Library)

The major struggle facing all beginning Chinese language students is to learn to recognize, read and write hundreds of Chinese characters. This book adopt a structural approach that helps students overcome this initial difficulty and quickly master the basic Chinese characters fundamental to this language. Intended for beginning students, The First 100 Chinese Characters: Simplified Character Edition contains carefully selected and sequenced characters for rapid and effective learning. Each Chinese character is shown separately on a single page, along with its English definitions, hanyu pinyin romanization, alternate form, a stroke-order guide and ample writing space.Two indexes--alphabetical by the English meanings and by pinyin romanizationùare provided at the back of each book for quick and easy reference, along with extra sheets of blank boxes for writing practice.

Click here for more information about The First 100 Chinese Characters: Simplified Character Edition: The Quick and Easy Method to Learn the 100 Most Basic Chinese Characters (Tuttle Language Library)

Read More...

The Everything Learning Brazilian Portuguese Book: Speak, Write, and Understand Basic Portuguese in No Time (Everything: Language and Literature) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It's nice that there actually is an affordable and effective book for a beginner to learn quite a bit of Brazilian Portuguese. I thought this book was really well organized and a solid introduction to the language. There are exercises throughout the book as well to practice what you learned. There is also an audio CD which is helpful (A native Brazilian speaker repeats words and phrases which are also written in the book). The chapters are:
1)Introducing the Portuguese Language (Why learn it, similarities to Spanish, European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese, tips on learning Portuguese, recognizing what you already know)
2)The Sounds of Portuguese (Portuguese alphabet, accent marks, listening practice, consonants, stress pattern in Portuguese, oral and nasal vowels, typing in Portuguese)
3)Beginning Conversation (Greetings, talking on the phone, saying goodbye, etc)
4)Nouns, Articles, and Contractions
5)Introducing "ser" (the verb "to be")
6)Introducing "estar" (the other verb meaning "to be")
7)Describing People and Things in Portuguese
8)The Vocabulary of Numbers
9)First Conjugation Verbs
10)Second Conjugation Verbs
11)Important Verbs to Know
12)Verb Tenses: an Overview
13)More Verbs
14)Negative Words and Constructions
15)Questions and Exclamations
16)The Future and Other Tenses
17)Imperative and Subjunctive Constructions
18)Carnaval, Samba, Feijoada, and Futebol (Brazilian culture!)
19)Means of Communication (In person, by mail, making phone calls)
20)Traveling to Samba-Land (getting papers in order, hotel reservations, currency, a bit of information about the most popular cities...)
I was mostly looking to learn the language, not the culture, and this book is indeed mostly teaching the language. I liked the bits of information about the culture though in this book and found it interesting.
I definitely recommend this as a book to start off with to anyone serious about learning the language. I went through this while going through Pimsleur lessons for Portuguese and found it to be a great supplement to my learning (In my opinion, Pimsleur goes at quite a slow pace and this book helped me learn more about grammar in a shorter amount of time, as well as expressions, etc, without going at too fast a pace). I recommend it to travelers only if they want to spend some extra time learning a bit more than they absolutely "need".

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Everything Learning Brazilian Portuguese Book: Speak, Write, and Understand Basic Portuguese in No Time (Everything: Language and Literature)

"The Everything[registered] Learning Brazilian Portuguese Book with CD" makes Brazilian Portuguese easy to grasp. Author Fernanda L. Ferreira, Ph.D., provides readers with step-by-step instruction in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Readers learn how to: understand Portuguese grammar; improve pronunciation; and, have basic conversations when travelling, dining out, conducting business, and shopping. This helpful guide includes an audio CD with pronunciation guides, extensive vocabulary lists, and interactive exercises. Packed with dialogue examples, self-tests, and English-to-Portuguese and Portuguese-to-English dictionaries, "The Everything[registered] Learning Brazilian Portuguese Book with CD" will have readers speaking - and understanding - Portuguese in no time.

Click here for more information about The Everything Learning Brazilian Portuguese Book: Speak, Write, and Understand Basic Portuguese in No Time (Everything: Language and Literature)

Read More...

The ESL/ELL Teacher's Book of Lists (J-B Ed: Book of Lists) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This books is incredibly resourceful. I'm glad that it was revised to 21st century! As an ESL teacher, I am always "reinventing my wheel" to accommodate all the children I teach every year. The lists that are put together in this book are very helpful in every way. It's definitely a "must have" in all the educator's library- not just ESL teachers.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The ESL/ELL Teacher's Book of Lists (J-B Ed: Book of Lists)

Everything educators need to know to enhance learning for ESL students
This unique teacher time-saver includes scores of helpful, practical lists that may be reproduced for classroom use or referred to in the development of instructional materials and lessons. The material contained in this book helps K-12 teachers reinforce and enhance the learning of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and writing skills in ESL students of all ability levels. For easy use and quick access, the lists are printed in a format that can be photocopied as many times as required. A complete, thoroughly updated glossary at the end provides an indispensable guide to the specialized language of ESL instruction.

Click here for more information about The ESL/ELL Teacher's Book of Lists (J-B Ed: Book of Lists)

Read More...

First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides) (English and Spanish Edition) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual Language Book, is an excellent beginner book for the Spanish neophyte or for the individual with some background in Spanish that needs a little refreshing. It contains 41 short stories/proverbs in somewhat graded difficulty of well-known Spanish writers past and present. Spanish verbal forms, that bugaboo for most students of Spanish, are arranged so that the first 15 selections are in the present-indicative, after which imperfect-indicative and preterite are introduced, followed by future and conditional verbs towards the end. No subjunctive verb forms are found in this small volume. Idiomatic Spanish is introduced as well, using common idioms understood in all parts of Spanish-speaking world.
The choice of selections reflects the Spanish culture well and is excellent, often highly amusing, and arranged so that short and long selections are interspersed.
In the rear of the book, oral and written exercises regarding each selection are especially helpful if this book is to be used in the pedagogical setting. Additionally, a thorough vocabulary, referenced for the selections presented, rounds out this book.
Editor Angel Flores has done a remarkable job with this book. I would highly recommend it for the beginning Spanish student or those who wish to brush up on their prior Spanish.

Click Here to see more reviews about: First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides) (English and Spanish Edition)

Perfect for beginning students of Spanish, this affordable anthology is filled with 41 delightful stories and proverbs based on works of Don Juan Manuel, Luis Taboada, Ricardo Palma, and other noted writers. Complete and faithful English translations are featured on the facing pages of the Spanish text. Exercises are also included.

Click here for more information about First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides) (English and Spanish Edition)

Read More...