Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
The best Dutch course I have seen!!, 16 Aug 2002
I purchased 'Colloquial Dutch' alongside the 'Teach Yourself Beginners Dutch' book and CD pack. I wish now that I had only bought the 'Colloquial Dutch' book since it is considerably better than the latter. Although it perhaps a little harder to get to grips with (especially if you know nothing of linguistics) it is clearly the better of the two; I would strongly recommend it to anybody learning Dutch. In addition one should buy the tape pack, unless you have a grip on the Dutch 'g' 'ch' and various vowel sounds.This book not only teaches you colloquial phrases, but where and when to use them. Grammar and language manipulation is taught throughout, in a clear and comprehensible manner. The activities used to teach you, such as puzzles, are often fun and the dialogues are usually based lively family situations. The 'culture points' are often humorously written, but are also detailed and useful in getting to know more about Dutch society and the way their people act. On the whole a great book that's easy and fun to use; the standard one should expect from modern language courses!
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant!Does just what it says on the cover!!!, 6 Mar 2001
By A Customer
Unlike some other phrase books, which give you the basics and build you in step by step with some impractical nonsense, which you can't use in the Flemish speaking regions of Belgium/Holland, the author DOES break you in gently, but has practical'role play' type dialogues in each chapter, with a concise grammar section at the end, with little exercises and very quirky little culture points related to the chapter.So much so, that an Amsterdam girl who I was on a volunteering programme with last summer said,' I think you know more about Holland than I do!,' when I hadn't even set foot in the country by that stage. It really does live up to it's title, as Bruce Donaldson adds little subnotes to words, explaining its' use in everyday conversation, that you wouldn't find in 'standard' textbooks. A Dutch-English/English-Dutch index at the back for little things you may have forgotten!!!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
pretty darn good., 10 Oct 2000
By A Customer
Unlike some others in this series that I have seen, the learning curve is not too steep in this book. Both new vocabulary and grammar are introduced steadily. The units are comprised of several short dialogues, each followed by the new vocab. and gammar and after some, exercises. This layout makes the book easy to pick up and have a quick session whenever you have some free time. It's also quite fun to do, some of the exercises take the form of puzzles, and there is some interesting info on culture, which is written quite humourously in places. This is an excellent alternative to 'dutch in three months' if you don't fancy a grammar based approach.
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