Beginner's Georgian

Beginner's Georgian
Dodona Kiziria | 2009-04-15 00:00:00 | Hippocrene Books | 290 | Instruction
This title includes a book and 2 CDs. Business people and travellers seeking easy access to the Georgian language will benefit from this book, which includes and introduction to Georgia, 13 practical lessons centred on everyday situations, review exercises, glossaries, and two audio CDs with correct pronunciation by native speakers.
Reviews
I am a reviewer who is neither linguist nor scholar, but nevertheless has a need to learn conversational Georgian. Since January 2009, I purchased whatever I could find available, and have these texts and tools for comparison: 1) Aronson's Georgian: A Reading Grammar (only available without CDs at the time); 2) book2 English-Georgian for beginners from Goethe-Verlag; 3) Talk Now! Georgian; 4) Byki Express and Byki Deluxe.

Dodona Kiziria's Beginner's Georgian is far and away the BEST book to start with. Her introduction is easily readable, comprehensive, and incorporates current events, an absolute necessity for those learning at the high school level. Her system of pronunciation, unlike Aronson's, is simple, allowing learners to write transliterated Georgian on a standard English querty keyboard. I especially appreciated the lessons in polite behavior displayed in the conversational lessons and Culture Notes in each chapter.

A teacher's true genius lies in order and pacing: Ms. Dodona's book is such a masterpiece. A difficulty I had, differentiating aspirated and unaspirated consonant sounds, was dealt with simply and at the very beginning. Useful words and expressions, including numbers, how to tell time and date, and how to address family members are up front in a separate chapter, allowing one to practice these on a daily basis as a language warmup.

The other books, CDs, and programs I have all have something valuable to offer. But take my advice: start HERE!




Reviews
I agree wholeheartedly with the previous reviewer's comments. After cobbling together my own Georgian lessons from online material, Aronson's Reading Grammar, and Essentials of Georgian Grammar (which was VERY expensive), I was still limited to saying things like "That's a big cheetah!" Needless to say, I was still on the lookout for something that would help me communicate with people in Georgia. This text provides the essential phrases you want for interacting with people in Georgian without getting bogged down in the complicated verbal system. By the time you work through the material in this book, you'll have a solid basis for further exploration into this language.



I also only give it 4/5 stars because there are very few exercises--the dialogues are great, but eventually you have to learn how to create your own dialogues. I might also want some more extensive thematic vocabulary lists around food, etc.
Reviews
Georgian has been a very overlooked language. Though there are a few textbooks out there that are easy enough to find, they tend to be either inaccessible in someway or expensive. And there are even fewer textbooks that come with audio. In fact, only Aronson's Georgian Reading Grammar comes with audio (aside from this book). And audio is VERY important to learning this language.



Now, to the actual text it self. The lessons are written in clear, conversational language. Whereas Aronson's text is for reading comprehension, this text it for speaking/listening comprehension. This is a much needed textbook and breath of fresh air to Georgian linguistics. The grammar sections are easy to understand and not bogged down with a lot of linguistic jargon. And the exercises have an answer key in the back of the book.



Now, the audio. The audio is great. You can hear the speakers very well and clearly. The dialogues are repeated twice. Once at normal speed and then at a slower speed for you to repeat after. Even the vocabulary lists are spoken on the cd's. The only thing that is a shame is that there are no speaking/listening exercises on the cd's (thus a 4 out of 5 instead of 5 out of 5).



Overall this is a great textbook though.

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