Michael James Erdman

An excellent way to introduce yourself to Armenian, Nov 17 2007

Armenian is by no means a widespread or commonly used language (like, say, English, Spanish or Mandarin), so it can be very difficult for the learner to find ways of practicing pronounciation and listening skills. Although the Pimsleur Method focuses on only the most basic and fundamental phrases, the constant repetition and opportunities for participation in dialogues helps beginners assimilate the sounds and flows of Armenian. I'm not sure about the claim that this is actually Eastern Armenian, since the speakers use forms like "ge hasgnam" instead of "hasgnoum em" (i.e. Western verbal forms instead of Eastern ones) and, after a few months of learning Western Armenian from books, I had no… Read more

Good for beginning, but progress is nearly impossible, Nov 17 2007

Gayané Hagopian's Armenian for Everyone is one of only a few textbooks for English speakers looking to learn Armenian. It is also probably the only one that gives both Western and Eastern variants of the language (although the Eastern lessons are compressed). Although the book exposes users to both grammar and vocabulary in ways that no other book does, it is not structured in such a way that vocabulary can be easily mastered or retained. Furthermore, many of the lessons seem to draw either from an assumed passive knowledge of Armenian (pretty impossible if you are not actually Armenian) or examples and lessons from later on in the book. Progress on the alphabet is painfully slow -… Read more

al-kitaab al-akbar fii ta9allim al-lugha al-9arabiyya!, July 11 2007

This book is definitely not for absolute beginners and you shouldn't even attempt to use it if you have not yet mastered the Arabic alphabet (that's not all that difficult and there are other books for that). The best thing about Schulz's book is the breadth of the vocabulary. Arabic grammar may seem daunting at first, but the problem with most books is that they spend far too much time on grammar (which is difficult but logical) and not enough time on vocabulary. This textbook stresses the acquisition of vocabulary in thematic blocks, which helps the learner not only remember the words but also feel confident enough to build sentences and paragraphs on specific topics one lesson at a time… Read more