Reviews

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Italian Grammar Drills: Language Boot Camp!

4 Italian, Books

I am a big fan of grammar drills. I find them unbelievably helpful. In Italian Grammar Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate, I sometimes just jumped around randomly from section to section, working on whatever I felt my weakness…

The Oxford New Russian Dictionary: I Endorse This Wholeheartedly

5 Russian, Books, Dictionaries

I love this dictionary series, and this dictionary. It is a great size, a great weight, and a great design. I am very particular about the way my dictionaries feel, and the way they open, and the font, and

For a Verb Workout

3-5 Spanish, Books

“If you are a true beginner,” writes author Frank H. Nuessel in the introduction to Barron’s Spanish Verb Workbook, “you will find that this book makes no assumptions. You will learn about the other [i.e., non-verb]…

Reducing the Intimidation Factor of Learning Chinese Characters

Mandarin, Books

According to the highly enthusiastic book Learning Chinese Characters, it represents “a revolutionary new way to learn and remember the 800 most basic Chinese characters.” That’s a lot. There are thousands of characters, but 800 would be an…

Pimsleur Hebrew Lessons Were Done on This Exercise Bike at the Jewish Community Center

5 Hebrew, Audio Lessons

A Pimsleur Hebrew lesson is a roughly 30-minute, highly interactive aural and oral experience. You are prompted to speak Hebrew words, then phrases, then sentences, gradually adding to your Hebrew memory banks and growing your feeling for the language’s…

I Wish There Were More Pimsleur Korean Lessons

5 Korean, Audio Lessons

Pimsleur offers extremely high-quality interactive audio lessons for many different languages spoken around the world. Unlike some of the more commonly studied languages in the U.S., for which Pimsleur offers 90-120 lessons, the Pimsleur Korean product stops at 60. Nonetheless,…

Home of the Goethe-Institut

5 German, Tests, Bookstores/Libraries, Museums/Cultural, Classes/Conversation

The mission of the Goethe-Institut is to “promote the study of German abroad and encourage international cultural exchange,” as well as “foster knowledge about Germany by providing information on its culture, society and politics.” There are events, exchange programs, classes,…

This Book Is Beat Up Because I Found It So Useful

5 Books

This book is extremely user-friendly! It has careful, clear explanations that anticipate the possible confusion of a reader. At the back of the book is a fabulous alphabet table displaying at a glance the basics you need to know about…

My First Exposure to Pimsleur: I Borrowed Russian from the Library in 2009

5 Russian, Audio Lessons

Russian was the first language I studied as part of this language project. I had never even heard of Pimsleur until I came across the Pimsleur Russian CDs at the New York Public Library (Mid-Manhattan Branch) at 40th Street and…

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