Reddit mentions: The best study & learning books

• Not Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone is a decent tool that you should use if you like it, but it is NOT the way to acquire a language.
  
  
• The best way to learn a language is to surround yourself with it. You must eat, breathe, and sleep it. You must love it. Every moment spent living should be in your target language. Television, music, literature--even when you don't understand it.
  
  
• Your flash cards should make use of Spaced Repetition System (SRS). SRS is, essentially, strategically spacing out reviews in increasing intervals to help memorization. It sounds simple, but it is like hacking your brain. The easy way to do this is to create your flash cards in Anki: http://ankisrs.net
  
  
• Yes, learning one foreign language DOES make the next ones easier/faster. As an adult, your brain has to re-learn how to learn language. At some point in your study and immersion, your brain will learn to take the things you're learning and process them as language and not simply "things you're memorizing". It is at this point you start achieving functional fluency and the learning of subsequent languages becomes tremendously easier. It takes quite a while to get to this point, but it is a good point to get to. You want the secret to getting to this point FAST? Esperanto. You can acquire Esperanto in a tiny, tiny fraction of the time it would take to learn another language to a useful extent, and that will get you to that magical "language acquiring" point sooner and can accelerate your studies. There have been repeated tests with schoolchildren testing the study of Esperanto followed by the study of another foreign language compared to students who studied only a foreign language in the same time period. Consistently, the Esperanto students had a better grasp of the other language than the others who'd spent the entire time only studying the other language. Try it, and you'll appreciate the results and have another language you can use. http://en.lernu.net
  
  And finally, some links for learning Japanese
  
  
• http://guidetojapanese.org
  This isn't a course, but a reference guide. This breaks down Japanese into the grammatical nuts and bolts like nothing else, and has been one of the best Japanese learning resources since it was just a text file passed around online in the 1990s. It doesn't bother with trying to ease you into practicing the language, but simply tells you how it works at a fundamental level and how to build sentences with it. The introduction is not a bad introduction to learning Japanese, but this will be the best reference you have for basic to intermediate Japanese to supplement whatever other course you use.
  
  
• As for an actual course, my best recommendation is this:
  http://japanesepod101.com
  They used to have a large amount of content available for free, but that's been reduced. However, you can sign up for a month and download as much material as you like. They have written materials and video lessons, but their primary focus are their podcast audio lessons, which are formal lessons that are fairly casual in style and excellent in quality.
  
  
• If JapanesePod101 isn't your style, you might look at
  http://yesjapan.com
  YesJapan has its own coursework that functions more like traditional textbook style (they actually do publish the lessons as textbooks, "Japanese from Zero"), and you're more locked into the monthly fee in order to continue. YesJapan has a video series that give very casual, entertaining lessons in real-world useJapanese, and they're absolutely worth checking out once you start making progress in Japanese, regardless of if you don't use their guided course. or The Pimsleur Speak Japanese series is also very good. It's more formal and more textbook Japanese than common use Japanese, but the "Pimsleur method" is vaunted for a reason. It's expensive, but easy to buy used and it holds its value for resale (if you have an eyepatch and a peg-leg, it's easy to pirate). and/or The most common "real" textbook series is Genki, and it's common for a reason. If you're using an audio course and want a progressive, hands-on textbook, it's a great place to look.
  http://www.thejapanshop.com/Genki-Te.../dp/B003TU46O4
  
  
• If you need a dictionary, start with http://jisho.org/
  It's a fantastic dictionary, and lets you look up kanji by radical very easily. You can get free dictionary programs that use the same data as jisho.org but I'm not sure what you OS run to be able to recommend one (and I don't know what's best on Windows, frankly). As other dictionaries go... while I vastly prefer to look up kanji by radical, some people like the SKIP system of looking up kanji, which as a beginner you'd use the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary for.
  http://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji.../dp/4770028555
  I have this, and I do like it, but I almost never pick it up since I use the computer dictionaries like jisho.org
  
  And some resources for after you get past the beginner stage of Japanese:
  
  
• Basic Connections: Making Your Japanese Flow
  http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Connecti...dp/4770028601/
  This breaks down Japanese much like guidetojapanese.org does, but it has more depth on issues you'll be pondering when you get to the intermediate stage. It's a good little book.
  
  
• Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication
  http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Sente...dp/4770029837/
  This is a phenomenal reference book. It lays out English sentence patterns and shows you what the equivalent pattern would be in Japanese. We rarely ask ourselves "how do I say that?" when learning another western language, but you WILL wonder this when learning Japanese. This book makes it dead simple.
  
  
• A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (also Intermediate/Advanced)
  http://www.thejapanshop.com/Dictiona.../dp/B003V5504W
  This is like "Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication" in reverse--taking a Japanese sentence pattern and explaining what the heck it means. These are thick reference tomes (and priced to match), but if you're really digging into Japanese enough to be reading actual Japanese literature, they are incredibly useful. I don't own these, but that's only because I've been putting it off, hoping for a good deal on a used set to come around.
  
  
• http://thejapanshop.com has a lot of practice and elementary reading/listening resources, if you ever decide you want to spend money on that.
  
  
• There was a chap who decided to learn Japanese, and without classes or any time in Japan managed to become fluent enough to interview for and land a job in Japan in the course of 18 months. It was an impressive feat of dedication, and it just so happens that he has written about it.
  http://alljapaneseallthetime.com/
  In fact, he's written so much about it that he had to write a guide to navigating his website. He's overly-mouthy, and a lot of what he has to say is just plain good life advice about dedication and efficient use of time, but what he has to say about language learning, especially Japanese specifically, is worth checking out.

Copy and pasted from a comment I posted on a similar question.

When I first started I thought I probably wouldn't be speaking so much so I'll concentrate more on writing and reading. If there was one thing I wish I did more it would have to be actively seeking out speaking partners or finding Norwegian friends on the internet. Reading and writing is picked up pretty quickly but speaking and listening with real Norwegian people is a whole other thing. I'ts understanding the dialects and learning the slang that really brings you up the next level and you'll be at a real disadvantage if you travel to Norway after say a year of focusing just on writing and you'll find yourself wondering why you can't understand anything anyone is saying. Anyway rant over! :D

I used Lang-8 for writing and if you start using it early on it can be fun to look back on sort of like a log of your writing progress.

As for resources, personally I used the Teach Yourself Course while also listening to the Pimsleur Norwegian audio lessons.

The Teach Yourself Book which I used doesn't get the most amazing feedback on here I don't think but for me if was perfect as a beginner who had just listened to a few Pimsleur audio lessons and read some stuff on the internet. I could feel myself improving at a pretty rapid rate, I remember being half way through the book and thinking that i could have a half decent conversation with a norwegian person. So yeah for a start it worked great for me.

I followed that book up with the Norwegian Verbs and Essentials of Grammar, this book was mainly to give the information that i felt the TY course was lacking in. I ended up just picking out the things I needed to know and then it went on the shelf without actually being fully read. However I know it's a good book as it gets recommended quite alot in this subreddit.

Norwegian on the Web is also a pretty good well structured resource however it was something I found when I was coming towards the end of my studies so didn't use it that much. Also the case with the Norwegian Duolingo although I should probably still use this as it's a good fun way to learn new vocabulary.

The last thing i'll say is that if you really want to make some good progress and you find yourself slacking just try and do one thing everyday related to Norwegian. It doesn't really matter what it is, could be listening to an audio clip, reading the newspaper, a book, online course, whatever, even if it's just for 15 minutes it's better than nothing and it all adds up to helping you on your way.

Good Luck! :D

P.s Norway is awesome!

At the beginning of 2016 I tested into a 202 class at my university after doing self study for a year on and off. I think it may be possible for you after two or three months, but a lot is going to hang on the leniency of the professor and your own ability to study extremely hard for the entire time. You'll also definitely be playing catch-up for at least a semester compared to the other students.

My test was a very short oral examination where the professor asked me questions about myself, my family, where I was from, and my apartment. I remember not understanding her when she asked "is your apartment far from campus?" Then I read some dialogues aloud from the textbook to test character recognition. She could tell I was motivated and did know some Chinese, so she allowed me to join the next quarter.

When I got into the class:

• My pronunciation was about average compared to other students. I minored in linguistics and am fairly obsessive about pronunciation, so it continued to improve while other students didn't pay as much attention to it over the course of the year. We all had pretty halting speech and couldn't come up with long sentences without pausing to think.
  
  
• My character recognition was abysmal and my reading was incredibly slow. This was the single worst part of my ability and it put me way behind when we had to take tests or quizzes. I worked on it constantly from day one of the class and haven't stopped since.
  
  
• Although I lacked lots of vocabulary, I never had any trouble understanding the professor. I wrote down in pinyin what she'd said and then asked a classmate to help me.
  
  
• My method of studying gave me an intuitive understanding of sentence structure that put me exactly on par with all the other students. The professor introduced new grammar throughout the year and I picked it up as fast as the others did.
  
  I know now that the way I self-studied was riddled with inconsistencies and my level could have been achieved much faster. So here's what I suggest you do:
  
  
• Learn correct pronunciation. It's worth it to learn about linguistics for this, because it will improve your pronunciation in all your languages. Learn pinyin backward and forward, including all its tricky parts that don't line up with English. Don't settle for anything that says "q is like ch in cheese" - Mandarin is NOT English and very few of the sounds are the same. Learn how all the sounds are made from Wikipedia articles, and practice like crazy to get your brain and tongue comfortable with all the new sounds. This is a phenomenal investment because good pronunciation tricks people into thinking you're better than you are. And even if you don't make it in AP Chinese, you'll still be way ahead of people who don't practice it.
  
  
• Quickly memorize a core base of nouns and verbs. I used this Memrise course. Aim for being familiar with all of these verbs plus the HSK 1 and 2 vocabulary lists in two weeks.
  
  
• Download Anki and use it religiously. If you don't know about spaced repetition, now is the time to learn. If you download pre-made decks, make sure to get them with audio so you're constantly hearing native Chinese.
  
  
• Learn full sentences. This is the key to internalizing Chinese grammar. Learn full sentences. Steal them from phrasebooks, practice aloud after the audio, and be ready to parrot dozens of set phrases at a moment's notice. Don't try making your own sentences until you've internalized hundreds or thousands of correct sentences from native sources. The Chinese Grammar Wiki is an amazing place for example sentences, and you can also find them on LineDict. Clozemaster is yet another tool for this. Check your local library for Mandarin courses and copy out the textbook dialogues. You want to saturate yourself with Chinese in context, not just vocab lists.
  
  
• If you want to spend a little money, you open up a whole new world of learning options. FluentU and Yabla make subtitled videos of native content. The Kauderwelsch phrasebooks (good thing you speak German) have word-for-word glosses and a good explanation of Chinese grammar. This book is a great introduction to grammar patterns too. Glossika is a course that will definitely kick your butt and give you amazing results if you stick with their suggested methods.
  
  
• Always be listening to Mandarin in some way. There are hundreds of thousands of Youtube videos and podcasts about any imaginable subject. Have them on in the background while you look for resources, make flashcards, or do anything else really. You've got to let the rhythm of the language soak into your ears.
  
  
• The characters will take a very long time to be familiar with, and they could be the biggest obstacle to your entry in the class. Do some research on the history of the characters and how they work, and then just always practice reading and writing them over and over. Copy out the example sentences from the resources you find, and surround yourself with Chinese text to read. It will take a long time before you're comfortable reading passages of text, but the more you try the easier it gets. It's hard for all the AP students too.
  
  
• A few weeks before you start school, or once it feels like the language is starting to come together in your mind, go on HelloTalk or SharedLingo (or both) and find some native speakers to practice with. Practice your pronunciation and your tones with them, and try having some short conversations too.

For reading, get a copy of this book, seriously. It won't really teach you how to write it, but it's short and makes it fairly easy to pick up the alphabet quickly.

For writing, either this book or this book should help you. The first is good for reading and writing, the second is all about actual handwriting, as in the Arabic equivalent of cursive.

That said, if you're starting essentially from 0 as of today and want to be at the low intermediate level by October 3rd... there isn't really a good way to make that happen and I wish I could tell you there was. It took me about 4-5 months of around 45 mins to an hour daily to get to the low intermediate level. Some days I'd spend a few hours if I could, some days I just spent 30 minutes on flashcards, but I did something every day for that amount of time. In essentially half a month, you'll still be in the middle beginner level at best because there is a lot of grammar to cover to really get you to the intermediate stage.

Do you know what the class will consist of? You may be able to get by with a lot of work early on, but you're going to be playing catch up while the class is moving forward, which could get tricky. It depends on what they're going to cover and what's expected of you. If they want you to be able to read short stories/articles or even poetry or write intermediate-level essays, I'd consider dropping it and trying to switch into a lower level course.

And since you have Iraqi origins, why not try giving the Iraqi dialect a shot? You arguably have more of a connection to it than to Egyptian, and that could help you keep your motivation up. Plus it's a pretty interesting dialect, and I've enjoyed learning it myself. But also depending on what the class covers, don't expect dialect to help you much -- if it's an intermediate level course it could be focused on MSA, in which case dialect won't be much of a help to you at all.

Arabic is a ton of work, but it sounds like your motivated which is great for getting through this. Everyone struggles with Arabic, so don't focus on that, but you should take a minute to be evaluate where you are and to set realistic goals for yourself.

TL;DR: you can get decent at reading and basic handwriting between now and October 3rd, but you may still be below where you want to do well in a low-intermediate level class. Set reasonable goals but stay motivated and stick with it.

Quick edit: DLI isn't bad, but it's pretty old and kinda bland, which for me makes it hard to get through. I haven't tried Assimil or Michel Thomas, but I have heard Pimsleur is pretty bad. You can check out Living Language, which might be helpful for you, or something like Ahlan wa sahlan, or any of the online courses/resources listed on the sidebar resource page.

In my own opinion, grammar is the most important part of any textbook. How well a book explains a grammar point determines how well I like the book. There are 3 major areas of grammar that I look for: verb modification, particle usage, and how well the book explains 関係節 (using a verb/sentence to modify a noun: "The chair that he sat in")

I've looked at a few textbooks:

Yookoso (which has, apparently changed its cover...) is a sort of intense, high-density textbook that makes it a bit hard to look up grammar points. However, it is well written and has a lot of practice. It also only requires 2 books to "get the job done". The grammar explanations are short and don't really explain away the confusion, but it's FULL of practice. There isn't much translation in the book, so if you have a question... your screwed (unless you have a teacher with you). However, you probably won't have many questions while reading because the sentences kind of stay mundane.

This book gets a 4 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice": It explains it, gives good examples and practice, but the explanations are lacking depth. Good for learning the basics, bad for learning the specifics.

Nakama isn't really anything special.

Adventures in Japanese is a series of books that I'm using on my website to teach Japanese a little bit. However, I only chose this textbook because it is the book being used by the local high school, so my students are using it. The book isn't bad, but it teaches a lot of things that really don't need to be taught. Also, some of their explanations/translations are... less than accurate? -- I find myself saying "yes, this is right, but... Really it's this" too much to recommend this book. There is also a stunning lack of practice/guidance. It's NOT a self-study book, you NEED a teacher for it. The workbook for this book is nice, however, and would probably be good practice. The grammar points taught in this book are easily-referenceable.

This book gets a 4 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice": Similar to Yookoso, however the practice is lacking. It's a textbook and a workbook rolled into one.

Ima! is a book that I kind of detest. When using it to teach, I found myself having to make my own materials in order to get the point across. It's a thin book without hardly any grammar explanations.

This book gets a 1 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice". I hated using this book. A lot. It was just a glorified workbook.

Genki seemed pretty decent as far as a textbook went. It had plenty of practice, the grammar points were short, concise, and easy-to-reference. I would use it as a textbook in the future.

This book gets a 4.5 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice": Great explanations and easily referenceable. It seems like a pretty good buy.

Japanese the Spoken Language is my bible. The grammar points are in-depth, effective, and incredibly well thought-out. If you want to know exactly how to use a grammar point, this textbook is the one you want. It is JAM-PACKED with practice that can be done completely solo. It also comes with audio cds that are worth a damn. When I want to know the difference between ～て、～たら、～れば、and ～すると, you can expect a great amount of explanation. The practice sentences in this book aren't just mundane sentences, either: the authors intentionally use weird examples in order to show the student the true meaning of a grammar point. That is, it doesn't just use "one-sentence examples", it uses "entire conversation contexts, and then weird 'breaks the rules' verbs to highlight how the grammar works"

HOWEVER- the language is dated - this book was written in the 80s (earlier?) and has never been updated; it uses a weird romanization system (zi = じ, tu = つ, ti = ち); is intended to teach the SPOKEN language (get Japanese: the WRITTEN language to learn how to write); and the grammar explanations are almost TOO long and convoluted (long and convoluted, but extremely insightful and specific).

This book gets a 5 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice". However, the grammar is SO well-explained that you might be a little confused trying to read it.

-------------

To teach the language, I would use Genki or Yookoso to get people off the ground, then move into JSL. Then the student should be more than ready to self-study and translate native materials.

I took 3 years of Japanese in high school (I went to a 3-year high school), and although we learned vocabulary and our teacher (a 72 year-old Japanese man) told us a lot of great stories about Japan, when I got to college and started learning real Japanese, I found that I'd learned essentially nothing in high school. I had a fantastic teacher in college who was great at explaining the nuances of the language in a way easy for English speakers to understand. The most important thing to remember when learning Japanese is that it is not like English at all. Most early learners (even those with several years of experience) will try to translate from English literally into Japanese. This will almost never work. Even for fairly simple constructions like 私の名前は"name"です, you will learn that this is not the best way to say such things in Japanese.

But even with a great teacher in college, you still need a lot of personal time working on the language if you hope to achieve more than textbook understanding. I didn't discover r/LearnJapanese until after college, but this would've been a prime resource to have. Also, in case your professor hasn't made you do so already, there's a few books you should pick up to help your learning.

Makino's three book series on Japanese grammar is exceptionally helpful for understanding constructions in Japanese (like your ～ほうがいい and ～んです). A good Japanese/English reference dictionary, like Sanseido is also very helpful, but should not be your primary resource for learning the language. These books are good when you can't think of a single word (especially from the English-to-Japanese side). Also, when you get proficient enough in the language, a Kokugo Jiten (a dictionary written in Japanese, with definitions for Japanese speakers) will become your best tool. There are some companies which make good ones, like the aforementioned Sanseido, as well as the version I use, published by Shinmeikai, but I can't find one readily available online for purchase right now.

Well, I guess that sounds like a totally normal result? No experience, no training, no planning before hand on how to set this up, so no one dying but no one really making much progress is about right. So just grant yourself some slack for one, but then sack up and move forward with the following.

What does your student already know that you can use to help make inroads? He got “about” wrong. Ok. What might he get right? Look around your immediate target and provide access to examples. Show some positive examples of the words being used correctly in context. Perhaps provide substitution tables so that you can help reinforce recognition and application of correct forms while also giving them a chance to play around with them.

A lot of things are hard to define clearly, especially so your first time. What do the men in your family look like? Can you describe it with a rule? No, but you may be able to talk about some features common to them, some relations and conventions that make sense. Not all have every one of the features you describe, but you’ve given enough information for people to help the learner recognize them.

TLDR: don’t try to explain the rule straight away, and don’t plan your lesson around thinking “I’ll just explain this if they don’t get it right.” It won’t make any sense most of the time because it’s free of context, and that’s if you can even explain it on the fly. Provide that context by identifying known use of the language; scaffold some engagement with switching around alternate functions or alternate content with substitution tables (and if this term is new to you look it up now), give them a chance to experience using the language correctly, and move forward by negotiating and interpreting the grammar with their input and connection to prior knowledge.

Later on, if you’re going to be here, get something to help yourself and move forward, like this for example pow

>I was thinking of making an Anki deck with grammar points and practicing making sentences from that, but

At the bottom of this message is a copy/paste from a prior post. It's general advice, perhaps you'll find it helpful. In regards to your specific question:

• I agree, reviewing dozens grammar patterns in Anki will quickly get boring.
  
• The most important grammar patterns are are those you see/hear/read every day. It's more useful to learn those patterns really well rather than developing a broad but shallow understanding ones you'll rarely hear or use. (Note: as a student you may have to review more patterns than helpful because you will be tested on them).
  
• Building on the prior point, the patterns you review should be sourced from the media you consume and the conversations you have.
  
  One thing you can try is keeping a journal. It's a great way to reinforce grammar and it's more holistic than writing practice sentences in isolation. You don't need to write much nor be especially creative. Each day pick one pattern and build a short paragraph around it. Spend no more than 10-15 minutes doing this. The following day, before you write, take a moment to review the prior day(s) writings/patterns. If possible, share your journal with a native speaking friend and ask them to provide feedback using the shared document's "comments" function. (Keep the comments as a record and do not "resolve" them). Do not edit your original text; you want to keep it as a record as well. (Any edits your partner wants to make can be added in-line as new text (in a different color), or in a separate paragraph. I find it easier to make quick comparisons with this method than using a red line/mark up function).
  
  Finally, here is a list of grammar resources that might help you:
  
  Appropriate for Beginning Learners
  
  
• [Allset Learning Grammar Wiki] (https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Main_Page)
  
• Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide
  
• Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar
  
• Schuam's Outlines of Chinese Grammar
  
  Appropriate for Intermediate or Advanced Learners
  
  
• An A to Z Grammar for Chinese Language Learners, (traditional only) ISBN 9789570851069
  
• Common Chinese Patterns 330
  
• A Guide to Proper Usage of Spoken Chinese
  
• Error Analysis of 900 Sample Sentences
  
• A Learn's Handbook of Modern Chinese Written Expressions
  
  --------------
  
  Repetition is the key to success, specifically: 1) high volume, 2) varied, 3) contextual, 4) mutual reinforcing, 5) enjoyable.
  
  
• Varied: learning/using grammar and vocabulary through different topics and mediums
  
• Contextual: not learning vocabulary/grammar in isolation
  
• Mutual reinforcing: learning activities that reinforce and/or build upon each other
  
• Enjoyable: liking the topic and methods through which you are learning it
  
  

(1) Which Arabic? There is, of course, Modern Standard Arabic - which is the lingua franca of the Arab world, but it's also not actually spoken by anyone. There are multiple regional dialects that vary in usefulness and intelligibility - Egyptian being the language of mass media, and more well known. There is also classical and Qur'anic Arabic which are different animals, and what you need if you are into historical or religious aspects of Arabic.

(2) What do you want to do with it? Again, each "Arabic" has it's own field.

(3) No matter what you're going to do, start by learning the alphabet. The Youtube channel "Learn Arabic with Maha" has a series called "Read and Write Anything in Arabic in 6 lessons"- and it's probably the best, most gentle way to get introduced to the alphabet.

(4) I personally like the Madinah University course, which does teach MSA, but is for people who are pursuing Islamic studies. It is quite good, though. - You can find the books here, and there is a website with tons of support material here.



EDIT: Arabic, like all Semitic languages, is sort of.....weird. Duolingo doesn't work well for them, in my opinion, because the structure is so different from what you are used to that it can be hard to intuit what is happening as you go. A lot of Arabic books I have come across, in fact, are kind of crappy at teaching Arabic on it's own terms. It's not difficult, it's just different, and part of learning it involves forgetting what you "know" about languages that you are familiar with (unless you are familiar with Hebrew or Syriac or what have you).


Other good books:

• Assimil Arabic - Teaches Arabic in a "natural way". Expensive with the audio, but worth every penny. The series is highly regarded in Europe.
  
  
• Teach Yourself Complete Arabic - completely re-written course, the older TY Arabic books were a bit weird, but the new one is excellent.
  
• Mastering Arabic - It's been re-published in two volumes, but I used the first edition in one volume. The link I have given is to the 2nd edition in one volume. I presume the 2 part edition has a lot more expository notes, and appears to be fairly cheap. It is excellent (if somewhat unclear at times), and what I used at first. The authors are also people you are going to encounter a LOT, as they are prolific writers of Arabic teaching material in English.
  
• Arabic: An Essential Grammar - These are the BEST books on grammar you can get, for any language. Seirously. Buy this book. Save yourself a lot of pain.

I was in a similar situation to you a few years back. I taught myself the language using the following book:

https://www.amazon.fr/dialecte-Libanais-larabe-litt%C3%A9ral-partie/dp/095288822X

This is the French version which can easily be bought online. There exists an English version that is easy to get your hands on in Lebanon but from abroad I am not sure it is easy to find.

I also found the following book incredibly helpful:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/701-Lebanese-Verbs-Maroun-Kassab/dp/0615751245

Honestly, every Lebanese worth his/her weight in salt should own a copy of that book. It's the closest thing I can find to a Lebanese dictionary (obviously just for verbs).

After learning the language, I started watching some Lebanese TV programs. Being of a younger generation, I can't stand soaps and Lebanese soaps are some of the worst soaps out there. I eventually stumbled on 'Mafi Metlo'. It's a sketch comedy show which is honestly quite funny (at least, the earlier seasons are). The accent they usually speak with is a bog-standard Beiruti one which is the most common you would hear in the media (and one of the easier ones for a person who did not grow up in the Arab world to understand I find). The advantage of watching a show like Mafi Metlo (there are other sketch comedies like 'Ktir Salbeh Show' but I'm not a huge fan of that one) is that you also get a heavy dose of Lebanese culture, politics and (more relevantly to language) idioms and common phrases that you wouldn't pick up in a textbook. This greatly increases your capacity to speak Lebanese since the language is full of (usually unwritten although I do now recall that my grandfather has a book on Lebanese proverbs) such things.

When it comes to Arabic script, Lebanese is hardly ever written (at least by the younger generations) in that script. Most young people will use Latin letters and the Lebanese form of the 'chat arabic alphabet' (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_chat_alphabet ). Note that there is some internal variation in the country as to how certain letters are transliterated. For example, Christians and French educated people tend to use 'ch' to transliterate ش whereas it is usually the case that Non-Christian and English/Arabic educated people will default to 'sh' (forgive me for the sectarianism but it's something valid to be pointed out).

Levantine Arabic (which Lebanese is a form of; to be specific, it is Western Levantine) is surprisingly very formulaic (or perhaps unsurprisingly since it is heavily [and most uniformly] influenced by Aramaic). The more you get used to it, the more you realise the underlying (and sadly not well-exposed pedagogically I find) patterns. To a newish speaker the various forms of Levantine Arabic can sound very different (even within a country: the Tripoli accent is quite different to the Beiruti accent; similarly, Eastern Syrian sounds more like Iraqi than it does Damascene [which is pretty much grouped in Western Levantine afaik]). However, the more exposure you have, the more you realise that these languages all sound very much the same where the differences are mostly due to pronounciation rather than grammatical structure.

In addition to university-level classes (where I started learning Japanese), I found that the Japan Times Dictionaries of (Basic / Intermediate / Advanced) Japanese Grammar were invaluable resources to get the core aspects of the language all up in my brain-meats.

Basic

Intermediate

Advanced

I can't comment with any degree of certainty about online learning opportunities, but I do know that Skype chats with native Japanese speakers are popular, as well as any number of browser and smartphone-based kanji flashcards that will help with listening / speaking / writing.

I highly recommend getting a Bachelor's Degree in anything (possibly with some study abroad in Japan), then applying for something like the JET Programme, which will give you more of an immersive opportunity to live and work in Japan. Japanese is one of those annoyingly alien languages to the English-language brain where the best study results will come from full immersion--and even then, it's faaaaar from easy. I've been studying the language for 20 years and fluency always seems out of reach. But you might brain better than I do, so don't let that discourage you!

The FSI Introduction to French Phonology is always the best place to start.

Then, this applies to any language, but is especially important as French prosody is quite different from English, read Olle Kjellin's article Accent Addition. You can apply it easily using Speechling for free, or also using Mango Languages (free if your university offers it).

Paul Noble is really good for learning the grammar. Don't start with it, do it after you've done the FSI phonology course and done some practice with Kjellin's method on Speechling or Mango. So after 3-4 months. There isn't really a good alternative to it, in some ways it's similar to Michel Thomas and Language Transfer, but neither are remotely in the same class. Given all the free resources available, it's the only one for French I'd actually recommend paying for.

With that good foundation in pronunciation and rhythm, and the sensible introduction to French grammar using the above resources, you'll be in a good position to make use of any other resources you come across for learning French. This would also be the point where you could start with the French alphabet and writing system. French Online would be a good example. I find it well done among the courses that follow a more traditional model.

Righto, here we go:

Book2 Ukrainian for English speakers course

Teacher Yourself Ukrainian (Complete Course) - you can get the ebook copy and download the audio for free from their website.

Colloquial Ukrainian - same as the above.

There's a Pimsleur course for Ukrainian, but I know they can be pretty expensive.

Look on /r/ukrainian for some advice

Then, once you have a decent foothold in the language, you can stay substituting bits of Ukrainian in for English and hopefully try to make simple conversations. Then it's on you to keep going; find some books, read them, check your pronunciation with your husband, and hopefully you'll be talking at a comfortable level (not fluent, may I add) within a year.

Best of luck.

British Council: English Grammar gives explanations on everything grammatical; pronouns, possessives, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, nouns, phrases, clauses & sentence structures.

There is a book called English Grammar for Students of Russian but in the long run knowing English grammar inside-out is your best bet if you want to learn another language after Russian.

To stop getting distracted, reward yourself when you reach a goal in Russian to motivate yourself to carry on, also use Reddit to your advantage if you're ever back on Reddit why not pay /r/russian a visit?

I can't seem to find any reviews for Hugo Fluent in 3 months, Colloquial Russian is a very complete & comprehensive book on knowing no Russian to being conversationally fluent, so it's a good book to use as your main reference. Check out /r/Russian's wiki on getting started. for more help on getting started.

All the resources you've mentioned above, put emphasis on different aspects of Russian e.g. Grammar, Vocabulary, Orthography. I'd work through it one chapter at a time, try to practice/implement what you've learnt whenever you can & if it helps write down any notes. This is what I do with Icelandic & it seems to work.

Here's a step by step guide on using Assimil it uses Assimil: Dutch as the example but you can easily use the same process for Russian. Hopefully this helped :)

I study both Dutch and Swedish. As far as vocabulary, both are equally estranged from English, but at the same time, not too much since they're all Germanic languages (although English has a stronger Latinate vocabulary root). Verb conjugations in Swedish are easier but forming plurals confuses me. On the other hand, Dutch pronunciation is simpler, I find, and more direct. Both are equally difficult, though, and they're not that hard to pick up.

In short, when choosing a language to learn, try to find the place where you feel more passion for, and learn that language. Go onto Google maps and do Street View in the Netherlands, in Sweden, and in Norway. Which place do you feel more attracted to? Pick the respective language.

As for a Dutch course, I recommend Hugo in 3 Months Dutch and for Swedish, the Teach Yourself.

There are several resources that I think you might find helpful, however I would advise against the Lebanese YouTuber as she only gives very basic lessons and uses allot of English.

[701 Lebanese Verbs] (https://www.amazon.com/701-Lebanese-Verbs-Maroun-Kassab/dp/0615751245)

The book is good, not great, but the verbs are very very lebanese so that may be a plus.

Also YouTube has quite a few shows in the dialect that are pretty entertaining. If you are advanced I would suggest Ma Fi Metlo, DNA, as well as just searching for anything using the terms "مسلسلات باللهجة اللبنانية"

If you just want to get familiar with the dialect go for either Beirut I Love You (The mini series not the short film) or the film West Beirut as they both have subtitles.

First of all, you'll find that there are two different writing standards for Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk. You will almost certainly want to learn Bokmål, the most common. There are also a wide range of regional dialects; you will almost certainly want to learn Standard Østnorsk. It's nothing to worry about, as Bokmål and Østnorsk are almost always the ones taught to foreigners, but do be aware that you will find Norwegian that doesn't conform to what you've learnt.

As for somewhere to start, I'd suggest Norwegian on the Web, a basic introductory course covering grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, built up little by little in each of ten chapters. To have a minimal understanding of pronunciation you will need to read up to at least chapter 6; for grammar at least chapter 8.

I know you say you can't really sink money into it, but in my opinion the most valuable book, if you were to buy one, is Norwegian: An Essential Grammar. Most of your Norwegian learning can be done on the Internet, but I've not really found another decent reference for more complex Norwegian grammar. That can wait, though.

You'll probably also be recommended Teach Yourself Norwegian at some point, but in my honest opinion I don't think that's a particularly good book, especially considering the free courses you can find online. Just make sure to use a course from a reputable source — there are guides written by non-natives that are misleading or just plain wrong.

Once you get past the level expected for courses, you can try having a go with actual Norwegian text and speech, perhaps beginning with resources for people who are still learning Norwegian, like Klar Tale and SkoleTV.

Lykke til!

SG12W is one of the better books (although the title is ridiculous), it's essentially a grammar book with some exercises tacked on. Its quite narrow in that regard, but pretty indispensable too.

The other really good beginners' book imo is Teach Yourself Complete Gaelic (Boyd Robertson), which is much more based on teaching through dialogue / conversation.

Together they make a good pair to get you going imo. I worked through them in parallel for a while, although eventually I drifted away from them before I finished them (I still use SG12W as a grammar reference though).

In each case, make sure you get the CDs (or audio downloads if they do that now).

You could try the 'Little by Little' course on LearnGaelic.net or the lessons on TAIC too.

Also worth checking out is the old 'Speaking our Language' videos on LearnGaelic.

I recommend studyspanish. They break everything down very simply and have a bunch of free tests so you can drill it for a short time.

Duolingo can be good for this too. It will get you using he/she/you/they etc more often than you would in a natural conversation at this stage.

Book-wise I really recommend this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Grammar-Students-Spanish-Guides/dp/0934034419/ref=sr_1_48?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525882659&sr=1-48&keywords=spanish+grammar Which gives really clear explanations - it explains how the grammar rule works in English, and then in Spanish, so it doesn't seem quite so 'odd' or unfamiliar.

I used Basic Irish in the past with a Russian student. It's focused a little more on grammar than conversational scenarios, so I'm not sure if that's what you're after. Also, there's no tapes.

I think Ó Sé and Dillon's Teach Yourself Irish, which is also available free online, are meant to be quite good but I have no personal experience.

Hope this helps, and feel free to PM me anytime if you have any questions about Modern Irish. My own isn't perfect but I do my best.

A person I know used this book to learn Ukrainian. As far as I understood, it's pretty good though seems to be a tad pricey.

If you ever need to practice your Ukrainian with a native speaker, feel free to PM me, espcecially if you want to practice your written Ukrainian. I'm seldom available for a voice chat. However, I'm sure you'll find a lot of people willing to help you with oral Ukrainian too.

Il te faut ça et ça.

>Noms de personnes

>Quand on ne s'adresse pas à la personne, pas de majuscule au titre.

>>le président de l'université de Lausanne, le professeur Tournesol, le maréchal Joukov, le docteur Max Hilaire, l'abbé Pierre, mademoiselle Cunégonde, le président Mao, le roi Dagobert, le maire de Montcuq

>Dans la correspondance, les titres de celui ou celle à qui l'on s'adresse prennent habituellement la majuscule. Ainsi, si l'on écrit au président du club de boules de Garchizy, il est de bon ton de commencer sa missive par Monsieur le Président et l'on écrira pour finir Je vous prie d'agréer, Monsieur le Président, etc. C'est ce qu'on appelle la "majuscule de courtoisie".

>Mais les conventions d'utilisation de la majuscule dans les titres ne sont pas homogènes.

>>– le Général (pour désigner, p. ex., de Gaulle), le Maréchal (pour désigner, p. ex., Pétain à une certaine époque : Maréchal, nous voilà...), mais : le pape (pourtant unique !, la majuscule est aussi possible), le roi (même chose) ;

>>– le ministre de l'Intérieur, mais : le Premier ministre (on peut expliquer la majuscule par un souci de désambiguïsation : le Premier ministre ne doit pas être confondu avec un premier ministre (p. ex. le premier ministre de la Culture de la Ve République), mais pourquoi pas de majuscule à ministre ? ;

>>– le président de la République ou le Président de la République (très fréquent dans les textes officiels ; pensez ! un président de la République sans majuscule alors que le Premier ministre y a droit, lui...).

>De fait, l'utilisation de la majuscule obéit ici partiellement à un autre principe, lié à des préséances et à des conventions sociales établies. Plus on s'élève dans la hiérarchie, plus on emploie la majuscule. Selon Grevisse (Le bon usage), trois personnes au moins ont droit, en toutes circonstances, à la majuscule initiale pour leurs titres honorifiques : Son Excellence, Son Altesse et Sa Sainteté... (mais pas, en principe, pour le nom de leur fonction : Son Excellence le consul de Poldévie, Son Altesse le roi Ottokar IV). Le Général, celui qui a fait un discours un certain 18 juin, a droit à la majuscule, mais pas le gardien (même si je désigne ainsi spécifiquement celui de mon immeuble) ni le facteur (le mien).

I'm actually trying to compile a list of websites or books like this one which both aspiring translators and professionals can use as grammatical resources when translating. The site you linked mainly looked like a site where people can find translators/work. I'm sure it's great, but it wasn't quite what I was thinking of.

If you know of any grammatical resources for Polish that you consider essential to translation, then please share the links!

You absolutely need Pars I: Familia Romana.

If you are an autodidact, you also need the Teachers' Materials & Answer Keys.

I would strongly suggest you get the Companion to Familia Romana, since it makes explicit all the inductive teaching from Familia Romana. If you let it become a crutch, then the course becomes "Just like Wheelock's, but with extra reading material." However, it's invaluable if you're banging your head against the wall, unable to figure out what something means or why something is done a certain way.

You should also get Fabellae Latinae for extra reading material, since it's a free download.

Since the whole point of the course is "lots of reading that teaches you inductively," I'd also get the Colloquia Personarum, which is extra reading material (like Fabellae Latinae) tied to each of the chapters in Familia Romana.

I did not get the extra book of exercises. Following the advice of Justin Slocum Bailey, I'm spending that time reading more.

It was difficult to fake being well read short of intense prep work with flash cards for about a year. Prior to the arrival of Asian grinds no-one considered that amount of prep doable. The Jewish high scorers read a lot of books, as intended. The existence of a group that preferred to memorize flash cards for months, over reading more widely was unexpected.

Direct Hit was a book of 1000 words that might show up, and people memorized 5 a day, for a years work. This seems like breaking the system to me.

I completely agree that knowing the difference between those words is useful, and it is even better to feel comfortable using them, which is harder.

>Kanji Pict O Grapix

total crap book IMO -- once you get kanji study going you don't need such an obvious hand-holding -- if you want to learn kanji, you've got to learn around 2000 for it to be useful, and your brain quickly gets used to how kanji works, especially if you learn the kanji from simplest to most complex (this is basically the Heisig method).

The question is why you only have 40 days.

If you're going to Japan in October (best time to go!) for a week or two you should work on your numbers from 1 to 100, being able to understand them spoken at you, since that is pretty common occurrence (eg. "sen-happyaku yen").

If you're going to power through something, the first two books of the Japan Times dictionaries of grammar would be my recommendation.

http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic-Japanese-Grammar/dp/4789004546

http://www.amazon.com/A-Dictionary-Intermediate-Japanese-Grammar/dp/B001PS7NL0

The content of these books is easily the first two years of college Japanese.

The LearningJapanese subreddit should have more, better advice for you.

Have fun! Japanese is NOT as hard as the people say IMO. It's a pretty rational, regular language and listening comprehension is TONS easier than Chinese, and speaking is tons easier than Chinese and French.

Its closest analogue is Spanish, but I think it's easier than Spanish, since the verbs are so regular and there no noun gender -- and no noun plurals or articles for that matter, either -- spanish can have el gato or los gatos, while Japanese just say "neko" and that's the end of it.

Two things helped me : first, a cross-referenced grid, like a multiplication table, with genders on the x-axis and endings for soft/hard adjectives on the y-axis

the second thing was to go back and study my native grammar, in this case english, in a book called 'english grammar students of russian'

https://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-Russian-Learning/dp/0934034214

good luck - it is a human language after all, and you are human - you are capable of doing this

Depending on what language you want to learn, there may be a book that explains the grammar you'll need for that language by connecting it to English. For example: German,
Spanish, Russian.

If there's a term that you're unfamiliar with, you can also poke around on Wikipedia to get a better idea behind some of the concepts. But when things get too technical, just keep looking up unfamiliar terminology and you'll be on your way.

For a little bit of fun, check out:
Split Ergativity,

where you can see this gem of a sentence:
>An example of split ergativity conditioned by tense and aspect is found in the Hindustani language (Hindi/Urdu), which has an ergative case on subjects in the perfective aspect for transitive verbs in the active voice, while in other aspects (habitual, progressive) subjects appear in the nominative case.

There is no “easy” way, but the easiest is to buy a dictionary, and a basic course and work through it until you’re able to follow basic speech. Then follow the BhBC Letter and youtube courses. Then advanced coursework like TAIC or Akerbeltz. Then travel to Nova Scotia or Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Scotland and get immersed.

If you're not already familiar with learning a foreign language, LLPSI can be pretty daunting without guidance. I would find a teacher or online guide as you read through LLPSI, or work through a few chapters of Wheelock's or something before starting into LLPSI. Personally, I love Jeanne Neumann's Companion to Ørberg.

I can really recommend Complete Latvian from the Teach Yourself series by Terēze Svilane Bartholomew. You can get it as an e-book for only a few euros in several places - definitely worth it! It also comes with audio via an app.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Latvian-Yourself-Tereza-Svilane/dp/1444106880

Also check out the website https://latvian.rocks/

This is an excellent series. I linked to the intermediate book, but there are beginner and advanced versions as well.

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar

Sounds like this book is right up your alley. The language you choose won't matter if you don't understand its grammar, in fact that's what seems to be happening with your German. When you're comfortable with explanations of English and German grammar, only then should you move on to something more alien.

I'm just going to recommend two books: After Babel, Aspects of Language and Translation. I think it's a must read if you're interested in translation studies.

My second recommendation is specific to your 2nd language, French. Le Bon Usage by Maurice Grévisse (and André Goose) is probably the most thorough, precise, detailed prescriptive grammar you can get. It covers pretty much anything you could find yourself wondering about. Even if you think you know French grammar, you should consider this, a former teacher of mine who was also a translator (literary translation) and whose knowledge of French grammar was outstanding still kept it at hand's reach at all time while working, he called it his bible.

I know prescriptive grammar is sometimes frowned upon, sounds like a bad word, but at some point we all need to learn some rules.

You might try English Grammar for Students of Russian. It's a good resource to help with the basics of the language, if that's what you need.

Lmao never mind then. Thought you were referring to these books.

Maybe ask her to provide you lots of examples for each grammar point. And don't be afraid to ask what she means by all those grammar terms. It's easy to get lost in terminology.

Also maybe this book might help (English Grammar for Students of Spanish by Emily Spinelli):

https://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-Spanish-Learning/dp/0934034419/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1Y5C2K45EVMRF&keywords=english+grammar+for+students+of+spanish&qid=1567427023&s=gateway&sprefix=english+gramma%2Caps%2C212&sr=8-1

​

Edit: openlibrary link:

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL858662M/English_grammar_for_students_of_Spanish

Websites:

• WordReference Japanese language forum
  
  
• Jeffrey's Japanese English Dictionary Server
  
  
• ALC J<->E word / sentence dictionary
  
  Books:
  
  
• Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
  
  
• Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar
  
  
• Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar
  
  
• Nihongo So-Matome Series (Good as a JLPT Study guide)
  
  

Why not use the supplement that was written for LLPSI? That's what I used and it works really well.

https://www.amazon.com/Companion-Familia-Romana-%C3%98rbergs-Vocabulary/dp/158510809X/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=lingua+latina&qid=1564764691&s=gateway&sr=8-2

This series of book I've heard is good for English speakers understanding foreign grammar for the first time:

https://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-Russian-Learning/dp/0934034214

What's your level at? I recommend the Dictionary of [Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced] Japanese Grammar, which my program uses as a supplement for material taught in class. It was originally written back in 1995, but it is packed with explanations and examples for a wide variety of grammar structures.

I also like this grammar book for beginners.

If you can afford it, try out this excellent companion book: https://www.amazon.com/Companion-Familia-Romana-Ørbergs-Vocabulary/dp/158510809X/

It's no longer purely the inductive method, but these are well written and chapter-by-chapter related grammar lessons.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444106880/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KDDIzbGR8B7MS

This is what I've been using. It comes with a CD that I can listen to while I drive.

As someone who only speaks English and Spanish (the latter, poorly), learning Latvian has been similar to learning gibberish. Honestly, I've learned more from listening to my wife/in-laws (Latvian citizens) than any reading material, but this book has helped a bit.

https://www.google.pl/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=teach+yourself+irish+myles+dillon+and+donncha+%C3%B3+cr%C3%B3in%C3%ADn

I find that hard to believe somehow...

Amazon have a load of copies. You'll have to get the audio from the link the first lad posted though.

www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Teach-Yourself-Myles-Dillon/dp/0340057971

There is a companion to LLPSI that gives english info chapter by chapter: https://www.amazon.com/Companion-Familia-Romana-Ørbergs-Vocabulary/dp/158510809X

尾 is short for 語尾 which means something "end (tail) of a word", so in this case it works as something like a "compound verb", altering the meaning of the preceding verb.
The Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar has a good, albeit very incomplete, write-up on the most common compound verbs in its Appendix 2, so if you own this book you may want to look into it.

> The Vmasu to which another verb is affixed acquires additional meaning such as 'to start to do s.t.', 'to finish doing s.t.' 'to continue to do s.t.' etc.

It uses 'affixed' because you might also come across a 頭 which means the modifying word comes in front of other words.

Unfortunately I can't really name other sources, my teacher wrote her master thesis on compound verbs but it's only available in German.

As for the reverse triangle, I'm not sure, but I think SDream has nailed it, at least in your case these should be examples.

As for the ~watasu you looked up, as a 語尾 it means doing something.. thoroughly? I'm not really sure, but I think if you 見渡す a document you look over the whole thing, etc.