Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58835 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-08
• Released on: 2006-02-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Synopsis
A best-selling course for absolute beginners, Talk has been consistently popular withboth those learning at home and those learning in a class, as well as with tutors. It provides you with a clear, simple and successful way of learning and gives you the best grounding in the basics. Talk encourages you to make genuine progress and promotes a real sense of achievement. The key to its effectiveness lies in its popular structure and systematic approach. This multi-media course is suitable for you if you want to learn for work, for fun or in order to prepare for a first qualification. Course Book *Step by step, ten units present the main language of the course *Opportunities for involvement and interaction at every stage and regular progress checks make learning simple and enjoyable 128-page course book Audio *Authentic dialogues allow you to hear the language as it is actually spoken *Closely linked to the course book, the audio allows you to develop your listening and speaking skills giving you confidence to use the language you learn 2 x 60-minute CDs

Customer Reviews

A great introductory course, but don't expect too much.
This introduction to Greek is a gem of a short course which lives up to the claim on the cover: "The ideal course for absolute beginners." It consists of a 128 page book and two cds. The cds are well integrated with the book and the course moves smoothly from one to the other (don't even think about getting the book only - the cds are an integral part of the course and add immeasurably to it). There are lots of short spoken exercises which help with learning and build confidence in speaking. The best way of using the course is carefully explained in the introduction and the page layouts are outstanding - very clear, all the Greek is highlighted and it is very easy to follow. In the first three of the ten units the Greek is supplemented by Roman transcription while the Greek alphabet is introduced, but the transcription is subordinated to the Greek and can be easily ignored (which you should do as soon as you can).

The course is aimed at those who speak no Greek but are heading off for a holiday or a visit to Greece. The vocabulary and phrases are well focussed on this aim and once the course is assimilated, you should be able to make yourself understood in Greek in some common situations. Whether you will be able to understand the responses you get is another matter. Greek is not an easy language and it has a complex grammar. There is a very brief grammatical section at the back of the book which attempts to brush over some key grammar points (articles, plurals, the present tense of the simplest verbs), but it doesn't take you very far. The sad fact is that in a course of this brevity you cannot hope to get beyond a very basic stage in learning the language.

Nevertheless, this is a good way to start. The cds are very interactive and you can make rapid progress with a little application. I am sure you will find the course enjoyable and at the end of it you will be well placed to move on to a more comprehensive course (I like the Oxford Take Off in Greek -see my review- but you might prefer Colloquial Greek or Teach Yourself Greek).

If you just want to be able to say a few words or make yourself understood during your visit to Greece, this course is ideal. Good luck with understanding the responses!

Good start -- easy to follow and clear.
Would definatly recommend this book. The tape can be used with and without the book. The book is great for running through and supporting the tape.

We have been using the book/tape to give us a start of greek so we can enjoy our greek holiday more. The BBC have tailored the book for this very well.

It was all Greek to me!
Talk Greek is a must if you want to learn the basics. The ten units take you quickly from understanding how to say hello, good morning and goodbye through to asking for help, directions and the menu. The cassettes are great and really helpful for absolute beginners. The Greek alphabet with corresponding English sounds on page 6 is just the beginning of this great little language course.