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This is a guide for the speakers of English to learn Malayalam as a second language. Malayalam is the language of Kerala, South India. The material is presented as 42 lessons with worksheets and answer key. The authors, who were language teachers in Africa and in the US for over 25 years, have made use of contemporary knowledge of linguistics and easy-to-follow and effective teaching methods. This guide may be used by all those who want to learn Malayalam, such as the children of Keralites who live abroad, and those who come to Kerala for studies and for employment. A reviewer, kirinjin, wrote: What a concept: a language instruction book which actually understands both languages and presents both clearly and methodically. The book contains 42 (six weeks' worth) manageable lessons, each followed by a "worksheet" or mini-quiz covering the material in that day's presentation. Another reviewer, Solimar, wrote: I think it's a very good book and it explains very well what Malayalam language is and how it can be learned. I was amazed by learning that Malayalam is easier than it might seems, the authors explain very well the difference between English and Malayalam languages, giving you the taste that it can be easily learned and actually that it's easier to learn it than English language (I'm Spanish and Italian speaker then English is my third language) iArtichokeu wrote: When it comes to learning Malayalam, there aren't many resources to learn from in English. When I was searching for a book on desertcart, I could hardly find anything. This book however, fit what I needed. It provides tons of information and a worksheet at the end of the chapters, which is a bonus. This book will help you guide your way into Malayalam, and is one of the best starting points. A reviewer, Frax, wrote: The authors don't provide IPA pronunciations that could help linguists, and even worse, they don't provide clear and concise explanations of pronunciation. Moreover, he makes a harsh judgment: The authors simply don't know how to teach a language. This reviewer seems to have some basic knowledge of Linguistics, and he is probably a language teacher at the university level. This book is meant for common people who are not linguists. There are a large number of Malayalam speaking people in USA and Europe who need some learning materials for their children to gain some elementary knowledge of Malayalam. This book is primarily meant for them. As the title says, it offers only 'basic' Malayalam, by which we mean just a few baby steps. He probably bought this book expecting it to provide a detailed linguistic description of Malayalam, but unfortunately, this book is not what he thought. We can understand his frustration. We don't claim that we are the best language teachers, but many learners have found this book useful, and people are still buying this book. In our understanding, a teacher is someone who helps a learner to learn a language. That is what we do in this book. We help the learners to take a few baby steps. We help them realize that learning Malayalam is easier than how it looks like. We introduce simple letters first, and move on to the more complex ones. We give them a feel of how the sounds are similar to and different from the sounds in English. We don't frighten away the learners with complex linguistic or phonetic terminology or concepts. We haven't given the IPA pronunciations simply because this book is not for linguists or for advanced learners. An advanced learner like this reviewer doesn't need a book like this. Review: Publication displays very well the pattern of Malayalam - I like the layout of this publication. As soon as you begin reading through it, you can see that the compiler has arranged the book in a certain way in order to make it easier to grasp HOW Malayalam is compiled in its written form. For me personally, this is definitely how I learn well. I now see Malayalam will not be as difficult as I originally thought. Early days of course. I've also seen from the pattern of the language, if anyone has previously learned any type of "short hand" of their mother tongue, then Malayalam will definitely be an easier language system to grasp. Brilliant Book! Review: Perfect - I have been using this book from time to time to learn the basics of Malayalam and I have to say, it helped me a great deal! I can perfectly write now and I am able to communicate the basics. Definitely recommended for those wanting to learn the writing and basic communication.
| Best Sellers Rank | 240,048 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 3,786 in Words, Language & Grammar (Books) 4,626 in Language Study & Reference |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 87 Reviews |
F**Y
Publication displays very well the pattern of Malayalam
I like the layout of this publication. As soon as you begin reading through it, you can see that the compiler has arranged the book in a certain way in order to make it easier to grasp HOW Malayalam is compiled in its written form. For me personally, this is definitely how I learn well. I now see Malayalam will not be as difficult as I originally thought. Early days of course. I've also seen from the pattern of the language, if anyone has previously learned any type of "short hand" of their mother tongue, then Malayalam will definitely be an easier language system to grasp. Brilliant Book!
L**.
Perfect
I have been using this book from time to time to learn the basics of Malayalam and I have to say, it helped me a great deal! I can perfectly write now and I am able to communicate the basics. Definitely recommended for those wanting to learn the writing and basic communication.
M**Y
Couldn't do it
Difficult to understand the tutorial explosions, ie pronunciation
A**R
Five Stars
Great book
A**R
Good book to start
It’s a good book to start with, as other people have mentioned though you need a native speaker who can point out the mistakes and help with pronunciations.
J**G
„Best“ of this book series
What is good: - explanation of letters with at least a few exercises What is bad: - totally random words you don‘t need as a beginner (e.g. container, net, foolishness,…) - at some points there are writing exercises wirh words that haven‘t been explained in the previous chapters….. totally random again - mistakes in solutions and sometimes also spelling. Of course, this can happen, it is nevertheless confusing, especiall for a beginner - far too few exercises to seriously practise these random (!!!) words - at the end there is a list again, but I am so sorry… The text at the end to practice reading is also soooo not useful for a beginner… I cannot use anything in my everyday conversation… It is really a pity and shame.
B**.
Ouvrage approximatif comportant de nombreuses erreurs et de nombreuses imprécisions
Je n'ai pas été au-delà des chapitres consacrés à l'écriture et à la phonétique : ils sont en effet dépourvus de la moindre rigueur, les sons ne sont pas décrits (donner un vague équivalent anglais ne suffit pas : la phonétique des langues dravidiennes est très différente !), la correspondance entre les caractères malayalam et l'alphabet latin totalement erratique (quelle différence entre les caractères transcrits "r", par exemple ?). Il existe des normes qui permettent de décrire la phonétique d'une langue et de transcrire les caractères qu'elle utilise : l'alphabet phonétique international pour la première, la translittération officielle de l'écriture propre à cette langue pour la seconde. Or rien de tout cela n'est utilisé dans ce manuel, qui ne peut, par conséquent, qu'induire en erreur et inculquer des connaissance fausses dont il sera ensuite difficile de se débarrasser. Sans compter qu'à ne donner que des équivalents approximatifs, souvent les mêmes pour deux caractères notant deux phonèmes distincts, ne peut qu'empêcher le lecteur d'avoir une vision cohérente de la phonologie de la langue. Il est vraiment regrettable que les langues dravidiennes ne bénéficient que rarement de manuels dignes de ce nom.
R**T
One of the best places to start!
When it comes to learning Malayalam, there aren't many resources to learn from in English. When I was searching for a book on Amazon, I could hardly find anything. This book however, fit what I needed. It provides tons of information and a worksheet at the end of the chapters, which is a bonus. There were a few minor text mistakes throughout the book. When it comes to learning a new language, even the minor of mistakes can turn into big ones. These were so minor though, that it didn't make much of a difference. Malayalam is a very tough language to learn, let me tell you that. But I found it to be fun. Also, if you are planning to learn the language from just this book alone, do not attempt it. This book serves as a guide. It also states in this book that you should find a native Malayalam speaker to help you pronounce words. What I highly suggest is to look for apps on your phone. HelloTalk was my main source. Having someone teach you via voice is extremely helpful, and needed. I would also like to include one very important fact while learning this language. You will meet MANY Keralites (Malayalam speakers) wanting to learn English. They have very little people wanting to learn their language and they are always looking for native English speakers to help them with English. I had many Keralites tell me that they have met no one online willing to help them with English. So this is your chance to change that! This book will help you guide your way into Malayalam, and is one of the best starting points.
J**I
and a whole series of vocabularies for the first few weeks until you get anywhere near being able to speaking Malayalam in any u
Rather than starting out with some basic conversations or simple sentences to get your feet wet, this book dives straight into the alphabet, and a whole series of vocabularies for the first few weeks until you get anywhere near being able to speaking Malayalam in any useful sense. Fortunately, I was already familiar with the alphabet and some basic vocabulary, so it wasn't a huge turn off, but if you are learning Malayalam from scratch, following this book's structure could be a real turn off. But otherwise, it's a pretty decent book for introducing you to Malayalam, and since there aren't really any other books available out there, this might be your only option.
K**N
At last a quality Malayalam primer.
What a concept: a language instruction book which actually understands both languages and presents both clearly and methodically. I've only just started, but I can already see the quality and benefit, particularly when compared with "Learn Malayalam in 30 Days Through English" (reviewed separately). The book contains 42 (six weeks' worth) manageable lessons, each followed by a "worksheet" or mini-quiz covering the material in that day's presentation. I would have preferred that the worksheets scrambled the order of the items instead of presenting exactly as on the preceding page(s), for a more difficult and therefore more thorough learning experience. That's a minor quibble.
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