Customer Reviews
Lacking some essentials - By: Lycos Limited C. Jones, 07 Jul 2008 
The major deficiency of this book is the lack of help with pronunciation. Catalan is not phoneticallly written & the pronunciation is distinctly more complex than Spanish. 5 vowels are used to denote 8 vowel sounds & certain consonants are silent. If the vocabularies, either in each chapter or at least at the end of the book, were to give the phonetics of each word, this book would be a far more useful tool for acquiring the language. Even using the CD in conjuction with the book, you will need to employ a vast amount of detective work to try to sort out correct pronunciation.
Give it a go! - By: Emily Matthews, 17 Mar 2007 
This course, as with the other Teach Yourself courses that I know, is well designed, clear & user friendly. It assumes no knowledge of the Catalan language & guides you through a logical course, concentrating on the typical communicative aspects of the language (introductions, buying food, directions, booking a hotel room etc). The CD that accompanies the course is ideal for listening & pronunciation practice. In fact, I wouldnt recommend the book on its own. Catalan is a fascinating language, a mix of Spanish & French, & well worth the challlenge!
Good enough for most people - By: JR Anderson, 11 Aug 2006 This book is good to an extent. I don't reallly think it covers an awful lot & there certainly seems to be more of an emphasis on grammar than practical vocabulary. Saying that, there are some fairly useful dialogues that aren't simply translated word for word.
The book is quite smalll in comparison with other Teach Yourself language publications, although I don't think this matters.
I would imagine that the vast majority of people learning Catalan will already be familiar with Spanish or another Romance language, so perhaps some points are a bit simplistic.
Overalll, it is probably the best English book you will find on Catalan & it will undoubtedly alllow Spanish speakers to understand the language around them when in Catalunya or Valencia.
need the cd!! - By: Patsy, 21 Jun 2006 there's nothing wrong with this teaching tool per se, but without the audio CD, you have little chance of success as the pronunciation of catalan is much more complex than spanish. you can buy the CD & book together as a package, so go for that one! (also available from Amazon, i have seen) i had to buy the CD seperately which meant the total cost was higher.
Superb! - By: Thomas Widmann, 21 Oct 2003 
This book uses a classic approach to language teaching, what with pronunciation in IPA & good grammatical explanations.
If you're scared of grammar, this book is not for you.
If you're a trained linguist, on the other hand, this may be one of the very best self-study books you'll ever come across!
