Some Help, but not much, September 6, 2001

I really found this book difficult to use, leaving you with a small stock of colloquialisms but no knowledge of the actual structure of the language. Why has the "Teach Yourself" series changed their format so much? I have a copy of the "old" Teach Yourself Swedish as well, and while it's short on dialogues it certainly covers the entire grammar of the language, as well as giving a complete explanation of the pronunciation.

With the tapes, this book can guide you to some skill in pronunciation, but I suppose any book with tapes can do that. Aside from that and some of the cultural notes I didn't get much from this book. The material produced by the Swedes themselves is much better and written for literate adults, which doesn't seem to be the case here.

A bit difficult, but it works., April 30, 2001

The book assumes you are either somehow familiar with Swedish or that you are a good guesser. Once you get past the first three or four lessons, things get clearer. I like the true-false tests, but sometimes they use words you have to guess to answer the questions.

Frustrating for beginners, November 6, 2004

Everyone learns differently. I personally like to know what I am saying, not just memorize a phrases. Yes, your brain picks up phrases best when in practical use, but it needs footholds to gain ground and confidence. Unfortunately, this book provides few such footholds and much confusion. From the unhelpul and pompously-British pronunciation guide ("prounced rather like in French..." ) to the colloquial speech, regional dialects and complex grammer used throughout the book, this is not a book for true beginners. This book could, however, be useful as tool for someone with more experience to *hear* the language (albeit in stilted situations).

In general this series leaves me cold. I have tried several of the books and found them all to be too complex grammatically, and not "real world" enough either. So I am confused as a beginner but, by God, thanks to this series, I can say "French cheese" and "the dog is upstairs" in Japanese. This Swedish one is actually a little more useful in trems of credible situtions; but, par for the course, I doubt that I will need to learn to say "I am in training at an import-export firm" (lesson one)

My advice: Skip this book. Instead buy the Viberg grammer and a language software program. Better yet, if possible take a class ( there is no subtitution for actual language class or real world experience)

Good Pronounciation, Too much English, June 8, 2004

We bought this book and CD for my wife to brush up on her Swedish before going to Sweden. The book starts out with the basics and steps gradually through the learning stages of the Swedish language. There is a lot of explaining text that is in English. As someone who has learnt English and German without translation, it seems that the easiest way to learn a language is by not translating the words. The Swedish on the CDs has good pronounciation in Swedish. It would have been nice if at least the CD had only Swedish on it so that the person listening would not have to go back and forth between the two languages, but instead get into the Swedish language.

Great buy if you know your parts of speech, March 4, 2004

Hello. I think this book is a wonderful find for people who want to learn Swedish. The pronunciation guide isn't the best, but after listening to the recordings you get a general sense of how things are pronounced. The recordings are great because you can get used to a few different dialects and accents within the Swedish language. The one thing is, and this goes for all language-learners, you need to really study up on your parts of speech before you try to learn a foreign language. I say this because this book doesn't do the best job explaining parts of speech. In addition to this book I would reccomend "Essential Swedish Grammar" which is published by Dover. Have fun learning!!

very well, April 28, 2003

I started learning swedish one year ago with this book, and I found it very useful: funny, clear, interesting. It was everytime simple in teaching grammar - not like some others TY's books...- through shorts sections, rich of images - that's markedly useful for a non-english born people as I am - and full of interesting informations about people and everyday life in Sweden. After the eigth chapter I took a trip to Stockholm, and I could cope with many situations; after finishing the course, I could get started in reading swedish books - with a good dictionary, however...- and I could came back to Stockholm and speaking to everyone without great problems. Yes, if you can have a teacher, it will work faster and better, of course. But if you can't, as I couldn't, so TY Swedish will be the best way for a beginner. Be aware that swedish pronounce is unique in the world, so the cassette version might be necessary. I checked my pronounce by Garmarna's songs...