Teach Yourself Afrikaans Complete Course [Anglais] [Broché]

Why learn Afrikaans? As the newest Germanic language, its relationship to the other members of this family is fascinating. With a good knowledge of German, Afrikaans may be learnt in a short time. One reason for learning Afrikaans may be as a stepping stone to learning Dutch, as the two languages are closely related.

For English speakers with no prior foreign language experience, Esperanto is easier to learn but won't help you learn other Germanic languages to the extent a knowledge of Afrikaans will.

I think a good combination is to get both CA (first) and then TYA as a reinforcement/vocabulary builder. Even given that there aren't many books on learning Afrikaans out there, TYA isn't bad.

One thing that some (esp. female) readers might find amusing or insulting (depending) is that many of the dialogs cast characters in very traditional gender roles : men play/watch sports, women shop and worry about their hair and makeup. Sentences like : "As 'n dame mooi wil lyk, moet sy grimmer" (If a woman wants to look nice, she has to wear makeup) on pg. 103 might not make the author (a woman!) many friends in some circles.

Still, not a bad book, especially if you're interested only in reading, but otherwise I would only use it as a supplement to TYA.

(Incidentally, the (much) older edition of TYA is a very good book for the more linguistically-oriented learner who's not overly concerned with speaking Afrikaans, especially one that already knows Dutch or German. Unfortunately, it's also hard to find).

'Afrikaans (Teach Yourself)' is a decent book. It provides a chunk of vocabulary, and some peripheral grammar notes. Vocabulary and grammar are good enough, I suppose; but self-instructed language methodology isn't very successful without sufficient drills and answers (and a cassette tape wouldn't hurt, either!).

Yes, there is a pronunciation guide. No, a native speaker of English will not be able to pronounce Afrikaans by reading it. Don't believe me? Just try! (: Americans in particular must also be aware that most (if not all) Afrikaans textbooks present Afrikaans pronunciation through English words as pronounced by an Englishperson.

As I had no native speaker of Afrikaans on hand here in California, I decided that I would pronounce Afrikaans incorrectly, but at least keep my inaccuracies consistent, as written. In other words, I made up my own pronunciations, guessing as well as I could. After my arrival, my Capetonian friends pointed out my *gross* verbal discrepancies, and generalizing their corrections to the rest of my mispronunciations became easy.

I strongly recommend this book, as I have not found anything better.. I would purchase a more comprehensive book in a heartbeat.