A superb course, but only if your CDs arrive intact!
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This is a very good course, its strong point being plenty of really useful exercises to consolidate what you've learnt. There is one huge drawback. The way the CDs are packaged is absolutely useless. They are supposed to be wedged into the moulded inner part of the plastic box. In fact they come loose from this, rattle around in the box during transit, and get so appalling scratched than in many cases they are unplayable. (One of the CDs in my Colloquial Urdu course was actually cracked too!) Routledge - please please would you return to providing CDs in the usual double jewel-case so that they are protected in transit. The small financial saving with the new packaging method should be weighed carefully against the annoyance caused to customers by supplying CDs which arrive too damaged to use.
This course would have got five stars but the problem with the scratched CDs has forfeited three of those stars.
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Better than nothing, and at least reasonably priced.
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This is not the easiest book in the world to learn from. It is good for being about half the price of a lot of the books out there, and if you are persistent then you can battle your way through. What you must note though is that the pronounciation you will learn from the tape is different from the pronounciation in most of Albania. It's like learning English from a Scotsman then trying to converse in London.
You will probably be able to make yourself understood, and the foundations and vocabulary will be there, but really it's a different dialect to the one that you are most likely to need to use, so it's not the best way to learn a new language. If you use the book and get an Albanian friend to teach you the proper pronounciation and slightly different spellings of the words in the most common dialect, then you should be ok with this book. Ary.
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Should be titled Kosovan Albanian
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Any language course is difficult when all of the grammatical rules are different to any language you've ever learnt - and Albanian is very different. I bought this book & cassette because I work in Tirana, the capitol. I realised very early that the pronunciation is different. When I started to use the first word in the first lesson, "Tungjatjeta" for "hello", I was advised that it was very old fashioned and nobody uses it any more. My Albanian friends have listened to the tape and advise that the pronunciation is Kosovan. The author acknowledges that fact in the Preface, but for me, I bought the book before being aware of that. But the grammar lessons are good and applicable. If you're going to Kosovo, it's a great book. If you're going to Tirana, it's useful, but learn pronunciation from Albanians. If you're just an academic or language enthusiast who wants to learn a new language, then go for it.
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A heavy-going book for the beginner.
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There are not many books to help the beginner with Albanian. I found this book to be verging on the incomprehensible after chapter 5. A vast quantity of grammatical material is given, which is of questionable value for anyone who needs a grasp of colloquial Albanian. The tapes are useful because they provide an indication of pronunciation of the written word. The format of the book, however, is simply not the best way to encourage anyone to persevere with what appears to be a formidably difficult language. By the time I was a quarter of the way through the book I became convinced that the principle rule of Albanian grammar is that there are no rules of Albanian grammar! It would be good to think that the approach will be radically modified in a subsequent edition.
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A good, thorough introduction to Albanian
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This is a good, systematic tutor in Albanian. I recommend the book/cassette pack over just the book; Albanian pronunciation really does require careful practice. The grammar is introduced carefully; the exercises are sensible, and there is a great deal of welcome humour.
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