taking Afrkaans, any good grammar books?

[Malayamerican]

there is a special programme at my school where high school students are able to take language courses for free at the University in our town, and there are a wide variety, from Swahili, to chinese, Swedish, Zulu, Arabic and Afrikaans. Im taking Swedish and Afrikaans this year. does anybody know of a good Afrikaans book to help with grammar and vocab?

thanks, Malay

[konsalik]

Malay,

ask a bookstore to help you locate this one:
A Grammar of Afrikaans
by B. Donaldson

or try this link http://www.worldlanguage.com/Products/8531.htm

[Malayamerican]

thanks!

[ches]

Malay,

You also need one of the big, fat (3" thick) bilingual dictionaries (tweetalige woordeboeke). These don't merely give the English equivalent, but in fact give several usages, which is infinitely more useful.

Amazon.com doesn't seem to have much by way of bilingual dictionaries, so try Kalahari.net. (If you search for "tweetalige woordeboek", you'll eliminate all the bilingual dictionaries in other languages.)

I have this one, which I highly recommend. Taxes are included in the price (R235) and you should be able to convert that having just visited South Africa (the exchange rate is approximately R6=$1), but bear in mind that shipping might be expensive because the book is heavy.

I'd imagine that your parents can speak Afrikaans, so if you are interested in learning the language, you needn't stop with the course at the university. You could get plenty of written/reading practise on these forums or by buying Afrikaans books off kalahari.net.

How was your trip, by the way?

[liza81]

Ches is right, that dictionary he has is very very good. Does Kalahari.net ship internationally, ches? I had no idea.

As Ches said, it will likely be expensive, and it will take a long time. A good alternative would be this one
You can get it at Barnes & Noble online! Cuts your shipping time in half. It is a very good and thorough dictionary. My mom has it, I used it all through highschool. I imagine this one is a more current version.

Here's the link:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...cY&cds2Pid=946

Oh, I just saw that they don't have any in stock at the moment. I'm sure they'll order it for you if you ask.

Don't be tempted to buy that first dictionary in the link. I have it, and it is really not very good. I use it as a refresher when I have one of my "Oh no, I can't remember how to say ...." moments. For someone just learning the language it will be hopelessly inadequate.
If you do decide to get it though, t's better than nothing.

You can of course come here and ask! We'll try our best to give you intelligent answers.

Liza

[ches]

Kalahari.net does indeed ship internationally. How else does one get the new Springbok Nude Girls double-CD?!

It's also awesome for buying surprise presents for the folks back home. I bought my mom a half-case of Fairview Goats Do Roam for her birthday and it made her very happy indeed!