Beginner's Georgian with 2 Audio CDs (Hippocrene Beginner's) Pap/Com Bl Edition

This book is not a language survival tool but a basis for attaining a foundation in Georgian that would support more advanced study. In addition, it is suitable for self-study with answer keys provided for the exercises. Two audio CDs cover the text. This is especially important for listening to the dialogs.I visited Tbilisi in May 2019 and vowed that I would not return without substantial language skills in Georgian. While one can get by with Russian in Azerbaijan and Armenia, that is not the case with Georgia, where especially younger people regard the Russian as the language of the enemy. Speaking Russian sometimes elicited anger and hostility. I found that Turkish was more useful given all the Turks around in the restaurant sector in Tbilisi.While I have only worked through the first four chapters up to p. 94, I am impressed with this book as an effective learning tool for assimilating the Georgian language. However, several admittedly minor critical comments come to mind:1. Glossaries are not at the end but come before the appendices on grammar. This is annoying when you need to look up a word. Not all the words in the text appear in the glossary.2. The author does not show the reader how to write the letters of the alphabet in terms of strokes and lines. You will need to go to an alternate source for this.3. There are five Georgian consonants that are unaspirated with another five corresponding consonants that are aspirated. The unaspirated consonants are romanized with an apostrophe. I find the apostrophe quite annoying when trying to memorize words; the apostrophes create breaks in syllables. I would have preferred using capital letters for the romanization of these unaspirated Georgian consonants. In memorizing vocabulary orally, I prefer to use romanization. For that reason, I would have preferred that romanization be kept for the terms designated as "Idiomatic Expressions." In long or unusual consonant cluster strings, from the audio CDs, it is apparent that certain consonants get muted or assimilated or at least deemphasized so that a speaker can articulate words smoothly; the romanization might have reflected that by having muted, assimilated or deemphasized consonants italicized.4. It would be even better if the "Cultural Notes" appeared not only in English but in Georgian for supplemental reading purposes. More Georgian language content would have been a plus given the brevity of the text.5. There is no index. I learned how to count from 1-10 from the pre-dialog phase of the text. However, I would want to learn to count from 11-99 immediately. However, I cannot find on which page I can do that or even whether that is included in the text.6. Even more effort placed on distinguishing unaspirated from aspirated consonants would have been useful. I would recommend finding words that have both consonants contained therein like "sapirparesho," in which the first "p" is unaspirated and the second "p" is aspirated. [Regrettably, Google Translate does not have audio for Georgian.] In a single word, it would have been easier to distinguish the difference in sound.The actual text consists of 13 chapters over 217 pages. I shall give myself 4-6 months to thoroughly assimilate the material. There is a substantial amount of vocabulary to memorize.

Georgian has been a very overlooked language. Though there are a few textbooks out there that are easy enough to find, they tend to be either inaccessible in someway or expensive. And there are even fewer textbooks that come with audio. In fact, only Aronson's Georgian Reading Grammar comes with audio (aside from this book). And audio is VERY important to learning this language.Now, to the actual text it self. The lessons are written in clear, conversational language. Whereas Aronson's text is for reading comprehension, this text it for speaking/listening comprehension. This is a much needed textbook and breath of fresh air to Georgian linguistics. The grammar sections are easy to understand and not bogged down with a lot of linguistic jargon. And the exercises have an answer key in the back of the book.Now, the audio. The audio is great. You can hear the speakers very well and clearly. The dialogues are repeated twice. Once at normal speed and then at a slower speed for you to repeat after. Even the vocabulary lists are spoken on the cd's. The only thing that is a shame is that there are no speaking/listening exercises on the cd's (thus a 4 out of 5 instead of 5 out of 5).Overall this is a great textbook though.

It's a bit presumptuous for me to review this just now. since I've only just begun my Georgian studies. But I did flip ahead & survey the overall approach in later lessons. So I will give this 4 stars, based on concerns shared with other reviewers over lack of exercises. [I'll revise that grade later, if need be.]The main reason I chose to review this now is that I thought it might be a useful way to encourage Hippocrene to release a Kindle edition, accompanied by downloadable mp3 or mp4 audio files in lieu of CDs. Some of us MUST travel light; I'm done lugging hard copies around, so if it's not on Kindle, downloadable to my Macbook, it doesn't fly. I sorely miss not having Dr Kiziria's book handy on my current trip.I could, of course, have removed the backing and scanned each page into PDF format, then copied the CDs into i-tunes ... as if short-notice packing and travel preparation weren't stressful and time-consuming enough already.

I am a reviewer who is neither linguist nor scholar, but nevertheless has a need to learn conversational Georgian. Since January 2009, I purchased whatever I could find available, and have these texts and tools for comparison: 1) Aronson's Georgian: A Reading Grammar (only available without CDs at the time); 2) book2 English-Georgian for beginners from Goethe-Verlag; 3) Talk Now! Georgian; 4) Byki Express and Byki Deluxe. Dodona Kiziria's Beginner's Georgian is far and away the BEST book to start with. Her introduction is easily readable, comprehensive, and incorporates current events, an absolute necessity for those learning at the high school level. Her system of pronunciation, unlike Aronson's, is simple, allowing learners to write transliterated Georgian on a standard English querty keyboard. I especially appreciated the lessons in polite behavior displayed in the conversational lessons and Culture Notes in each chapter. A teacher's true genius lies in order and pacing: Ms. Dodona's book is such a masterpiece. A difficulty I had, differentiating aspirated and unaspirated consonant sounds, was dealt with simply and at the very beginning. Useful words and expressions, including numbers, how to tell time and date, and how to address family members are up front in a separate chapter, allowing one to practice these on a daily basis as a language warmup. The other books, CDs, and programs I have all have something valuable to offer. But take my advice: start HERE!

The best book and most complete i found to learn Georgian. With texts in contexts (which is exactly what you need to learn a language) a few doable exercises (Even if a nearby correction would have been useful to check if you are learning wrong...)I also did not like the fact they teach you the alphabet at lesson 1 and then from lesson 2 is nothing written in phonetics anymore ! Some people may want to just learn to speak the language without mastering the alphabet (or mastering it afterwards once they are used to the language). So you cannot really rush into the language cause you are always blocked by the alphabet at the beginning ... Once i wrote down the phonetics myself on every page to be able to read fast enough to look for the information i look for then it is a great book, But i would have preferred if that job had been already done before.

I will point out that I like the way you are forced to assimilate the alphabet. After lesson one the dialogue is in Georgian with a translation. It is difficult at the start but it is worth it spending time on the alphabet.Some grammar concepts or tenses are snook into lessons without explanation.On the whole, a good book if you stick with it. I have completed 10 lessons and I am revising before completing 11-13.I have already received compliments for my speaking!

I am going to Georgia for a week, and want to learn the basic words and phrases to communicate, this is something I always do when visiting a country. So far I have learned French Germen Spanish Italien and Albanian. Obviously not to a very good level but enough to survive. I'm afraid, however, that I am really struggling with this course. I agree totally that the first, or all, lessons should be shown in roman script as well as the georgian. I have learned the georgian alphabet, but it is still a bit of an effort to translate a lot in one go. Also I like to listen to the cousre whilst driving, which I do a lot of, after each chapter the vocab is read out, but with no translation to english. So I am listening to words I don't understand, and am not likely to using the CD alone. Holding the book, or a photo copied page whilst at the driving wheel to try to translate the vocab is a bit dangerous, I did try. Unfortunately I can't find any other beginners course, so I am plodding along, I suppose it's better than nothing.

It is impossible in a beginners course to explain the entire framework of Georgian grammar but this book does the best job possible within the constraints of scale. Five of the eleven tenses (screeves) are introduced, along with ergative case assignment and an outline treatment of the four conjugations including inversion (broadly, experiential) verbs. No mean achievement.What distinguishes the book is that the structural novelties of Georgian are gradually introduced through dialogues which appear to be thoroughly natural and authentic, and which include cultural reference points all of which are explained in a section between the vocabulary and the grammar of the lesson.The dialogues are also imaginative in their variety, starting with a chance meeting in the street, and progressing through visiting a home, shopping, going to the bank, navigating the transport system, a cookery lesson, a birthday party - with toasts - and a survey of the landmarks of Tbilisi. Small details such as the innocent abroad, Kevin, persuading his female guide to have a cake because she does not need a diet ('need' is a grammatical subtlety) add to the charm.With discipline, about three months will suffice to master the contents, but a little patience will be needed as it does take a while for the verb morphology to become transparent. For this reason, the reader may find it helpful to keep two lists of verbs, one for the exact forms as they appear in the dialogues, the other for the forms as they appear in the glossary, ie second person singular present (future is even better once you get used to it). By the end of the course, one can review the first list and substantially everything will have been made clear.In terms of its lively material and wealth of technical detail, delivered so as neither to intimidate nor confuse, it is very difficult to see how this course could be improved upon, save perhaps that the exercises are not as challenging as they could be. I would recommend anyone with any linguistic curiosity to give it a try: it promises a unique intellectual adventure on which it would be a shame to miss out.

There are scarce resources available if you want to learn Georgian on your own. In my search, I found "Parlons Géorgien" by I. Assatiani, which might be useful if you speak French but actually it's a total mess. It is completely lacking in structure, is devoid of explanation, and has no exercises and few examples. Its only saving grace is an interesting cultural section which includes some fun proverbs and slang.Next is "Georgian (A Learner's Grammar)" by G. Hewitt. It is overly complicated, explanations are awkward and some of the background/cultural text feels inappropriately biased (a language guide is not the place for political preaching). It is however a substantial text that offers a seemingly complete study of Georgian but some of it just seems incorrect. I could be wrong of course since I am myself new to Georgian, but it just feels a bit unedited.So you're left with D. Kiziria's "Beginner's Georgian"... it puts the others to shame. Of course Georgian is a difficult language and you will need some experience of foreign language study to be able to follow the grammar. There is a strong emphasis on practical language and essential vocabulary. This is complemented by a CD including dialogue which is given once at normal speed and once slowed down so you can repeat. Grammar is presented bit by bit to accompany the vocabulary themes and is truncated to prevent one's mind from exploding! I fully support this choice to simplify - a serious student will be able look further for greater depth while a casual student will learn the basics without debilitating frustration.My only criticism is that the book is two or three chapters too short. For example, indirect objects are never introduced, not enough postpositions are presented, two cases are not illustrated (although they do appear in the appendix), and having two entire chapters themed on bread vocabulary is maybe a bit much. There are also some discrepancies between the CD dialogues and their transcripts. Still, I found this title easier to use and more effective than other guides such as "Teach Yourself" or "Colloquial". Even with its mere thirteen chapters I felt absolutely equipped to write basic letters, translate simple texts, to communicate, and to take my learning further on my own. Next stop Tbilisi!