Touri Language Learning

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from the publisher via LibraryThing.

Note: since this Italian edition is identical content-wise to the German version - it's just been translated - my review is largely the same as for the German edition. It's disappointing to find out that each volume is just a translation of another language edition, rather than being specific to the language/culture(s) in question. I'm unlikely to purchase further editions from this publisher because I know I'll just be getting mass translated, identical content rather than nuanced cultural content.

I'm always looking for new sources of graded readers and other materials for language learners. (This isn't really graded, mind you, because the stories are all more or less the same level of difficulty.) This publisher offers similar books in several languages.

This is a decent collection of short stories in simple Italian. Each story has a few words in bold print which are listed in a Italian-English glossary at the end of the story. Each is also followed by some reading comprehension questions in Italian and English (the same questions in each language). There's an answer key immediately after the questions. I think it would have been better to have the answers at the back or in a footnote so that you can't accidentally see them.

Also, I don't understand why the font size isn't consistent from story to story. It doesn't matter if you're reading an ebook format, because you can just change the text size, but it's strange.

The content does seem appropriate for beginning Italian students, and the stories are short enough that you're unlikely to get stuck slogging through a text that's too difficult or boring for you. All in all, it's a nice book that delivers what it promises. I wish they had more languages available, particularly "smaller" languages.… (mer)

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from the publisher via LibraryThing.

I'm always looking for new sources of graded readers and other materials for language learners. (This isn't really graded, mind you, because the stories are all more or less the same level of difficulty.) This publisher offers similar books in several languages. I chose German because I wanted to see how much German I remembered from my one-semester intensive course in undergraduate days.

This is a decent collection of short stories in simple German. Each story has a few words in bold print which are listed in a German-English glossary at the end of the story. Each is also followed by some reading comprehension questions in German and English (the same questions in each language). There's an answer key immediately after the questions. I think it would have been better to have the answers at the back or in a footnote so that you can't accidentally see them.

Also, I don't understand why the font size isn't consistent from story to story. It doesn't matter if you're reading an ebook format, because you can just change the text size, but it's strange.

The content does seem appropriate for beginning German students, and the stories are short enough that you're unlikely to get stuck slogging through a text that's too difficult or boring for you. All in all, it's a nice book that delivers what it promises. I wish they had more languages available, particularly "smaller" languages.… (mer)