What do you look for in the perfect language learning book?
Oh boy you're just throwing the questions at me
there are a couple of things including
favorite language on your books content
Content is much better than a pretty face Alright?
If you wanna know somebody, you wanna know them not based on their looks, you wanna know
them based on their contents.
Whoa.
Not their organs, but like, their mind.
So, So when you're first looking at this wide
array of things that you can get to know, how do you determine which one's gonna have
good contents?
You're gonna see lots of big boxes.
Like Pimsleur, like Living Language, you're gonna see lots of colors, typically
We were just talking about how language like are "organized by color" so like Italian is
green, French is blue, German is red and like Spanish is like yellow or orange
Those are the biggest languages at least at this Barnes & Noble, so, you're gonna see
those colors What was the question?
So, if you're not picking based on prettiness and you're just looking and you've never researched
any of these books, how are you gonna pick the one that will have the best content.
Give me a language?
German, 'cause it's right here.
I'm kinda partial, okay I'm a big fan of Langenscheidt, just 'cause I, like I trust their content,
I see it all the time I see it in classrooms.
And so like I'm very attracted to this because I see a logo I'm familiar with and so you
know I'll check it out.
It's important to look at the table of contents because it's important to see what it goes
over.
What I really find attractive about this book is that it is both in English and in German
and that's something I find really important in a lot of language learning books is to
have titles and subtitles and chapter headings in other languages.
And this book seems to go over more than my German classes go over.
I could probably benefit from this book and I've been to Germany twice.
How much is this?
Okay but also, like, it says, everything in this book is in both languages and I love
that.
What language are you looking for, Abigail?
Alright, well I guess my main
thing currently is Arabic because, - And we found this nice little book
here And the reason I think we were attracted to
this is because of the nice pretty cover and name we like
It said Teach Yourself and I really like Teach Yourself... however
The Arabic section here is... this big
it's not that big so I'm really, and also
to remind us a lot of that section is one box
yep so we're kind of limited here - You do have Arabic for Dummies though
so I don't know with how much I'm gonna end up getting if anything here.
Other than that I'd like to look in the French section and the German section a little bit, 'cause I'm
working on refreshing those in the new year
Nice
Yeah this one comes with a CD.... oh this has a digital download
oh whoa
it's got accents
Matt what book are you looking at currently?
This is Arabic in Ten Minutes a Day
What do you think about books that claim to - I don't like it - teach your something in blank number of minutes a day?
I don't like it and I probably won't follow it, ten minutes a day sounds very nice
because it's an easy [amount] of time, it's something you can definitely do
So, if I was to make this purchase of... $30
Does this look $30?
Let's see if that's only because it comes with a CD
Nope, this one's $34 and it has a digital download
So I feel like I'm being ripped off, but nonetheless it looks like a very nice book, like
if you look at this... I wonder if I can find out what- Also
then if you don't think that's $30, what determines pricing? When you're looking for a language book
what kind of price range might throw you off a little bit? - What I feel like I just did
was I judged it on the cover, because this doesn't look like $30 to me
but when I look at the inside I see what I'm really getting into.
It seems like it answers a lot of cultural, like faux pas that I'd run into
and just it goes over, it seems like a vast [range] of topics, and it's very much- it's also
although I really don't like those books that are like "You're a tourist in this country,
ask where to go to the bathroom" like, I really don't like those.
but this seems like - also, the answer key is at the bottom of the page
That's something I like, I don't like in Teach Yourself how you have to flip to the back
Update on this book? We've been sittin' here flipping through it
It seems to actually be really good, I've actually - because I
I don't like the things that claim to
teach you things in blank number of
minutes a day because then that problem
means that you're doing like five
minutes it's going to take you like
years and year years and I also didn't
- it's a short book - like it'll teach you in
two weeks or whatever because
it's not right or you're going to be
doing like 14 hours studying a day and
even though it probably won't stick with
you as much so I'm kind of always put
off by it no I've never actually picked
this book up what are you just going to
know that you really like, I like 'cause I
like it too I just feel like it gets
right to it like you're you're start off
your living like who what when where hot
how how many like just question words
and then you're like learning colors and
I like how you have you two colors based
on the flag, so like places that speak it so
you're getting some culture in here too
probably and these are sticky labels
they can stick to get fridge or you're
mirror, sooo cool so I like yet idea of
that a lot - I kind of feel like this
reminds me of Moses McCormick's like
what he does foreign language road running
running or is that a lot of technique
where he kind of just sort of throws
himself in actually didn't know that's
what that stood for you know foreign
language road running I did not know
that I never questioned what I already
I only knew it stood for like the FLR method
but I haven't used it that much
she's shocked and I don't know what
she's looking at but it in French it
looks like "L'Étranger"
really famous French book i have not
ready yet okay um we've never seen any
books in languages other than english, except for
except for the Spanish books, but this isn't in
this is just here I don't love this like
a duel it's not a dual language it's
literally the novel in French I think
it's just the book she got very excited
when she saw this
this might be coming home with me
how many books are we holding? we're currently holding
four books we got the two Arabic in 10
minutes books that we're still looking at together
we got this book that I found
in French looks like we don't know the
price yet - yeah so maybe not
Then we've got... Teach Yourself German Tutor
which she's been struggling with for a long
time of whether or not to get I think
she's gonna about 6 months now, every time
I go into a bookstore I pick this
book up I carry it around with me I
stare at it longingly think about buying
it and I put it back um so maybe and the
thing is about me you want to put it
back because I feel like maybe I'm just used to it
but Matt's really trying to convince me- She wants it
and she doesn't wanna get it and I feel so bad
what is it about this book at interests
you? It looks cute which is something you told us
not to do, but sometimes it's alright because these books
look cute too - I haven't even opened up this book, hold on
We're gonna open up Chineasy and take a look with you
it's quickly learned 400 essential
characters oh geez but like look how cute this is
it's like idioms this is actually
kind of like Wanikani, have you
ever used Wanikani for Japanese?
I haven't but it's so cute oh wait this
actually looks really good I like it, it's cute
it's not going to teach you as much grammar you
can learn in this thick of a book but it's not supposed to
it's just cute characters, stop omg
We are currently perusing the Japanese
section which i think i bought the most
Japanese books and never studied
Japanese like fully fully yet I started
but then didn't really get to it really
don't know any Japanese but I buy books
basically every time buy a language book
I leave with a japanese book I don't
know why, so Matt which language do you
find you by the most books for like have
that like language lust to buy books to
learn it but you don't actually get to
it, do you have that as much as me or is that just me in Japanese
No no no
I have that- buying the most, I think I
buy the most German books like even if
their books to read like fiction and I
don't get for them I would also say that
it is German because I have so many of
those other like perfect your grammar
practice makes perfect books i have
maybe every book in the German series and
i've used probably like an eighth of it
total so, you know I don't know I really
want to learn japanese i just haven't
gotten to it yet so I own like I own
this learning Japanese Kanji book I own
one of these books that i got from a
library sale or something i think and i
just own like so many Japanese books and
I always want to buy or end up buying
like even when I don't buy books I
always look at like I've picked up this
one I think of your time let's pick up
other ones and I'm always like ooh I can get this Japa-
I haven't fully studied it yet so that
I've seen this on Lindsay Dow's (Williams') channel
which what books will be leaving with?
So
We put back the Arabic books because we
remembered that we actually found an
arabic resource that we already like, and so we have
a free sample of it so we're going to do
the first chapter in there and if we
don't like it as much as we think we're
not going to buy the full version we're
going to come back and buy this and if
we do like the other version we're going
to stick with that and maybe use that in
10 minutes a day series for another
because also, the one that we found online is
colloquial Syrian Arabic which is what
we want to learn yeah we're going for
a specific dialect and we couldn't
figure out which with me and I probably
modern standard which is like an
definite what we don't want I want
like Levantine preferably Syrian or
Egyptian and so yeah the books I'm
leaving with are Painless Italian which
I wasn't sure about because it doesn't
have an audio course but i'm just going
to teach myself it online and I'm
getting her German grammar because I
just want her to shut up about it I put
it back again guys I'm getting this
hopefully I need to see how much it costs, I
mean if this is like really cheap I'll
just take German Tutor from you and
finally
do it yeah alright cool so it is the
So it is the next day we are going to show you what
we bought because we did it in the store
but then went back and put some books
that we were getting and got different
books yeah - So, I will show
you my books first I did wind up getting
Painless Italian because Abigail had
this argument where she's like you know
what you haven't expressed too much
interest for the language but you have
this urge for it right now so now would be
a good time to get it and and I thought
as well I don't have any other book so
this will give me one resource, I kind of
like to jump back and forth with this
like if I stick with it I'll stick with
it you know what I mean so I got this
and it looks really nice so I hope I can
share some info on that I also got a
Berlitz Latin American Spanish for your
trip and I don't like products or I
don't like to learn a language just
because I'm going somewhere but as a(n aspiring)
polyglot I feel I have a linguistic
responsibility to speak some of it if
I'm going anywhere because I'm going to
Costa Rica so I know I'll probably go
beyond this but I wanted to at least get
somewhere, so yeah and I also got -
yeah you don't have much time before you go -yeah that too
I don't have a whole lot of time
of time it's like next month and I also
got Essential Swedish grammar because
I'm learning Norwegian right now and I
have been for a while and yeah I just
Swedish is very similar to Norwegian I've
talked to Swedish people before in
Norwegian in New York City and I can
understand them perfectly fine so I'd
like to get the other half of the
equation with Swedish so that's me and
then so Abigail what did you wind up
getting so we were going to leave the first time around
I was carrying out the French
book that I had that like novel um we
didn't know how much cost we put
everything else back we put the Arabic
books back I'll say this we put the Arabic
yeah didn't get the Arabic books
We remembered that we had found
another Arabic resource but we haven't
we got like a sample chapter four so we're
going to do that and if we don't like it
we'll go back and buy those Arabic in 10
minutes things but we want to try those
out first because that might be better
'cause it's in the dialects that we want
moreso so we put those back I was
carrying out the novel that I was getting but we
didn't know how much it costs and then
finally we looked it up and it just
seemed to be a bit more expensive than
it needed to be it was like almost the
price of the German tutor book but it
was like a really thin novel so actually
She wasn't gonna be happy with walking away
with just that yeah so I think I can buy
that book for cheaper or other French
books that I'm interested in reading for
cheaper and it won't be too much of a
problem so where do all walking away
with we went back I put that book back
Matt already had Painless Italian, picked up
the other two things because we were
back in the language section and I went
and I got German Tutor we should mention I
as just gonna buy it for her yeah
originally Matt was gonna get this and
Painless Italian because he just like
literally couldn't let me leave without
actually having the book because it's
been like there's a good six to seven
months of me going and getting it and
putting it back and looks really good um
so this book could be horrible but I
feel so glad that I own it
Just because - I'll tell you guys how it
goes yeah I have really high hopes for
it I don't even know if I have high hopes
just like really glad and I finally own
it and like I'm content so this has been a
language book adventure to Barnes & Noble
noble we will we hope to do this for
another book so that we go to the Strand
in New York City because that has an
amazing language section and yeah
there's also that book store in Boston
that we should go to yeah I've got a
twenty dollar gift card or maybe it was
more than 20 always I don't know but
I've got a gift card to I'm blanking on
the name of it but like big language
It's like Schö- it's a German name - big language
bookstore in Boston a bunch of you
probably know what it is just by me
saying that but I'm blanking on the
exact name right now but I got a gift
card for Christmas like two years ago
but I haven't been to Boston um except
for one time but I was with a friend and
we couldn't get into Cambridge which is
where the bookstore actually is so I
haven't been yet but hopefully we'll go
there at some point um and if you
have any like bookstore
recommendations or like places you'd
like to get language books movies for
cheap online or if you know anything on
the east coast of the US
any bookstores around the world that you
really enjoy please let us know and what
i- We need a question for them...
You can answer one of the questions we asked
yeah we were asking each other questions
we can sort of put them in the comments
like put them in the description the
questions because I was going to ask
what is it you look for in a language
learning resource? whether it be a book or
audio course - also feel free
to leave us questions for the next time
we film one of these,
because then we can continue to just go
to bookstores and talk to you guys while we buy books
language specific stuff we can go
through that while looking for resources
for ourselves we can be like we've got
this question from this person yep all
right -I'm sorry - We're about to go record a podcast so we
will see you guys later and remember
practice makes progress bye-bye