A Beginners' Guide to Tajiki

by Azim Baizoyev, John Hayward, E. Rahmonov

Release Date: 01 July, 2003

Edition: Paperback

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A very useful guide for learning Tajiki

I used this text book while living in Tajikistan and learning the Tajik language. I found that the book was extremely helpful. The organization of the lessons around everyday activities made it practical for someone who is learning the language in a Tajik speaking community. There is also enough content on academic and literary terms to help the person who has a more academic interest in the langauge. The explanations of the grammer system were very clear and complete. Each chapter has articles on Tajik culture that are very helpful.

There are a few minor things that could be improved. First, Some of the vocabulary seemed to be either archaic or excessively literary. The native speakers I knew didn't recognized some of the words that I learned in this book, like pipe and faucet. Second, I would prefer a more communicative approach to language learning. I beleive that it is easier to learn a language by seeing and hearing a lot of examples rather than doing grammar drills and memorizing patterns and rules. This book does have stories and dialogs in Tajiki which are helpful, but I would like to see more. There is also a very helpful companion CD with MP3 audio recordings of the dialogs it would be even better if it were expanded.

There is a dictionary at the end of the book, but since STAR publishes a separate, even more cmoprehensive dictionary this doean't seem necessary. I would rather have had more tajik stories, dialogs, and narratives on these pages.

In spite of a few shortcomings, this is a very good language text book.