Product Description

HEAR IT, LEARN IT, SPEAK IT®

What is the Pimsleur® difference?

The Pimsleur Method provides the most effective language-learning program ever developed. The Pimsleur Method gives you quick command of Armenian structure without tedious drills. Learning to speak Armenian can actually be enjoyable and rewarding.

The key reason most people struggle with new languages is that they aren't given proper instruction, only bits and pieces of a language. Other language programs sell only pieces -- dictionaries; grammar books and instructions; lists of hundreds or even thousands of words and definitions; audios containing useless drills. They leave it to you to assemble these pieces as you try to speak. Pimsleur enables you to spend your time learning to speak the language rather than just studying its parts.

When you were learning English, could you speak before you knew how to conjugate verbs? Of course you could. That same learning process is what Pimsleur replicates. Pimsleur presents the whole language as one integrated piece so you can succeed.

With Pimsleur you get:

• Grammar and vocabulary taught together in everyday conversation,

• Interactive audio-only instruction that teaches spoken language organically,

• The flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere,

• 30-minute lessons designed to optimize the amount of language you can learn in one sitting.

Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever -- without books, written exercises, or drills. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

This is a great program
I put this in my car's CD player each morning and night and have really enjoyed the process of learning my mother's language.This program is really, really good. They introduce words and phrases, but it's not just "repeat this" but rather engages the learner to reconfigure the phrases to ensure you really understand rather than simply repeating.It's really rewarding.(alas, I can't really spell anything - it's all oral/aural - but for my purposes, this is all I need anyway!)

Challenging but fun instructional CD set
If you're curious about the languages and cultures of central and eastern Europe, this compact disc set will prove a very enjoyable introduction to one of them. I'd like to travel in the near future. This set includes instructions aplenty on everything from how to get something to eat, find your way around a city and get to know some new friends. Everything is repeated plenty of times, with breakdowns per syllable, so you can get the pronunciation just right.

It's all audio here, no written materials. That is the only slight drawback. Otherwise, the Pimsleur series can count another helpful gem in its lineup.

Great Way to Brush Up on (or start learning) Armenian
My Armenian was very poor, but I found these CDs easy to follow. You start with phrases that are repeated by two speakers, helping you figure out the correct pronunciation and also variations. The conversations progress as new words and phrases are introduced, but the speakers always remind you of words and phrases you've already used, so that you can remember them and learn how to work them into coversation.

Since I knew a bit to begin with, I can say that the pronunciation is good and the phrases are helpful. They tend to use the formal voice (rather than more informal terms that you might encounter everyday), but they are very useful CDs.

It's a great start
After just a few hours of listening to the CDs I was speaking Armenian and and I was being understood clearly as well. It's a great first step to learning Armenian

Excellent method; learn at your own pace
I ordered this so my husband and I could learn a little Armenian (I am of Armenian descent). I have other Armenian language tools, such as the VocabuLearn cassettes, a textbook, and Samuelian's transliteration dictionary, and they are all helpful in their own way, but in terms of amount of progress for time spent, Pimsleur beats them all.

If you have ever listened to the Pimsleur compact programs for other languages, you will be familiar with the structure. I have listened to the first lesson of two other languages, and the Western Armenian one is no different. They start out by teaching you how to ask someone if she understands Armenian (or whatever language the tapes are for), and by the end of the first lesson, you can understand and participate in a brief conversation that centers around that. Each subsequent lesson builds on that first lesson, teaching you more words and phrases. The lessons are in both English and Armenian, just as an FYI. This is not done in an immersion method.

The way that Pimsleur handles pronunciation is also very helpful, especially for individuals who are not used to hearing Armenian. Some of the words are very long, and can sound very confusing. Pimsleur walks you through the pronunciation of each word, starting with the final syllable and working backwards. My husband, who has pretty crappy pronunciation (since he didn't learn how to make the "gh" and "kh" sounds), has been doing surprisingly well with this method. I still have to help him out, but overall, it is as good as can be expected without an actual person telling you what you are doing wrong, although the lessons do usually address common mistakes.

Pimsleur also sneaks in grammar lessons, so you gradually figure out some of the grammar constructs. Some people catch on to this more easily than others, but the course does make an effort to teach you.

Now the bad: The Pimsleur course doesn't come with any written materials, so if you are confused about a particular sound ("Is that a "t" sound, or a "ts" sound?"), there is nothing to check to make sure.

Also, the Pimsleur courses (in general, not just the Armenian one) seem to be geared towards people travelling, rather than learning a heritage language to converse with relatives. The actual words and phrases that it teaches may not be helpful to you if you are learning it to converse with family. When will you really need to ask them if they understand English, or tell them that you are American?

Overall, though, this is the most user-friendly Western Armenian audio language tool that I have found, and I would still highly recommend it to anyone trying to learn the language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Foundation, Though Dated
As the previous reviewer stated this book is very good at teaching Eastern Armenian to anyone. The Lessons are good, and introduce new vocabulary when ever it is encountered in the dialogue. The grammar in each lesson is short and easy to understand. And later lessons include readings in Armenian, and the Armenian script is used throughout, though, as already stated in the last review, it does have errors, but as long as you learn the script from lessons 7-8, and keep track of the transcription of the Armenian it shouldn't cause much hassle. The transcription of the Armenian into roman letters is helpful for the pesky 'schwa' vowel which is not always written in Armenian script.

Overall this book is great for learning Armenian, there are only two things I would warn the prospective buyer. First, the audio may not be a must, but I highly recommend it due to Armenian having sounds that are not in English. Second, the text is out-dated. It was first made in the 1950's and then Spoken Language started printing it in the 1980's based upon the 1975 version of the text (I believe). The only last thing I will say is that this is one of the more readily available books for learning Armenian that is not too expensive (the book alone), as most of the other available (more updated) books are directly from Armenian and can cost some good money.

Structuralist lessons of Armenian, world-class
This is a textbook of Eastern Armenian, i.e. the variety that is spoken in the Republic of Armenia (part of the ancient homeland of the Armenians) and which differs somewhat in pronunciation, some grammar points, and above all in vocabulary from the other main variety, called Western Armenian which is spoken by most of the emigrant communities, such as in Beirut, France, or the USA. The book was originally published in 1958, but is amazing in its offer of helpful features for learners of a language which is so different from any of the other more wellknown Indo-European languages. An initial very long section describes in detail all the phonemes, their pronunciation and examples of words in which they appear. Then follow the lessons, which contain three columns on each page: to the left an English text, with glosses of each new word directly under each sentence; center, a transliteration into IPA phonetic symbols of the Armenian version of this sentence; right, the same Armenian sentence but in the real alphabet of that language. While this makes the pages kind of wide, it is very helpful. You are never in doubt about the meaning of a sentence, and the transliteration gives you support in deciphering the "true" Armenian-alphabet text which you will badly need for as long as it takes to master that alphabet.
A few negatives: there are many misprints in the Armenian text column (none in the English part!) but if you have gone through the lessons carefully you have the knowledge to see through these misprints, for instance Arm. "s" is often turned upside down so you think erroneously that there is an "o" there. Again, the transliterated center column helps you out since it will in that case display the correct "s". The textbook may also be viewed as somewhat dull in that it sticks exclusively to explaining the language and its grammar, no flavour of the country is provided so it is typical of the dullness of mainstream 20th century American structuralism.

The accompanying set of cassettes is a must for anyone following this course. A voice in broad American dialect says a word, then a very clear Armenian voice speaks the Armenian translation of that word, twice, with a short pause in between. When all new words of a particular sentence have been exposed in that way, the English voice utters the complete sentence, and then the Armenian correspondence of that sentence is spoken, again twice. At least 3 different Armenians speak, so you get used to different registers, all are very distinct and easy to listen in to. I bought my set about 15 years ago but the sound is still perfect, the noise level is virtually zero. Thus, the quality of both the textbook and the tapes are amazing. The pedagogical method of mid-20th century structuralism may be regarded as oldfashioned today by mainstream teachers, but I myself love it. I highly recommend this course.
... Read more

Product Description
Compact Eastern Armenian, a stand-alone 10-lesson (5 hours) program, teaches beginning language strategies for essential communication and traveling needs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Good set, not very complete
Good set but very limited. Would be great if it had more content like the Russian language set that is twice as big.

Won't take you far
This abridged Pimsleur course can be used as a companion to a real course, but certainly won't take you far and should not be used on its own. It will teach you around 200 words and leave you at that. While you will be able to greet someone and ask basic questions, you will have no chance of conversing for more than 30 seconds. There are several extensive Armenian courses available that will serve you better and at a much lower price.

Excellent start
An excellent way to start learning the building blocks of a language. There are no difficult grammatical tenses to remember. Armenian has many forms of grammar, but the course focuses on the conversation. You'll be amazed at what you can accomplish!

Not a Bad Start
I liked the way the exercises built upon oneanother.
Each progressive exercise reviews words and phrases from previous lessons; great reinforcement technique.
About the only think I didn't care much for was the fact that this WESTERN series contains/teaches a lot of EASTERN words and language. A Western Armenian friend of mine listened to the tape and was very disappointed that a good portion of the WESTERN tape was actually EASTERN Armenian langiuage.
Still, however, it's a good intorduction and no one will laugh at you if you master the EASTERN/WESTERN words. They'll just be jazzed that you know anything about the language at all!

Excellent!
I secretly bought these tapes and listened to them in my car.The first time I spoke Armenian to my future inlaws (Armenian is their first language)I almost had to pick my future mother-in-law up off the floor!I was thrilled with the result! I would recommend this program toanyone! ... Read more

Product Description
As an Indo-European language, Armenian has been the subject of etymological research for over a hundred years. There are many valuable systematic handbooks, studies and surveys on comparative Armenian linguistics. Almost all of these works, with a few exceptions, mostly concentrate on Classical Armenian and touch the dialects only sporadically. Non-literary data taken from Armenian dialects have largely remained outside of the scope of Indo-European etymological considerations. This book provides an up-to-date description of the Indo-European lexical stock of Armenian with systematic inclusion of dialectal data. It incorporates the lexical, phonetic, and morphological material in the Armenian dialects into the etymological treatment of the Indo-European lexicon. In this respect it is completely new. ... Read more

Product Description
This book examines the evidence for a special relationship between Greek and Armenian within the Indo-European family. It contains important studies of the methods used to assess interrelationships within language families; the comparative reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European; the interpretation of Greek and Armenian texts; and the developments of the Greek and Armenian languages. ... Read more

Product Description
An estimated 8 million people speak Armenian worldwide, split between the 3.5 million people in the Republic of Armenia who speak Eastern Armenian, and the Diaspora communities who primarily speak Western Armenian.

• Romanized for English speakers
• 4,500 total dictionary entries
• Extensive 32-chapter phrasebook
• Basic Eastern Armenian grammar and pronunciation
• Practical cultural information
• Perfect for travelers, businesspersons, and foreign aid workers

Customer Reviews (5)

Eastern Armenian Dictionary
I have had a hard time finding Eastern Armenian language resources so this was a treasure.Small enough that I carried it in my handbag the whole time I was in Armenia.There were only a couple of minor corrections made by my Eastern Armenian friends on a few words.Highly recommend.

disappointment
this dictionary is either out-dated or the writers simply did not think about how one would need to actually communicate while visiting Armenia.For the most part this dictionary is useless! Common words and phrases are not listed (like: how are you?), but what is in the dictionary is a section on war and relief aid---totally USELESS for your time in Yerevan or even in the village where I went to work for several weeks! some of the helpful parts were the "grey boxes" which highlighted food and drink or "common expressions" In fact, the word for yes is almost exclusively used as: Ha! not ayo, which is more of the western style.

Armenian Phrasebook
This is very good "pronunciation" dictionary for everyday travel phrases.It does not provide much help for reading, such as Armenian street signs or restaurant menu.If you're planning a brief stay in Armenia and want a small book for your jacket pocket, then this is probably the choice for you.

More a tourist guide than a wordbook
If yu are looking for a parlour to get around in Armenia, along with a simple wordbook covering the basics, this is your thing. I you need a wordbook to get around in the office and stuff like that, well, buy a real wordbook.

The book is divided into chapters useful for different situations. The chapter about how to get around in the doctor's office contains the sentence "please take off your clothes". Does not always work on Armenians, but it is a nice ice breaker!

Usable, but has a major flaw
First the bad news...
All the Armenian is ROMANIZED (ie. written in the alphabet used for the English language); NONE of it is written in the Armenian alphabet, not even in parentheses. For learning, this is really not a good thing. I know because when I hear Hebrew I visualize the words in Cyrillic (Russian alphabet), because I learned from a book where all the Hebrew was translated into Cyrillic. Once you learn that way it's just more work to re-learn it in the correct alphabet. At least the book contains a page that explains the transliteration system, so you can reverse-engineer the words back into Armenian.

Now the good news...
There is, as the author calls it, `a very basic grammar' section (eight pages long) in the front of the book. The second half of the book contains topic sections such as accommodation, shopping, health, politics, etc. that list useful vocabulary and a lot phrases. There are also cultural notes.

... Read more

Product Description
Western Armenian is the language spoken by most of the seven million Diaspora Armenians who live outside their historic homeland.Its speakers form the majority of Armenians in the United States and the Middle East.

Armenian is written in its own unique script, but it is presented here in a romanized, easy-to-use form for instant communication.In addition to a pronunciation guide, included are a resourceful two-way dictionary containing more than 4,000 entries, an informative grammar section, and a collection of travel-oriented phrases.Observations related to Armenian culture are interspersed throughout the phrasebook.There is also a brief history of the Armenian people and Diaspora. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Very Helpful
I bought this book to impress my new in-laws. I am also part Armenian but never spoke the language. This book was very helpful to me, precisely why others have indicated: the dictionary is in English letters. It's very useful, easily fits into my purse, and has useful phrases at the end of it. Interspersed throughout the dictionary are cultural facts and tidbits that help provide insight. To get started speaking Armenian, I would recommend this as a reference and the Pimsleur CDs to help pronounciation and to give insight on how conversations are structured. Trust me, my mother in law is thrilled.

Inch bes es?
Good book for the price.Wish it had many more pages and definitions though for Western Armenian.

BAD REVIEW! ARMENIAN DICTIONARY
CONSUMER BEWARE!!!Do NOT buy from this merchant!They didn't fail to charge my credit card BUT they failed to send me my book.If you don't like to be charged for something you won't get, STEER free from this Merchant!I learned my lesson!I have reported this merchant to my Credit Card company.What a hassle!

This book is great
There aren't very many options for learning Western Armenian, but this book is great. I also purchased "Vocabulearn Western Armenian: Level 1 (VocabuLearn)" which was helpful for hearing pronounciation, but doesn't come anywhere near the usefulness of this book. This book includes an introduction to Armenian culture, as well as an introduction to grammer. Many other options translate from English to Armenian -- which doesn't help unless you can read Armenian. This books translates into phonetically spelt English - it's great. The book has both the dictionary that permits you to look up words, as well as the phrasebook with familiarizes you with common phrases. The phrasebook is organized into useful areas like "etiquette" or "food and drink" etc. This book is an excellent buy. ... Read more

Product Description
This grammar of Modern Eastern Armenian gives a precise and explicit description of the Eastern Armenian language of the Republic of Armenia. It covers not only the normative tradition but, more importantly, also describes the colloquial language as it is used in Armenia today. With regard to methodological approach and terminology it fully meets the demands of modern general linguistics and typology. This grammar will be of interest not only to the specialised readership of descriptive and comparative linguists, of typologists and of armenologists, but to all those who would like to acquaint themselves with linguistic data from living Armenian. It will also be of use to students wishing to learn Modern Eastern Armenian and to lecturers in Modern Eastern Armenian language courses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Perfect LANGUAGE textbook
For those who want to efficiently learn a LANGUAGE, this is great. I have fallen in love. Yes, it is mostly written in Armenian characters, but they take little more than an hour to learn. If you want to communicate in Armenian, you must know the writing too. Make yourself flashcards if you must, as I did. This book gives you useful vocab quickly, and hands out grammar just as fast. No wasting time viwith gnettes and long-drawn explanations--you can get those elsewhere--just diving into the language's ins and outs. This is the third language other than my mother tounge that I have studied, my second self-driven foray (following Japanese), and I love that this book trusts that I understand core terms like "conditional" and "definate article." It plays to my groove. Don't get me wrong, it (consisly) shows how to make these constructions and doesn't drown you in linguist-major terms like "ablative case," but it's no kiddy book with colors and hand-holding. Plenty of practice with Armenian to English and English to Armenian drills. Nicely double-spaced lines. Beautiful hardcover binding. Perfect pacing: fast not impossible, but NOT slow. Learn the vocab, practice the structure and you can't go wrong.

The next edition needs to be set in far larger typefaces . . .
The main problem with Bardakjian's textbook is that the typefaces -- both roman and Armenian -- are extraordinarily tiny.Because the Armenian alphabet has more than several letters that resemble one another, new Armenian readers are served poorly by these inexplicably small fonts.The textbook also suffers from a lack of exercises, and the few exercises that are printed at the end of each chapter have no answer key.

Useless for those who doesn't speak Armenian
This book just shows you the letters in couple pages, and everything else is written with armenian letters with english translations next to it. In the beginning, all letters are listed in couple pages, and author expects you to master the letters in those couple pages and start to read the language on the rest of the book! There's no way you can pronounce these words by just studying letters in those couple pages. How do you suppose to learn the languagage by trying to read letters you've never seen and practiced in your life before? I don't know what the writer was thinking about this when he wrote the book. And if you want to buy the tapes, there's a "not very informative" tape purchase option in the last page.
I assume this book is written to teach how to read and write Armenian for those who already know how to speak Armenian. Totally useless and even more frustrating book for those who doesn't speak Armenian and trying to learn from scratch.

A good start
This book is a great grammatically guide to W. Armenian. Although it lacks in the "fun" that language textbooks tend to offer, it's the best out there for Armenian.

Highly useful.
A thorough introduction to the language.Rather dry in style, but with many examples and exercises.More up-to-date than Gulian's classic textbook.Well worth the effort to master.Total beginners should orderthe accompanying tapes (advertised in the book) or have access to a nativespeaker for help in pronunciation. ... Read more

Product Description
*Over 9,000 total entries

*Eastern Armenian dialect

*Phonetic pronunciation for each language

*Concise, easy-to-use format

*Ideal for the student and traveler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

my comments
It is an awesome book, easy to carry and read and understanding the armenian language...

Regards

Armenian-English English-Armenian Dictionary
Hippocrene Concise Dictionary.

Very good as far as I can tell. It's the Eastern Armenian dialect. I've just started Armenian to prepare for a vacation there.

OK...not comprehensive
This is NOT by any means a comprehensive dictionary.For the most part, however, it is sufficient for the beginner and/or the casual user and/or the child in the family.It is not a serious dictionary, mainly due to its conciseness, lack of depth and range.

It's a concise dictionary, which means that there are short translations (1 or 2 word, maybe a sentence) and without much, if any, explanations and/or any examples.

Not too bad
This is the best Eastern Armenian dictionary available outside of Armenia. It's pretty complete, although not exactly as up-to-date as one may like. It comes in 2 different sized pocket versions, which are nice to have when travelling. For a serious translator or scholar, this dictionary leavessomething to be desired.

This book is not modern
I have had the chance to use the book while living in Armenia and unfortunately the book uses words that are not modern and really dates itself. There were a few words and phrases that will help with basiccommunication but all in all this book was not helpful to me. I found thatpurchasing books in country much more helpful as they were modernized tomeet the everday needs of life in Armenia ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the unattested, reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The existence of such a language has been accepted by linguists for over a century, and there have been many attempts at reconstruction. Nevertheless, many disagreements and uncertainties remain.There are several competing hypotheses about when and where PIE was spoken. The Kurgan hypothesis is "the single most popular" model, postulating that the Kurgan culture of the Pontic steppe were the hypothesized speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. However, alternative theories such as the Anatolian urheimat and Armenian hypothesis have also gained acceptance. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Pimsleur has been a recognized name in language training for decades, and updated Audiofy audiobook chip editions of Pimsleur Compact courses combine a handful of cassettes or CDs onto a tiny memory card - yielding an affordable, durable, more portable product. Each Audiofy audiobook chip, hardly larger than a stamp, holds an unabridged Compact course with five hours of digital audio, and saves the last listening position automatically (unlike CDs).Created for adult learners, this Pimsleur Compact Eastern Armenian edition offers ten half-hour lessons, providing "meet and greet" conversation skills to enrich upcoming travel, begin adjusting as a new arrival, or surprise and bond a bit more closely with a foreign-born relative. Like all Pimsleur courses, the lessons emphasize good pronunciation and common courtesy, allowing practical interaction with native speakers.This Audiofy audiobook chip edition can be played on Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh desktop computers or laptops (Microsoft Windows XP/2000/Me/98, or Apple Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above) using an SD memory card slot or adapter, like those for digital cameras. Audiobook chips also move seamlessly to most Palm OS and Pocket PC handheld PDAs with SD expansion slots, as well as Treo and Windows Mobile "smartphones" (Palm OS 5.2 or Windows Mobile 2002 and above).Audiofy audiobook chips avoid the lengthy downloading or "syncing" of other digital formats. Audiofy audiobook chips offer "no look" navigation, announcing your listening position with two button clicks and letting you jump to other lessons in seconds. It's also ideal for anyone hindered by the small displays on some devices. Since university linguist Dr. Paul Pimsleur designed courses that are almost entirely audio-based, they are suitable for traveling, commuting or exercising. With Audiofy audiobook chips, this proven technique is now more convenient than ever. ... Read more

Product Description
How did you learn to speak?

You probably don't even know. You listened to your parents, gradually understanding the meanings of sounds, words, and then whole sentences. Then, once you had absorbed or assimilated the meanings of the word associations, you began to link words and form your own sentences. Assimil applied this same natural process adapting it to the abilities of adults, young and old.

You assimilate in two phases:
The Passive Phase
The Active Phase

The first step is to familiarize yourself with the new language through daily sessions lasting 20 to 30 minutes. You listen and read and you understand what is being said through the translation provided. You repeat each sentence aloud to practice your pronunciation, with the help of easy phonetic spellings and, better still, recordings. During the Passive Phase you shouldn't try to form sentences. Just immerse yourself in the language. Every seventh lesson you'll find a review of all the points covered in the previous six lessons and a summary of the main grammar points learned during the week. The key to success is the daily routine.

The first two weeks are crucial. The rest will come naturally.

The Active Phase starts when you have acquired enough passive knowledge around Lesson 50.

This phase continues alongside passive learning, and involves revising Lesson 1, then Lesson 2 and so on, completing one active and one passive lesson each day.

In the Active Phase, you cover up the text in the target language and, using the translation on the opposite page, try to say it out loud or in writing if you wish. The Active Phase continues throughout the entire second half of the book. For most major languages, it takes about five months to assimilate a course of 100 lessons.

You'll be amazed at your results! During this second phase, you will be building sentences with ease and this encourages you to go on and complete your course.

A With Ease course will enable you to reach a level of fluent everyday conversation. ... Read more