Query: good 2nd year conversation book

[Mr Carmack]

> Consider picking up Pimsleur tapes.  They're
> expensive - but *boy*, they do work!

I saw the first set of 8 tapes at a retail books store but didn't want to
shell out $30 or whatever for an unknown. A week later I found the same set
in pristine condition at HalfPrice Books and I went ahead and paid half
price (or less) for them. Because of their 30-minute side length, they are
perfect for my commute to UT. I have mixed opinion about them. I was
disappointed that this first set didn't cover much ground. OTOH, I have some
sentences and phrases memorized from them that I can spiel off faster than
most of my Russian. And also, when we do learn something in class that I
have *already* heard on the tapes, the concept is easier to  grasp. You may
remember that in tape 6 or so, the phrase "Do you want to get something toi
eat?" and "To drink?" "Something" was [sto-nibut] which I had problems
hearing at first, but then I learned how to prenounce. Then two months later
we covered [sto-nibut] (sorry, I really have never learned how to
transliterate properly) in class and the two sources coalesced and I
connected the aural with the visual and grammtical and found it to be a bit
intuitive. I just took a test yesterday, and I changed two things on it,
which were probably right in the first instance, which shows that one
should, at one point, rely on intuition.

Anyway, I had NO idea there were so many tapes to Pimsleur. I doubt I can
shell out the price for many more of them, nit unless NASDAQ goes back up.
:-) But maybe in the future ...

I have also heard very good things about the Rosetta Stone CD-Rom program,
which also runs in the hundreds of dollars.

At any rate, I am not interested in multimedia right now, but a textbook to
converse with another human with.

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll keep the Pimsleur series in mind.

Joseph C

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