My offline friends know I’m a language fiend. I’m not particulary good at most of them, but I like to collect them. 😀 And books about them. 😀
So I’m keeping this post to remind myself of exactly what language-learning books I have and to show them off 😀
French
- Le bon usage, a giant French grammar of everything and anything you could possibly need to know (okay, I’m exagerrating, but this is one huge book. It’s bigger than my dictionary.)
- Grammaire pratique du français d’aujourd’hui, another grammar book, but written in French for non-Francophones.
- Grammaire complète, a grammar I bought in Québec. Now that I have it I’m not too sure I need it anymore. It uses odd capitalization (le Subjonctif; le Conditionnel) but it has really cute pictures XD
- French Prose Composition, it’s an exercise book for English to French translation. There are no answers though, just a very interesting preface. XD
- Ensuite, a random French textbook I bought at a library book sale. I don’t know where this went, actually.
- C’est la vie, ditto.
- Collins-Robert Pocket French Dictionary, still going strong after many years of service!
- La petite Larousse, 197x, I can’t remember when exactly it was published, but it’s old. It has pictures though, helpful for when you can’t figure out what kind of tree an ‘epinette’ is (it’s a pine, I think.)
- Le micro Robert, dictionnaire linguistique que j’ai acheté au Québec. It’s awesome.
- Mettre de l’ordre dans ses idées, a book all about connecteurs! 😀 Cost me an arm and a leg but given the emphasis my prof in Québec put on them, I think it’s well worth the cost.
- Larousse: Difficultés Grammaticales, a small little reference book for those little details of French grammar. Surprisingly cheap, too 😀
- Plus a whackload of literary works (Voltaire, Ionesco, etc.)
Japanese
- French-Japanese dictionary, it is t3h awesome. Case closed. I can’t really use it, but still…
- Japanese for Busy People, Vol I (kana edition), a cute find, but unfortunately I am already familiar with 90% of the lessons presented here (not that I recall them exactly: I never liked numbers in Japanese.)
- Japanese for Busy People, Vol II.
- 250 Kanji Essential for Everyday Use, Vol II (or some such title). Haven’t even looked at this.
- Conversational Japanese: the Cortina method, this book is so old it comes with an offer for a free record. XD
(I am getting tired of these comments, and in any case, they are only interesting for the French ones, anyway.)
German
- Pocket Oxford German Dictionary
- Berlitz German Grammar handbook
- Teach Yourself German
- Teach Yourself German Grammar
- Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik
Chinese (Mandarin)
- Chinese: an essential grammar
- Chinese in 10 Minutes a Day, ‘gift’ when I was, oh, 5, and HOW IT SHOWS.
Chinese (Cantonese)
- Elementary Cantonese, Vol I, currently on loan to someone somewhere.
Spanish
- Collins Spanish Dictionary
- Teach Yourself Spanish
Vietnamese
- Essential Vietnamese Phrases
Russian
- The Penguin Russian Course