[.ca] Colloquial Danish Pack: The Complete Course for Beginners (ISBN 0415301815)

OK except for pronunciation:
Though Colloquial Danish is in some respects a good introductory book, it is seriously lacking in the one area of the language most challenging for English speakers, namely, pronunciation. Unlike most other textbooks in the Colloquial series, there is no introductory section on pronunciation guiding you through sound-spelling relationships-only a very inadequate four-page section in the back. (It is quite misleading in its approximation of most of the vowels-just listen to the native speakers on the tapes-and its dismissal of the glottal stop-"a slight coughing-like stop that can turn up almost anywhere"-is inexcusable.) This deficiency would be somewhat remedied if there were lots of text material on the tapes, but unfortunately there isn't. In contrast with, say, the Swedish and Dutch volumes in the Colloquial series (which share some of the dialogue content), none of the reading passages in the book are on the tape, which disappointed me greatly. If the book is ever redone, I suggest the authors/editors include a simplified phonetic transcription of ALL the words used in the book, either with the lessons or in the vocabulary at the end, plus recordings of the reading passages. Danish spelling is difficult enough for Danish schoolchildren, and foreigners can hardly be expected to master it without more help than this book gives.

Needs some improvements:
I normally really like this series for helping to learn languages, but this one leaves a lot to be desired. The tape is good, but the book needs work. You spend about a 1/3 of your time looking words up in the dictionary because the lessons have no real vocabulary lists to help you build a vocabulary. (around chapter 4 they start listing key words you may not know). Its terribly hard to learn vocabulary when it is never introduced and you have to constantly look things up. Get vocabulearn or Berlitz to learn vocabulary and then get this later to learn the grammar.

Good companion:
If you have a good introductory book this will be an excellent companion. Otherwise I can't recommend it.

A Winning Book:
I love this book. It is consistently challenging, yet doesn't move too quickly. I was impressed with how easily I was able to grasp and retain Danish. This is the best Danish instruction book for adults I've come across.