Foreigner Books

This is not a narrative but a series of aphorisms which occasionally grow into more precise prose meditations. Aphorisms however sometimes sound like clever twists of logic which prove nothing but verbal dexterity though and that is one problem with Jabes work. But that weakness is also sometimes a strength as Jabes makes use of the malleability inherent in language to stress the malleability in individual identity which is his main theme in this, his last, book. The book is a meditation on what it means to be a foreigner. For Jabes who was forced out of his homeland Egypt in 1956 because he was a Jew and who lived in exile until his death in 1991 being a foreigner was something with which he was well acquainted. Through all of his aphorisms and twists of logic Jabes seeks a higher truth whereby contact with the foreigner or "other" leads to greater self-knowledge which in turn leads to the knowledge that we are all one and the same separated only by the biases of the age in which we live. The language is distinctly existential but the content is humanist.

To acknowledge that this history of the role of foreigners in the Confederacy contains a great deal of information would be a gross understatement. The only way it could contain more information would be if Ms. Lonn had provided more examples as proof of her points, which would in no way make the work any better. It's true that there's a certain redundancy to her approach, and much of the book proceeds, paragraph by paragraph, on the simplest statement-followed-by-example basis. For example, in the chapter on foreign-born officers in the southern army Lonn merely goes nationality by nationality, rank by rank, citing examples. Her approach is the same no matter what the category. Fortunately she is still able to write with style as well as authority, and although the book is weighty factually, it never bogs down in academic dullness. It's still a lively book, with enough interesting anecdotal information sprinkled throughout to keep most readers reading. She brings to the work certain prejudices (the English are models of courage and intelligence, the Irish much less so), but overcompensating for that is her tenacity to give the foreign-born their due as important participants in the Civil War south, something that is still underappreciated today in the research done on the war. I enjoy history books that were written during a time when historians sought literary approval and didn't just have axes to grind. This is one of those books.

Foreigners in the Union Army and Navy is an in-depth treatment of this little-explored topic. It concentrates mostly on the Army and foreign officers, since they left most of the personal accounts, but it gives insight to into the experiences of average immigrants new to the U.S. and foreigners looking for a war to be a part of. Buy it if you can get it (and afford it)!

This book isn't afraid to ask the hard questions and the two Japanese authors answer in both English and Japanese. They're asked about arranged marriages, slums in Japan, Geisha, Zen, mixed bathing, examination hell, drugs, juvenile delinquency, crime and much more. The answers they give are some of the frankest and most revealing I've read. It includes Japanese-English vocabulary list to help learn the other language.

This book is a well-thought out introduction to an incredibly complex language. Its approach is at once conversational and grammar focused. The grammar is presented with an absolute minimum of text, but lots of diagrams and pictures that gradually make the ideas clear. Hungarian sentence structure, which is notoriously unlike English, German, or Japanese with their fixed word orders, is presented in this book as a framework in which the verbal phrase is third in the sentence, following an optional subject and focused element. That may sound a bit complicated, but it works, and works effectively because of the book's carefully designed and consistently applied diagrams.

Early in the book, each chapter in the book introduces a different grammatical topic, starting with basic sentence structure, first with and without the copula, then locative cases, and intransitive verbs in the present tense. Transitive verbs and the accusative case don't appear until relatively late, which can be a limitation for early attempts at communication. Each chapter starts with a short reading text, and the texts are loosely related to a visit to Budapest. The texts are actually quite effective at preparing students for their own visit to Budapest, since they manage to cover districts of the city, transportation options, shopping, eating in restaurants, and tourist highlights. Inside the front cover is a handy chart summarizing the main types of verbal conjugation.

The standard organization of the chapters is pedagogically sound, especially for classroom usage. Following the short introductory reading is a graphical overview of the new grammar point for the chapter, then a variety of picture-based exercises to practice the grammar and vocabulary. A graphical lesson about sentence structure often follows, again with pictorial exercises for either verbal or written practice. A longer text often comes next, followed by a word list of new vocabulary for the chapter in Hungarian and English, organized by part of speech. The chapter closes with dialogues and review exercises that can be done orally, and finally a few bilingual translation exercises. What is especially strong about the exercises is that most of them are not simple translation or mechanical exercises. Instead, since they are pictorially-based, they get the students to create communicative attempts at the language without relying on visual memory of words or rote memorization. My only complaint about the book is that the word lists tend to be rather long- -much too new much vocabulary is tackled in each chapter. This book would be an excellent choice for classroom usage. Individual learners may find the textless grammatical points hard to understand without a teacher, but linguistically inclined students find the diagrams illuminate the heart of the matter.

I use these books while I am living in Korea. I review them while riding the bus, and listen to the CDs for the pronunciation. I also used these books with a private tutor. The book emphasizes syntax, dialogue, reading, and practice.

Not as easy or systematic as Stoker and Haddal, but also good and far better than the latter for learning to try to speak like a native (I can't, but can at least fool Swedes and Danes fairly often..). Contains colloquial dialogues but uses the formal 'De' which disappeared long ago in Norway. The three tapes are nice, my wife likes them very much and used them often during car trips to Norway.

Making the Foreign Serve China by Anne-Marie Brady is a very well researched look at waishi, China's policy of managing foreigners. The book chronologically reviews China's policy moves over the past hundred years regarding foreigners. It is fascinating to see the evolution of waishi. Understanding this history can help us form an understanding of how foreigners maybe viewed in China. The book is written more for the scholar than the casual reader. The facts are presented clearly allowing the reader to form their own conclusions.

This is the middle volume of the second trilogy -- roughly forty percent of the way through the projected twelve volumes, and events keep piling up on top of events. Bren Cameron, the human paidhi who now dreams in the atevi language, is called back down by the aiji from the space station, where the starship PHOENIX is being refitted and fueled, to attend a sort of memorial service for the ruler's late father -- late because Tabini almost certainly had him assassinated. Which isn't an untoward turn of events in atevi society. Bren wonders why he's there, though. And almost the moment he returns to the station, Senior Captain Ramirez, not in good health since the abortive rebellion of a few years before, has a final collapse and dies -- just after imparting a deep secret to Jason Graham, very junior captain (and also a junior-level paidhi by training in an earlier volume), to the effective that the second station out at Reunion wasn't completely destroyed by the unknown alien menace but was, in fact, still being held by survivors of the presumed attack. Now, suddenly, the PHOENIX is going to break station and go and rescue them. And Ilisidi, the aiji's extremely formidable grandmother will accompany them -- and so will the aiji's young son and heir. And so, he discovers, will Bren Cameron. Yes, it all sounds almost baroquely complex, and it kind of is, but it's also a deeply involving, extremely well thought out saga of interspecies relationships and misunderstandings and the continual efforts of a diplomat/translator to keep things running as smoothly as possible. This volume, being a sort of "bridge" volume in the plot, is a bit shorter than the others -- but it's really all one enormously long novel anyway. In fact, this may be Cherryh's magnum opus.

I consider Cherryh to be the premier science fiction writer I have read and enjoyed, since starting as a sub-teenager, back in the 1950s. The entire Foreigner series, to date, as there appear to be some more on the way, is absolutely outstanding. When I read the last book in the sequence, I went an ordered the entier set to date. And have enjoyed each and every one as well as the first and latest! If you have not read them, start at the beginning and be prepared to buy, read and retain each and every one. I am posting this verbatum on the other two requested Foreigner series books I have been given the opportunity for which to review!

This writer gets you addicted. Had to buy the whole series. Impossible to read just one!

This is definitely a "bridge" book and doesn't have a lot of story on its own. Yes, it has the "crisis" that us Foreigner series readers have some to expect but it is much more muted in this book and not that satisfying.

With the lack of a strong story on its own, the central "difficulty in communicating with an alien race" theme begins to grate a little after 5 books.

It seems kind of extreme to say it of a 464 page book, but I think it could almost have been edited down to be the first chapter of the next book in the series. When I see this kind of thing, I always wonder if the publisher is applying pressure to squeeze out that last dollar.

Explorer, the next book in the series, is out now in hardback and my expectations are very high that Ms. Cherryh gets the series back to the level of quality we have come to expect.

I am a long-time science fiction reader - now in my sixtys, I started reading science fiction (and fantasy) as a pre-teen. I started with Williams, Heinlein, Asimov, and Clark, and have almost completely been a fan of "thud and blunder" space opera (Hamilton) and "rivets" hard science fiction (the aforementioned "big three").

The Foreigner Universe series has caused the completion of my acceptance of sociological s.f., as well as my previously enjoyed types.

I won't try to analyze the books; that has already been done quite well, but I MUST recommend this series to those of you who haven't tried this category of s.f. before. You may not find it an easy read, but if you stick with it, I believe you will be well rewarded.

FAR better than rosetta (ugh) stone and MUCH better for pronunciation of words. And far better than the $200 plus dollars for the FIRST rosetta (ugh) stone course (of three courses costing around $500 plus for all 3 courses). I sent rosetta (ugh) stone's first course back after 3 weeks. Your choice of course.

Highly recommend this book to many who new to the language. The CD is okay, but it does go too fast to follow with. You definitely need to take advantage of the exercises in the book.

The book is OK. I was really disappointed that the CD does not play at all.

I have just bought the new edition (2007)with audio CD included.
It's certainly better than the old edition BUT the CD is silent, too bad and unpleasant for the price.

For the low price, this book is worthwhile even for beginners. however, the beginner should use this as a reference and jump into it once some foundations are grasped. And do the written exercises!

The ideal beginning book for me, "Beginning Tagalog; a course for speakers of English", is an audiolingual textbook from 1965 that I just happened to find gathering dust in my university library (no luck finding the original reel-to-reel tapes!). I wish I had Aspillera's book as a reference when I plowed through this textbook, as all the tourist phrasebooks are useless.

Though I had read "Basic Tagalog" cover-to-cover earlier this year, I put it in my backpack this summer, so that I could do some of the written exercises while living in the RP. I strongly recommend doing this, as it helps reinforce grammar. Also, speak out loud to yourself, and your understanding will also grow exponentially.

BTW, I met one westerner in Taiwan who learned Tagalog from the Aspillera book, and raved about it. Since he was quite fluent, I took this as evidence that language learning is what you make of it. Don't blame the books, just be thankful they are out there!

The subtitle of this book is "for Foreigners and Non-Tagalogs"; at the end of the summer my Visayan wife took this book home to Mindanao. She told me that the design of the book really is helpful to Pilipinos whose mothertongue is not Pilipino, despite the language training they get in school.

In sum, this book is very valuable for the serious learner of Tagalog, the basis of the official Pilipino language. Save your money by buying this instead of any of the tourist phrasebooks that might tempt you. Mabuhay!