Go Dutch!

An unconventional story about a private detective anchors this textbook for beginning Dutch. The story, in a mock film noir style, is serialized in the first twenty chapters. The story is outrageous by textbook standards, and includes silly jokes and corny Dutch sayings("if my cat was a cow, I could milk her") as well as G-rated sex scenes. Indignant letters from fictitious organizations protesting the story are included as supplementary readings. This approach thoroughly lightens the the hard work of learning a foreign language. After working through this book, I have a basic knowledge of Dutch verb tenses and a good start on handling the shifting word order. A few of the Dutch words used are not in the glossary, and the grammar summary at the end is abbreviated. There are only a couple of pages on pronunciation and phonetic spellings are not used. At the end of the book, there is a thirty page section with more conventional dialogues on visiting the Netherlands. I thoroughly enjoyed this textbook - the serialized story kept me plugging away. This is for someone who wants to actually learn the language, and not just a few conversational niceties. If you want to speak (and not just read) the language, you need additional materials - the Pimmsleur CD's are terrific for learning pronunciation.