Review by UnicornKnight -- Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday ...

[UnicornKnight]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition)" by Peter Liptak.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Reading Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition) was actually more insightful than I thought it was going to be. As someone who considers English as their first language and Chinese a mere third, I was trying to get into the head of someone who had to come from Chinese ideologies. There were actually a lot of phrases I did not think were considered idioms but after seeing them in this book, realized that they may not have been as straightforward as I initially thought.

As a supplementary material for an ESL class, I think this book would be great. It has exercises with answers, a short story per chapter involving the different idioms, and even some guide questions that can facilitate more conversation between students. That being said, this book might be a little harder to use if you are just studying English on your own.

Each category or theme of idioms is presented in the same format, with a sample sentence written in traditional Chinese with the idiom placed in the sentence in English. This is then translated into a full English sentence then the definition of the idiom, sometimes with a synonym and/or a remark pertaining to the origin of the idiom. I think these synonyms and remarks are especially important as it gives the reader more contexts on the idiom.

After these sample sentences comes the short story. While grammatically correct, I think there needs to be some warning for students that these idioms are not normally used all together like how it is done in the story. Sometimes the sentences seem forced to include the idiom, and are not natural sounding at all. As long as it is explained to the learners that idioms should be used more sporadically, I think this is okay.

After every 5 chapters there’s a crossword puzzle you can do which involves all of the idioms you have learned in the said 5 chapters. Some of the hints are just definitions; some of them are fill in the blank statements. All in all there is enough variety in the exercises to ensure the reader can understand the idiom in different ways, however a thing to note is that all the exercises, apart from the short story itself, is in complete English, which can pose a problem to some people as they may not completely understand the sentences. There is an occasional translation for specific words but the reason for choosing these specific words to be translated is not clear.

I did catch a translation error, but this was a noun mistake and not vital to the sentence construction and definition, which I think are the 2 most important parts in an English grammar book. I rate this book 4 out of 4 as an introduction to commonly used idioms in the English language. Its editing is pretty well done and the explanations are clear both in Chinese and in English. All the exercises use the idiom quite well, and the discussion questions are split between ensuring the reader understood the use of the idiom and starting an English conversation with another person. Again, this is a great book to introduce to any ESL class.

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Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition)
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[Kelyn]

I, unfortunately, only speak English. I can just imagine how confusing some of our standard, everyday idioms might be tough for someone who's first language is not English to understand. Phrases like "sitting around the house" must seem nonsensical to them! Good job on the review!