Review by bookartist1 -- Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Li...
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- Latest Review: Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition) by Peter Liptak
Review by bookartist1 -- Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Li...
[Following is a volunteer review of "Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition)" by Peter Liptak.]
4 out of 4 stars
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Idiom Attack – Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition) is very straight forward for what it is intended. I give it a 4 out of 4. There is a great deal of challenge and even as a native speaker of English I feel I benefited from having read this book. I most enjoyed using the idioms gone over in each chapter to fill in the blanks. There is a great deal of care given to the presentation of each word. Even though I am a native English speaker sometimes I found it took a while to fill them in. The English language is sometimes confusing even for native speakers.
I do not speak or read Chinese so I can not review how the Chinese translates to the English, but if it is done with the same care as the English portion of the book it will be quite helpful. I found the editing to be very good. There were no errors that I detected. The book also does not contain profanity, which may or may not be a good thing as it is so prevalent in speech today. The stories at the end of each chapter further add to the understanding of phrases in English which might seem strange to someone who speaks Chinese. I think a great deal of care was taken to express the meanings of things English speakers say without second thought in a manner which makes sense.
The colored boxes with the red text highlights make deciding what phrase is being taught easily understood. Synonyms and parts of speech are given in some instances along with notes on tenses and brief explanations of situational uses which make it even more clear. The illustrations are simple enough that they do not make the viewer over think what is meant and few enough to just pleasantly break up the text.
The chapters are broken into groups of idioms which are similar in use and subject matter which seems useful to learn about specific aspects of life. The acronym ASAP (pg.33) is covered and it's odd how as a native speaker I would never have given a second thought to it. In the work place ASAP may very well be something which Chinese speakers would find puzzling.
Speaking of puzzling, there are also crossword puzzles which appear after every four or so chapters. I found these to be challenging even as a native English speaker. Reading this on line, I had to print them out along with the questions to complete. This is what I least liked about this book. They took far longer than simply reading a book would but strongly re-enforce the material presented in the past sections. They were honestly what took so long for me to get through doing a review. Well worth the work as I feel that if the reader can successfully do these they truly understand the strange things which we English speakers take for granted in everyday conversation.
Peter N. Liptak, Matthew Douma, and Jay Douma have done a great job of explaining approximately 300 frequently used English idioms in the 25 chapters this book covers. Idiom Attack – Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition) is done in a three step training process. It is a great way to understand the phrases in which two or more words come together to create a unique meaning that is different from the meaning of each of the individual words or idiom. Because these combinations seem strange to non native English speakers this book does it's job well in preparing the Chinese speaking reader to tackle everyday speech in English. I imagine every language has these, but I was not aware of how many we native English speakers use to communicate. Idiom Attack – Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition) truly gave me a new appreciation for my own language!
******
Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Idiom Attack – Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition) is very straight forward for what it is intended. I give it a 4 out of 4. There is a great deal of challenge and even as a native speaker of English I feel I benefited from having read this book. I most enjoyed using the idioms gone over in each chapter to fill in the blanks. There is a great deal of care given to the presentation of each word. Even though I am a native English speaker sometimes I found it took a while to fill them in. The English language is sometimes confusing even for native speakers.
I do not speak or read Chinese so I can not review how the Chinese translates to the English, but if it is done with the same care as the English portion of the book it will be quite helpful. I found the editing to be very good. There were no errors that I detected. The book also does not contain profanity, which may or may not be a good thing as it is so prevalent in speech today. The stories at the end of each chapter further add to the understanding of phrases in English which might seem strange to someone who speaks Chinese. I think a great deal of care was taken to express the meanings of things English speakers say without second thought in a manner which makes sense.
The colored boxes with the red text highlights make deciding what phrase is being taught easily understood. Synonyms and parts of speech are given in some instances along with notes on tenses and brief explanations of situational uses which make it even more clear. The illustrations are simple enough that they do not make the viewer over think what is meant and few enough to just pleasantly break up the text.
The chapters are broken into groups of idioms which are similar in use and subject matter which seems useful to learn about specific aspects of life. The acronym ASAP (pg.33) is covered and it's odd how as a native speaker I would never have given a second thought to it. In the work place ASAP may very well be something which Chinese speakers would find puzzling.
Speaking of puzzling, there are also crossword puzzles which appear after every four or so chapters. I found these to be challenging even as a native English speaker. Reading this on line, I had to print them out along with the questions to complete. This is what I least liked about this book. They took far longer than simply reading a book would but strongly re-enforce the material presented in the past sections. They were honestly what took so long for me to get through doing a review. Well worth the work as I feel that if the reader can successfully do these they truly understand the strange things which we English speakers take for granted in everyday conversation.
Peter N. Liptak, Matthew Douma, and Jay Douma have done a great job of explaining approximately 300 frequently used English idioms in the 25 chapters this book covers. Idiom Attack – Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition) is done in a three step training process. It is a great way to understand the phrases in which two or more words come together to create a unique meaning that is different from the meaning of each of the individual words or idiom. Because these combinations seem strange to non native English speakers this book does it's job well in preparing the Chinese speaking reader to tackle everyday speech in English. I imagine every language has these, but I was not aware of how many we native English speakers use to communicate. Idiom Attack – Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition) truly gave me a new appreciation for my own language!
******
Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Trad. Chinese Edition)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
