Review by anonymreader -- Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday L...
-
anonymreader
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 12 Oct 2019, 23:01
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-anonymreader.html
- Latest Review: Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (German Edition) by Peter Liptak
Review by anonymreader -- Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday L...
[Following is a volunteer review of "Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (German Edition)" by Peter Liptak.]
1 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. The Idiom Attack is written by Peter N.Liptak, Matthew Douma and Jay Douma, and translated to German by Angela Basteri. It is a reference book that introduces nearly 300 idioms used daily separated into 25 sets. Each idiom is used in a sentence and defined. There is also a German translation of the sentence and the definition of the idiom. For each set, there is a quiz and answers and a short story with all the idioms and some questions and discussion topics. Since this is a German translation of an English or the Korean version, I cannot mark the German language, but the translator introduced seems to be credible. For the efforts put into the translation and the nice short stories that are easy to understand and entertaining, I left a star. I have a few issues with this book, which is why I took away three stars. The first and second are worth each one star while the third and fourth are worth one star.
The first and the most important issue is about the authors’ credentials. Logically when looking for a textbook among others, credibility is essential. It is because the book’s authors must have the qualifications to teach others on the subject. Writing a textbook about the English language requires the authors to have at least a master’s degree in English or be a known teacher or be part of a renowned academic organization. If the authors do have such accomplishments, why not mention it instead of mentioning their hobbies and daily life or their qualifications in other languages. Based on the authors’ description on their knowledge of English language and themselves, I will be less likely to buy the book.
The second major problem is the chosen idioms. In the preface, it was mentioned that synonyms of idioms will be provided, not that the idioms themselves would be synonyms nor that they would define another. For example, I don’t see the difference between “in no time”, “in a heartbeat” and “in a flash” nor “in the long run” and “in the short term.” Another point is that the definition of “fall asleep” contains “going to sleep” and “as soon as” has “right away” as part of the definition. It does not make sense to define an idiom using another idiom. There are also idioms that are specific to North America like “hang a left.” Other English speakers not in North America will not understand it. There are some idioms that are used and defined in a wrong context like “wake up” or “go out” or “shake hands.” The latter is used as a greeting which is a widely known English custom while it should be used as a synonym for “burying the hatchet.” There is also “long time no see,” which is just a way of speaking.
The third issue is about a few formatting problems. Firstly, in the preface, the audience is described as for intermediate and advanced English learners, but I feel that with such a format, it is more for beginner English learners that hardly understand English. I don’t understand why a beginner English learner would go learn idioms. Ideally, the English sentences and definitions would be first in order to be more familiar with English, and if the meaning of the sentence is unclear, the learner should then look at the translation. Secondly, there is a front issue after * in the short stories as well as in the idioms’ descriptions sometimes. It might be the file version problem, but the front inconsistency is too obvious and noticeable to ignore. Thirdly, I highly question the fact that answers for short quizzes are just after them. It is not enough to give clues in the quiz and there is also the translated version. It is like the authors are giving them the solutions directly. Where is the quiz effect? The short stories are nice, but what do you do with the questions or the discussions?It simply implies that there should be a teacher that uses this book and will give them to students to use, but by how many years German has been in contact with English, I highly doubt that there is no better textbook available.
The last issue is about some wrong statements. First, an idiom is not a phrase. It can be a phrase, but not all idioms are phrases, so this statement is wrong. Second, I don’t see the business part of idioms. Maybe it is in book 2, but since it is not a book 1, please do not mention this. I understand that the first version was written almost ten years ago, but I don’t see some of the idioms I usually use. I googled the most commonly used idioms in English and the majority of them are not in this textbook, so I don’t see where is the statement of choosing the most commonly used ones is correct. Where it the additional list of idioms with dual meanings after the index? There is only the index and the answers to the crosswords. I am not a proofreader, so I couldn’t find many syntax mistakes in the textbook, but please do mention why there is only one person introduced in the editor and proofreader section while it is said that there are many.
In conclusion, although I raised a lot of issues, there are a few good points about the book like the short stories which cleverly use all the idioms in the set and the idea of helping German students to understand English better. If those few points are corrected, it might be a better textbook. Afterall, there is a great difference between now and ten years ago. The internet was not much developed and there aren’t that many resources available for teachers online or at the bookstore.
******
Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (German Edition)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
1 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. The Idiom Attack is written by Peter N.Liptak, Matthew Douma and Jay Douma, and translated to German by Angela Basteri. It is a reference book that introduces nearly 300 idioms used daily separated into 25 sets. Each idiom is used in a sentence and defined. There is also a German translation of the sentence and the definition of the idiom. For each set, there is a quiz and answers and a short story with all the idioms and some questions and discussion topics. Since this is a German translation of an English or the Korean version, I cannot mark the German language, but the translator introduced seems to be credible. For the efforts put into the translation and the nice short stories that are easy to understand and entertaining, I left a star. I have a few issues with this book, which is why I took away three stars. The first and second are worth each one star while the third and fourth are worth one star.
The first and the most important issue is about the authors’ credentials. Logically when looking for a textbook among others, credibility is essential. It is because the book’s authors must have the qualifications to teach others on the subject. Writing a textbook about the English language requires the authors to have at least a master’s degree in English or be a known teacher or be part of a renowned academic organization. If the authors do have such accomplishments, why not mention it instead of mentioning their hobbies and daily life or their qualifications in other languages. Based on the authors’ description on their knowledge of English language and themselves, I will be less likely to buy the book.
The second major problem is the chosen idioms. In the preface, it was mentioned that synonyms of idioms will be provided, not that the idioms themselves would be synonyms nor that they would define another. For example, I don’t see the difference between “in no time”, “in a heartbeat” and “in a flash” nor “in the long run” and “in the short term.” Another point is that the definition of “fall asleep” contains “going to sleep” and “as soon as” has “right away” as part of the definition. It does not make sense to define an idiom using another idiom. There are also idioms that are specific to North America like “hang a left.” Other English speakers not in North America will not understand it. There are some idioms that are used and defined in a wrong context like “wake up” or “go out” or “shake hands.” The latter is used as a greeting which is a widely known English custom while it should be used as a synonym for “burying the hatchet.” There is also “long time no see,” which is just a way of speaking.
The third issue is about a few formatting problems. Firstly, in the preface, the audience is described as for intermediate and advanced English learners, but I feel that with such a format, it is more for beginner English learners that hardly understand English. I don’t understand why a beginner English learner would go learn idioms. Ideally, the English sentences and definitions would be first in order to be more familiar with English, and if the meaning of the sentence is unclear, the learner should then look at the translation. Secondly, there is a front issue after * in the short stories as well as in the idioms’ descriptions sometimes. It might be the file version problem, but the front inconsistency is too obvious and noticeable to ignore. Thirdly, I highly question the fact that answers for short quizzes are just after them. It is not enough to give clues in the quiz and there is also the translated version. It is like the authors are giving them the solutions directly. Where is the quiz effect? The short stories are nice, but what do you do with the questions or the discussions?It simply implies that there should be a teacher that uses this book and will give them to students to use, but by how many years German has been in contact with English, I highly doubt that there is no better textbook available.
The last issue is about some wrong statements. First, an idiom is not a phrase. It can be a phrase, but not all idioms are phrases, so this statement is wrong. Second, I don’t see the business part of idioms. Maybe it is in book 2, but since it is not a book 1, please do not mention this. I understand that the first version was written almost ten years ago, but I don’t see some of the idioms I usually use. I googled the most commonly used idioms in English and the majority of them are not in this textbook, so I don’t see where is the statement of choosing the most commonly used ones is correct. Where it the additional list of idioms with dual meanings after the index? There is only the index and the answers to the crosswords. I am not a proofreader, so I couldn’t find many syntax mistakes in the textbook, but please do mention why there is only one person introduced in the editor and proofreader section while it is said that there are many.
In conclusion, although I raised a lot of issues, there are a few good points about the book like the short stories which cleverly use all the idioms in the set and the idea of helping German students to understand English better. If those few points are corrected, it might be a better textbook. Afterall, there is a great difference between now and ten years ago. The internet was not much developed and there aren’t that many resources available for teachers online or at the bookstore.
******
Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (German Edition)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
