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Professor Arguelles’ Books

 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery Post Reply
38 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4
ProfArguelles
Moderator
United States
foreignlanguageexper
Joined 7266 days ago

609 posts - 2102 votes 

 
 Message 33 of 38
20 April 2008 at 8:11pm | IP Logged 
Makrasiroutioun and Rebecka, thank you so much for your continued interest in my book. I will make the table of contents public soon in an open pitch to get an agent or editor interested in it because I am afraid it is just not something that I will ever be able to polish off on my own, to my own satisfaction. Thank you, Rebecka, also for your interest in actively studying at an academy of Polyglottery. I was not engaging in idle fantasy in articulating my pedagogical philosophy, and I truly hope and pray to lay the initial foundations of some form of that institution in the very near future.
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ProfArguelles
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United States
foreignlanguageexper
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609 posts - 2102 votes 

 
 Message 34 of 38
04 May 2008 at 9:05pm | IP Logged 
I have put the chapter outline for my book on my website. At this point, I am blatantly fishing for a professional editor/agent to push me through the necessary polishing and final production. It is just not something that I can do on my own – I bog down in the mire of details every time I try. For this reason, I will not self-publish this work, or make any kind of e-book out of it, or even publish it anywhere where I will have to do all the final preparation on my own. No, sorry, I will either do this one right, in a big way, or not at all.
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JasonChoi
Diglot
Senior Member
Korea, South
Joined 6369 days ago

274 posts - 298 votes 
Speaks: English*, Korean
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Latin

 
 Message 35 of 38
30 May 2008 at 3:57am | IP Logged 
paranday wrote:
mumusik wrote:
Unfortunately, there is no audio... If you hear that they are released, please mention it


The audio is now available from Dunwoody on 3 CDs:


Audio for Korean Newspaper Reader


Has anyone purchased these CDs? I'm curious to know if the North Korean articles are read with a Northern dialect.

-Jason

Edited by JasonChoi on 30 May 2008 at 3:57am

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Kronos
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5271 days ago

186 posts - 452 votes 
Speaks: German*, English

 
 Message 36 of 38
01 February 2012 at 10:57pm | IP Logged 
ChristopherB wrote:
Professor,

I have some heartening news! After e-mailing the Maliks store, your English French Spanish German Dictionary is indeed in stock. So I placed an order for it. Now, despite the typical kinds of ludicrous shipping costs ($25 in this case) to be expected for books - especially to a far-out little country like New Zealand - my order arrived just now and within three days. Am I a happy chappy? Why yes.

Here is a pic, just for excitement's sake:


To any of those who would like a copy, and can afford the costs ($43 including shipping outside Lebanon; the book itself is only $18), I heartily recommend you do so, as the shipping speed was phenomenal.

I will be sure to make great use of this book, especially when I take up Spanish in the very near future. I do find it terribly disappointing that such a work is not nearly as accessible as it should be. Professor, you say that seven years were spent compiling this dictionary; is it not at all possible to have it republished or made more accessible? There is no reason why such a work could not find its way into a Borders store or a University library.


I was also fortunate to get hold of a copy. Seeing it first mentioned here on this thread I ordered it straight from the publisher's website (ldlp.com) in May 2010. The search function of their website was defective, you could only find and track down the book searching for its ISBN number, 9953860564, without dashes, and it was listed under "Alexander", not "Arguelles". The shopping process was also a somewhat tricky matter, but eventually I got through and received an automatic confirmation.

But afterwards everything went on smoothly. Price of the book was a mere $20 plus $9 shipping cost from the Lebanon to mainland Europe. Shipping took 9-10 days, the packaging was good and the book arrived in good shape complete with formal invoice. It is just that their website didn't work as it should.

So, if anyone wants to have his/her own copy of Professor Arguelles' multilingual dictionary I suggest you directly contact the publisher, maybe they still have stock (I would guess so). Just now their online shop appears to be in the process of reconstruction, so if you want the book you might have to contact them via e-mail (click on the 'LDLP Shop' tab on their website).

Good luck!

[EDIT Feb 4, 2012: Price of the book (without shipping) was only $20, not $29 as I had originally written]

Edited by Kronos on 04 February 2012 at 12:36pm

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translator2
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6929 days ago

848 posts - 1862 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 37 of 38
02 February 2012 at 12:32am | IP Logged 
Book can be found at this store in London

And this on-line store in New York

How does this book compare with Harrap's Five Language Dictionary (same languages and same number of entries):
Harrap's Five Language Dictionary


Edited by translator2 on 03 February 2012 at 4:12pm

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Kronos
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
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186 posts - 452 votes 
Speaks: German*, English

 
 Message 38 of 38
04 February 2012 at 3:09am | IP Logged 
translator2 wrote:
How does this book compare with Harrap's Five Language Dictionary (same languages and same number of entries):
Harrap's Five Language Dictionary


I don't know the Harrap's, but they both seem to be organized in a different manner. An Amazon reviewer writes:

"The book is laid out alphabetically like one large spreadsheet, with one column for German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. There is just one problem, the book is laid out alphabetically irrespective of language. So instead of the left main column being just English or French, it is all the languages. Example one entry on the left column will be by the way(eng) and the next entry is calbagar(span) etc."

In Prof. Arguelles' dictionary the order is also alphabetical, but the headwords are all in English. English is the language of reference here. Sequence of entries is like: faculty, fade, fail, and so on throughout the whole book. The layout is that of a common dictionary, without special columns. Each entry starts with the English word, followed by the closest equivalents in each of the other three languages, often accompanied by synonyms in order to indicate the specific meaning. In the case of incongruities among the languages there are several entries for the English word, for instance five entries for "fail" (not succeed, fail a test, etc. - of which each has a somewhat different vocabulary in one or several of the other languages). The book does not give example sentences or phrases, but it was never meant to replace ordinary bilingual dictionaries anyway.

I have not used the book much and I can only speak for German as this is my native language, but my impression is that the dictionary has obviously been prepared with considerable diligence. There are only few mistakes or awkward choices in translation - probably not more and not less than in any bilingual dictionary of the big publishing houses.

There are some minor blunders and inaccuracies though. I just had a look, scanning a number of pages for mistakes and checking for difficult words. Here are some noticeable slips: "jinx", with the specification of "person who brings bad luck", has been given the German equivalent "Unglücksrabe", although the German word would refer to a person who is befallen with bad luck rather than passing it to others (synonymous with "Pechvogel"); anyway I admit the distinction is not entirely strict and I had myself to consult a German-German dictionary in order to become sure about it. "philandering" has curiously been translated by the relatively innocuous "Flirten" (flirting), "martial arts" by "Kriegskunst" (an outdated or literary synonym for "Kriegsführung" = "military strategy") instead of the correct "Kampfkunst" or "Kampfkünste" (methods of self-defense). "petroleum" is translated with the false friend "Petroleum" (kerosene, (UK) paraffin - used in lamps or for cleaning purposes) instead of "Erdöl" (or Rohöl, = crude oil). However, the very next headword "petroleum product" is correctly translated as "Erdölprodukt". -- It has to be noted that all these are exceptions, there are not many of them.

On the other hand the dictionary wisely translates the somewhat tricky term "marmalade" as "Orangenmarmelade", which is accurate since the German word "Marmelade" without further specification can refer to all varieties of jam, or adds the explanatory term "Zimmerflucht" to "Suite" (of rooms), which is very fine German indeed. As a general rule the translations into German are accurate, reflect contemporary usage, and are sufficiently aware of nuances in meaning. There are occasional slips as noted above, but only one in a couple of pages.

I feel this book would be of greater use, for language learners at least, if it was structured by theme rather than merely in alphabetical order; in fact this was intended and there is a classification list at the beginning of the book, but due to technical reasons this system could not be integrated in the present edition. I think two languages (Russian and Korean) were already prepared but eventually not included, and some other languages like Italian and Arabic proposed. In its present, maybe truncated form it yet has more than 20,000 entries, each of them duly translated into French, Spanish and German. To compile this dictionary must have been one helluva work. Generally such books are prepared by teams of specialists, not one single person as main author, at least nowadays.

So much about the book. I do not really know what to do with it, but I am glad that I have it. As it includes only more or less frequent vocabulary, one could maybe make good use of it mining for new words in advanced stages of learning any of the four languages covered.


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