Resources for getting started with Georgian

[zebracoupe]

Hi all,

Excitingly I have just booked a 2-week holiday to Georgia at the end of September. Before I go, I would like to learn as much Georgian as I can, within the constraints of full-time work and other life commitments.

Does anyone have any recommendations for resources for beginners with Georgian? I have downloaded and used the Peace Corps course to learn the alphabet and some of the basics, but wasn't sure where to go from there.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

[mcthulhu]

http://www.101languages.net/georgian/; the Georgian flashcard sets and phrase lists might help. There are also quite a few Georgian language videos on YouTube.

That site has a link to Georgian resources for sale on Amazon. Learn to Read Georgian in 5 Days fits your timeline... though I tend to avoid titles like that. I was surprised how long the list was; there is a lot available. Georgian vocabulary for English speakers - 3000 words looks attractive, for instance. There might be a limit to how much you can absorb in 2 months, though.

[Speakeasy]

Availability of Georgian Resources
I have never studied Georgian and I have no plans of doing so. Nevertheless, your question intrigued me and, having conducted a quick tour of the Internet, I was rather surprised by the dearth of materials and information available for this language. I assembled what information I could find (without over-exerting myself) and offer it in the hope that it might be of some use to you as well as to any others wishing to study this language. In my searches, I attempted to locate what-I-consider-to-be “useful” language-learning materials for Beginning independent-learners; that is, courses, websites, et cetera having abundant, relevant audio recordings and transcripts. Unfortunately, it would seem that, for English-speakers, there are not a lot of options for this language.

The Georgian Language and the Difficulties of Learning It
The language forum that preceded this one, the How-To-Learn-Any-Language (HTLAL) forum, does not have a “Language Profile” for Georgian. However, there is a short, but very interesting, article on the Georgian language on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_language). As to the difficulties that learning this language pose for native speakers of English, it is worth noting that, some years ago, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) published a ranking of a number of foreign languages. Georgian was included amongst the “Class IV” languages, along with Russian. That is, learning Georgian represents quite a challenge and, as it happens, learning this language is even somewhat more difficult to learn than Russian (http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty).

Courses NOT Available
With a view to saving a bit of time to those persons who are interested in learning Georgian, I conducted a search of the websites of several publishers that are known for having published a large selection of introductory language courses for the “less popular” languages. In addition, I conducted searches on Amazon, AbeBooks, eBay, Alibris and elsewhere looking for out-of-print materials by these publishers. I am fairly confident that the publishers listed below do not have, or no longer have, courses or files for learning/practicing Georgian:

Assimil
DLI (Defense Language Institute)
DLI GLOSS
FSI (Foreign Service Institute)
Glossika Mass Sentences
Linguaphone
Living Language
Pimsleur
Routledge Colloquial Georgian (was once available, now out-of-print)
SLS (Spoken Language Services)
Teach Yourself

Courses to Avoid
Should anyone happen upon the following courses, based on my experiences with their products for learning German, I would strongly recommend that they not purchase these.

Euro Talk: Talk Now! Learn Georgian

Courses Worth Considering (English Base)
Based on the few comments that I was able to glean from the HTLAL, from reviews on the Internet, from my personal experience with courses by these publishers for other languages, I offer the following list of materials for consideration.

Basic Georgian, by Nana Danelia
The audio recordings for this course are freely-available on the Indiana University’s CeLT website (http://www.iu.edu/~celtie/georgian_g311_g312_g511_g512.html) and the course received some praise on the HTLAL. Alas, during my searches of the Internet, I was unable to locate a copy of the corresponding course book.

Beginner's Georgian (Hippocrene Books) by Dodona Kiziria
This course appears to be one of the texts adopted by the Indiana University; however, the audio files on the CeLT are available to registered students and faculty only. It seems to have received some praise on the HTLAL. Fortunately, the book and accompanying two CDs are still available for purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Georgian-2-Audio-CDs/dp/0781812305/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500749654&sr=1-1&keywords=Beginner%27s+Georgian+with+2+Audio+CDs

Book2 Georgian by Johannes Schumann
The Book2 website contains basic, “phrase book” courses for a large number of languages. While you need not purchase the accompanying course book, you can if you so wish (https://www.amazon.com/Book2-English-Georgian-Beginners-Languages/dp/1440443386/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500749654&sr=1-3-fkmr0&keywords=Beginner%27s+Georgian+with+2+Audio+CDs)

Georgian: A Reading Grammar by Howard Aronson
Although this book is a grammar, I chose to include it in this list because the audio recordings, or a portion of them, are freely-available on the Indiana University’s CeLT website (http://www.iu.edu/~celtie/georgian_g311_g312_g511_g512.html) and (https://www.amazon.com/Georgian-Reading-Grammar-audio-text/dp/1579702929/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500750083&sr=1-8&keywords=Georgian+with+Audio+CDs)

Peace Corps Georgian
Although the OP mentioned of the Peace corps Georgian course, I have included it this list for completeness. Furthermore, despite the possibility that these materials are becoming increasingly long-in-the-tooth, the fact that audio recordings are available for these courses enhances their relevance (https://www.livelingua.com/project/peace-corps/Georgian/)

Real Georgian: Learn to Speak and Understand Georgian Through Dialogues by Nona Kilava
Seems interesting, qui sait? (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Real+Georgian%3A+Learn+to+Speak+and+Understand+Georgian+Through+Dialogues+)

Grammar, Verbs, Vocabulary, Dictionaries, Readers
Both Beginning and Intermediate students might wish to consider the materials listed below. I have chosen not to list any dictionaries beyond the vocabulary book as these can be easily located on the Internet. Also, I have chosen not to include the links to these works as they can be easily found on Amazon, et cetera.

Georgian: A Learner's Grammar by George Hewitt
Georgian: A Reading Grammar by Howard Aronson (see above)
Georgian: A structural reference grammar by George Hewitt
Georgian Reader by George Hewitt
Georgian Vocabulary for English speakers by Andrey Taranov
The 1200 Most Frequently Used Georgian Verbs by Neri Rook

Courses Worth Considering (German Base)
The following materials were either mentioned on the HTLAL or seem to be promising either owing to the reviews that I located or simply because they include audio recordings.

Grundwortschatz Georgisch by Lia Abuladze, Andreas Ludden
https://www.amazon.de/Grundwortschatz-Georgisch-Lia-Abuladze/dp/3875485505/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437534064&sr=1-7

Lehrbuch der georgischen Sprache mit CD by Lia Abuladze, Andreas Ludden
https://www.amazon.de/Lehrbuch-georgischen-Sprache-inkl-Audio-CD/dp/387548620X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1437533384&sr=8-2

Online, Apps, et cetera
Despite the relative paucity of resources, there always seem to be online resources available for the “less popular” languages. Quite honestly, I don’t understand how these operators can afford to develop their applications. In any event, amongst the myriad of options out there, the following seem to show the most promise:

Duolingo Georgian
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/3981150/Georgian

101 Languages Georgian
http://www.101languages.net/georgian/

GetTheSkill Georgian
http://www.gettheskill.com/languages/georgian/

iLanguages Georgian
http://ilanguages.org/georgian.php

MyLanguages Georgian
http://mylanguages.org/learn_georgian.php

Learn Georgian on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Georgian+Lessons

Previous Discussion Threads
While the name “Georgian” pops up in the comments of a fair number discussion threads, there are very few that address the question of resources. Here is a selection of that touch upon the subject:

Beginner Georgian resources - HTLAL
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40700&PN=2

Georgian Notes, Doubts and Tips TAC 2013 - HTLAL
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=30846&PN=0&TPN=93#458453

Hundreds of Georgian Audiobooks
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4903

Let's make a list of good books for learners of Georgian! - UniLang
https://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=19973

My Recommendations to the OP
So then, you want to learn “as much Georgian” as you can to cover a two-week vocation to the region? While this is, indeed, a laudable goal, if I were in your shoes, in preparation for my trip, I would simply play around with the Duolingo files or with those of any other Online Courses that struck my fancy and I would focus on enjoying my vacation.

EDITED
Tinkering. Addition of a few more links.

[zebracoupe]

Thank you both mcthulhu and Speakeasy for your answers - Speakeasy, you have gone well and truly beyond the call of duty in your answer. I've ordered the Kirizia book from Amazon (and as a supplement, have "found" a copy of it online). Now time to play around with it, and with this tool I found on the Duolingo thread - http://www.theiling.de/schrift/learn-sp ... gian-basic - recommended by Speakeasy to help reinforce the alphabet.

[Expugnator]

I've had an ongoing journey with Georgian for over five years, and I've used nearly all resources available. Over those years, new resources came up that helped fill the gap, but not entirely consistently. Georgian lacks a consistent conversational resource such as Assimil, and only thanks to dubbed series I could finally find my way into speaking the language.

Speakeasy already posted whatever I could think of. It's ok to start with Kiziria's book but it's still fairly limited, as it doesn't cover fairly used verbal tenses and the author isn't planning on a sequel as far as I know of. At least not one where one could learn verbs in context - because books dealing exclusively with verbal morphology abound, but they don't actually help learn the language.

Feel free to drop me a line here or on my log. It's always nice to see someone interested in Georgian.

[Speakeasy]

Zebracoupe, your choice of "Beginner's Georgian by Dodona Kiziria" suggests that you're serious about preparing yourself for your vacation in Georgia ... and so much the better! Two months is not a lot of time to cover this much material for a language that is purportedly more difficult to learn than Russian. Nevertheless, I would imagine that many members of the forum would appreciate you're submitting a report upon your return covering your evaluation of "Beginner's Georgian", how many hours per day you studied, how things worked out for you, what you would have done differently in terms of preparation, et cetera. In any event, I hope you enjoy yourself over there!

Addendum:
While I was preparing this post, I was unaware of Expugnator having posted decidedly-more-informed comments concerning "Beginner's Georgian", which I seem to have over-evaluated. My apologies to you both!