PDQ Italian and teaching oneself Uzbek

I spent a good part of the weekend playing with the PDQ Italian course. What to say? It's slow, and repetitive. The exercises are slow and repetitive. And yet the narrators sort of keep it moving along. In short, it's perfect for an absolute beginner. If you've always wanted to learn Italian but know nothing beyond "Ciao" and "Buongiorno," this is a pretty good course. I ordered the equivalent for Arabic, which, being a harder language, warrants the extra drilling.

The PDQ courses come with a book and four CDs. They used to be stocked by Transparent Language, though they're Linguaphone courses. However, I bought my courses in Transparent's "eliminating inventory" special, so interested parties will have to check out other outlets.

I also put in a good bit of time with Uzbek. Now that I've posted my mini-course, I've started taking it. It's not too bad, but I wish there were a Michel Thomas version, or a Pimsleur version. At least TalkNow Uzbek appears to be being re-released (as of 10/21 according to Amazon). And I am glad to see that a Pimsleur Turkish is on the way, at least - and long overdue. But I suppose some of the lure of exoticism is gone if there are too many resources available, so Uzbek (and even Turkish) wouldn't be interesting if there were more and better ways to learn them.

Anyway, for the curious, that Uzbek Mini-Course is based here. It won't teach perfect Uzbek, but should give English speakers some words and structures so that presented with real content or a better course there'll be something to build on. For my own personal excitement, last night I figured out "Menga shokolad muzqaymoq kerak" - "I need some chocolate ice cream." There might be a particle or ending missing someplace (I don't think so) but it should be adequate to communicate that important sentiment, which is what really matters. I rounded off the weekend language bit by going to the freezer and practicing my newfound knowledge while acquiring a bowl of ice cream, as it happens, so a satisfying weekend it was in the end. Hope yours was too.