Course in Nepali

I bought this book to work on learning Nepali as that is my boyfriend's native language. I've had a lot of fear buying anything as a lot of people have complained about Nepali dictionaries/books that they're not accurate. So far everything I've learned and used out of this book has been ~98% correct, and I'm pretty happy chalking the other 2% up to dialectal (boyfriend is from the Terai) or time difference (I don't think the book was written very recently). Everything is explained pretty well; I haven't really had any trouble understanding and I do well on the exercises. My biggest complaint is that the Nepali script is printed small and thinly and often vowel or other markers are half missing or entirely missing because of the bad print quality. Also, every Nepali word is always accompanied by an English transliteration, which means you always find yourself looking at the transliteration instead of the Nepali, which you're trying to learn. However, because of the print quality, I'd be pretty lost if the transliteration weren't there, so I can't complain too much.If you really want to learn Nepali, this book is pretty much it and it's really pretty good. I would definitely recommend picking it up. It has a couple flaws but I really think you'll be pleased.

This book is absolutely fantastic, if you are like me. I really enjoy studying languages and linguistics. I am native in English and have experience in French, Latin, and Chinese. One of the problems I face when learning a new language is that introductory textbooks are often too elementary or focus too much on "making learning fun." If you are like me and just want to get down to the root of the problem, to learn the real grammar, then PLEASE buy this book. Matthews' explanations of tricky grammar and cultural concepts are quite superb. If you go through the book from start to finish, you will have a very solid understanding of the language. 10/10 would recommend.

This book has provided me with what I need for beginners and intermediate learning of Nepali! It is easy to follow and I like that it has the Nepali words also noted in Romanized text.

This is a review of the KINDLE edition. The Devanagari script is too small to read, and because the characters are pictures not font, can't be increased in size. Amazon were great and returned it without complaint.

The material in the book is nicely organized and clearly explained. It is an exposition of the language, instead of a "learn a few phrases quickly" text book. If you are going there next week, and you need to ask for the bathroom in Nepali, this is not for you. If you go there next year, and you like an academic style, you may like it.Not five stars because of the many typographical problems which arose from the conversion to a digital copy. Sometimes the characters lack important features which make them look strange to someone who's just started learning how to read devanagari.I also contacted the publisher to inquire about the promised audio material (as instructed in the preface), and they said it's out of print.

David Matthews's A Course in Nepali is a very well written textbook, it does not assume any previous knowledge of the language. The book starts with the Nagari script step by step into the complexity of Nepali grammar. Grammatical explanations are very detailed and thorough, readers are expected to take some time to patiently digest each lesson. The exercises are also well designed, closely correspondent to the content of each lesson. There are not only conversations (like the Teach yourself Nepali), but also reading passages from different genres, and translations of the passages are also given for readers for checking comprehension. But I have to say, this book is not an easy textbook, it tends to cover all important grammatical points of the language, making the book very dense, without previous experience of Indic languages, this book will appear to be difficult(I have background in Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit, this book is just perfect for me) . If you are not serious about studying Nepali, or just want to learn some phrases for a short trip to Nepal, this book is definitely not for you, in that case you should buy Lonely Planet's Nepali Phrasebook. That being said, I give 4 stars to this book, because the accompanying audio material is not readily available, making practicing listening comprehension difficult.