Learn Amharic Language: Complete Amharic Course

Good

LOVE IT! So glad I can go back and review all the videos since its taking me longer than the usual learner

so far so good but need more time but need to get to know this language help

This beginner's course teaches many of the common words and phrases. It also provides example sentences to show how sentences are constructed. While this is a good course to learn many of the fundamentals, it could be made better with more information on verb conjugation, especially when introducing new verbs throughout the course. It would also have been great if there were quizzes embedded in the course so that the learner can check their knowledge before moving on to the next lesson series. The instructor also speaks very fast. While this may be at normal conversation speed, it would be helpful for the learner were the instructor to read it slowly a couple of times, breaking out the different sounds so that the learner can check their pronunciation, and then speak the passage as regular speed. In many cases, the instructor reads so quickly it is difficult to tell when one word ends and the next begins. There are also occasional errors on the presentation decks where the Amharic letters and what the instructor says does not match the transliteration, which may confuse the learner.   Towards the tail end of the course are two independent modules. The first is dealing with the Amharic Alphabet, where it just goes through each letter and reads it (with the exception of the "-wa" series, like "gwa", "lwa", "shwa", etc., which it does not teach). While the earlier lessons contain the Amharic spelling of words, phrases, and sentences, you don't actual learn how to read any of it until this alphabet module at the end. This will likely lead to mispronunciation of what is learned throughout the course, as the listener may not be aware of the new sounds in Amharic that do not exist in English, such as the glottalized consonant (K'a vs ka, T'a vs ta, Ch'a vs cha, etc.) The last module in the course is called a 5-day crash course in Amharic. It is really just a vocabulary/phrase builder. It just goes over common words/phrases and tells you what they mean. Some of the items were already covered earlier on in the course, but again the last two modules seem to be add-ons that do not have the same instructor voice as the earlier lessons. I would recommend taking a course on reading the Amharic letters and understanding their sounds before taking this course. It will help you correctly pronounce the words as the transliterations in the course are not always correct, and you need practice to make the new glottalized consonant sounds. It will also allow you to practice your reading skills while taking the course. While, as mentioned above, there is a lesson in this course that covers the letters, it does not cover them all and so will not be adequate on its own.