Asian-Australian Books

To reiterate what a previous reviewer had pointed out, the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course" includes just the textbook, whereas the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course Audiopack" includes both the text book and compact discs. Contrary to what Amazon.com suggests, you need to only buy the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course Audiopack" to get the full benefits of the program.

I purchased the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course Audiopack" several days ago, and after having had the opportunity to peruse the material for a bit, I must say that I am very impressed with what I have seen thus far. The material is presented in such a way as to make learning Indonesian effectively and effortless.

For example, each chapter begins with a dialogue in Indonesian that pertains to everyday activities, such as eating out or asking for directions. Below the dialogue is a box filled with pertinent vocabulary words from the preceding dialogue. Next is an English translation of the dialogue to ensure that the student fully understands the meaning of the Indonesian dialogue. Succeeding that is a section entitled, "How the language works." Here, grammatical concepts and contexts of the vocabulary words relevant to the dialogue are discussed. Finally, several exercises are included in each chapter to reinforce the lessons taught. Do not worry, the answers are in the back!

The compact discs mesh perfectly with the material in the chapters. Native Indonesian speakers act out the chapter dialogues, thus providing the student with the opportunity to practice their listening skills and learn how to properly speak Indonesian. The speakers on the compact discs clearly enunciate so there is plenty of time for the student to practice their Indonesian out loud if desired.

Overall, the "Teach Yourself Indonesian Complete Course Audiopack" is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in learning Indonesian. As a student of Indonesian myself, I highly recommend this product for its exceptional effectiveness.

You know, I have been to Indonesia quite a few times, usually on surfing trips with the gang and you get to pick up a few things from what you learn in a phrase book or from the people you hang around in bars with. Well last year I went home with an Indoneisan wife so I decided to go to our local community center to learn a bit of the lingo and this is what they were using. The teacher loved this course in fact she could not praise it enought for its real language and authenticity. I ordered the Cds to go with it to study at home and I'm telling you these make a great course even better. The speaking exercises the get you to memorise and then use a conversation are great. They are real tough going at first but the results you get are great. Thoroughly recommended for anyone going to Indonesia. Grabbing my surf board now...

This book is very easy to use, being well laid out and organized and introducing vocabulary in manageable pieces throughout each chapter. Another nice thing is that the book alternates 50-50 between formal situations and casual situations so you can become familiar with both styles of the language. So far the book is fun and motivating and makes me want to study much more than my other books do.

This book is very detail & percise. It makes it easy to learn the language with ease. It is written with a manner that is simple to follow. Authors took there time to make sure all of the contents was clear & correct. Step by step instructions to make it easy to learn & understand. I give this book 5 stars & I recommend it to anyone who want to learn Indonesian language very fast & correct.

I'm half way through this course and it's pretty easy to use, and the topics and dialogues are relevant and interesting. There is material on the cd's to help you get accustomed to hearing spoken Indonesian, which is great if you live somewhere with very few Indonesian people like I do.

I have two minor criticisms:

1) During the dialog practice there is often not a long enough pause on the cd to allow you to finish saying your part of the exchange. This is not a big deal if you have an ipod and can easily pause and rewind with little trouble. But it's a bit of a hassle when you're using a home stereo and you have to pause it.

2) Sometimes the dialogues contain a couple of words that are not in the vocabulary key for that dialogue, and sometimes not even in the glossary at the back of the book. That has caught me off-guard a few times when I didn't have my dictionary with me.

But all in this is the best introductory course I've seen, and a much more interesting way to start off than using Yohanna Johns's "Bahasa Indonesia" (which looks better for long term serious study).

I love to cook, and have a number of cookbooks. Over the last four years, I have turned to "Terrific Pacific" 9 out of 10 times. Most Asian cookbooks are too frequently focused on one style, assume you know everything about the mysterious, or unfamiliar ingredients cited, and don't make you feel the recipes are accessible. "Terrific Pacific" is, in my opinion, a new classic. If you are interested in Pacific Rim cooking, this is a great place to start. You will develop a comfort level with fresh, interesting ingredients, and an appreciation for clean, lovely food from the other side of the planet. With a new vocabulary of ingredients, I have also had fun changing/developing recipes of my own. Kudos to Anya von Bremzen.

I'm a cookbook junkie, and I have dozens of books I just look at and never actually cook from. This isn't one of them. It's stained and dog-eared, from trying exotic but not terribly difficult recipes like Pot Roast with Asian flavors, stir-fried spinach and a terrific pineapple upside-down cafe with rummy, coconutty whipped cream. A great way to cook Asian without resorting to fattening, take-out-style recipes. The small sections about markets in Southeast Asia and such are also good...they make you want to try this food in person!

I've been through a lot of Asian Cookbooks but this is one that I keep comming back to for new and orginal reciepes.

Asian Fusion is the Theme, particularly Southest Asia. Thai, Indonesia, Phillipines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Fusion Recepies from Australia and New Zenland dot the pages as well as receipies that are had to classify other than really good. They blend ingredients and techniques for some awesome dishes.

The book is more or less organized by theme and ingredient, finger foods, poultry, deserts, salads, soups etc.
In addition to the organization of the book the receipies are organized in a reasonable fashion as well. To many cook books haphazardly organize the steps and ingredients so that you miss something or do it out of sequence (oh, I was supposed to boil this first).

This is not a book for beginners though. The reciepies here are generally moderate to very complex and are generally not the sort of thing you throw together at the last minute. Not to say they don't have some quick and easy ones but the theme is more towards those with gormet inclinations and farmiliarity with Asian cooking already.

One downside to the book is they assume you have access to an incredible variety of ethnic ingredients. In Austin we have Asian Markets and Central Market (an awesome store that specializes in gormet ingredients) but from time to time I find myself unable to locate something needed for some dishes. I've learned some substitutions. Also some of the reciepies can run up your food bill a bit. They are best left for those yearly special occasions.

Still its an EXCELLENT cookbook. Every time I get bored I go back to it and find something new and interesting. Its just loaded with great stuff. Buy it, you won't regret.

I've been making Thai Drumsticks for a Crowd for potlucks for the last two years. They're a real draw on a table full of tahini and tabouli! These recipes are easy and the authors descriptions are engaging. Not for people who are looking for serious ethnoculinary books, but easy to dazzle with.

I own about 200 cookbooks; this is the best.

I have purchased various volumes on Ilocano and Tagalog languages....some claiming to be dictionaries. However most are either only one way translation or hard to use.

This dictionary is just what it claims to be.....A DICTIONARY OF ILOCANO / ENGLISH. Easy to use and has already been extremely helpful. Most official words are here and I will find it so helpful in my quest to learn the language.

This is the best Ilocano dictionary out there.

The author's love and dedication to the Ilocano language is an accurate reflection of the hardwork over that years that he has put into this impressive and high-quality dictionary.

Not many dictionaries dealing with Philippine languages are as detailed as this one. And not many go great lengths as to include a meaty grammatical sketch, history, and explanation of pronunciation. However, this one does. And very well, I may add.

This dictionary itself is two sections (English & Ilokano). Ilokano words are listed by rootword along with its affixed varieties and their varieties. Entries usually have a Tagalog equivalent and maybe even equivalents in other Philippine languages such as Ibanag, Kankana-ey, Pangasinan, and others.

Since stress plays a significant role in the meaning of Ilocano words, I am very grateful that accent marks have been included.

I also have to mention a comprehensive appendix dealing with charts of "fused" pronouns and verb affix charts. There are even lyrics to popular Ilocano songs such as Pamulinawen, Toy Karayo, and Tontonennaka toy Ayat.

This book is perfect for anyone; be it a tourist visiting the Ilocos region, a person of Ilocano descent, a linguist, a language enthusiast, or even a Filipino who is curious about the language of his or her Ilocano countrymen.

Also, the covering of this book ensures that it will last for a long time.

As an enthusiast of Philippine languages, excellent resources such as this gem come few and far between. I am completely satisfied with this book, and I'm guessing that you probably will, too.

Seeing as this is only one of two grammars of Ilocano I've ever seen--the other one being in a university library 20 years ago that was somebody's doctoral dissertation printed on poor quality, smudgy paper--I was prepared to read it no matter how bad it was. The surprise was that this is a very well done grammar of Ilocano, along with separate phrase and word dictionaries that are quite extensive. The author has a Ph.D. in languages and linguistics himself from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and his interest and enthusiasm in the language comes through in this very well done book.

Ilocano belongs to the northern Marianas subfamily of the western Austronesian language group, and is spoken by about 10 million people, mostly on the northern Philippine island of Luzon. It has many interesting grammatical features, such as having an ergative-absolutive based case system, an extensive system of prefixes, infixes, and postfixes, as well as enclitic particles (i.e., word morphemes that can be attached to more than one category of words), and a three-way spatial system of demonstrative pronouns consisting of the proximal, distal, and medial, similar to Kapampangan, another language from Luzon. Like other Philippine languages, it is a predicate-initial language, meaning that verbs and adjectives usually occupy the initial position in a sentence. It makes extensive use of sound symbolism, having many onomatopoetic root words. In that sense it sounds similar to Swahili, which has something known as "onomatopoetic ideophones"--words which attempt to capture in sound the idea of the object, such as in the word, "trinka-trinka," (or tractor). I'm not sure if the two features in Ilocano and Swahili are really the same, but Swahili is the only other language I've read about that does something like this.

The first 101 pages of the book are devoted to the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Ilocano, with the remaining 165 pages being taken up by the phrase dictionary and the word dictionary. Throughout the grammar portion the author intersperses numerous vocabulary lists, so you can build your vocabulary as you go along. According to what I've read, this is the most extensive dictionary of Ilocano to date, and was compiled from a large number of sources. This is no doubt the best book on Ilocano out there, and one of the most scholarly as well as readable books and grammars on a more exotic language that I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of them). :-)

The Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar is the most comprehensive dictionary ever produced for Ilocano (Iloko), the lingua franca of Northern Luzon, and historically the native language of the majority of Filipino immigrants to the United States. The body of the dictionary includes entries for roots and affixes, with illustrative sentences, idioms, proverbs, common derivatives, and scientific names (when applicable). Tagalog, Pangasinan, Ibanag, and Kapampangan equivalents are supplied for high frequency words. Derived words that undergo morphological fusion are listed as separate entries to facilitate lexical searches. There is also an affix cross-reference list to help the beginning student recognize root words. Sources of loan words are indicated. The Grammar (including Phonology, Morphology and Syntax sections) is an version of the author's thesis "A Reference Grammar of Ilocano" rewritten in a pedagogical format. The Appendixes include grammatical charts, maps and traditional Ilocano songs. Layout of Volume: Intro and Grammar (i-lxxxv 85 pages); Ilocano-English (pp. 1-647); English-Ilocano (647-752); Appendixes and Bibliography (752-777).

What a fantastic book! I had no idea dogs played a role like this in the war. Whether your interested in war, working dogs or just want to read a great story i would recommend this book. Pete describes perfectly the innocent nature of a dog even in these extreme circumstances. I can't say enough good things about Tracker's so just pick it up and enjoy.....

wonderfully written book of the australian involvement of tracker dog teams in vietnam...thousands of allied lives were saved through the relationship built by the tracker dogs and handlers, together with the scout, sentry, mine, tunnel, booby trap, and other military working dog teams...over 4,000 dogs and in excess of 10,000 handlers kept our troops safe....the lives of our allied military forces depended on the trust built between handler and dog....

I love books written by people who have been in the working dog field with dogs such as Service Dogs of the Police,Military working roles. I personally find books written on the obedience trailling and Schuzhund competitions basically repetitive and in the main, boring.

Service work and associated training to me, is the real world of dog training, I enjoy competition and encourage people to compete.But I get tired of the never ending waffle of the best way to train involving food, toys, clickers, working in drives etc.

This book is excellent taking one into the real world of extreme dangers of the Vietnam war. Well written, reviting, and refreshing after the waffle of other dog books.Well done Peter. ...

I have read numerous books about war dogs. This is by far my favorite. I was totally engrossed from beginning to end. The book will make you laugh and a few pages later make you cry. Mr. Haran's accounts of his experiences in training tracker dogs for Vietnam, and doing two tours as a dog handler in the "J" (jungle), really bring home the effectiveness of man-dog teams and illustrate the deep bonds that develop between the two forged under fire. I can't say enough good things about this book. If you are a dog lover, or if you're interested in war dogs at all, you should read this book. You won't be disappointed.

I am about 1/2 way through after 2 weeks and can already hold a conversation in Tagalog. I also used Pimsleur Japanese when I moved to Japan and have to say it is by far the easiest and fastest method of learning a foreign language. However, for formal writing or speech you would want to augment this with a written, software, or formal schooling course as the Pimsleur method is audio only and does not teach most grammatical rules directly. Instead it relies on your ability to pick up on them over time through repeated usage and occasional hints or examples.

Great course for conversational Tagalog. Simple clear lessons take the student up to a level where student can interact in casual conversation.

As just another digger I found this book to be most worthy.
Having been through the training regimes as recommended by Ted Serong in Australia and having the understanding of the type of war we were involved in I could never understand the manner in which the Americans fought the war.
After reading this book I now understand it to have been a distrust of non American ideas and arrogance of the"we know better" type and impatience, thinking always that bigger is better rather than looking at quality.

The Vietnam War, and especially the reasons for its loss, from both military and political standpoints, will continue to be a matter of importance for those who are concerned with the survival of democracies.

Much has been written on political considerations, but military questions have been more neglected. Hence this book, which examines the role of Brigadier Ted Serong in the conflict, will be of great interest to a variety of readers.

Anne Blair is a research associate with the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University. Her interest in Serong is well-based. He had a central role in the development of military strategy and tactics, although to a large extent his views conflicted with those ultimately applied by the United States in Vietnam.

Early during his time in Vietnam, Serong concluded that the American forces were not properly directed, and that the South Vietnamese Army also should have directed its efforts in different ways.

He was involved in the development of the Police Field Force (PFF), with the aim of destroying the structures of the Vietnamese Communists in rural and mountain areas, and also the networks by which guerrillas obtained weapons, food, information and recruits.

Serong's concept (which is particularly persuasive in retrospect) was that the PFF would clear areas of Viet Cong influence, thus freeing the South Vietnamese Army (the AVRN) for combat against the North Vietnamese regiments that were operating in the border areas.

Unfortunately the United States forces showed a lack of patience, and were not prepared to support adequately the gradual advance of the program.

The PFF was absorbed by other US mission programs in 1966-67, but Serong himself remained invaluable and was consulted constantly by government advisers and by military commanders at the highest level.

At all times, his perceptions of the strategic position were sound. For example, he was one of the first to appreciate that the 1968 Tet Offensive constituted, contrary to media reports, a militarily disastrous loss by the Communists.

This book is very valuable. It is well researched. The author had the advantage of numerous conversations with Serong, and her account is expressed carefully, with much detail and appropriate references.

It is impossible to read it without concluding that Serong is a great Australian, and a great man in any context, a figure of enormous importance whose advice, had it been followed properly, would probably have led to a different result in Vietnam.

It is therefore a book which, in addition to its general readership, should be studied closely by military strategists and tacticians, and by the various academics, think-tanks and institutes which are so influential in the application of political and military policy.

- I.C.F. Spry, News Weekly book review, Melbourne, Australia

David Walker's 'Anxious Nation' is a particularly interesting, entertaining and humorous investigation of Australia's relationship with Asia. In fact, it is one of the more innovative and insightful studies to come out on this topic in recent years. By exploring Australia's encounters with Asia, both real and imagined, Walker has revealed the complexities of the Australia-Asia encounter. By investigating themes such as: travel, trade, population, place, space, climate, 'race degeneration', intermarriage and invasion, he not only delineates Australian anxieties in regard to Asia but also outlines the extensive links that formed between Australia and its northern neighbours. Although Walker's study focuses on Australia and its relationship with Asia, it locates that particular relationship within the broader framework of relations between 'East' and 'West'. For example, the book draws out numerous American parallels and points of reference: appeals to Rooseveltian notions of manhood, the visit of the Great White Fleet, 'yellow peril anxieties', Nordic fetishes and links with the Insitute of Pacific Relations. As a result, 'Anxious Nation' will be of particular interest to anyone fascinated by the intricate and multi-layered history that surrounds interaction between 'Occident' and 'Orient'.

This product is the newer, 2nd edition, and is improved from the 1st edition. Make sure you also get the CDs.
I am a college student who went to Thailand for 10 days on a service trip. I only studied Thai for two months before I left. For one month, I used whatever online resources I could find, and for the second month, I used Colloquial Thai. I got up to about Chapter 12. I studied for a few (maybe 3) hours every day, and each chapter took me 2 or 3 days to get through. When I got to Thailand, I was able to say most things I wanted to say and I could understand a lot if they spoke slowly and simply. When the translators weren't around, I could chat with the villagers, order meals, satisfy my curiousity ("khun roojak the Beatles mai khrap?" - Do you know the Beatles?), and so on. I even made two speeches in Thai, on the spot, as a representative for my group. So, I am very grateful to this book.
Here are the pros and cons:
The transliteration system is easy to read, and the symbols marking tones are easy to get used to. The most annoying part is that they transliterate the sound we would call "g" as "k", and "k" as "kh." This is common in Thai transliteration systems, because the Thai "gaw gai" is slightly different than our "g", but it's a lot closer than our "k." Also, the way they transliterate Thai vowels makes sense, especially compared to Benjawan Poomsan Becker's system.
The goal of this book is to teach colloquial Thai, not written Thai. At the end of every chapter they teach you how to read and write some of the vocab from the chapter, but it's really not the focus of the book. You will be able to read signs (like "sukhaa") but you probably won't be able to write notes.
The vocab in each chapter is very useful. Every time I started a new chapter, I thought, "Ah, now they teach you the important stuff" -- but that's because they teach you lots of important stuff, and relatively little useless stuff.
The CDs are extremely valuable. Not only do they have all the sample conversations, but they have listening & speaking exercises. For example, they will play a conversation for you that's not in the book, then ask you questions about it, then tell you the answers. Or you will role-play the part in a conversation, "I'll give you the cues in English," says our friend John Moore.
The book itself contains a lot of useful exercises. It will ask you to talk about certain things, and then you can check to see if you spoke correctly in the back of the book.
Here's a complaint: all the conversations are between two adults of near-equal social status. When I went to Thailand, I was often speaking to children, who will call you "phee" (older brother/sister) and whom you should address as "nawng" (little brother/sister). I was very confused at first as to who this "phee" was, and they must have thought it funny that I called them "khun." Also, I tried to talk to a monk once and he sort of just ignored me, because I didn't realize that you have to address monks differently than ordinary people. So I never got to talk with the monks :(.
Anyways, this program is excellent, and if you want to learn Thai, get it.

The half-hour a day is just the right amount of time -- it's not that much of a commitment if you really want to learn the language. At first I thought the repetition would make it boring but the interactive nature of the CD's keep it interesting and keep your brain engaged. Of course, like any other language, you'll learn only if you have the desire to learn it and are willing to put in the time. In this case, it doesn't demand much. Use what you learn with each lesson so you can make the imprints in your brain. Be honest with yourself and do not advance to the next level until you are comfortable with how much you've picked up. If I remember right, this program just asks for 70% retention. As I said, it's a great way to get started!

Highly recommended, there is an excellent chance that this book is the one for which you have been searching. Written by two Australian veterans of the war in Vietnam and standing as a tribute to all who served in that conflict, Crossfire is a unique look at the way in which a specialized Australian infantry platoon operated as a reconnaissance unit in the field. While the style of writing is at once both raw and gritty, it is nonetheless a book with a great deal of soul. It tells the story of how a bunch of blokes at the sharp end, fought (and in some cases, died) in what became Australia's longest and most divisive war. Like so many "Diggers" who went before them, they did their duty and more. They laughed together, felt pain and sometimes cried together, but throughout, maintained that very Australian characteristic in the face of adversity: a stoic determination to see the job done, no matter what.

Crossfire is much more than just another war story, however. It goes beyond the jungle-bashing and the contacts and the firefights; beyond the heat and the sweat and the sometimes gut-wrenching fear that were the essence of the grunt's war in Vietnam. The authors have adopted a mode of presentation that works extremely well and complements the theme of the main narrative. Interwoven with the exploits of the Reconnaissance Platoon as it sought to come to grips with its task in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam, is a separate but complementary story focused on the present. It looks briefly at a small group of veterans, some thirty years after the event, as they seek a kind of cathartic release while camping and hiking in the Flinders Ranges, that area of rugged but serene, natural beauty in "outback" South Australia.

Based on incidents and events that actually occurred, Crossfire not only holds the interest all the way, but in many places reads like a best-selling novel. Indeed, it is one of those rare books, which once started, is entirely difficult to put down. This is a very worthy addition to the genre, and it is a credit to Peter Haran and Robert Kearney that they have captured so faithfully what it was to be in action on the ground in Vietnam. If you are a veteran of the Vietnam War, then in a very real sense the incidents and events portrayed in the book will have an uncanny knack of taking you back there. It will take you back to another time and another place - to a conflict and an era that you have known intimately, and which will forever feature in the history of the Australian soldier at war. If you are not a veteran and you read no other book on the subject, you must read this one. As Lieutenant General Peter Cosgrove, Chief of the Australian Army, says in the foreword to Crossfire: "Read this story. Read about these Australians. They are so ordinary but so extraordinary - they are heroes."