This book offers an accessible survey of key concepts such as social context and cultural authenticity, using insights from fields which include linguistics, sociology and anthropology.

    The latest edition of "Essential Idioms in English" remains the resource of choice for mastering more than 500 common English idioms, phrasal verbs, and collocations. "Essential Idioms in English "thoroughly defines and illustrates each idiom, then reinforces its meaning and usage with multiple-choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, and matching exercises.

    No matter your age, you can learn how to read, write, speak and understand Korean.Learn the Korean writing system, Korean culture, and even history. Learn over 1,000 vocabulary words and phrases through 20 in-depth and fun lessons, filled with plenty of examples. Additionally, practice sections with answer keys are built into every chapter.This book also contains additional advanced level notes for more skilled Korean speakers looking for a review of basic grammar and concepts, including a full appendix covering sound change rules.Start your exciting journey into the Korean language today. Let's learn Korean!

    This clearly written history explains how a country embedded in the traditions of Shinto, Shoguns and Samurai has achieved stupendous economic growth and dominance in this century.

    Into this tumultuous age of constant warfare came three remarkable individuals: Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616). Each would play a unique role in the re-unification of the disparate, fragmented collection of warring provinces which constituted Japan in the sixteenth and early seventeenth-centuries. This new narrative history of the sengoku era draws together the epic strands of their three stories for the first time. It offers a coherent survey of the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600) under both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, followed by the founding years of the Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1616). Every pivotal battle fought by each of these three hegemons is explored in depth from Okehazama (1560) and Nagashino (1575) to Sekigahara (1600) and the Two Sieges of Osaka Castle (1614-15). In addition, the political and administrative underpinnings of their rule is also examined, as well as the marginal role played by western foreigners ('nanban') and the Christian religion in early modern Japanese society. In its scope, the story of Japan's three unifiers ('the Fool', 'the Monkey', and 'the Old Badger') is a sweeping saga encompassing acts of unimaginable cruelty as well as feats of great samurai heroism which were venerated and written about long into the peaceful Edo/Tokugawa period.

     For those of you who can’t just slip away from life, travel to France and immerse yourself in the language in order to learn it, this is your solution! Reading and listening to native-spoken French stories is the next best thing. You have at your fingertips the written word AND an accompanying audio recording that allows you to: Gain a greater vocabulary that you can use immediately, every day. You will add 1,500+ French words and expressions to your repertoire through the encounter of descriptive sentences and casual conversations woven throughout the stories. Sharpen your comprehension of the spoken word by listening to a native French speaker. Learn how to pronounce French words properly by comparing the written word to the audio recording. Familiarize yourself with a wide range of grammar structures and put them to use today. Avoid the monotonous task of memorizing grammar rules. How awesome is that?! How this book will improve your French language skills: Each story is recorded in two different ways: A slow version helps beginners improve their pronunciation, and a normal, natural speed for intermediate and advanced learners trains your ears to understand what is being said. You receive 4 hours of MP3 audio recording! There is no need for a dictionary. Each story is broken down with a French and English glossary that introduces you to the words and phrases you might not understand. This comes in handy because there is no need for the irritating process of flipping pages, continually searching for definitions or translations. A vocabulary recap at the end of each chapter allows you to review what you have read and listened to so you don’t forget the essential words and expressions taught throughout the lesson. The book contains 15 stories with the following themes: Family, Months, Days, Numbers, Weather, Introduce yourself, House, Nature, Clothing, Shopping, Visiting/Tourism, Weekend Activities, Daily Routine, Describe yourself, Food, Cooking, Jobs and Occupation, At the Train Station. All stories are written using vocabulary that you could easily use in your day-to-day conversations. With this book and accompanying audio you can start improving your French today!

    With a logical, body-systems organization and engaging terminology exercises throughout, it's your key to communicating confidently and effectively with other health care professionals.Systematic approach to terminology prepares you to recognize and define new words as you encounter them and build the medical vocabulary you'll need in the health care setting.Pronunciation key provides quick access to frequently referenced material.Complimentary and Alternative Medicine terms boxes highlight words and phrases associated with this increasingly popular discipline.Case studies encourage critical thinking and demonstrate how to apply the information you've learned.Terminology flash cards, included with every book, give you valuable review and self-assessment tools you can take anywhere for study on the go.Evolve resources enhance your learning and reinforcement opportunities with additional exercises, a Spanish/English glossary, and the Body Spectrum Electronic Anatomy Coloring Book.Medical Terminology Online, available at an additional charge, gives you access to a complete online course for the most advanced learning and understanding.New terms and abbreviations familiarize you with the latest terminology in use in health care.New images and illustrations visually acquaint you with pathologic information and procedures you'll encounter in the clinical setting.Enhanced chapter features highlight important concepts and provide guidance for more effective learning and study.CD references within the text direct you to expanded learning opportunities on the companion CD.More than 20 new medical records let you practice medical terminology using the forms you'll encounter in the clinical setting.New icons make it easy to distinguish a variety of helpful boxes and reference the material you need quickly.Answers to review exercises help you gauge your strengths and weaknesses and configure the most effective study plan for you.Website boxes refer you to valuable content you can access online for further learning.Revised pharmacy appendix helps you easily reference key pharmaceutical terms.The vastly updated companion CD provides fun alternatives for reinforcing what you've learned with new learning games, including Medical Millionaire and Termbusters.Enhanced audio companion, available on CD or as iTerms downloads for portable media players, helps you perfect your pronunciation skills and confidently use the terms you've learned in practice.

    The Natural Approach, widely associated with Tracy Terrell, introduces students to language inductively, by exposing them to vocabulary and structures in the context of lively activities. In this communicative approach, grammar explanations and practice are an aid to leaning the language, not an end in themselves. The Natural Approach in general - and Kontakte 3rd edition in particular - are highly communicative and create a spontaneous and low-anxiety classroom atmosphere in which the focus is first on comprehension, then on communication. Kontakte 3rd edition emphasizes culture as well as communication, with a variety of boxes, readings, and interactive culture-based activities. The third edition of Kontakte also includes a new listening comprehension tape that instructors can use in class as well as a new video, new interactive software and additional new supplements.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Over time this language evolved into stylized abstract forms that are hard to memorize. In Kanji Pict-o-Graphix, Michael Rowley offers a whole new set of contemporary visual and textual memory aids—mnemonics—that reveal the meanings of over 1,000 Japanese kanji. Fully indexed and cross-referenced."Kanji Pict-o-Graphix offers an engaging way to learn and memorize Kanji."—Rocky Mountain Region Japan Project"A fun book for studying kanji. The illustration reveals more of its contents and method than any description ever could."—Japan Times"It is a very nice book, simple and pretty effective. A useful addition to the library of all beginners who aspire to learn Japanese. Recommended."—Protoculture Addicts Learn more about kanji from Stone Bridge Press: Kana Pict-o-Graphix, Designing with Kanji, Kanji Starter 1&2, and Crazy for Kanji

    Mignon Fogarty, whose popular podcasts have been downloaded over twenty million times and whose first book, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing,was a New York Times bestseller.  For beginners to more advanced students, this guide covers it all: the parts of speech, sentences, and punctuation are all explained clearly and concisely with the warmth, wit, and accessibility Grammar Girl is known for.  Pop quizzes are scattered throughout to reinforce the explanations, as well as Grammar Girl's trademark Quick and Dirty Tips--easy and fun memory tricks to help with those challenging rules.  Complete with a writing style chapter and a guide to the different kinds of writing--everything from school papers to letter writing to e-mails--this guide is sure to become the one-stop, essential book on every student's desk.

    The thirty-five chapters describe the life of a Roman family in the 2nd century A.D., and culminate in readings from classical poets and Donatus's Ars Grammatica, the standard Latin school text for a millenium. Each chapter is divided into two or three lectiones (lessons) of a couple pages each followed by a grammar section, Grammatica Latina, and three exercises or Pensa. Hans Ørberg's impeccable latinity, humorous stories, and the Peer Lauritzen illustrations make this work a classic. The book includes a table of inflections, a Roman calendar, and a word index, Index vocabulorum.

    But it’s a lot easier if you know the hidden skills and techniques that experts know -- and use -- to learn any foreign language. In this little handbook, language expert Graham E. Fuller -- whose career has required him to learn more than a dozen languages -- shows how to take the steps that will make it easier for anyone struggling to learn any new language.That’s why How to Learn a Foreign Language is used by schools, universities, and independent language-learners throughout the world. Acclaim for How to Learn a Foreign Language:“Useful and entertaining.” -- The New York Times“It’s astonishing that no one has ever thought of a book like this before -- designed to prepare students for beginning the study of any language. This book is indispensable to anyone learning a first foreign language.” -- Dr. L. Michael Bell Professor of English and Foreign Languages, University of Colorado“This book could save a beginning student hours of confusion, and might provide some confidence that learning a language is normal and possible, even for someone like him or her!...Fuller has codified what many successful language learners have found out for themselves by learning languages...The knowledge that Fuller is writing from such vast experience can only inspire confidence on the part of the reluctant language learner.” -- Carol L. McKay, Modern Language JournalExcerpts from the Book:This book is for those of you who have never studied a foreign language before. And it is for those of you who have already had one painful experience with a foreign language and who hope to do better at it this time...This book isn’t just for people who like languages. It’s for those of you who have to learn a language for one reason or another...

    Writing with her customary charm and erudition, Dent offers a wonderfully readable and endlessly entertaining exploration of language, answering 101 of the most intriguing questions about the English language, from word origins and spelling to grammar and usage. Dent ranges far and wide in her search for the oddities of language, pondering the ancient origin of the word tragedy (which originally meant goat song in Greek) as well as the modern meaning of the word donk in the Blackout Crew's song title Put a Donk in It. And throughout, the book brims with fascinating tales. Readers learn, for instance, that the word bankrupt comes from the Italian banca rotta or broken bench and the word broke (meaning out of funds) has the same origin. Dent explains that in the sixteenth century, money lenders conducted their business on benches outdoors and the usual Italian word for bench was banca (hence today's bank). The author also provides an entertaining account of the origin of the term white elephant (meaning a useless, burdensome possession) that dates back to ancient Siam, where rare white elephants were always given to the king. But since by law white elephants couldn't be worked (and earn money) or even be ridden, the king often re-gifted these worthless burdens to courtiers whom he didn't like. Sparkling with insight and linguistic curiosity, this delightful compendium will be irresistible to anyone fascinated with language--the perfect gift for word lovers everywhere.

    Readers will learn essential skills like how to haggle, exchange currencies, cross the street, decipher menus, say useful phrases in Chinese, and more. The guide comes complete with survival tips on etiquette, a map, and resource lists. Don’t leave home for China without it!Veteran travelers Qin and Larry Herzberg are Chinese language and culture professors at Calvin College in Michigan.