There are a total of... let me see... zero books on Latvian at our Barnes and Noble. I've been searching on Amazon, but there's barely any information on those books. Most are pricey video courses, which I despise with passion. Today for "Asia Week" at school my AP Spanish teacher had us learn Dari phrases with this site called Byki. Basically, it's a system of highly organized flash cards. (You can use it online or download it for free.) It uses a very simple mechanism - read the word, listen to it, recognize the word, then translate the word from English. It's really basic, but I'm learning way more than the method I tried before (which involved staring at a list of basic Latvian words on my computer screen and trying to use The Force to embed them in my mind.)
After I get the 8 Latvian "lists" on Byki done - lists are basically groups of flash cards - I'm going to work more extensively with a free online Latvian program from UW. It's an actual college course, with a fantastically designed website that makes me happy. It's got a Latvian magnetic poetry theme. Hah. Anyway, it takes a much more academic approach to Latvian and is for intense studying, rather than Byki (which is more for learning while eating breakfast.)
I'm finding there are more resources on Latvian online than in print. Usually I'm a very physical learner - I have to write things down to remember them - but so far I've done pretty well, I think. I don't feel the need for a Latvian book anymore - maybe a workbook with exercises. If anyone has recommendations, let me know.
Labvakar!
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