Category: Georgian Language

Printed material:

• Georgian Language for English Speakers (Shavtvaladze) — Books I–IV
  This book and the accompanying reading materials and workbook are top-notch, but really only available in Georgia. You can order them online from Prospero’s Books in Tbilisi, but I don’t know if they ship internationally (and if they do, it will be expensive.)
• Georgian Dialogues Reading Materials (Shavtvaldze) — Levels I–IV
• Workbook (Shavtvaladze) — Levels I–IV
• Beginner’s Georgian (Kiziria)
  I own this book and it is a good start if you are coming to Georgia.
• Georgian Dictionary and Phrasebook
• Georgian Language: 124 Georgian Verbs
• We Learn Georgian (Khvedelidze and Gabechava)
  This book is mostly in Georgian. It would be hard to use it for a first book and it is probably not available outside of Georgia.
• Learn to Read Georgian in Five Days
  I learned to read Georgian in two days using the book. An excellent and inexpensive beginning.

There are many more books available on Amazon now, but I do not own them. Some look more useful than others…

Continue reading “Resources for learning Georgian”

The Georgian language can be daunting. They have their very own alphabet and Georgian is one of the world’s oldest languages still spoken.

I am learning Georgian because I want to speak to everyone here. Young people almost universally speak some English, often quite fluently. Old people, like me, almost universally do not speak English, but usually speak very good Russian. I could learn Russian and switch back and forth, but the Georgians will universally love that you are learning to speak Georgian. Russian is not very popular here with the young folks; relations with Russia are spotty at best.

Continue reading “Why learn Georgian?”

My life’s dream has been to plop myself down in a country where I did not have any friends or family, did not speak the language, did not know the culture and did not know the country. Welcome to Georgia!

Continue reading “Welcome to Tbilisi!”