English and Sinhalese lesson book on Ollendorff's system: designed to teach Sinhalese through the medium of the English language

Description

Publisher: Colombo: W. Skeen Date: 1914 Pages: 167The prefeent work is compiled upon a system which has been applied with the greatest success to nearly every European language ; and I, therefore, present it to the Public with confident hope that it will in no slight degree assist Europeans in the acquisition of Singhalese. Whatever of merit there may be in the work, is mainly due to Ollendorff's system; and whatever of defect, must be charged upon myself. I have made one addition to Ollendorff's system:—Reading Lessons at intervals of 12 or 14 lessons, made as difficult as possible within the range of those lessons. They will not, however, be found too difficult, if the preceding lessons have been well learnt ; nor should ability to understand the Reading Lesson well, be taken as a proof that the others have been thoroughly mastered: remembering that it is much easier to read and understand than to compose ; much easier to occupy a house than to build one ; to look at a picture than to paint it. Persons not in Ceylon, and who cannot have access to a native teacher, may, by careful study of the directions about pronunciation, commence the study of the language and make considerable progress in it; but it is desirable to have an intelligent native assis^tant at hand as much as possible.