Customer Reviews

Beginner's Czech (Beginner's (Foreign Language)) (English and Czech Edition)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

As I will be moving to Prague shortly, I decided to try to learn some Czech before I go, and thus chose to go with "Beginner's Czech". So far, I have not regretted this.

The book is divided into ten chapters, covering the basic grammatics and a variety of common situations (with the according vocabulary you'll need in such situations) - Introducing yourself, shopping, being a guest, asking for directions, etc.

The book is clearly aimed at people who are highly motivated for learning the Czech language, which in fact is quite difficult. For instance, right in the second chapter, you'll get the complete declension tables for all genders, including plurals (the Czech language has three genders and seven cases!) This can seem a bit much all at once, but I find it very handy when I want to look back at the tables when they are all at one place...

"Beginner's Czech" does include a chapter on pronounciation, but no cd. Personally, I find it a little hard to learn good pronounciation without actually hearing the sounds, so this is a small drawback. But then again, the book would probably have been more expensive with a cd. And anyway, there are some good places on the internet where you can check up on the pronounciation (for instance [...]).

Also, there are some of the exercises where it can be quite hard to actually understand why the declensions are the way they are (some kind of exeptions which aren't explained)

In spite of these very minor shortcomings, I strongly recommend this book to any motivated person looking to learn some Czech. It is a really good primer on the Czech language, and in any case, it's definitely worth the price..

As someone who is moving to Prague in the near future, I thought I would get a jump on the game by learning the basics of the Czech language in advance. This book is great for just that: learning the basics. Not a whole lot of help conversationally, but the book is rife with tables and charts indicating pronunciation, grammar, and definitions. Definitely worth the $10. Very handy for learning proper usage, and briefly covers a bit of Czech history in the beginning. 4 stars.

I went thru the first five chapters on this book and then decided to move on to another book. This is not a beginner's book, it is more like a grammar reference book. If you are really new to the language like me I suggest you go with "Czech Step by Step" by Lida Hola. It is more expensive but it is MORE usefull, I've learned more in just the first lesson than on the first 5 on "Beginer's Czech". If you try to learn with this book you will think that it is an impossible language... my advice... get another book!

I bought this preparation for learning Czech. While I've only skimmed through it so far, it seems to be more focused on grammar than the "Teach Yourself Czech" book. It's full of charts and tables, which is how I learned my first foreign language (Latin).