Customer Reviews

Colloquial Czech (The Colloquial Series)

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It was a rare English-speaker living in early-90s Prague who did not have a copy of James Naughton's Colloquial Czech. Unfortunately, it was also rare to find someone who made it past Chapter Six before completely giving up on the Czech language and settling on the essential phrases they learned from Colloquial Czech (such as expressing love and ordering beer). But for those of us who made it past Chapter Six, we owe our thanks to Mr. Naughton for writing a fun book and helping us to speak such a gramatically challenged, vowel-devoid language.

This book goes over standard Czech, but even so, it's a great place to learn some spoken Czech. If you've used any other Colloquial texts, you know how the lessons are set-up. I have to admit, I do like the Colloquial series. There are only a few textbooks in the series that are not that great on their own (Mongolian, Danish, and Norwegian come to mind). But like most Colloquial textbooks, Colloquial Czech is presented in a clear concise manor and vocabulary is presented every step of the way. And there is a good amount of vocabulary.

Grammar is the focus of this first edition. Some people may be put off by this, but I think it is a good method to learn Czech. The newer editions are more focused on conversation, but as I understand it, the grammar is still covered quite well.

The audio for the conversations is spoken a bit fast, but this is a natural speaking speed for Czech, and one has to get used to it sooner or later. Granted, they could have slowed down the first few dialogues, but I don't think that diminishes much from the overall production.

Overall this is a great way to start learning Czech.