Colloquial Slovene: A Complete Language Course (Colloquial Series) [Paperback]

Andrea Albretti (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415089484 | ISBN-13: 978-0415089487 | Publication Date: November 6, 1995 | Edition: Bk&Cassett

These cassettes are recorded by native Slovene speakers and can be used on their own or to accompany the book, helping you with pronunciation and listening skills.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Routledge; Bk&Cassett edition (November 6, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415089484
• ISBN-13: 978-0415089487
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,152,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Slovenian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simply fantastic, November 28, 1999

By 

Piffer Daniela - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colloquial Slovene: A Complete Language Course (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

I started learning Slovene 3 years ago ( when I was 13)as self-taught girl and I have a lot of slovene books ( I mean grammar books)but I think this is the best one I own. Here there are 13 chapters and the book talk about an English man,Robert, who goes to Slovenia to work there for a year. Each chapter is about a different situation in Robert's life and at the end of each chapter there is the vocabulary, language points, civilization and grammar notes with a lot of examples and exercises.At the end of the book there are the translations of the dialogs, the solutions of the exercises and a 22-pages glossary. The cassettes are great too:they are very very useful for the pronounciation. The only problem (but it's only for the students who are not english)is that this book is written only in English so quite difficult. However this book is better done than any other Italian or German one.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good but far from enough, June 27, 2005

By 

Slavic World (Zagreb) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colloquial Slovene: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

Slovene is a hard language, possibly the hardest of all the Slavic languages due to an unusually rich (read: complex...) grammar. This is one of the few Slovene courses available in Englisg, and unfortunately it's not enough.

The vocabulary introduced in this course is the main problem. While the average language course in the Colloquial series introduces well over 1000 words, this course is well below 800. Compared to some of the other Colloquial books on Slavic languages, the vocabulary is down by 50%. This means that the learner is left with a very limited vocabulary.

The grammar is introduced at a very slow pace. There are obvious advantages to this approach, but at the same time it means that it only touches upon the most basic points, and is likely to leave the learner confused when he approaches actual Slovene.

You'd better buy the tapes, because this book does not show the stress of words nor the different pronunciations of the letter 'e'.

To sum it all up

What is good with this book
- It is easy to use.
- The dialouges are modern and relevant

What is bad with this book
- The grammar is incomplete
- The vocabulary introduced is very limited


This book would not be bad at all as part one of a course in Slovene, or as a short introduction, but it is not a full language course. Those who have used other courses in the Colloquial series should not expect this book to be an equally extensive course

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Spoken in Slovenia, June 16, 2003

By 

Kurt Rasmussen (Torrance, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colloquial Slovene: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

I was born and raised in Los Angeles California, but my wife was born and raised in Slovenia (Andol and Ljubljana). For years my in-laws have been trying to teach me Slovene; my accent was just too much for my wife. We traveled to Slovenia and I made a major leap forward (immersion) and now my wife can tolerate my accent. After the trip to Slovenia, I found this audio cassette course and decided to try it. My wife and in-laws are very impressed with the differing styles of speech and the accurate phasing that one would normally hear in and around Ljubljana. Although the course might move a little too fast for someone without any exposure to the language, it is the right pace and style for a serious student. My diction has greatly improved. I converted the tapes to audio-CD and spend time mimicking the exact style of the different persons speaking in each lesson. This has greatly reduced my accent. This is not a dry classroom lecture series. It is everyday people talking and having fun -- it reminds me of the relatives in Slovenia.