Customer Reviews

Czech, Basic: Learn to Speak and Understand Czech with Pimsleur Language Programs

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

[updated review]
I can only recommend this product as a supplement to a written text. It really doesn't work well as a stand-alone product, largely because of the poor pronounciation in places. There are many places where it sounds like the speakers are adding whole syllables to the ends of words that aren't there,e.g., "rozumima" instead of "rozumim".

I've since worked my way through the whole Pimsleur series on Czech and while my concerns about vagaries of pronunciation remained, it did an excellent job of preparing me to at least handle the basics of Czech, especially given the paucity of good materials for self-instruction in Czech. The repetition worked well (I ended up actually doing each half-hour lesson three times before moving on). I find that I can do a fair job of picking out dialogue in Czech films and also spoken while I was in Prague for vacation. In fact, I found myself able to get directions to an ATM entirely in a Czech dialogue as well as being able to have a bookstore employee with almost no English help me find Czech dictionaries and learn how much they cost.

I would still like to have a printed companion to go along with this (the biggest set, which I borrowed from the library, has a set of readings which I skipped so that may actually alleviate the last of my concerns).

I started listening to the cd's in my car on the drive to and from work, a total of 40 minutes a day and after the first week I was extremely confident in what I have learned so far. Having never spoken a work of Czech it's very easy to learn.

Not as good as some of the other products I have bought to help me learn Czech. I like to see what I speaking as well as hear it. No software just audio. I like to have both so I can speak and read it. My primary goal is to read and understand. As it will help me greatly to be able to translate my own Czech Documents for Genealogy.

I would not recommend this product for those wanting to be able to read it as well as to speak Czech.

This really works. It moves slowly and is very repetitive, which is great for those of us who are not very quick at picking up a language. It really walks you through pronunciation as well, which was key in learning Czech.

I own language programs for French, German, Japanese, Spanish and American Sign Language, and the Pimsleur program for Czech is my favorite. I am not bored working through this auditory learning only program, and I find that even after going days without listening to the CDs, I have not forgotten any of what I have learned. For the first time, I really think I will finally be able to learn a second language and "keep" it. This is BASIC conversation with no books and reading or writing to mess with, yet I believe this program teaches you everything you would need to know if you were to actually go to Czechoslovakia. I bought the program as a marketing aid for me in my farmers market business because (1) I am half Czech and always wanted to learn the language and (2) there are many elderly Czech customers at our farmers market who may feel more comfortable with a vendor who speaks the language they grew up with. A very good buy at a reasonable price.

Pimsler's Basic Czech is a 10-CD collection for learning some basic phrases. You are asked to listen to the native speakers and repeat after them, some explanations being given in English. According to the product, their method is superior to other audio guides, as the phrases are repeated at specific intervals (almost like native speakers hear them when they acquire the language), which would improve remembering them.

I tend to think that learning a language this way is inefficient. I have spent a total of 300 minutes, in which I learned little vocabulary, little phonology and almost no grammar at all. The CDs go very little into how to count, how to name fruit, how to name places etc. Learning a language as native speakers do is a little utopia, as you don't have the same abilities children have and you can't dedicate as much time as them (7 years of continuous Czech listening and speaking).

In my opinion, if you really want to learn a language, take a book, which in each lesson teaches you vocabulary, grammar and has exercises associated with them.

On the other hand, I think that the CDs are very good to open up your taste for the Czech language. The speech is very clear and some particularities of the Czech language are highlighted, such as the fact that verb are conjugation, that nouns are declined, that the verb must agree with the gender, without going into details. I would also recommend this book if you plan to meet Czech people and want to impress them with a few basic phrases, to show how open you are towards their culture.

In the first two hours of Pimsleur Czech, I learned to have the following conversation (these are ACTUAL PHRASES from this course):

"Excuse me."
"Yes?"
"Where is Wenceslas Square?"
"It's here."
"Are you American?"
"No, I'm Czech."
"Do you want to go get something to drink? At my hotel? Maybe later?"

Seriously, Pimsleur, do you really think I'm going to the Czech Republic to hit on people? Why not give us vocabulary we tourists actually need, like "Two tickets to Cesky Krumlov, please" or "do you have a menu in English?"

And it's a huge mistake not to include any written materials at all with this course. I can learn far more quickly when I can see and hear the words at the same time. My guess is including a printed supplement would make it painfully obvious how little this course is actually teaching you.

In short: don't buy this. I learned more from my guidebook's small supplement of helpful phrases than I learned from this "course."

I have two of Pimsleur's CD programs; German and French and I found this one to fit quite nicely into the mix. It uses simple repetition and each CD builds on the next so that by the time you've spent some time on all of them you will have a basic working understanding of the Czech language.
Will you feel like you can sit in a coffee shop in Prague and quote Kafka in his native language of have a meaningful philosophical discussion? Naw, but then I can't do that in English either. What it gave me and might give you is the ability to sit down in that same coffee shop and order something without coming across like too much of a tourist. It will also show the local folks you bump into that you're at least interested in their language and culture.
Grab a book or two on the language and Czech history while you're at it and then enjoy your trip.
Dekuji!

The CD's are great. They helped to go over pronounciation and they don't move on too quickly as most other programs do. And it starts out slow and fairly easy, which helps me from getting discouraged. I'm married to a native Czech speaker, but it's hard to learn more than a word here or there from him, although he's been a big help.

I followed the instructions of doing a lesson every day but have to admit that the language is hard so I did one lesson in the morning on the way to work and then the next lesson on the way home - the next day I did the previous evenings lesson again - although this was only basic Czech I found that it was the perfect introduction for my first of many trips to the Czech Republic - This comes HIGHLY recommended for an introduction to the language.