Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Czech: A Complete Course for Beginners(Teach Yourself)

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

 

 

I'm learning with this book, and I do find it helpful and interesting. But I think the chapters introduce too many points at a time, and the exercises at the end of each chapter are not comprehensive enough to practice what was presented. I agree with other reviewers that the book relies a bit too much on intuition on the part of the reader.

The main thing I'm using it for is studying the conversation practices and comparing them with the tapes. I'd have to say that I've actually learned more Czech from a 40 year old copy of "Teach Yourself Czech" I found. Each chapter is only 2-3 pages long (there are lots of chapters) so you can digest things a bit at a time. So don't forget to look around some of your local used book stores!!

There are two primary goals to master when trying to learn Czech. The first is attempting to learn all of the various rules for endings changes (and the numerous irregulars and exceptions). The second is building vocabulary and conversational ability. Short wisely leans toward the second goal and gently introduces the labyrinth of grammatical rules as needed. If the first goal is stressed, it is hard not to feel overwhelmed and give up.

This text, no matter how good, cannot be recommended. There is a huge mistake that exists with the letter: t', it comes off incorrectly printed as: afl. Thus, any occurance of a word which contains the letter t', reads as: afl.
The Czech word: at' will appear as the non­Czech word: afl and the Czech word: vrat' will appear as the non­Czech word: vrafl.
I wrote to the publisher four years ago asking for my money back. They only offered a corrected copy when it would be printed. I've never received one, and, these incorrect texts are on the shelves in book stores worldwide.
Look at pages 205, 208 and 215 for some incorrect words.
Once again, no matter the good and great things in this book, you will learn an embarrassing Czech that does not exist if you use this book. Buyer beware!

Disregard my earlier review. The text of this wonderful book has now been fully corrected. It is a "must have" for anyone wanting an introduction to the Czech language. Czech is a most difficult language but TY Czech explains the difficult Czech grammar well.

Even being not enought, the book is good but the cassetes are bads. There are bad and low voices mixed with others good voices. Exercises almost don't use the cassetes. About the book: The grammar is little confused (You need to practice and use the intuition several times) but the topics are good. I think the idea was to show several subjects in a little space.

I am struggling my way through the chapters, doing the exercises, and listening to the CDs. Much of it is getting through to me, but it is requiring the use of on-line dictionaries and a great deal of effort. The book tries to build on the skills learned from one chapter to the next, however it introduces too much too quickly and further complicates the plan by introducing too manny different words for the same things. My guess is that you should spend about 2 months going through the entire book...each week re-reading everything you have learned. I understand nothing comes easy, and anyone hoping for a quick and easy way to learn a new language is kidding themselves...but it would be more useful if this book did away with the excess vocabulary and made the CDs more slow and intelligible. Otherwise, like myself, one can grow bored and frustrated very quickly and lose interest in the entire endeavor. This book does one thing really well...it gives you a reality-Czech.

David Short has put together a wonderful text. Truly comprehensive, it goes far beyond the usual survival guide. Each unit is wonderfully laid out and all information is introduced clearly and at a comfortable pace. The "something extra" section at the end of each unit provides an informative and interesting glimpse into Czech culture and lifestyle. While it is a complete language course, this traveller found the dialogues and exercises perfectly appropriate for someone travelling to the Czech Republic. Pick it up today! (And then hope that Short puts out an intermediate coursebook soon...

It depends on why you wish to learn Czech.If it's for a good grounding in grammar and to be able to read Czech literature, then this book is fine.If you're learning, as I am, for holiday purposes, then it's not much use.I shall be travelling alone, and I need to be able to ask about hotels, trains and buses,local sights,to order meals, to change money.This book is no use for that at all. The audio cassette is very difficult to follow at first, as the speech is so rapid. I know all the arguments for presenting it in this way, but when there are new and very difficult sounds to master we need more help.The r/s sound is a beast. I've got it, but no thanks to this course.

I found a simple dictionary that showed how to pronounce each word in English. This book assumes a person learns the pronounciation of words throughout the text by reading the front of the book. The book needs to show the phrases throughout the book so that a person is not always trying to dig back to figure out how to pronounce a word or phrase in English. Czech does not look like at easy language to learn.

There are pretty much two popular czech language book courses (not just phrase books). I reccomend the other one because it is easier to follow and learn from. Glossary in this book is also only czech-english.