Customer Reviews:
Learning Slovak.......2007-08-15
The CD is pretty good along with the book. It is very helpful to see the words on the page when you hear them and try to pronounce them. It is time consuming and I have to keep reviewing from the beginning. I have not yet finished the first CD but I review it every time before I go to Slovakia. I learned some helpful phrases.
Not for beginners.......2006-08-27
Although the first couple of lessons on the CD are OK for beginners, the CD rapidly progresses to complex dialog. The CD would probably be more useful with the companion book or as an adjunct to another course in Slovak. By itself, it is not helpful.
Book Description
This new edition of the Croatian course for beginners has been completely re-written to make learning the language easier and more enjoyable than ever before. br br Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Croatian. No prior knowledge of the language is required. br br What makes COLLOQUIAL CROATIAN your best choice in personal language learning? br br · Interactive - lots of exercises for regular practice br · Clear - concise grammar notes br · Practical - useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide br · Complete - including answer key and reference section br br By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Croatian in a broad range of everyday situations. br br This pack contains the course book and 120 minutes of audio material, provided on both cassettes and CDs. Recorded by native speakers, these will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.
Customer Reviews:
Too hard for what I need it for.......2007-03-09
I am going to Coratia for 2 weeks adn thought it would be nice to learn the basics. this book goes way to fast and is way to complicated for jsut that. If you want to become fluent in Croatian then this is it. Other wise don't bother with it
Book Description
Colloquial Slovene Is specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Slovene. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
What makes ColloquialSlovene your best choice in personal language learning?
* interactive - lots of exercises for regular practice
* clear - concise grammar notes
* practical - useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
* complete - including answer key and special reference section.
Cassettes accompany the course to help you with listening and pronunciation skills. By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in a broad range of situations.
Customer Reviews:
Useless.......2006-05-08
I'm sad to say that this course will be of no use to those wanting to learn Slovene. The aim of this review is to illustrate its shortcomings and suggest improvements that could be made.
Problem 1 - no accents
This problem alone is enough to render the book almost useless. In Slovene, any syllable of a word may be stressed. Get it wrong and you may end up saying a completely different word. This is especially evident in the case of the letter 'e', representing different sounds in Slovene. Apart from being stressed or unstressed, it can be an open e or a closed e. It might also be a schwa sound, the sound found in words such as English 'the'. In other words, how will you pronounce the common word 'vecer' (evening)? There are eight(!) options available... And what about the word 'svet'? Is it the Slovene word for 'holy' or for 'advice'? Almost all courses and books on Slovene make use of accents to indicate the pronunciation, since it is impossible to predict. The only two exceptions are this book and Teach Yourself Slovene by the same author. I never thought I'd say a language course in which you will have to guess the pronunciation of each and every word.
Problem 2 - Very limited vocabulary
The reviewer Gwilym mentioned how very limited the vocabulary of this course is compared to Colloquial Czech. The same goes for almost all the Colloquial courses on Slavic languages. Colloquial Czech, Colloquial Ukrainian, Colloquial Bulgarian, Colloquial Slovak, Colloquial Russian are all excellent courses with a well-suited vocabulary. Colloquial Serbian is decent enough. Only Colloquial Polish and Colloquial Croatian are a bit off the mark and then Colloquial Slovene that cannot even be compared to the other courses.
So only 1 star to this course, that star is for a decent (but not great) explanation of the grammar. Two stars off for the very limited vocabulary and two more for the lack of accents.
I'm glad that Routledge offers many excellent courses in Slavic languages and I can only hope that they will one day publish a Slovene course worhty of their reputation.
How not to write a language course.......2006-01-23
Of all the language courses produced by Routledge, this one is probably one of the least helpful. This is all the more unfortunate as there are no other courses in Slovene available. Routledge has published some excellent Colloquial courses on Slavic languages, such as Colloquial Czech, Colloquial Russian and Colloquial Ukrainian. Unfortunately, all the Colloquial courses from the former Yugoslavia leave much to be asked for. Colloquial Slovene, Colloquial Croatian and Colloquial Serbian are all below the usual "Colloquial-standard".
For a total beginner looking for a phrasebook, this course might be of some use. It does include some basic expressions and words. However, if that is all you're looking for, you will be better served the Slovene phrasebook published by Berlitz. Not only is it much cheaper, it also includes a better pronunciation guide and far more vocabulary than this course.
If you're interested in acutally learning Slovene, this course won't be able to help you. I have listed the major problems you will face
Pronunciation
Slovene pronunciation is not easy. Stress can fall on any syllable of the word. Get it wrong, and you might say another word than the one you intended. Every phrasebook or course in Slovene I've come across shows the stressed syllable of each new word. Colloquial Slovene does no such thing, you have to guess.
Another problem is that the vowel "e" can be pronounced in different ways in Slovene. Again, phrasebooks such as the one published by Berlitz or courses published in German show the pronunciation of "e". In short, you cannot know how any word in this course is to be pronounced. The recordings will help you, but it's not always easy for beginners to pick out the right syllable to stress.
Grammar
The grammar part is what could set this course aside from a mere phrasebook. Unfortunately, the grammar part is very limited. The concept of aspect is almost totally excluded. If you speak any Slavic language, you will already know how crucial aspects are. If you're a beginner, know that you will never be able to speak a Slavic language without mastering this quite complicated feature. Ignoring the whole thing makes this course easier. It also renders it almost worthless for anyone interested in learning to speak Slovene. The conjugation of nouns is dealt with, but that's almost all there is. If you have access to Colloquial Czech (the grammar is very similar), pick it up and compare it's detailed and user-friendly approach to this course. It is astonishinh that two courses with such a variation in quality are published in the same series.
Vocaulary
Complete Colloquial Czech and you will know well over 2.000 words. Complete Colloquial Slovene, and you will not know even 900 words.
In short, this course is too little of everything. Too little help with the pronunciation, too little explanations of the grammar and way too few words.
Routledge, the publisher of this course, has also published a very extensive Slovene grammar, written by Peter Herrity. When the time comes for the next edition of Colloquial Slovene, I hope he is given the task of writing it, that he starts from scratch and takes his guidelines from Colloquial Czech rather than from this book.
Good overall, but one major weakness.......2005-08-07
The book is well organised, well written and accessible. It covers all the basic vocabulary you need as a tourist and provides a good introduction to the language. It is largely jargon-free and you don't need to know any complicated grammatical terminology to use the book. The tapes/CDs are excellent - don't order the book without them if you want to get the most out of this teach-yourself course. The one big weakness - and it is a very big weakness - is that the book does not contain any information about word stress. Since there are no clear rules for word stress, the learner encounters many new words in the text (often not included on the tape) but without knowing how to pronounce them properly. Adding accents to denote the word stress would transform this from a good to an excellent book.
Must get it with the cassette tapes.......2004-01-10
This book is quite basic and should give the reader a good introduction to the slovene language, but it is only that. The small glossary at the end of the book helps with gender and conjugation, and most of the general rules for grammar are introduced. If you really want to learn Slovene, I suggest you start with this book, then get a dictionary like Komac's (which wont tell you anything about conjugation or gender) and finally an extensive grammar guide like Peter Harrity's book (which fills in the complex gaps left behind by the other two books). I suppose if you don't want to spend so much money, just buy this book, but do get the audio tapes so you can understand the pronunciation and get some good practice in.
The book is very readable, but contains exercises at the end of each lesson (with answers at the end of the book). It is set up much like a textbook and includes some penned illustrations to keep the mood light. Don't expect it to take you long to make it entirely through the book, though. Actually this book will get you through all of the essentials for a ski trip or a short holiday. Enjoy!
Book Description
Colloquial Serbian is easy to use and completely up to date!
Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Serbian. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
Book Description
Colloquial Croatian and Serbian is easy to use and completely up-to-date! Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Croatian and Serbian. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
What makes
Colloquial Croatian and Serbian your best choice in personal language learning?
* it's interactive - lots of exercises for regular practice
* it's clear - concise grammar notes
* it's practical - useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
* it's complete - including answer key and special reference section.
Cassettes accompany the course to help you with listening and pronunciation skills. By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in a broad range of situations.
Customer Reviews:
A good start, but book seems unfinished.......2005-06-08
I agree with most comments in all other reviews especially "gwilym". I have been using the book on and off for a few years while I am trying to learn the language. I too, wish to learn the Bosnian variant, and find that the book is definitely more "Croatian" in its use of vocabulary. However, considering the disolution of Yugoslavia is still fairly recent and not many newer books exist, I was very glad to have use of this book. It is quite easy to follow and the different stories provide useful vocabulary.
Definitely the main drawback is the terribly unfinished and unexhaustive vocabulary lists, and the exercises without answers. These two factors limit the book, and I find myself searching for a better grammar book with more examples to help me learn all the cases and verb structures. I could have learnt these better if there were answers.
Overall though, a good starting book. Give it a try and ask your native speaking friends for help and clarification.
Vrlo Dobro.......2003-02-08
This is a great book for the beginner and those who need to brush up on their skills. Well organized, easy to follow with lessons/homework at the end of each chapter.
Destroyed by lazyness.......2003-02-07
This could be a very good book for learning Croatian. As said below, the idea with each chapter consisting of three dialogues concerning tourism, business and a soap opera is very good since it enables the learner to cope with different situations. On the whole, the grammar is presented in a clear way and after finishing the course the learner should have a good grasp of Croatian grammar. Still, somewhere along the line someone got lazy - either the author or the people at lay out.
-Of the three different dialouges only the first in each chapter (tourism) has got decent vocabulary tables. For the other two dialouges in each chapter you do get some words, but since they aren't arranged into tables it is much harder to read and learn them. Of course you can write your own vocabulary for each of them but it will take quite some time - Routledge are the ones who should have put down that additional time.
-Speaking of vocabulary, the general vocabulary at the end of the book is a bad joke. My estimate is that even less than half of the words in the book made it to the vocabulary. It's quite frustrating to do an exercise, find a word you don't know and then for the umpteen time have to realize than the author/Routledge didn't bother to include that word either in the vocabulary.
-The exercises are quite good, but now the laziness reaches extreme hights. Only about 20% of the answers to the exercises are included in the book! I've no idea why, in every other Colloquial book I've read all the answers are given.
-Word accent in Croatian is not predictable and for some few words the accent is marked. For most it is not.
To sum up, the lack of vocabulary tables after each dialouge, the much-too-short general vocabulary and the non-existent answers to the exercises hugely diminish the value of this book. It is sad that a book with such good potential should be destroyed because someone didn't bother to add the final touch. My advice to the author: look at other books in the Colloquial series, such as Colloquial Slovak or Colloquial Lithuanian and learn from them.
Very complete and challenging book.......2002-09-03
I already speak 6 languages fairly fluently, and just starting out on croatian (pure beginner) and i borrowed both this book and Norris' book from my local town library. Hawkesworth's cassette is Definitely useless, as another reviewer said. The cassette is too fast, but u do learn some pronounciation. I feel Hawkesworth's book is a lot more detailed, and explains a lot more things. Maybe too much, for anyone who is a complete beginner. Norris' book is a lot lighter, and very good for beginners, because u really go step by step. Both are therefore very complimentary. My croatian friend agreed that they have more croatian than serbian in them.
Did not have the tapes, but..........2002-05-24
it should be noted that you will never find a book in any language that teaches you to speak exactly like people of a particular area or age group. The closest you can get is a colloquial version like this one. If you know someone from Zagreb, this is very useful, and my Serbian co-workers understand me just fine (once they got past my accent.)
Remember, English from England, Texas and Brooklyn is all different, but we have the basics to be understood in each. And the Spanish they teach in American schools is from Spain, not Puerto Rico or Mexico, but people from all three places will understand you.
You should, however, start with basic area-wide How-Do-Yo-Do's before moving on to local slang.
Book Description
i Colloquial Albanian /i gives a complete introduction to a fascination and little-known language, together with background information on the Albanian people and their culture. No previous knowledge of the language is necessary, and the course can be used for the classroom or for self-study.
Customer Reviews:
Caveat Emptor!.......2005-03-08
While this may in fact be an excellent resource, be advised that despite "complete course" in the title, and "384" pages in the product description, this is only the c.d. You still have to buy the book seperately (something I might have realized if I had taken notice of the specified dimensions and shipping weight in the product description). Therefore order a la carte and pay approx. $58 for book and cd, or order the "package edition" w/ audio cassetes for $56.95-current availability of the "package edition is 1-2 months-the cd arrived in less than a week and the "book only" is listed as being available to ship w/in 24 hours.
Book Description
Colloquial Ukrainian Is specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Ukrainian. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
What makes Colloquial Ukrainian your best choice in personal language learning?
* interactive - lots of exercises for regular practice
* clear - concise grammar notes
* practical - useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
* complete - including answer key and special reference section.
Cassettes accompany the course to help you with listening and pronunciation skills. By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in a broad range of situations
Customer Reviews:
OK, but not great.......1998-12-09
I found that the cassettes and book started out slowly and well but then became extremely difficult around the 3rd and 4th chapters. For example, in the 3rd lesson on tape, the dialog was taped with a lot of background noise (realistic for the restaurant setting). This makes it very difficult for a beginner to understand the new words! The beginning spent a lot of time on phonemes and the alphabet- both very helpful.
This manual gets you going quickly!.......1998-11-06
Ukrainian as a second language for English speakers is especially difficult, because the student must learn a new phonetic system via a cyrillic alphabet. "Colloquial Ukrainian" starts with understanding the cyrillic phonex and teaches beginning grammar through common dialogue.
Great book to begin self-instruction of the language. It would be improved if the dictionary pages included more vocabulary.
Average customer rating:
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- Early Pottery: Technology, Function, Style, and Interaction in the Lower Southeast
- Essential Modern World History
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- Finding Soul on the Path of Orisa: A West African Spiritual Tradition
- Francis Parkman : France and England in North America : Vol. 1: Pioneers of France in the New World, The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, The Old Regime in Canada (Library of America)
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