58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
A
highly recommendable Czech course!, February 22, 1999 |
Good
explanations but too few exercises, December 13, 2004
I've just completed this course and am reasonably satisfied by it. I was in Moravia a few months ago and decided afterwards that I'd get serious about learning the language (I was relying on my Slovak during my stay in Moravia since I found that I was being understood almost all of the time). For its price Naughton's course does a reasonable job. You do get good explanations about grammar and there are useful appendecies at the back that'll help as quick references. While the content and tables in the rest of the book are solid, their scattered nature makes it difficult to look up as a quick reference. The dialogues are interesting and spoken quickly. It's difficult initially to understand them without following the text, but it's natural for native speakers to speak quickly amongst themselves. After hearing them a few times, you'll start to imitate their accents and build up conversational pace when speaking Czech. If you can get the CDs, then get those instead of the cassettes. It's easier to do playback with CDs and they don't wear out as quickly as cassettes. My complaint is that there are relatively few exercises compared to the amount of grammatical information. It would have helped if the author had created more exercises. One way that I'm dealing with this is to work with David Short's "Teach Yourself Czech" after having had completed this course. Short's course uses lively but complex dialogues as a starting point with the grammatical explanations set up afterwards whereas Naughton introduces things gradually by setting up dialogues to illustrate the respective chapter's grammatical focus. Short's method isn't the best way to introduce foreigners to the language, but for someone with some knowledge of Czech it works very well. The extra exercises and different dialogues can only help improve my Czech. If one were very serious about learning Czech on his or her own, then I would recommend the Czech Fast course (12 tapes) by FSI/Audio-Forum. It was designed in the 1960s for use by US foreign service staff and it presents a very thorough and organized approach to learning with plenty of oral, aural and written drills. (I haven't used the Czech version, but I did use the Hungarian one a few years ago. I was impressed by the amount of material that I was able to learn and retain from the course in spite of the fact that I've only been to Hungary for short vacations. The FSI courses are organized and designed in the same dry but effective format. ) In sum, this is the best overall starting point. However, it's a good idea to add on Teach Yourself Czech as the second stage. |
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Important
Western Slavic language, August 13, 2004
I got this book (no cassettes or CDs came with mine) for a
half-semester course I took on Czech history and culture; those of
us who wanted stayed behind after class with our professor to learn
some Czech. He didn't assign any book for those of us who were
interested in the optional language part, but this was the only book
on Czech I could find at the off-campus textbook store. As a native
speaker, the professor thought it was really good. Of course it
doesn't have the most comprehensive dictionary in the back, but
that's to be expected with any teach yourself language book. You
have to go out and get a real Czech-English dictionary if you're
inspired enough to keep learning. |
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Muddled,
April 14, 2004
I found some of the sections okay. As stated by the previous reviewer the speakers spoke too fast. Some of the sections too advanced for the beginner But it was muddled and unclear as to the grammar. These should have been pulled out more and explained more clearly. I got to chapter 5 and am now looking for a book that breaks the grammar down for someone like me! |
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Average.
Difficult to use as a reference book., February 25, 2004
I'm quite disappointed with this book. The layout is disorienting and the index, well the index doesn't point you to page numbers. That doesn't bode well for looking up specific topics. There's a complete lack of refernce tables. I was hoping for something more visually organized. If you're the type who doesn't need to have information in it's place and are ok with taking the lessons as they're thrown at you, then you'll enjoy this book more than I have. |
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Great
course, August 25, 2003
This is a great way to get started learning Czech. Naughton's book is absolutely replete with grammar, which most books like this are seriously short on. The book isn't clogged up with tons of ridiculous situational dialogues (like "My polka-dotted Zimbabwean friend and I escape the monkey-pox by chugging four Pilsners daily.") The author grades vocabulary according to the level of difficulty that each lessons presents. The book includes loads of Czech sentences with English translations right next to them so you don't have to waste time scurrying to your dictionary. Neatly arranged diagrams make learning verb conjugations and stuff like that easier. Exercises give you a chance to practice what you've learned. Also, the book is low-key and efficient. No huge diagrams, no massive space-wasting color pictures, no silly "show me the way to the pub" exercises. In the back of the book you'll find a nifty little section called "More Words and Phrases", which includes some specialized and tourist-oriented vocabulary arranged according to subject matter (e.g., finding your way, clothes, eating, letter writing...) This way you don't have to wade through a bunch of words like "gooseberry" in the middle of a grammar lesson. There's also a dictionary in the back and a handy reference section which lays out all the grammar rules in concise form. Excellent book. Five stars. |