Product Description
A step-by-step course in written and spoken Czech. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great start in Czech
This book goes over standard Czech, but even so, it's a great place to learn some spoken Czech. If you've used any other Colloquial texts, you know how the lessons are set-up. I have to admit, I do like the Colloquial series. There are only a few textbooks in the series that are not that great on their own (Mongolian, Danish, and Norwegian come to mind). But like most Colloquial textbooks, Colloquial Czech is presented in a clear concise manor and vocabulary is presented every step of the way. Overall I think this is a great textbook for Czech.

Colloquial Czech offers good basis for difficult language
It was a rare English-speaker living in early-90s Prague who did not havea copy of James Naughton's Colloquial Czech. Unfortunately, it was alsorare to find someone who made it past Chapter Six before completely givingup on the Czech language and settling on the essential phrases they learnedfrom Colloquial Czech (such as expressing love and ordering beer).But forthose of us who made it past Chapter Six, we owe our thanks to Mr. Naughtonfor writing a fun book and helping us to speak such a gramaticallychallenged, vowel-devoid language. ... Read more

Product Description
You can use Teach Yourself Czech Complete Course to learn at your own pace or as a supplement to your classwork. This complete course utilizes the very latest learning methods in an enjoyable and user-friendly format. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Nice study aid
I've been sticking with it for two months, and overall it's been a nice study aid. It's more of an academic tool than one for hopping in on a visit and getting around. A little more explanation of the grammar would be helpful, and I needed to break down and use Anki to memorize the vocabulary each section to prevent holes forming in my lexicon. Still, I appreciate the breadth of vocabulary, and the authors do try to help with identifying gender and verb forms.

Just wish some of the conversations didn't have sexist comments. So far, Ivan thinks that women agree about everything, and Mr. Smith is joking that being single is better than being married and expressing happiness that his wife's fast asleep. Way to win points with female readers.

Quite good
I'm surprised by so many negative reviews for this book. Much of it sounds like frustration from learning Czech generally or the book not exactly matching what you expected. I've lived in Prague since 2003 and have read just about ever Czech language book on the market and I think Teach Yourself Czech is one of the best. It's somewhere between a phrasebook and reading lessons with the grammar learning implicit, at least as much as possible.The biggest problem I have with Czech language books is that they give you a list of vocabulary and then some grammar and declination rules and then a bunch of drills and they expect you to use it in conversation. It takes a very long time and lot's of practice. To form a relatively complicated sentence requires to know at least 2 or 3 or more cases and it's difficult to combine them fluently in a sentence, In Teach Yourself Czech, that'salready done for you and you remember the entire phrase and not just vocab lists, and your fluency increases rapidly because you aren't trying to remember 3 different case and gender endings, you just repeat the phrases as it's listed.This book is intended for more than just being a tourist, for that I'd recommend a basic phrase book, in Prague most people speak some English.I bought the Berlizt tape with phrase book and found it very useful for basic travel and it has the same methodology of using whole phrases. Then I'd recommend moving to Teach Yourself Czech and the Lida Hola book mentioned by other. I'm still reserving my 5 star rating for the perfect Czech textbook. Something like Raymond Murphy's Essential Grammar in Use but for learners of Czech instead of English. As a language teacher living in Prague, you can't do much better than teach yourself Czech for a basic conversational fluency.

Save your money, this book is useless.
My wife who is Czech, bought me this book to supplement her teaching me the language before we move back to Morava. Unfortunately this book contradicts itself page after page. If you are really interested in learning the beautiful yet complex language that is Czech, spend your money on lessons from someone who spoke Czech as their first language. This book will set your learning back a great deal.

Quit yer whining!
First off: Most of these bad reviews are coming from tourists who really only need to learn a couple of phrases like, "where is the shopping center?" and "will you take my picture?" This program is designed forpeople who want to learn the actual basics of the language and communicate effectively with native Czech-speakers. Since it was designed for that purpose, it is most definitely a terrible phrase book. But it isn't trying to be a phrase book, now, is it?

In any event, I have had a lot of success with this book. It's packed with a ton of information and the grammar points are laid out so they can be absorbed as painlessly as possible. Occasionally awkward phrases (like "My, they're in a hurry") seem to be the author's attempt to stress vocabulary, not merely goofy phrase supplements. The unit that it appear in introduces the verb "spchat" (to hurry), and the phrase is actually a nice way to get it to stick in your head.

That being said, this book does have one weak point in particular: there isn't nearly enough audio for it to be your only resource. Also, this isn't really a problem for me, but it seems to be a problem for some other reviewers; this book won't hold your hand while it walks you through the lessons. The back cover is misleading when it says you can progress quickly. You have to spend a LOT of time soaking up all the details they throw at you, because they do pop up later. Overall, though, the course is very comprehensive, you just need to actually spend some time studying. Of course, if you're very averse to studying, perhaps learning an entire language is not for you :(

More than I needed
We will be spending one week in Prague this fall, so thought it would be helpful to know some basics of the language. This product is way over-kill for our purposes, although it might be good for someone who will be there for an extended period of time.

We ended up ordering a phrase book instead--seems to be more fitting for what we need. ... Read more

Product Description
Cesky popis je uveden nize. Anglicky:

Czech poetry of the sixties of the twentieth century. This book is a compilation of original poems recited in Prague, in one of the university student clubs of the time, by authors and friends.

Important: THE BOOK IS IN CZECH LANGUAGE. Since Amazon at this time (11/2009) does not fully support complete Czech alphabet, some letters miss hooks or accents. Hopefully the publisher will be able to correct this deficiency soon. The publication is imminently readable as it is.

Ceska poezie sedesatych let dvacateho stoleti. Kniha je kompilaci originalnich basni prednasenych v Praze, v jednom universitnim studentskem klubu doby. Recitovali autori a pratele.

Dulezite: KNIHA JE V CESTINE. Protoze Amazon v soucasne dobe (11/09) plne nepodporuje ceskou abecedu nektera pismena jsou bez hacku ci carek. Nakladatel doufa ze bude moci odstranit tento nedostatek v blizke budoucnosti. Nicmene, publikace se da dobre cist tak jak je.

Předmluva:

Tak to bylo… léta šedesátá století dvacátého!

Bylo nás šest. Tři pohlední mladíci, aspirující básníci Milan, Ivan a Jirka. Druhý Jirka, hudební genius Jirka Růžička u klavíru, a dvě nejpohlednější děvčata poezii recitující, Krista Broscheová a Debra Halaxová. Říkali jsme si SKUPINA 6.

Dělali jsme jakési divadlo poezie. Poezie studentské těch bouřlivých let, ano, poezie progresivní, ze všech koutů, začátků i konců. Od Jevtušenka po Vaška Hraběte, a mnoho dalších. A hlavně, naši vlastní. Misto dění: Studentský Akademický Klub Strojařů, SAKS, na Karlově náměstí, v Praze. Místo kde hrával Storyville Jazz Band, kam chodíval Werich a Horníček jako hosté, a kde začínali slavní Rangers.

Teď, v roce 2009, my mladíci jsme už staříci, už kmetové poetického věku mládí. Kampak zavál čas vás, děvčata?

My chlapi jsme se letos sešli, poprvé všichni čtyři, po čtyřiceti plus letech. Okupační armády armády roku osmašedesátého nás tenkrát tragicky rozehnaly do světa. Jirka Růžička, věrný hudbě, žil ve Švýcarsku. Ivan se zabýval nukleárním zkoumáním v Mnichově v Německu. Já jsem vynalézal celosvětovou televizní techniku v Kalifornii v USA. Jediný Jirka Žák, dnes úspěšný spisovatel a herec, neopustil rodnou zem.

Co zbývá? Přátelství a vzpomínky - a naštěstí – trochu té poezie. Doufáme že i vám, příležitostným čtenářům, přinese chvilky nostalgie… pro slávu zašlých časů!


Za Skupinu 6,
Milan Vodicka, Ph.D.

Grass Valley, Kalifornie, USA
November 2009
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Product Description
This volume covers the language situation in the Czech Republic, European Union and Northern Ireland explaining the linguistic diversity, the historical and political contexts and the current language situation – including language-in-education planning, the role of the media, the role of religion, and the roles of non-indigenous languages.The authors are indigenous and/or have been participants in the language planning context. ... Read more

Product Description
This reader on Polish and Czech literature includes discussions of the Romantic Hero, Romantic reactions and developments, and the contemporary Anti-Hero. Essayists include Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Slowacki, Witold Gombrowicz, and Vaclav Havel. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Standard content, poor construction
Well-organized and easy to reference.The cover proclaims "pages will not fall out"- not true.If you can find a different phrasebook with more flexible binding and thinner pages, you would probably be better off with that one. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Providing an essential bridge to communication, this handy phrasebook is an essential companion to any traveller. It covers a range of travel needs, from arranging accommodation and using public transport to meeting people and eating and drinking. information to the language and technical language hints l Features a new invaluable menu decoder for every language l Side-indexed for ease of use l Includes helpful language map ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good book
Item as described.I haven't used it yet, but will take it on a trip to Central Europe in a couple of weeks.I'm sure it will be helpful.

Point to it!
This is a quick way to make your needs know as you travel through a number of countries which speak other languages especially Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian and 9 others. The basic transliteration used in the book is the same throughout the book. Familiarity of the basic outline of the 350 phrases should be done, some of which are compounded therefore you have to count the words to point to the correct one. I don't know if an audio transcript has ever been done of the book-it would be useful!The book is pocket size and fits into the back pocket of my jeans. You may want to use a removeable tab to the language in demand for easier use

Pretty good, given its size.
Well-organized list of phrases in twelve languages.It would be ideal for a trip through several different countries in eastern and central Europe, but if you were going to spend any serious time in a single country, you would want more.It has the drawbacks common to all phrasebooks --the phrases may not be the ones you actually need.Because this one is so compact, there is no room for glossaries or any advice on customs or grammar.

Still, it has a lot of phrases in a compact, easy-to-use package.

I bought this for a short trip to Romania, where I socialized largely with Hungarian speakers.Didn't need it urgently, and so rarely tested it "under fire" -- doctor, train connections, etc.But it helped me learn a few basic phrases in two different languages at the same time, which allowed me to at least seem polite.(Of course, I kept using Romanian phrases among Hungarians and vice-versa, which defeated the purpose a little, but that's not the book's fault!)

Handy, Compact Guidebook for Multiple Languages.
This guidebook is a handy, compact reference for simple survival and simple courtesy-based conversation.It is suited for the traveler who intends to visit the countries that feature these 12 languages, but not for the student who is trying to learn one particular language.Alternatively, the book will serve well the student of a language who needs a quick reference for simple phrases, should he stumble.

The book features simple greetings and situational phrases, such as at the airport or the restaurant, along with a brief history of each language.It also has a section devoted to telling time, which I found lacking, since it did not cover all the times of the day (just the times within 9 o'clock, and how to say "noon," "afternoon," and "evening," for example).One of the book's strengths is its phonetic pronunciations for each translated phrase.Although I found some pronunciations were incorrect (in the Lithuanian section), it will help you in a bind.

... Read more