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| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5836 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 25 of 63 13 December 2009 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
I disagree, I think the newer version 'New Czech Step by Step' is a good introduction to the language. It goes into all the grammar a beginner needs, without being too heavy going, gives you a good vocabulary, including commonly used colloquial phrases and comes with some nice audio. There is also a follow up 'Krok za Krokem 2' Czech Step by Step Another book I would recommend is Survival Czech by Soňa Váchalová, published by Leda. (Maybe hard to get outside Cz) It presents the grammar very thoroughly and gives you dozens of exercises to work through. However the audio is only available on cassette and isn't very good. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 26 of 63 14 December 2009 at 4:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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Seems like a good idea to get that. I'm really just using it as a reference. I go along with the curriculum but the way I practice is entirely my own.
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| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 27 of 63 14 December 2009 at 7:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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I just wanted to do a post on my method that I have been forming and thinking about for quite a while.
I will divide it by category of what elements I learn. Vocabulary: I rarely make Anki decks or word lists for vocabulary (unless I need to know a small amount). What I do is I look at the vocabulary list, saying each word aloud, and maybe repeat it. I might put it into a Text To Speech (only for Russian), and I will listen to it once or twice. I then put in the dialog or read that aloud, and see how much I recognize. I highlight words I don't forget and then I look at them again. This is more passive. In active vocabulary I usually look at the English part of the list and say the L2 equivalent. I will then use it in a sentence which also is part of learning new grammatical structures. Grammar: I read through the structure, reviewing it each day for a few days, and maybe taking notes. I practice forming words with it in my mind. Then, on the last day of studying the lesson, I make a bunch of sentences utilizing that structure and the new words. I may do some speaking and random construction (especially if it's a case). During this two to three day process I review things in my head and think about them. When I am alone, I practice speaking while utilizing what I remember. It is not perfect, but it has been working. Occasionally I may supplement it with a bit of Anki or maybe some FSI. I only do written exercises to review and keep it fresh in my mind. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 28 of 63 17 December 2009 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I finally started reading Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen. I didn't have enough time so I only read the first page (I literally had 5 minutes which was interrupted by two dictionary lookups). I've been working through the lesson with the prepositional case in the Penguin Russian course, and I have also moved on to the next lesson in Colloquial Czech. I think the genitive case is next for Czech in this lesson. *HOPEFULLY!*
P.S. I love inflected languages :). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5673 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 29 of 63 17 December 2009 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
I do agree that step Step by Step is an easy read, but it does not cover much ground. It is a very very basic text. Several language schools here in Prague use the book in the beginner classes, but you will get through it in just a few weeks. For the same money you can get something more substantial. The follow on book - Krok za Krokem" is, at least in my opinion, a terrible book - because the author tries too hard to make it "fun" - so it is full of bright colours on glossy paper, with cartoons, and big banners placed at funny angles. Also, the book has many pages with large sections left blank (actually, in the style of lined note paper) for you to fill in answers. As a result, this very slim volume again covers very little ground.
Yes - I like that book. It was the first one I used when I was learning Czech - and it took me almost a year to get through it. It is more substantial than the other books you mentioned. It does have a slightly comical storyline running through it - and a few cartoons too - but I think this one gets the balance right between being enjoyable and covering a lot of ground. I do agree with you that the audio for this book is disappointing. If I were learning Czech again, though, I wouldn't use any of these three books. I would download the DLI and FSI Czech courses. The DLI Czech course has a great deal of audio, including plenty of exercises, and the FSI course has a lot of very good written dialogues and associated lessons (unfortunately, I have never found the supporting audio for FSI Czech). When I first came across the FSI course, I thought it was very dull. However, on a later visit to it, I changed my mind. It is hard work, certainly, but as a course is excellent. In addition, I would get Czech: An Essential Grammer by James Naughton, and A Modern Czech Grammar by Hawkins. After that, I would go straight into authentic Czech material, such as the website of the tabloid blesk.cz Finally, for somebody who is at intermediate level in Czech, and wants to study rather than relying only on improvement through native materials, I recommend the (hard to find) two-volume set: Czech - A multi-level course for advanced learners, by František Čermák, Jan Holub, Jiří Hronek, Milan Šára, and David Short. This goes into much greater depth than any other course I have come across, but is not for the faint hearted. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 30 of 63 18 December 2009 at 7:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have started to get a little overwhelmed. Honors classes and balancing 4 languages at once is not fun.
I have decided to make a schedule: Sunday: Read a little in German. Do some speaking exercises, write a little. Monday: Do a little Swedish. Do grammar exercises and read a little to gain vocabulary. Tuesday: Do a hardcore 1 hour Russian workout. Wednesday: Do a hardcore 1 hour Czech workout. Thursday: Do a little of every language (including Hebrew). Friday: Do some intense studying of Czech and Russian. Saturday: Spend @ least thirty minutes doing SOMETHING in each language (including Hebrew). Edited by ruskivyetr on 19 December 2009 at 1:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 31 of 63 19 December 2009 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ok so I'm going to do some FSI FAST Russian right now before I have to leave. It's early so I can get some in and then finish up later. I'm bringing my iPod with me so I can listen to some Russian. I wish I had an iPod touch so I could have a dictionary too :(. Anyway, I'm going to do some listening and just do my thirty minutes. I'll bring Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen as well so I can get that done. When I get home I'm going to do some Swedish grammar, then do a little vocabulary. I'm going to finish up by doing some Czech speaking exercises and get started on the new case. If I have time, I'll do some Hebrew after that.
YAY!!! Tschüss! Nazdar! Пока! Hej då! שלום 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 32 of 63 21 December 2009 at 3:48am | IP Logged | |||||
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Ok so yesterday didn't go as planned. I didn't have time to do ANYTHING while I was out and when I got home that night I was so tired that I went straight to bed. Today I got a lot done though, I did some FSI for German and I'm doing some Russian and Czech after homework. Swedish will have to wait for lunch break tomorrow :(.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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