Product Description

Everything needed to learn Czech is here in one package - the essential grammar and vocabulary, all in context with no mindless repetition required. 30 Units plus the Introduction to Reading: 16 hours of real-life (non-boring) spoken Czech practice sessions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #254874 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-26
• Formats: Audiobook, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 16
• Binding: Audio CD

About the Author
Dr. Paul Pimsleur devoted his life to language teaching and testing and was one of the world's leading experts in applied linguistics. After years of experience and research, Dr. Pimsleur developed The Pimsleur Method based on two key principles:  the Principle of Anticipation and a scientific principle of memory training that he called ?Graduated Interval Recall.?  This Method has been applied to the many levels and languages of the Pimsleur Programs.

Customer Reviews

A great system to learn a difficult lauguage.
I cannot tell you how pleased I am with the Pimsleur program for Czech. I only wish they had a more advanced version I could move on to! I also purchased the Berlitz cassette, and if I had not had Pimsleur first, I would have thought Czech was impossible. This product in a wonderful way to learn a little Czech for a trip.

OK Introduction, but not a complete course
On the plus side, the voice actors used in this course are very good. Most words are spoken clearly and are easy to understand.

The biggest downside with this product is the very limited vocabulary introduced here. If you are buying this course as a basic introduction to the Czech language, it will fill your needs very well. Although, is an "Introduction" worth the nearly $250 price tag? If you are buying this course in the hopes of carrying on a conversation in Czech, think again. There is just not enough vocabulary presented. This is solely due to Pimsleurs decision to waste vast amount of CD time, repeating past lessons. While repetition may be a very effective teaching tool in a classroom setting, it's a gross waste of time with recorded media. With recorded media, if I haven't mastered, or have forgotten, the vocabulary from a previous lesson, I can always go back and replay it as many times as is necessary. While reusing words learned in previous lessons, in new context, would be a good thing, don't waste time in following lessons repeating instructions and pronunciation that have already been covered. Instead, if Pimsleur had used that time to introduce new vocabulary, the course would have been excellent.

Another major short coming with this course, is the lack of any kind of written support material. For the $240 price tag, they could have included a small dictionary, or at the very least, a written list of the new words introduced in each lesson. Such a list would also be very helpful for review. Unfortunately, you get nothing. So if you want to review what a particular word means, good luck trying to find it among the 30 lessons. Perhaps Pimsleur intentionally omitted a word list so as not to draw attention to the very small number of words covered in the course.

The final major objection I have with this product is the packaging. Packaging may sound trivial, but if you want to use this course on your daily commute, or on a trip, plan on having to buy a separate carrying case. The course comes in a huge, gaudy, cheap plastic box measuring 11x13x1.5 inches. Making it totally impossible to pop in your briefcase. And what's even worse is that the case doesn't hold the CD's securely. Whenever I close the box, the CDs would come loose and bang around against the inside of the box and the other CDs. Obviously this would cause irreparable damage to the disks. Why in the world would they not package these disks in a small CD wallet with separate sleeves for each CD? Yet another very bad decision by Pimsleur.

Bottom line; think hard before spending your money on this course. Sadly, right now there are not a lot of Czech courses to choose from. I've taken two language courses by Rosetta Stone, and they are fantastic! Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone does not yet offer Czech. I also purchased the Czech course from the Foreign Service Institute, and it's nicely done, includes a larger vocabulary, and is cheaper than Pimsleur. (Plus it also comes in a nice Prologic Case.) However the vocabulary is definitely slanted to the requirements of the statesman/politician, rather than colloquial "on the street" Czech.

Without doubt the best introductory Czech course
Since this is without doubt the best introductory Czech course available, let me focus on its strengths rather than its shortcomings. When you finish the 30 lessons on 15 CDs, you'll be able to speak quite a lot of fairly complex Czech like a native-born Czech, rather than haltingly repeating a long list of tourist phrases. Some of the complaints about this course have to do with our adult resistance to learning the Pimsleur method, which parallels the way we learn our own language as kids--by hearing it over and over, making lots of mistakes, and finally picking it up. As adults we are used to succeeding by working hard at using our rational minds rather than trusting this almost subliminal way of learning. Yes, we definitely need a Pimsleur Czech 2 and 3, but we won't get it, I think, because the language isn't popular enough to return a profit on further courses, given the number of people who will give up on this first series without completing it. I have two suggestions for further study. First, get "New Czech Step by Step" by Lida Hola, a wonderfully illustrated Czech course with a workbook and CD, which again introduces you to Czech as it is spoken by Czechs, at the speed they speak it. Note that "New Czech Step by Step" is NOT the version currently offered by Amazon, which is an older inferior version. I picked up the new books at the Kosmas publisher's warehouse in Prague, two blocks from the I.P. Pavlova metro station, but you can order it from their website, [...] When you're through with that, I recommend "Survival Czech" by Sona Vachalova, a 700-page text with a workbook and tapes. This is another text in English but published by Czechs, who think it takes 700 pages before you know even SURVIVAL Czech. I got it at the Charles University bookstore near Old Town Square in Prague. As you've probably guessed, I'm a Czech-o-phile, or rather totally and forever addicted to Prague. "That old crone has claws," as Kafka said. Happy learning.