3 comments about Intensive Bulgarian, Vol. 2: A Textbook & Reference Grammar.

1. I am Bulgarian and have been teaching the language to my husband who is American. It was challanging to find a book that was comprehensive and clear in its explanations and examples.

   This book is a wonderful resource, especially if you have an instuctor familiar with the language. This book can make you an effective communicator in Bulgarian. However, if you are going on a short trip to Bulgaria and you want only basic vocabulary knowledge this book is going to be too complicated for you.

   You may want to note there are two volumes of this book sold separately.




2. I am an American who lived in Bulgaria for two years all over the country. I learned Bulgarian fairly rigorously. I liked this book because it helped teach me some of the intricacies of Bulgarian through studying the dialogues which are very good. The book also gives fairly good explanations of grammar rules.
   
   The book could have been organized better. Some of the phrases used in the book were either really old phrases or phrases that were hardly ever used. I would sometimes learn certain phrases and Bulgarians would tell me that they had never heard that phrase before.
   
   All and all probably the best book out there for a more advanced study of Bulgaria.



3. Great.Great.Great. Amazing learning material. I'm a linguist myself. You will not be disappointed. Get those books, put some afforts to it, and pretty soon you will know Bulgarian. Don't forget to get couple bulgarian friends to practise with :) Learning new language is so much fun!!!

No comments about Chambers Bulgarian Phrasebook.

No comments about Harrap's Bulgarian Phrasebook (Harrap's Phrasebooks).

5 comments about Teach Yourself Bulgarian Complete Course (Teach Yourself Books).

1. Tapes are good, explains how Cyrillic works, practical information. Not enough to become fluent, but goes beyond the typical tourist phrases. I live in Bulgaria and am fluent, but still found it helpful for improving my pronounciation, understanding some things that I never could figure out from the Bulgarian-only course and textbook I had taken.



2. If one is a native English speaker who speaks Russian too, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, if one does not speak a Slavic language already I think this book might be tough going, especially if used by itself.



3. I am a teacher of English and Bulgarian to people of different nationalities.
   Teach yourself Bulgarian is the textbook that has proved to be og greatest help and value to all of my English speaking students who at a certain time of their life have wanted or needed to get acquainted with the interesting language and culture of Bulgarians. Whether you need the language for doing business, or just because you were fascinated with the sound of it or with the look of Bulgaria, this is an excellent guide into the world of Bulgarian language.



4. I'm pretty familiar with the Teach Yourself series, owning 9 of them. Of course, there are different authors for every language, so you can't judge them by the series. I find this one below average in some aspects. I find the grammatical elements are poorly explained, with the explanation (if any) usually coming a bit too far after the concept is introduced. This results in a fair degree of confusion, and I'm a fairly experienced language student, speaking 3 languages with a moderate level of fluency, and varying levels of familiarity with about 8 others, including Russian and Czech. I also have a Bulgarian friend who I get to help with pronunciation, etc., and he laughs at the book about 90% of the time. I do find that the attempts to make the book interesting and colloquial help keep the learner going. Once I got to the middle of the book, I felt that I had finally gotten enough basic grammar to have some idea of what they were trying to explain (or forgetting to explain). The book includes answers to the exercises, about half of which I found useful. There are examples of handwriting, which I think is really necessary if you are trying to learn the language to visit the country, since it differs markedly from typed, but they are small and a bit difficult to see. Overall I recommend this as a supplement to "Colloquial Bulgarian" by George D. Papantchev. Unfortunately, I have not yet encountered a self-teaching Bulgarian book yet that I would give 5 stars.



5. i gave this book as a present to a friend of mine. he seems to be doing great with it. it seems this is a great book for people who know nothing of the language. some external help with pronounciation would be good though.

1 comments about Eastern European 12 Language Phrasebook (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian and Ukrainian)(Phrasebooks S.).

1. 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.

5 comments about Intensive Bulgarian, Vol. 1: A Textbook & Reference Grammar.

1. This book is an excellent aid to learn Bulgarian. However, unless you have a linguistic and/or Russian background, it will be difficult to teach yourself from this book. This book really requires a classroom environment for those not linguistically gifted. Also, the book needs tapes so that one could hear the pronunciation. Answer keys to the exercises also would help. Overall though, the grammar is well presented. The cultural notes are also very interesting and useful.



2. This book is definetly the most comprehensive and clear grammar available for the Bulgarian Grammar. It clearly delineates all the major rules and even has notes on many of the minor rules. Some of the rules I was even unaware of(I lived in Bulgaria for two years) This is a two volume set, so make sure you get both volumes. It is a tad expensive bying tswo volumes but it is a much better deal than buying any of those other books. THere is some techincal terms to learn but nothing out of the ordinary for one embarking on serious language study. If you just want a phrasebook to learn some quick words for your three days in Bulgaria then this is probably not what you are looking for. However, if you are serious about learning Bulgarian well then this is the only place to start.



3. Ronelle Alexander's "Intensive Bulgarian" is the finest language textbook I have ever used. Chapter by chapter, vocabulary and grammatical concepts are introduced in a logical sequence, with extraordinarily lucid explanations, examples and dialogues. Each chapter has two grammar sections: The first gives the basic usage of the new constructs, and the second goes into greater linguistic detail. The second section could be skipped by the casual learner, but is very useful to the more dedicated student or anyone interested in the more technical aspects of Bulgarian grammar. Insightful cultural notes in each chapter give the student a better understanding of contemporary Bulgarian culture and help to put the language into context, something often lacking in foreign language textbooks.
   
   I would highly recommend "Intensive Bulgarian, Vol. 1" for any instructor teaching an intensive course or any motivated student who wants to learn Bulgarian on her own, particularly if she wants a deeper linguistic appreciation of the language.



4. this is one of the best introductory books ever written on such a topic.clearly written, superbly arranged in chapters, a step-by-step introduction to a superb language.for those who have access to other Slavic languages or to PIE background this book is a blessing.one can finally learn Bulgarian by him/herself.a final remark: I would say that some linguistic background(a 101 class) might be necessary, but I do think that even w/o it one can easily learn Bulgarian from this superb textbook.
   congratulations to the author.



5. I received the book quickly and at a great price since I purchased it in combination with Vol. 2. The book has been very useful in my study of the Bulgarian language. It is a college level study, so keep in mind that you'll need a good understanding of English to learn Bulgarian with this book.

No comments about Teach Yourself Bulgarian Conversation (3CDs + Guide) (Teach Yourself).

5 comments about Bulgarian-English-English Bulgarian Practical Dictionary (Hippocrene Practical Dictionary).

1. I found this dictionary to be very limited. Its format is primitive -- it does not group similar words together as some of the Langenscheidt dictionaries do. I did not find it to be very helpful either in travelling Bulgaria or as a reference while learning the language.



2. The best thing about this dictionary is its small size.
   However, it doesn't list any of the perfective verbs E-B or B-E.
   Whenever I come across a Bulgarian perfective verb I simply cannot look it up in the dictionary because it's not listed.
   If I want to translate from English to Bulgarian using a perfective verb, I'm out of luck if I try to use this dictionary.
   In fact, the dictionary in the back of the "Intensive Bulgarian" textbook is more comprehensive than this stand-alone dictionary.
   Very disappointing!!!



3. This dictionary is simply inadequate for serious study of Bulgarian. It would be more suitable for a tourist, used in combination with a basic grammar.



4. This is a very simple, basic dictionary. Does not separate meanings. Small vocabulary. Works well in restaurant environment for making small talk in both languages :) For serious study, use something bigger.



5. I am an American who learned Bulgarian at a fairly rigorous pace. I lived in Bulgaria and became fairly fluent in the language. This book was useful for about the first week of my study. Bulgarian verbs have two forms to all verbs and this book seemed oblivious to that as it only listed one. The translations were horrible and sometimes even hilarious. There are much better dictionaries out there do not settle for this one.

No comments about Bulgarian Phrasebook.

5 comments about Teach Yourself Bulgarian Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself . . . Complete Courses).

1. i prefer the style of michael thomas - but with a little effort this can be rewarding e.g. the aphabet and english phonetic's - effort required - once accross that it gets better. I'm at it with my wife - it helps !!!



2. I have used books to learn 2 foreign languages, Spanish, Italian and a little Dutch all with sucess. I find this book absolutely useless, you need to know some bulgarian to start with and then it teaches you a bunch of useless phases which are only useful in a particular situation. There is also no [english sounds] pronounciation guide with the Bulgarian words, so advance knowledge of the alphabet and phonetics are needed. A complete waste of time and money.



3. There are very few courses on the market teaching Bulgarian, as demand is obviously not very high. Depending upon your reasons for learning the language, this one may well be as good as it gets.
   
   The book is organized into chapters based on central concepts - introductions, directions, the weather, numbers, how you feel, discussing the future and events in the past, etc. It is by no means a linear progression through Bulgarian grammar and vocabulary, and depending upon how you personally are most comfortable learning languages, that may be good or bad. The concept approach does allow one to focus on specific areas and save time and effort by skipping the parts deemed less necessary; if you are driving from Sofia to Plovdiv you need to know how to ask for directions and not have to appreciate the difference between 'like' and 'love' or abstract philosophy. If you want to become fluent enough to carry on at least a light conversation of small talk in Bulgarian, you will be jumping all over the book and gaining insight and grammatical understanding more by osmosis than by design.
   
   As such, for tourists this approach could work well. For business people who intend to stay in country for longer periods or indefinitely, it is not the best or most effective way to learn the language.
   
   The CDs help with pronunciation (the book starts right off in cyrillic and stays there, so proper pronunciation and intonation would be tough to learn off the printed page alone) but the native speakers are speaking at pretty close to normal conversational pace, which will be hard to follow at first.
   
   Finally the dictionary in the back is very skimpy. It will not be enough to use for reading or writing letters, or for much else.



4. "TYB" is a very good course. In summer 2005 I lived in Blagoevgrad and found the course to be the best preparation for a lesser-studied Slavic language. It provides dialogues that you will actually find useful everyday when in Bulgaria. Learning to read the Cyrillic is facilitated by the orientation at the beginning and then the gradual exposure to it throughout the 20 lessons. My advice is to work at a steady pace, i.e., a dialogue and grammar exercise each day. All essential grammar is covered admirably without reaching that eyes-glazed-over point. I was in Bulgaria for 8 weeks and only completed up to Lesson 12, but it provided me with the skills needed to converse on all essentials and even some more abstract conversations. In summary, if you work seriously with this book and the 2 CD's, then you'll be at an intermediate level in about 3 months -- what better praise can you give for a course?



5. I purchased this directly from Amazon on December 26, shipped on December 27, and received on December 28 at Standard Shipping. WOW! I bought this for my son who lives in the UK and is home for Christmas and it was vital that it arrive before he leaves in six days.
   
   My son has several conversational and phrases Bulgarian books and says this is the absolute best. He works in the UK with trips to Bulgaria and is thrilled that I found this on Amazon after not being able to find in a local Borders or Barnes and Noble without going to another area of town (Atlanta). Receiving it in two days is FIVE BIG GOLD STARS for Amazon. Also, this is much cheaper on Amazon here as opposed to Amazon UK, about half the price. I bought NEW directly from Amazon. It comes well packaged in a hard plastic case which makes it good for travel.