1 comments about In-Flight Croatian (LL (R) In-Flight).

1. This CD helped me add some vocabulary to the Croatian I had learned from other sources. But just repeating isolated words is a very ineffective way to learn a language, especially one with so few English cognates, and it's misleading to imply that it can be done quickly. ("In Flight"? Are you kidding?!) I worked first with Pimsleur, then with a book called Teach Yourself Croatian, and only then did I find the In-Flight Croatian any help at all -- and only after listening to it over and over and over in the car. Very boring. The good thing is that it DOES provide some new vocabulary, which I needed.

5 comments about Colloquial Croatian and Serbian: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series (Multimedia)).

1. it should be noted that you will never find a book in any language that teaches you to speak exactly like people of a particular area or age group. The closest you can get is a colloquial version like this one. If you know someone from Zagreb, this is very useful, and my Serbian co-workers understand me just fine (once they got past my accent.)

   Remember, English from England, Texas and Brooklyn is all different, but we have the basics to be understood in each. And the Spanish they teach in American schools is from Spain, not Puerto Rico or Mexico, but people from all three places will understand you.

   You should, however, start with basic area-wide How-Do-Yo-Do's before moving on to local slang.




2. I already speak 6 languages fairly fluently, and just starting out on croatian (pure beginner) and i borrowed both this book and Norris' book from my local town library. Hawkesworth's cassette is Definitely useless, as another reviewer said. The cassette is too fast, but u do learn some pronounciation. I feel Hawkesworth's book is a lot more detailed, and explains a lot more things. Maybe too much, for anyone who is a complete beginner. Norris' book is a lot lighter, and very good for beginners, because u really go step by step. Both are therefore very complimentary. My croatian friend agreed that they have more croatian than serbian in them.



3. This could be a very good book for learning Croatian. As said below, the idea with each chapter consisting of three dialogues concerning tourism, business and a soap opera is very good since it enables the learner to cope with different situations. On the whole, the grammar is presented in a clear way and after finishing the course the learner should have a good grasp of Croatian grammar. Still, somewhere along the line someone got lazy - either the author or the people at lay out.

   -Of the three different dialouges only the first in each chapter (tourism) has got decent vocabulary tables. For the other two dialouges in each chapter you do get some words, but since they aren't arranged into tables it is much harder to read and learn them. Of course you can write your own vocabulary for each of them but it will take quite some time - Routledge are the ones who should have put down that additional time.

   -Speaking of vocabulary, the general vocabulary at the end of the book is a bad joke. My estimate is that even less than half of the words in the book made it to the vocabulary. It's quite frustrating to do an exercise, find a word you don't know and then for the umpteen time have to realize than the author/Routledge didn't bother to include that word either in the vocabulary.

   -The exercises are quite good, but now the laziness reaches extreme hights. Only about 20% of the answers to the exercises are included in the book! I've no idea why, in every other Colloquial book I've read all the answers are given.

   -Word accent in Croatian is not predictable and for some few words the accent is marked. For most it is not.

   To sum up, the lack of vocabulary tables after each dialouge, the much-too-short general vocabulary and the non-existent answers to the exercises hugely diminish the value of this book. It is sad that a book with such good potential should be destroyed because someone didn't bother to add the final touch. My advice to the author: look at other books in the Colloquial series, such as Colloquial Slovak or Colloquial Lithuanian and learn from them.




4. This is a great book for the beginner and those who need to brush up on their skills. Well organized, easy to follow with lessons/homework at the end of each chapter.



5. I agree with most comments in all other reviews especially "gwilym". I have been using the book on and off for a few years while I am trying to learn the language. I too, wish to learn the Bosnian variant, and find that the book is definitely more "Croatian" in its use of vocabulary. However, considering the disolution of Yugoslavia is still fairly recent and not many newer books exist, I was very glad to have use of this book. It is quite easy to follow and the different stories provide useful vocabulary.
   Definitely the main drawback is the terribly unfinished and unexhaustive vocabulary lists, and the exercises without answers. These two factors limit the book, and I find myself searching for a better grammar book with more examples to help me learn all the cases and verb structures. I could have learnt these better if there were answers.
   Overall though, a good starting book. Give it a try and ask your native speaking friends for help and clarification.

3 comments about Beginner's Serbo-Croatian (Hippocrene Beginner's Series).

1. One good quality of this book is that all the lessons are actually dialogues. Furthermore, each dialog has a complete English translation given on the facing page, making it easy to follow. Each dialog is followed by the basic vocabulary, though without pronunciation: the pronunciations, if at all necessary because of the standardized pronunciation rules that exist in the language, are only given within the "Useful phrases" sections.
   The book seems to be pretty heavy on grammar stuff (yeah, we know S/C has difficult grammar), being actually a good reference text. On the other hand, it is not so rich on conversation situations (8 lessons totally).
   All in all, I would recommend this book. I especially liked the language style used in dialogs (contemporary and colloquial, e.g., "Stvarno nema smisla"), with all the mistakes the native speakers would also make (e.g., "Imam PUNO stvari").



2. This book, for me, proved more accessible than a couple of others I have bought.

   Buy this book if:

   1) You want to have an "easier start" than average and build your confidence in the language steadily.

   2) You want/need detailed grammar understanding in order to learn the language at this level properly from the start

   3) You don't have a lot of time on your hands. This book is short enough to get through in several weeks with 2-3 hours of study a week.

   Once finished you'll have a good base to continue from although you are going to need additional vocabulary to really "get going".

   I tried another book before this and just got lost as the initial learning curve was too steep and I was immediately disheartened and stopped. This book gave me a second chance and I found it, initially at least, to be more gentle learning. However, the amount of grammar explained in detail can be a little harrowing. One nice idea in this book is that the dialogs are *completely* translated on opposing pages.
   
   I went to Serbia for my summer holidays this year where my girlfriend's family live and found that speaking the language was difficult. Many words do sink in whilst you are there and you are able to reinforce what you have learned. I had more or less finished chapters 1-6 but found, ironically, that I frequently needed vocabulary from chapters 7 + 8! Moral of the story...finish to the book before going!

   This book could have been more practical with a bigger vocabulary section.




3. And therein lies the biggest problem with this book. The two langauges, Serbian and Croatian, while very close to one another, do have quite a lot of difference in both grammar and vocuabulary. The contents of this text are primarily Serbian. (Obvious from the first dialogue, in which the characters are on a JAT flight to Belgrade!)
   And that's fine, a book to teach readers Serbian is a good thing, but it should call itself a Serbian book, not a Serbo-Croatian book. (From time to time in the grammar section, the author does mention the Croatian varient of a particular word, but that just adds to the confusion.
   
   And that's the other issue. The book is confusing! In 8 chapters the authors try to cover the entire body of Serbian grammar, resulting in a book that is VERY grammar-dense, but with, by comparison, very little vocabulary. (Each chapters averages about 1 page of text (usually a dialogue), and about 20 pages of grammar explanations.
   
   On the positive side, the grammar is explained pretty clearly. (Grammar is a real bear in both Serbian and Croatian.)
   
   If you want to learn Serbian, this isn't a bad book, but "Teach Yourself Serbian" is probably a little better. (It's certainly much more complete, with 20 chapters!) If you want to learn Croatian, I'd definitely avoid it. (Here again, the Teach Yourself book is good, as is "Colloquial Croatian and Serbian." (Though the latter is more difficult.))

3 comments about Serbian: An Essential Grammar (Routledge Essential Grammar).

1. There is a lot of good information in this book, but the presentation makes it difficult to find. The index is too general and it's often hard to locate or distinguish between subsections.
   
   It's also written in a very formal, academic style, which makes it difficult for the learner without a strong background in linguistics.



2. This book is a decent selection, considering there are few competent books on Serbian out there. Any person with either a little Serbian knowledge or even a linguistic academic background and some studying motivation can pick it up respectively, otherwise keep looking. Also, the information is dense and cluttered, I've seen better organization. Otherwise it is one of the better books on Serbian language and I recommend having it if you are serious about finding a reference.



3. I was really disappointed. First off, the font used is terrible; it makes distinguishing sections difficult. The discussion on grammar is pretty tedious and it is real easy to lose interest in it as I did. It should have, considering the high price, come with a CD for the student to be able to practice correct pronunciation.
   This book is poor value and one would be better off with the Teach Yourself Serbian series by Norris/Ribnikar.

No comments about Teach Yourself Croatian Conversation (3 CDs + Booklet) (Teach Yourself).

4 comments about Dic Bosnian-English/English-Bosnian Dictionary and Phrasebook (Dictionary & Phrasebooks Backlist).

1. This book is a decent introduction into Bosnian language, which is one of the South Slavic languages. Sometimes the author is out of touch with some recent development in the language, but the overall impression of the dictionary is very good. This book is a useful tool for a beginner or a traveler.



2. This dictionary is poorly edited (with numerous typos), incomplete (random information that does not reflect the needs of a basic speaker) and, in parts, embarrassingly childish (the introduction suggests, among other bizarre comments, that Bosnian may be too difficult to bother to learn well? ).

   Although it is difficult to find detailed Bosnian dictionaries, older English/Serbo-Croatian variants are still quite relevant (the nuances for advanced usage notwithstanding) and the English/Bosnian dictionary from Nikolina S. Uzicanin is a SIGNIFICANTLY better purchase (for a pocket-sized book) than this one.




3. I don't understand why the author would identify this book as "Bosnian" when there doesn't seem to be much effort to include words specific to the region. It might as well be called "Very Basic Serbo-Croatian".



4. I can't understand how this work got published. In addition to the numerous typos (autobuski stanica instead of autobuska stanica etc) the phrases are terribly translated and in some cases will get you laughed at.
   This work is in dire need of editing by someone who actually has a good grasp of the Bosnian language. Otherwise it is a waste of one's hard earned money.

4 comments about Colloquial Slovene CD: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series).

1. This book is quite basic and should give the reader a good introduction to the slovene language, but it is only that. The small glossary at the end of the book helps with gender and conjugation, and most of the general rules for grammar are introduced. If you really want to learn Slovene, I suggest you start with this book, then get a dictionary like Komac's (which wont tell you anything about conjugation or gender) and finally an extensive grammar guide like Peter Harrity's book (which fills in the complex gaps left behind by the other two books). I suppose if you don't want to spend so much money, just buy this book, but do get the audio tapes so you can understand the pronunciation and get some good practice in.

   The book is very readable, but contains exercises at the end of each lesson (with answers at the end of the book). It is set up much like a textbook and includes some penned illustrations to keep the mood light. Don't expect it to take you long to make it entirely through the book, though. Actually this book will get you through all of the essentials for a ski trip or a short holiday. Enjoy!




2. The book is well organised, well written and accessible. It covers all the basic vocabulary you need as a tourist and provides a good introduction to the language. It is largely jargon-free and you don't need to know any complicated grammatical terminology to use the book. The tapes/CDs are excellent - don't order the book without them if you want to get the most out of this teach-yourself course. The one big weakness - and it is a very big weakness - is that the book does not contain any information about word stress. Since there are no clear rules for word stress, the learner encounters many new words in the text (often not included on the tape) but without knowing how to pronounce them properly. Adding accents to denote the word stress would transform this from a good to an excellent book.



3. Of all the language courses produced by Routledge, this one is probably one of the least helpful. This is all the more unfortunate as there are no other courses in Slovene available. Routledge has published some excellent Colloquial courses on Slavic languages, such as Colloquial Czech, Colloquial Russian and Colloquial Ukrainian. Unfortunately, all the Colloquial courses from the former Yugoslavia leave much to be asked for. Colloquial Slovene, Colloquial Croatian and Colloquial Serbian are all below the usual "Colloquial-standard".
   
   For a total beginner looking for a phrasebook, this course might be of some use. It does include some basic expressions and words. However, if that is all you're looking for, you will be better served the Slovene phrasebook published by Berlitz. Not only is it much cheaper, it also includes a better pronunciation guide and far more vocabulary than this course.
   
   If you're interested in acutally learning Slovene, this course won't be able to help you. I have listed the major problems you will face
   
   Pronunciation
   Slovene pronunciation is not easy. Stress can fall on any syllable of the word. Get it wrong, and you might say another word than the one you intended. Every phrasebook or course in Slovene I've come across shows the stressed syllable of each new word. Colloquial Slovene does no such thing, you have to guess.
   Another problem is that the vowel "e" can be pronounced in different ways in Slovene. Again, phrasebooks such as the one published by Berlitz or courses published in German show the pronunciation of "e". In short, you cannot know how any word in this course is to be pronounced. The recordings will help you, but it's not always easy for beginners to pick out the right syllable to stress.
   
   Grammar
   The grammar part is what could set this course aside from a mere phrasebook. Unfortunately, the grammar part is very limited. The concept of aspect is almost totally excluded. If you speak any Slavic language, you will already know how crucial aspects are. If you're a beginner, know that you will never be able to speak a Slavic language without mastering this quite complicated feature. Ignoring the whole thing makes this course easier. It also renders it almost worthless for anyone interested in learning to speak Slovene. The conjugation of nouns is dealt with, but that's almost all there is. If you have access to Colloquial Czech (the grammar is very similar), pick it up and compare it's detailed and user-friendly approach to this course. It is astonishinh that two courses with such a variation in quality are published in the same series.
   
   Vocaulary
   Complete Colloquial Czech and you will know well over 2.000 words. Complete Colloquial Slovene, and you will not know even 900 words.
   
   In short, this course is too little of everything. Too little help with the pronunciation, too little explanations of the grammar and way too few words.
   
   Routledge, the publisher of this course, has also published a very extensive Slovene grammar, written by Peter Herrity. When the time comes for the next edition of Colloquial Slovene, I hope he is given the task of writing it, that he starts from scratch and takes his guidelines from Colloquial Czech rather than from this book.



4. I'm sad to say that this course will be of no use to those wanting to learn Slovene. The aim of this review is to illustrate its shortcomings and suggest improvements that could be made.
   
   Problem 1 - no accents
   This problem alone is enough to render the book almost useless. In Slovene, any syllable of a word may be stressed. Get it wrong and you may end up saying a completely different word. This is especially evident in the case of the letter 'e', representing different sounds in Slovene. Apart from being stressed or unstressed, it can be an open e or a closed e. It might also be a schwa sound, the sound found in words such as English 'the'. In other words, how will you pronounce the common word 'vecer' (evening)? There are eight(!) options available... And what about the word 'svet'? Is it the Slovene word for 'holy' or for 'advice'? Almost all courses and books on Slovene make use of accents to indicate the pronunciation, since it is impossible to predict. The only two exceptions are this book and Teach Yourself Slovene by the same author. I never thought I'd say a language course in which you will have to guess the pronunciation of each and every word.
   
   Problem 2 - Very limited vocabulary
   The reviewer Gwilym mentioned how very limited the vocabulary of this course is compared to Colloquial Czech. The same goes for almost all the Colloquial courses on Slavic languages. Colloquial Czech, Colloquial Ukrainian, Colloquial Bulgarian, Colloquial Slovak, Colloquial Russian are all excellent courses with a well-suited vocabulary. Colloquial Serbian is decent enough. Only Colloquial Polish and Colloquial Croatian are a bit off the mark and then Colloquial Slovene that cannot even be compared to the other courses.
   
   So only 1 star to this course, that star is for a decent (but not great) explanation of the grammar. Two stars off for the very limited vocabulary and two more for the lack of accents.
   
   I'm glad that Routledge offers many excellent courses in Slavic languages and I can only hope that they will one day publish a Slovene course worhty of their reputation.

5 comments about Language/30: Serbo-Croatian (Language/30).

1. there is NO such thing as SERBO CROATIAN language! these two are separate languages and should not be mixed.unfortunately there are too many people who are not aware of this fact and ignore it.so please take it into consideration before you buy this artificial language dictionary!



2. Don't be confused by the reviewer who claims that there is no such thing as a Serbo-Croatian language. This miscomception is often spread by nationalists of one side or another. The differences between Serbian and Croatian exist, as they exist between dialects of other languages (such as Italian and German). This guide leans toward the Croatian dialect, which is appropriate as one is more likely to travel in Craotia and one is more likely to be badly received for speaking Serbian in Croatia than vice versa. (In Bosnia it would depend on what part of the country one was in, but people aren't quite as uptight as they once were about using the "wrong" word or pronunciation in their particular area).

   It is especially useful for travelers and those with a general interest in learning the language. Unfortunately, there are very very few materials out there for the serious student of the language spoken in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro.




3. EXCELLENT PRONUNCIATIONS, AND I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS SET TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SERBIAN OR CROATIAN. THISW IS AN EXCELLENT COMPANION TO HAWKESWORTH'S COLLOQUIAL CROATIAN AND SERBIAN COURSE.



4. The book is OK for the beginner. The pronunciation is not the best. If you want to go to Croatia buy a different book, Croatian only, this one is more serbian than croatian.



5. This set is a decent value. For your money, you get a fairly broad range of phrases and vocabulary. However, the organization of information assumes that you can keep interest listening to a bunch of discrete phrases repeated one after the other with no conversations or anything remotely natural. If you can, in fact, maintain interest while listening to these tapes repeatedly, then you'll do well with this set. If, on the other hand, you need something more dynamic, you might do well to look elsewhere.

5 comments about Croatian: Lonely Planet Phrasebook.

1. This should be a good phrase book. All new phrase books from Lonely Planet are modelled on the same base, and that base is modern and extensive. So why is this Croatian phrasebook so bad despite being modelled on the same base.
   
   Silly mistakes:
   To take one funny example, the Croatian phrase "I'm here with my boyfriend" is translated by the English phrase "I'm here with my girlfriend". Of course, the Croatian phrase "I'm here with my girlfriend" is translated as "I'm here with my boyfriend". Needless to say, this could make for some funny situations.
   
   Confusion with Serbian:
   Despite being a Croatian phrase book, this book often uses the Serbian form of a word instead of the Croatian one. Although the scars of the wars are healing, this is not the best way to make friends.
   
   Outdated words:
   Many of the words and phrases used are correct, but very outdated and never used in normal speech.
   
   Grammatical errors:
   Now and then, you see things like "poslati cu", even a beginner would know that it's "poslat cu".
   
   The silly mistakes and the grammatical errors are not very common, but the confusion with Serbian and the use of outdated words is much too common. The language used often sounds stilted.



2. This book covers the basics in a way that is simple and useful. Three topics are covered in the book: the basic grammar, useful phrases and a 2000 word dictionary. The book is small enough to fit in your pocket and covers each of these topics with an efficient layout.
   
   For the grammar, first of all its usually missing from most phrasebooks and dictionaries. But, when you find a grammar section, its usually not useful for travel because its too much detail. For example, in "Barron's TravelWise Croatian" book, four standard verb endings (-am,-jem,-em,-im) are described for present tense conjugation. What that book lacks is information to figure out which ending goes with which verb. In this book, a "rule of thumb" way to add a single ending to all verbs is described. Its simplier to learn and works well with the format of the book. Its not prefect so maybe language experts cringe but its practical.
   
   For the phrases, it is a majority of the book. A couple things I liked were that for phrases that begin with the same words, the words are not repeated. The other is it includes an English pronunciation hint for the Croatian phrase. Both might seem like common sense but several books don't do this.
   
   My main criticism with this book is the English pronunciation hint seems strange. The stressed syllable uses italics instead a bold font. And the transliteration use combinations of english letters for one sound. Compare these "ya ne go-vorim" and "ya ne gaw-vaw-reem". Which is easier to use?
   
   For the dictionary, it is not huge but its a two way dictionary with gender and pronunciation. Its more words than you can memorize for a trip anyway. There is also a separate culinary reader for looking up food dishes. If there were a second edition to this book, the author should fine tune the vocabulary in this book. Its kind of funny seeing "Tequila" as a drink but not finding "Lobster" or "Squid" for food. Why go to Croatia to drink tequila? And of course its translates to "Te-kee-le".
   
   This book is not prefect so it gets 4 stars not 5. For a Croatian language reference book that fits in your pocket this is the best book out there. If you have more time to study, review the "Teach yourself", "Colloquial" and "Barron's" Croatian books.



3. This book was indispensable. Between this and Pimsler's Learn Croatian 1 we managed to get by fairly well. There were definitely a few frustrating moments though. The book fell through on such things as "Wait, I have a phrasebook" and "Sandwich" in the dictionary. If you want to talk about how your sex life or drug use is going however, you'll be well equipped. I definitely recommend it. I also recommend a guidebook. Between lonely planet, frommer's and DK I would rank frommer's as the most useful, DK with the best pictures, and lonely planet as acceptable. Oh . . . the country is amazing, definitely go . . .



4. I've lived in Croatia and I've studied the language for about 5 years, so I know it to a reasonable degree of fluency. This book is great for communication, and as a reference for phrases, questions or comments that one might be a little lost on otherwise, even as a speaker of the language. I would agree that there are mistakes (like the mixing up of the words "boyfriend" and "girlfriend"... did they do that on purpose?) but honestly, I've gone through tons of Croatian language-learning, grammar and phrase books, and this is by far the most useful for its purpose. An earlier review cited the use of Serbian words as a problem, but while I think a revision wouldn't be a bad idea, this product still is completely worth it in that anyone who actually needs to use this, i.e. not a native speaker, will probably be forgiven and/or totally appreciated for attempting to speak at all. As far as grammar goes, yeah, there's not much in it, but if you're looking for grammar, use Thomas F. Magner's Introduction to the Croatian and Serbian language, and for conversation, Teach Yourself Croatian. However, with both of those being so much larger, you wouldn't want to take them on a day trip, so for light travel, this is a must-have.



5. This is an excellent book if you want to use or read some Croatian words or phrases while you visit that country. It is easy to use and offers useful phrases for travelers. We stayed in Dubrovnik. The people all spoke several lanuages, including English, there. The phrasebook was not a necessity in Dubrovnik, but when I travel, I find that people of a specific region enjoy hearing travelers use some of the local language. I enjoy using it, too. This book helped me engage the people of the city!

5 comments about Serbian-English, English-Serbian Concise Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary).

1. I am a non-Serbo-Croatian speaker, tutoring two Bosnian refugees who have little English. I learned that they read equally well in the latin (Roman) alphabet and in the Cyrillic. I don't. I planned to use this dictionary myself, but I gave it to them, so it isn't a total loss. They tell me that most people educated in the former Yugoslavia are equally familiar with the two alphabets. The book would be more useful to English speakers if Roman text was also used for the Serbo-Croatian words.



2. I am Slobodan Steve Lohja a Montonegrin born in the States (first generation). My wife is American. My Family doesn't speak english very well. They only know the basic words to get around. My wife has a hard time understanding them. Its frustrating for both sides. So I took it upon my responsibility to go out and get her a translation type book. She was excited when she received it. She ran upstairs and started playing with the words in this dictionary with my mom and aunt "tetka". They were up there a at least an hour. To bring people together and to bring communication between your wife and mom is best stress releiver. To me this dictionary would be priceless. The only thing its lacking, It doesnt teach you the alphabet, and how to pronounce the words, just definitions. Now my wife and my mom can help each other by one learning serbian and the other learning english, wish them luck!



3. Needed dictionary to help translate Serbian documents from Second World War. This volume uses Cyrillic alphabet and the scope is quite limited. Definitions are very short and there is no explantion of Serbian grammar or usage. Might be useful for someone visiting the area but was almost worthless for my needs.



4. This book does have words written in both cyrillic and latin alphabet, but the latin is NOT correct for some letters. The majority of commonly used words are not in this book. I would recommend for a beginner, but not for someone trying to translate anything of importance.



5. Misses a lot of common words, poor definitions, uses cyrillic... I shouldn't have bought it.