Complete Croatian Beginner to Intermediate Course: Learn to read, write, speak and understand a new language (Teach Yourself)

By David A. Norris and Vladislava Ribnikar

Book Overview

Are you looking for a complete course in Croatian which takes you effortlessly from beginner to confident speaker? Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Complete Croatian will guarantee success Now fully updated to make your language learning experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher and our years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features. The course is structured in thematic units and the emphasis is placed on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations, to using the phone and talking about work. By the end of this course, you will approach Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages: Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features: Author insights Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience. Grammar tips Easy-to-follow building blocks to give you a clear understanding. Useful vocabulary Easy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking. Dialogues Read and listen to everyday dialogues to help you speak and understand fast. Pronunciation Don't sound like a tourist Perfect your pronunciation before you go. Test Yourself Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress. Try This Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it. This pack includes a book and one mp3 CD of audio material. Rely on Teach Yourself, trusted by language learners for over 75 years.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 144410232X
• ISBN13: 9781444102321
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 0.5" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

A useful introduction to speaking Croatian

This book and accompanying CDs (2) provides an effective entry into Croatian. The dialogues are short, realistic, and contain the sort of vocabulary that is helpful for the new speaker. I have learned Czech before and was prepared for the main issues in Slavic grammar. The book provided enough depth to make be comfortable in generalizing beyond the dialogues presented in the textbook. I found the spoken dialogues helpful and clear. In general, this was a well-packaged and helpful book that provided a good way of starting to speak Croatian. I enjoyed working through the exercises and found the textbook clear, uncluttered, and helpful. One disappointing feature was the meager coverage of Croatian culture and customs. However, all in all a helpful language program. David S-G

Pretty good, but could use better pronunciation explanations

I like that this book arms you with more than "tourist" Croatian, if you're seriously interested in learning the basics for conversations beyond ordering in a restaurant. The dialogues and exercises, and grammatical explanations, are generally clear and instructive. The weakness is that pronunciation, especially stress, is not explained fully enough. None of the words in the text are marked to describe where the stress goes, only saying at the beginning that the stress is unpredictable but never on the last syllable. Then, for the accompanying CD, they hire voice actors with heavy Zagrebian accents, which often put the stress at the end of the words! (sapun, racun, Englez, Hrvat, optimist, etc are all examples of words that have stress on the last syllable in Zagreb, but nowhere else). I think if they hired voice actors who speak a more "standard" Croatian (or at least have some variety among the speakers), and somehow use dots or other marks to show where the stress goes (like the Barron's guide, which is a very, very good phrasebook, actually), I would say it deserves 5 stars.