Colloquial Slovak: The Complete Course for Beginners (PB + CD)

I knew some Slovak before using this book, but I guess for someone who sees Slovak for the first time in his life it will be difficult to follow this book.

It does not have graphical illustrations and it teaches details of the language, so a beginner might find it boring and complicated...

Finally, the book is full of useful information but the pages were not designed in an attractive looking way. Every page is full of only text. Black foreground on white background and nothing else.

This might be used as a second book to improve yourself after you began with an easier-to-use and more attractive looking book, of course if you find any Slovak book like that...


Superb Starting Point for those wishing to learn Slovak   June 22, 2001
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Cau! Being engaged to a Slovak national, here in the UK and wanting to learn her language for the many trips we'll be making over there (the country is beautiful by the way, a lost paradise in industrial Europe). I decided to pick a book at random for a back-up to the lessons she is giving me. I chose Colloquial and am extremely glad I did. The main stumbling block for me when it comes to languages is understanding the gramma and pronunciation. These are introduced easily and logically & along with the useful phrases and a well set learning curve contribute to an excellent beginners guide to the language. It is pretty up-to-date (according to my missus) although one or to phrases it gives as common are apparently hardly ever used these days. Still a minor flaw and forgivable when the work is so well presented. I would recommend that any buyer purchases the audio tapes that go with this manual if no other source of spoken Slovak is available. This is by no means a complete guide to speaking the language but further purchases of a recent large dictionary and a more in depth gramma guide will certainly make the Slovak language an understandable and enjoyable experience. Do Videnia!


the best to start learn slovak   November 6, 1999
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

It's an interesting book for people interested in visit Slovak Republic. Very easy to understand and also for people without a large knowledgement of english. It contains the most important and usual sentences and verbs, also restaurants dialogs, how to buy tickets...


A perfect start for the beginners.   September 11, 1999
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I am very interested in the culture and languages of european (especially eastern european) countries. For 12 years I have been taking part in international folk dance festivals all around europe, as a violin player, and in these festivals I meet people from all over the world and learn about their cultures and lives. This year I met a Slovakian group and had many good friends. They thought me a little Slovak and I liked it very much. When I turned back to Cyprus, I decided to buy a book and improve my Slovak. Of course, as usual, I searched from Amazon.com and found this perfect book. This book starts with the pronunciation and explains in detail, how to pronounce vowels and consonants. The accompanying cassettes are also very good in this sense. The following chapters teach you the Slovak grammar step by step, in a very logically designed order of topics. When you finish this book, you not only learn the Slovak grammar and many Slovak words, but also be able to speak with slovak people, as the name of the book, "Colloquial Slovak" also implies. I am very happy to have added one more language to my list and I really recommend this book to anybody who wants to learn Slovak in very short time...