Books

Colloquial Slovene: A Complete Language Course (Colloquial Series (Book Only))

Average customer rating:

Not worth your money
Useless
Good but far from enough
As Spoken in Slovenia
Great course

Colloquial Slovene: A Complete Language Course (Colloquial Series (Book Only))
Andrea Albretti
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415089468

Book Description

Colloquial Slovene is easy to use and completely up-to-date. Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Slovene.

This paperback in the Colloquial Language Learning Series is available individually or as part of a pack. For more information, please refer to the cassette pack listing for this language.

Customer Reviews:

Not worth your money.......2006-10-02

As some of the other reviewers point out, this book leaves a lot to be desired. The vocabulary is so limited as to make any efforts at real communication almost impossible. The very complex grammar is hardly described at all, the learner has to figure it all out for himself without any help from the author.

1. Compared to other Slavic languages, Slovene share all the complex grammar they have and some additional featurel (the dual system). For this reason, you would expect Colloquial Slovene to be slightly longer than courses for closely related languages, such as Colloquial Serbian or Colloquial Czech, not considerably shorter and with an almost non-existent coverage of the grammar. This is a serious flaw, as you will end this course without the slightest idea about how such a crucial thing as verbal aspect works. If you're familiar with Slavic languges, you know that this means that in practice you won't be able to speak.

2. No hints at the pronunciation. It might fall on any syllable on the word and the accent is the only difference between many words. The same goes for long and short vowels and the schwa-sound spelled 'e'. In short, you'll have no clue about how to pronunce the words you learn.

3. The vocabulary is shorter than in any other Colloquial course I've seen. Compare it to Colloquial Czech, it's not even a third of that course!

Slovene is one of the official languages of the EU and it's a disgrace that there isn't any decent Slovene course in English on the market. Both the Colloquial Slovene and Teach Yourself Slovene have been written by the same author, and I'm sorry to say that she was not suitable for the task. All the errors listed above are found in both books.

Useless.......2006-05-08

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.

Good but far from enough.......2005-06-28

Slovene is a hard language, possibly the hardest of all the Slavic languages due to an unusually rich (read: complex...) grammar. This is one of the few Slovene courses available in Englisg, and unfortunately it's not enough.

The vocabulary introduced in this course is the main problem. While the average language course in the Colloquial series introduces well over 1000 words, this course is well below 800. Compared to some of the other Colloquial books on Slavic languages, the vocabulary is down by 50%. This means that the learner is left with a very limited vocabulary.

The grammar is introduced at a very slow pace. There are obvious advantages to this approach, but at the same time it means that it only touches upon the most basic points, and is likely to leave the learner confused when he approaches actual Slovene.

You'd better buy the tapes, because this book does not show the stress of words nor the different pronunciations of the letter 'e'.

To sum it all up

What is good with this book
- It is easy to use.
- The dialouges are modern and relevant

What is bad with this book
- The grammar is incomplete
- The vocabulary introduced is very limited

This book would not be bad at all as part one of a course in Slovene, or as a short introduction, but it is not a full language course. Those who have used other courses in the Colloquial series should not expect this book to be an equally extensive course

As Spoken in Slovenia.......2003-06-17

I was born and raised in Los Angeles California, but my wife was born and raised in Slovenia (Andol and Ljubljana). For years my in-laws have been trying to teach me Slovene; my accent was just too much for my wife. We traveled to Slovenia and I made a major leap forward (immersion) and now my wife can tolerate my accent. After the trip to Slovenia, I found this audio cassette course and decided to try it. My wife and in-laws are very impressed with the differing styles of speech and the accurate phasing that one would normally hear in and around Ljubljana. Although the course might move a little too fast for someone without any exposure to the language, it is the right pace and style for a serious student. My diction has greatly improved. I converted the tapes to audio-CD and spend time mimicking the exact style of the different persons speaking in each lesson. This has greatly reduced my accent. This is not a dry classroom lecture series. It is everyday people talking and having fun -- it reminds me of the relatives in Slovenia.

Great course.......2002-11-03

This language course is the best for the Slovene language that I know. The dialogues depict everyday situations and sound very natural.

Book Description

Colloquial Slovene Is specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Slovene. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
What makes ColloquialSlovene your best choice in personal language learning?
* interactive - lots of exercises for regular practice
* clear - concise grammar notes
* practical - useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
* complete - including answer key and special reference section.
Cassettes accompany the course to help you with listening and pronunciation skills. By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in a broad range of situations.

Customer Reviews:

Useless.......2006-05-08

How not to write a language course.......2006-01-23

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.

Good overall, but one major weakness.......2005-08-07

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.

Must get it with the cassette tapes.......2004-01-10

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!

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