Czech, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Czech with Pimsleur Language Programs [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

On the plus side, the voice actors used in this course are very good. Most words are spoken clearly and are easy to understand.

The biggest downside with this product is the very limited vocabulary introduced here. If you are buying this course as a basic introduction to the Czech language, it will fill your needs very well. Although, is an "Introduction" worth the nearly $250 price tag? If you are buying this course in the hopes of carrying on a conversation in Czech, think again. There is just not enough vocabulary presented. This is solely due to Pimsleurs decision to waste vast amount of CD time, repeating past lessons. While repetition may be a very effective teaching tool in a classroom setting, it's a gross waste of time with recorded media. With recorded media, if I haven't mastered, or have forgotten, the vocabulary from a previous lesson, I can always go back and replay it as many times as is necessary. While reusing words learned in previous lessons, in new context, would be a good thing, don't waste time in following lessons repeating instructions and pronunciation that have already been covered. Instead, if Pimsleur had used that time to introduce new vocabulary, the course would have been excellent.

Another major short coming with this course, is the lack of any kind of written support material. For the $240 price tag, they could have included a small dictionary, or at the very least, a written list of the new words introduced in each lesson. Such a list would also be very helpful for review. Unfortunately, you get nothing. So if you want to review what a particular word means, good luck trying to find it among the 30 lessons. Perhaps Pimsleur intentionally omitted a word list so as not to draw attention to the very small number of words covered in the course.

The final major objection I have with this product is the packaging. Packaging may sound trivial, but if you want to use this course on your daily commute, or on a trip, plan on having to buy a separate carrying case. The course comes in a huge, gaudy, cheap plastic box measuring 11x13x1.5 inches. Making it totally impossible to pop in your briefcase. And what's even worse is that the case doesn't hold the CD's securely. Whenever I close the box, the CDs would come loose and bang around against the inside of the box and the other CDs. Obviously this would cause irreparable damage to the disks. Why in the world would they not package these disks in a small CD wallet with separate sleeves for each CD? Yet another very bad decision by Pimsleur.

Bottom line; think hard before spending your money on this course. Sadly, right now there are not a lot of Czech courses to choose from. I've taken two language courses by Rosetta Stone, and they are fantastic! Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone does not yet offer Czech. I also purchased the Czech course from the Foreign Service Institute, and it's nicely done, includes a larger vocabulary, and is cheaper than Pimsleur. (Plus it also comes in a nice Prologic Case.) However the vocabulary is definitely slanted to the requirements of the statesman/politician, rather than colloquial "on the street" Czech.

I cannot tell you how pleased I am with the Pimsleur program for Czech. I only wish they had a more advanced version I could move on to! I also purchased the Berlitz cassette, and if I had not had Pimsleur first, I would have thought Czech was impossible. This product in a wonderful way to learn a little Czech for a trip.

I know it is the basis ofthe Pimsleur method to have everything delivered into the ear. But this has at least a couple of downsides, one inevitable, one aggravated by how this particular recording seems to have been done. The inevitable problem is the inability to consult some accompanying study guide either to look up a word or phrase or for a fuller explanation about how or when, say, word order or endings are used in the manner presented on the tapes. I gather the whole method is premised on NOT studying but just following the spoken examples, as we do when children. But most of us do not have two or three years of all day interaction to pick up the language as we did so long ago. To help the process along some supplementary material (even if in phonetic approximations rather than in actual Czech) would be extremely hepful. If you can't recall the Czech word for beer, it would be nice to have a resource in which to look it up. But all of that is a built in downside to the entirely aural Pimsleur method.

Not inevitable are the shortcomings of this particular set. I agree with a previous review that not enough time is given to respond. Also there is the problem of modeling your own mastery on speakers as indistinct and inconsistent as these. Another reviewer mentions that he sometimes hears another syllable we were not led to expect on some words. I hear it too. Another problem is the speed and lack of clear articulation. It is no answer to say that this is how Czech is actually spoken in the hurly-burly of native conversation. This is designed to be a teaching model for someone to clearly understand and to follow (without, under the Pimsleur method, recourse to anything else). There are Mississippi field hands, Liverpool dock workers, and Bronx waitresses who speak a kind of standard English. Their use of the language may be regionally colored but otherwise quite correct. But I would never offer their way of treating the language as the pattern for someone learning English. If the speakers more slowly and distinctly articulated the Czech responses ( the male speaker is much worse than the female) it would be clearer how the words are making the sentance and how the endings are to be distinguished. The rapid fire mush mouth is tough to make sense of. And it would seem to be BECAUSE Czech has sounds that English speakers do not make, that the Czech articulation should be slower and more distinct, even at the risk of some artificiality.

It would also be helpful if the our prompter would offer more explanations of things we need to keep in mind. More "did you hear how. . . " and "note how the . . ." and "be careful to distinguish the X, which means Y, from the Z which is used to. . ." would clarify matters. There is some of that, but it is mostly "listen to this." Sometimes word order and sentance structure are never explained or even mentioned. Just following, then, an example is much harder, especially when the exemplar put it into one great slurred blurt.

Much more care should have been taken with articulation, explanation, and consistency. I also agree with the technical criticisms made by others about how the discs have been tracked. But that is a minor inconvenience compared with constantly backing up the disc while yelling "WHAT did he say???"