Pre Intermediate Czech...

As with most languages, there's plenty of resources for beginners/elementary, but once you're past that what do you do? (not that I'm even close yet)

I'm asking about somewhere between A1 and B2.. usually the level you should be at after learning for a year ..

And even at higher levels, what text books do you use?
People who have studied Czech in classes, what text books did you use after the first year?

 

Ahoj,

It is a good topic, Four Crowns. Soon, I'll need some new books, and I see that there are somekind of "lack" of intermediate books.

Here there is a list of Czech books, for every levels. Concerning intermediate and advanced books, the suggesting are the following:

Intermediate/Advanced Materials

Bednárová, Ivana, and Magdalena Pintarová. Communicative Czech: Intermediate Czech. Prague: Univerzita Karlova, 1996. 196 pages, one cassette, Czech-English glossary, key to exercises. Distributors: I. Bednárová, Albertov 7/3a, 120 00 Praha 2, Ceská republika; M. Pintarová, Wolkerova 4, 586 01 Jihlava, Ceská republika.

Bischofová, Jana, Jirí Hasil, Milan Hrdlicka, and Jitka Kramárová. Cestina pro strednû a více pokrocilé. Prague: Univerzita Karlova, 1997. 244 pages, Czech-English glossary, glossaries of names and of cultural material, key to exercises.

Cechová, Elga, Helena Trabelsiová, and Harry Putz. Chcete jestû lépe mluvit cesky? Liberec: independent publication, 1997. 510 pages, one cassette, key to exercises. Distributor: Harry Putz, Box 89, 460 31 Liberec, Ceská republika; harrputz@mbox.vol.cz.

Confortiová, Helena, and M. Turzíková. Cestina pro pokrocilé. Prague: Univerzita Karlova, 1993. Not available for review.

Dickins, Thomas. Spoken Czech: Situational Dialogues for Intermediate Level Students. Wolverhampton: Univ. of Wolverhampton, 1993. 45 minute videotape and 239 pp. accompanying book (essay on Czech stylistics, exercises with keys, vocabulary lists). Distributed by Audio-Forum, Microworld House, 2–6 Foscote Mews, London W9 2HH.

Poldauf, Ivan, and Karel Sprunk. Cestina jazyk cizí. Mluvnice cestiny pro cizince. Prague: SPN, 1968. 418 pages, concise and thorough reference grammar, in Czech only, no exercises, extensive index.

It is good to remember that this list is a little outdated.



Na shledanou.:

 

But I don't know would we be ready for intermediate!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Eur ... _Languages

Intermediate is B1, Pre-int is A2.. I'm thoroughly wedged in A1 for a while.

In English each level should take 1 to 2 years of serious study, with the higher levels taking longer... and Czech is (in my opinion) more difficult than English!

I think misunderstandings about what 'Intermediate' is are the cause of a lot of problems for people who are trying to teach themselves. People try to do too much too fast.

 

Ahoj,

Four Crowns, you are right, it is hard to tell in which level we really are.
I said that, beucase I probably will finish my books for begginer in two or three months, and then I'll have the basic knowledge of the language. Then, I'll have to get new books, and I think there aren't books entitled "Pre-intermediate". Probably, as I'm doing now, I'll take at least two books, since only one always have something missing or it is to advanced for your current goals.

The European Framework is good kind of guide, but not every books, mainly those for self-teaching use this rank, so, you are the one who must mesuare your knowledge.

Na shledanou.:

 

Generally most books, even the self teaching ones, use some kind of terminology. Either those letters and numbers or the terms 'beginner' 'elementary' 'pre intermediate' 'intermediate' 'upper intermediate' 'advanced' 'proficient'

 

I have recently acquired this book, but as you stated the information is a little old. Helena Trabelsiová has now become Helena Remediosová and comes with 3 CDs (ordered separately) instead of 1 cassette. The key is downloadable from their website.
This book is the second of two volumes. The first, 'Chcete Mluvit Česky?' covers levels A1, A2 and B1. The second volume states it's for advanced students, but it follows on from the first. I haven't started using it yet. It looks pretty heavy - Instructions in Czech, lots and lots of vocabulary. It's for German as well as English speakers. Four crowns, if I were you, I would check it out in a bookshop if I were you. Here is their website.

 

Ahoj,

Well, I never saw any book for any langauge with "pre intermediate". Anyway... no matter what it is written there... it always depensd on the view of the author of what is beginner or intermediate etc. Only, of course, if you find a book that follow some patterns, such as European Framework, otherwise, it is not very precise what it is beginner or advanced.

Phillip, does the first book cover so much? Is it good for self-teaching or only with teacher?

Na shledanou.:

 

Well, I teach English, and this is how it's rated in English, (and in all languages, except translated, obviously) all Cambridge, Macmillan and Oxford books use this system.

No it's standardized, teaching would be impossible if it wasn't.

Yes it is, or at least it should be, if it's not than the publishers are not very professional.

 

Thanks for the advice!

I already have Chcete Mluvit Česky.. it's quite good, I like it, it uses illustrations as much as possible, which I like! But I don't have any cds/cassettes to go with it, I think that woudl really help.
I will defiantly check out the other books in the series when I'm ready.
Thank you!

*hears nuclear siren*
*panics*
*remembers it's the first Wednesday of the month*
*relaxes*

 

That's what it says on the back cover In fact I have a copy of 'Czech Step by Step' and that also covers A1, A2 and B1. I think 'Colloquial Czech' also would be similar.

Probably better with a teacher, but you could use it to self teach as long as you have some knowledge of Czech Language beforehand. It starts off pretty steep in my opinion. I am using it for self teaching and have very little problems with it. You'd probably be better off with the discs/cassettes as well.

You can order CDs/cassettes separately from their website, see my previous post for their address. Maybe you can buy them in bookshops as well.

Měj se hezky
Phil

 

Ahoj,

Four Crowns, okay then, you convinced me. But, for sure, somethings are hard to precise - even the author is serious.

Hum, about the level the beginners books take us to, well, reading the Euroepan Framework, B1 seems good. Perhaps a little more or less depending on your efforts and other sources.

There are also discussions on what should be taught in the beginning or not. I've seen some complaints about that (not only for Czech language) books or teachers teach some useless vocabullary when the students expects to learn some more basic and helpful expressions. I've heard in "Teach yourself Czech" for example, how to say mudguard (blatník) - I very seldom need to say it in Portuguese - but, learning these kind of thing is nice too, because, if we stay only in the "basic" vocabulary and expressions, one day we will need to talk about some uncommon topic, and we won't know how to do it.

Coming back to the topic: So, after studying well Colloquial Czech and Teach Yourself Czech, could I take Chcete mluvit nº 2?

Na shledanou.:

 

You've got big aspirations there Tagarela.
You are looking way ahead. Sounds like you are determined.


I know the dialogue you are talking about
Pan Ježek měl nahadou v křizovatce, když jel k domě Pana Smitha.
Byl to ale malý pomačkaný blatniku.

 

Ahoj,

Scrimshaw, o, no big aspirations. I would wait untill I study my books to the end to ask about it, but, Four Crowns started the discussed, so, I'm enjoying the opportunity


Yes, that is the dialogue =)
Language books have some funny dialogues.

Na shledanou.:

 

I've looked at the end of Do you want to speak Czech? and it doesn't seem to have anything in it we won't have covered in either Colloquial Czech or Teach Yourself

My teacher said there is a second Czech Step by Step but I have seen nothing about it anywhere.. anyway if there is that would be my preference! I adore that book!

 

I wonder if there is some copyright problem with sharing dialogues from language books.
I've got a lot of dialogues from 'Colloquial Czech' and 'Teach yourself Czech'.
I'd like to see some from 'Step by Step'.

 

Ahoj,

Scrimshaw, well, I think that posting here some samples of dialogues aren't a real problem, because we aren't using the text to teach as if they were our creation and so on. Of course, we should not post the whole book. In Amazon.com you can "look inside" Czech step by step I guess, try it there.

Na sheldanou.:

 

Last year I bought in Prague for my wife(canadian) a textbook
"Czech for Everyone" by Karin Rigerova.
This textbook also including CD. My wife could read and listen pronunciation.

 

Czech step by step is more production focused (more active learning than passive learning)

The explanations are excellent, the workbook is fantastic, the cd is only meant to support this and help with pronunciation. The workbook has excellent practice exercises. Also it's more a book for using in class or with another learner, as there are a lot of conversational exercises.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rabbitwhoruns/3056243636/

 

wey hey wey hey wey hey!

Guess what!

There's a New Czech Step by Step 2 now! And of course it's called Krok za Korkem

http://www.czechstepbystep.cz/

So my question is answered.

Czech Step by Step 1 was the greatest thing of all time, I may have given up on Czech without it.

It looks from the cover like it doesn't have the same wonderful artist that the first book did but I guess I can live without her, it just won't be as enjoyable.


I bought Basic Czech 2 on Saturday in Brno, it's just about perfect for what I need I think, as it's pre int but a lower pre int than Czech Step by Step and Colloquial Czech left me at, so I can revise as well as going into more detail with the grammar, for example the first chapter starts with things about the Second position in past tense of reflexive verbs, which was something Czech Step by Step 1 touches on but doesn't go into detail about.

It promises me A2 actively and B1 passively by the time I'm finished it, by September I should be ready for Czech krok za krokem, which intends to get you to B1 actively.

Ah I looked at that too, it seems a little bit ridiculous to me to be honest, just pages after pages of words to learn with little or no context. That's a very old fashioned slow and ineffective way to learn a vocabulary, what you need is to see the same word in as many different interesting contexts as possible, this way it's easy fun and quick, and you remember longer because your brain is active and not just being drilled.

I also looked at ucime se cesky 2 by eva roubalova, which looked really good, but they only had the workbook

It had some nice things about how to from verbs from nouns and adjectives etc. which is something I constantly find myself needing to do.. or I see a word and I don't recognise it so I look it up and I realize... OH it's just the noun from the verb __________ ,but if I could have recognized it straight off I'd have saved myself a lot of time, it's a good skill I think!

 

Thanks for the head up about the new Czech Step by Step book. I'll have to take a look around to see if I can find it.