czech textbooks/internet resources

[Tim Beasley]

Hi, Miriam.

Harkin's book is lousy.  Most others are, too.  Let's not even talk about 
the "Teach Yourself books".  And Heim's book ... should not be allowed to 
continue to exist.

The now-standard Czechbook (ha-ha) is by Susan Kresin from UCLA, assuming 
no knowledge of another Slavic language.  It's the usual "start with simple 
vocabulary and grammatical ideas, introduce cases gradually, etc., etc." 
book.  But Kresin knows the language, and her colleague at UCLA, Olga 
Kagan, is a top-notch second-language instructor, well versed in theory and 
practice of second-language teaching.   It's fairly practical, focusing on 
actual speaking ("communicative competence").

I don't know if the Kresin book has CDs or audio to accompany it.

An intriguing one is in multiple volumes, and truly Byzantine,  It's by Fr. 
Cermak, Jan Holub, Jiri Hronek, Milan Sara, and David Short (with all kinds 
of accents and carons in there), Brno 1993, published by Masaryk U., 
Charles U., and the U. of London's School of Slavonic and East European 
Studies.  It's called "Czech: A multi-level course for advanced 
learners."  The catch is "advanced learner":  it doesn't mean somebody 
who's already learned a year or two of Czech, but a learner who's 
conceptually advanced, and able to approach a language in a sophisticated 
manner.  Unless they've changed it, it has no audio tapes.  It's intended 
for intensive summer school or term-study in London.  While it's good 
enough for lots of use, it's heavily structuralist: it introduces sentence 
types by some quirky 1930s theoretical framework.  It covers the basics, 
and the dross can be ignored, I think.

There are lots of Czech newspapers on line, and also Czech radio 
stations.  I'm sure you're aware of them.  I'd suggest that if the book you 
use doesn't have audio tapes/CDs, that you make some.  It'd just take you a 
few minutes per chapter.

If he's going to live there for a while, he should learn the basic 
vocabulary he needs asap, screw the grammar.  For that, have him produce a 
set of vocabulary/contexts, and *you* provide the translation.  Things like 
getting the electricity connected, dealing with visa requirements, etc., 
will *not* be in any textbook, and the dictionary translations may or may 
not be all that usable.  (However, I had a college roommate once who said 
the most important phrase to know in any language is, "Stop!  Don't shoot!")

I still like Jedlicka and Havranek's school grammar.  It's all in Czech, 
and a danged handy reference for what's important.  It should still be in 
print, and be fairly cheap.

Both the Cermak and the Kresin books, I think, are fairly pragmatic.  They 
emphasis learning and using the language.

As for what you should charge.  Gee.  That's still a tough question.  I 
think $25-35/hr is the going rate, depending on how you feel and what you 
want out of it.  My guitar teacher taught for $30, I think; then again, are 
you an experienced language teacher?  Still, I'd go for $30, and pitch 
recording the tapes for free (but he provides the tapes or CDs--he gets to 
choose the quality).  Less if you feel squeamish, or he can't afford it; 
more if you really don't have the time.

Where's he going?  Podunkville or big city?

Tim

At 09:46 AM 10/10/2005, you wrote:
>Can anybody suggest a good textbook and/or internet resources to teach 
>Czech? The student wants to learn it so that he can move and live in the 
>Czech Republic - so the text should be pretty practical/pragmatic. He is 
>not worried about too much detail as he plans to fine tune his Czech once 
>there.
>
>thanks!!
>
>Miriam Margala
>
>University of Rochester, New York
>
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