Slovene (Teach Yourself)

Unfortunately, Slovenian continue as the only official language of the EU that lacks a decent course for English speakers.

The two old courses, Teach Yourself Slovene and Colloquial Slovene are both written by the same author as this book. Given the very low reputation of these books, I was worried when I learned that she would write the new book and had my suspicions confirmed when I saw the book. Here are some of the main reasons that you should not buy this book, as it will not help you learn Slovene.

1. Compared to other Slavic languages, Slovene share all the complex grammar as well as some additional featurel (the dual system). Despite Slovene being one of the most complex European languages, this book is one of the thinnest in the Teach Yourself series. The reason is that the grammar is hardly dealt with at all. 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. Inadequate pronunciation and no displaying of stress. In Slovene, the stress 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. If you see the word 'svet', should you pronounce the 'e' as a long vowel or a short vowel. That's the difference between the word 'holy' and the word 'advice' Slovene is full of words that only differ in this regard, and this course won't help you with it.

3. The vocabulary is way shorter than in almost any other course I've seen. Compared to most other Teach Yourself courses, you'll end up knowing a fraction of the words in those courses.

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. What is even more extraordinary is that she was enlisted for the updated version as well. Let up hope that when it's time for updating Colloquial Slovene, Routledge will select an author who is up to the task of at least providing a course that equals the quality of other Colloquial and Teach Yourself courses.

Solid Textbook (2/4 people found this helpful)

This is good, basic textbook. It has quite a few typographic errors, the grammatical explications are rather terse; the vocab somewhat limited and underrepresentd;the book is written in British English, yet overall keeping in mind the scarcity of the speakers and learners of Slovene language, this is a solidly elementary find-your-way-around type of book.

Andrea Albretti

Reader Reviews:

One of the worst language courses I've read - out of 500 (3/3 people found this helpful)

Solid Textbook (2/4 people found this helpful)

Similar Products

Categories