Colloquial Croatian and Serbian: The Complete Course for Beginners

This is a great book for the beginner and those who need to brush up on their skills. Well organized, easy to follow with lessons/homework at the end of each chapter.

I already speak 6 languages fairly fluently, and just starting out on croatian (pure beginner) and i borrowed both this book and Norris' book from my local town library. Hawkesworth's cassette is Definitely useless, as another reviewer said. The cassette is too fast, but u do learn some pronounciation. I feel Hawkesworth's book is a lot more detailed, and explains a lot more things. Maybe too much, for anyone who is a complete beginner. Norris' book is a lot lighter, and very good for beginners, because u really go step by step. Both are therefore very complimentary. My croatian friend agreed that they have more croatian than serbian in them.

This must be one of the best language courses for learning the language spoken in Croatia (which is extremely close to the one spoken in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro). There are three themes running through the book, all of them useful. The first one is the familiar "English Tourists" which will give you the vocabulary for ordinary situations, just as in most other language courses. Then there is a very interesting "soap-opera", which will be most useful if you're into some flirting. Given how extremely good-looking the Croatian girls are, this section is a blessing. Then there is a further theme focusing on a businessman going to Croatia. The grammar is very concise and well-structured, and the vocabularies in each chapter are fairly full-covering. The audio is great as well, with natural Croatian speech. There is only one small problem and that is that the course does not show whether stressed vowels are long or short.Though focusing on the speech in Croatia, the book also contains many references to the differences between Croatian and Serbian, which I found very interesting.Be aware that the overall rating of this book is rather low, NOT becuase it's a bad book (it's great) but because some people like the previous reviewer from Greece attack all books that aren't exclusively in Serbian. That is a political action that has nothing to do with the qualities of this book. As someone who have never visited the region and have no passions about the political situation in the region, I would like to see reviews focusing on the qualities of the book

If you are a newcomer to the language, it is important to know that this course teaches in the Croation dialect, which is different from the Serbian dialect spoken in Belgrade and the surrounding areas. This course is applicable to those who wish to master the Croation spoken around Zagrab, and the unique Serbian spoken within areas of Bosnia. HOWEVER, if you are attempting to master the more common Serbian of Serbia and southern provinces, and you have no experience with these languages, this course could confuse you.

I WAS RAISED BY SERBIAN SPEAKING PARENTS AND IGNORED THE CHANCE TO LEARN FIRSTHAND. THESE TAPES ARE WONDERFUL AND DO HELP TREMENDOUSLY. I AM PLANNING A TRIP TO SERBIA AND THE TAPES BRING BACK ALOT OF WORDS THAT WERE LURKING IN THE DIM RECESSES OF MY MIND. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE ES SERBO-CROATION LANGUAGE/30 IN CONJUCTION WITH THESE TAPES.