Teach Yourself Serbo-Croat Complete Course

i agree with many of the reviewers in the sense that this book is for true learning of the language, not just loose phrases and vocabulary...it explains the verbs, expressions, pronunciation, etc., giving you a great foundation to start with, even though i never got too far since my trip to the area was canceled...as for the nationalism, i just wanted to make one interesting comment... any serious linguist considers serbian and croatian to be two dialects of the same language that are totally mututally intelligible... it is funny that many slavs love to go on about how their languages are so similar (for example, czechs saying "oh sure, we can understand tons of slovenian" or bulgarians claiming "oh serbian, that's practically identical, we understand most of what they're saying"...) but then you stumble upon this fake invented controversy where people from the ex-yugoslavia try to claim just the opposite... it is easy to find serbs who will say croatian is a totally different language, but in a different conversation they will tell you how similar slavic languages are to one another in general...how odd!

...because it is the only book in English about Serbo-Croatian that I am aware of (besides phrase books and dictionaries)I have some issues with it. For example, I wish the grammar was laid out in one section instead of scattered throughout the text.But, overall it's pretty good, and there are no other books on the subject anyway, so if you want to learn the language, you have to get this book.BTW, it focuses mostly on the Croatian dialect because there's nowhere worth visiting in eastern Yugoslavia. Who would want to waste their time learning the Serbian dialect?

I first ordered the book w/out the cassette (I did not see that it was available w/cassette at the time) and am now reordering for the book and cassette together. I am learning a little of the language to be able to say a few words in my friend's language while she learns English. I like the book, as it goes into more depth than a simple phrase book. I wish the publisher/author would produce a workbook to go with the text, as that would increase immensely in retaining what is explained in the text. As far as any differences in dialects go, it seems that some of the reviews here have been more forthright than others; from what my friends have explained to me, the dialects are not *so* different as to be incomprehensible one to the other. So, better to pick some point to begin at and go from there (which is what this book does). I hope to learn more with the cassette (pronunciation & intonation), as the book doesn't spend to much time in this area. I suppose that is just as well, because an audio source will communicate that information so much better than the written word does anyway. The grammer is well explained in the text & I look forward to improving my skills much more rapidly with the receipt of the book AND cassette. If you want to get your feet wet in the language, this is a good place to start.

This is a good first step for a beginner wanting to learn more Serbo-Croat than you'd find in a "phrasebook for travellers". The complicated grammatical structure is attacked in a very simple, approachable way. The book contains enough vocabulary for a wide variety of situations. It would be impossible, I think, for a text like this to give equal consideration to all the varieties of Serbo-Croat. Much better to learn one dialect, as it's not too difficult to switch to another. This book teaches a Croatian dialect, and this is clearly explained at the beginning. I wanted to learn Bosnian, but this book was more than adequate for learning the rudiments of the language, despite the focus on a different dialect.I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to start learning any dialect of Serbo-Croat. Having worked my way through it, I hope the author decides to write an "advanced Serbo-Croat" book to follow on from this one.

This is the place to start for a person who knows nothing about the language and learns best by studying grammer, vocabulary, verb and noun forms and everyday statements you will need all at once. I got the Barron's book on Croatian, and it is best for someone who does not really want to learn to converse with Croatians, but wishes to navigate through everyday situations a business man or tourist might encounter. It is not a grammatical approach, just useful words and sentences grouped by situational headings, ie: dining, hotel, travel, etc. The "Teach Yourself Serbo-Croat" is best for getting a real working understanding of the language. I have used their books for Italian and French and they worked great. I have studied 5 other languages, both in school and on my own, and these guides I have found very satisfying for the beginner who learns best by acquiring an understanding the structure of a language over "listen and learn" rote memory approaches. Hope this helps. Hvala!