Pimsleur Croatian Conversational Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-16 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Croatian with Pimsleur Language Programs

by Pimsleur

Pimsleur® equals success. Just one 30-minute lesson a day gets you speaking and understanding like no other program.

This course includes Lessons 1-16 from the Croatian Level 1 Program - 8 hours of audio-only effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. Topics include: greetings, numbers, meals, shopping, telling time, scheduling activities, and asking and giving directions. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Croatian.

Reading instruction begins in Lesson 11 to provide you with an introduction to reading Croatian. A Reading Booklet PDF must be downloaded.

The Croatian Language
Croatian, the official language of Croatia, is spoken by approximately 4.5 million speakers in Croatia, plus 1 million speakers in other parts of Europe, the US, and Canada. There are 3 main dialects: kajkavski, cakavski, and štokavski (official dialect). Pimsleur's Croatian teaches štokavski.

Tech Talk
- CDs are formatted for playing in all CD players, including car players, and users can copy files for use in iTunes or Windows Media Player.

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Angela Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed views of the Pimsleur method. I think it does a reasonable job at working on pronunciation, and it's so repetitive that what do learn you learn well. However, you don't learn very much for the time you spend on it. For example, 3 lessons (1 1/2 hrs) are devoted to learning the numbers to 20. If you are dedicated and smart enough to teach yourself a language, you are not the sort of person who requires that long to learn 20 words. By the end (8 hrs of lessons), I found I still knew very little. I would certainly not be able to hold even the most basic conversation with a Croatian, nor would I be able to negotiate the standard touristy situations. Also, this is my own issue, but I find it very hard to learn without seeing things written down. I ended up cheating and looking up how everything is spelled. Another critique is the lack of time spent on grammar. The idea is that you will absorb things naturally, like a native learner. However, Croatian is crazy complex. The word endings kept changing without explanation. If I were not also using the Teach Yourself series, I would have been completely confused. I am still not clear why it's dviye kuna and not dva. Is it something to do with currency or is it a case issue? (I would welcome an explanation from any Serbo-Croatian out there).