Excellent learning resource
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I found Contempory Czech by Michael Heim to be an excellent learning tool for Czech IF you already know and understand another foreign language. In fact, Heim even states that his book is intended for Slavophiles who've already been exposed to other Slavic languages, particularly Russian. Overall, it's an excellently written grammar.
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A decent choice for the intermediate academic learner.
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The thing I like most about this book is that it offers many sentences in Czech to give you an idea of how sentences are structured. It also includes a nice review section. On the other hand, it immediately throws you into rather complex grammatical forms with minimal explanation. You'll find yourself discussing Czech and Russian literature before you can ask where the library is. In this sense, the book is aimed more at academia than at practical use. There are exercises throughout the text. However, the author chose not to provide the answers, maybe because the book was intended for classroom use. That can be very frustrating when you're learning Czech "sám/sama"(solo), as there is no way to be absolutely sure that your answers are correct. Also, it would be nice if the book offered more examples of conjugations and declensions, concepts native English speakers rarely consider. In summary, for someone who already knows the basics of Czech or knows Russian or another Slavic language, this book will probably be quite helpful. But if you're new to Slavic languages, you may very well feel left behind from the outset and might prefer a book like David Short's "Teach Yourself Czech."
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