Czech Language Lessons REQUIRED

Good luck! :woohoo: http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/more-on-the-hardest-languages-to-learn/ [quote]Czech and Slovak are notoriously hard to learn; in fact, all Slavic languages are. Language professors rate the Slavic languages the third hardest to learn on Earth. Czech is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the hardest language to learn. It’s sometimes said that even Czechs never learn to speak their language correctly, and there is actually some truth to that. They spend nine years in school studying Czech grammar, but some rules are learned only at university. Immigrants never seem to learn Czech well. Czech is full of exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions. It is said that there are more exceptions than there are rules.[/quote]

There is no such thing as 'difficult' languages - or even 'the most difficult language'... It all depends on the native language's (syntax, semantics, pragmatics) closeness to the target language. Not so sure that ergative grammatical systems such as Australian aboriginal languages (e.g.,Dyirbal) are easier than Czech... Anyway, thank you for wishing me luck.

Why do you want to learn czech ? ... Are you moving there ? if so, than it may make a sense otherwise forget it ! Czech is not based only on gramar, words, syntax ect. (this could work with german and spanish, italian paritally franch but never with czech language. Czech is based on understandig of meaning ... its very very colored language, the vocabulary is so huge. Unless you already know fluently few other languages you have no chance, specially in grammar ! If you want to learn a bit than may be so but I doubt you will find somebody that patient to stand your pronunciation ... czech people can not be proud of their nation behavior or the "republic" but we are proud of our language is great and most various. Sorry but I also think that it will be a waste of time and money ...

can everybody accept Francesco's minds?? it's his choice, his time, his money as well... our language is very hard for all foreigners, of course. but i know many peoples who living in prague and they have a good - no excellent - speaking. is any another reason there why Francesco can't learn and touch our language?? let to him time and patience - it's all, he don't need nothing more.

Thank you for all your comments. One thing is for sure: so far I am learning that Czech people are rather pessimistic and discouraging... I am fully aware of the difficulties that ANY non-native language (not just Czech...) may pose to foreign learners, but this does not mean that some significant results cannot be achieved anyway. I am also fully aware of what I am doing: I am a linguist and a philologist. It is my job at university. In the past, I have already researched on some Old Slavonic manuscripts, which are extremely fascinating, let alone important for the general European culture. Again, every language has complexity. Yes, Czech may be rather dense in its morphology (i.e., it has declensions, cases, three genders, etc.), but this is not as complicated as it seems - I have studied Latin and Ancient Greek in gymnasium. Perhaps, it is true that Czech is particularly difficult and 'misleading' in its semantics (the 'meaning', as it was written above), but it is indeed this aspect that fascinates me for scientific and reserach purposes. So, let's try to be constructive: if you can suggest a good grammar book or an institution where I can attend Czech classes here in Manchester, that would be greatly appreciated. You should be proud of your country, which is fantastic (yes, ok, with many problems as well), which has a great history. And you should be happy that someone is interested in your culture - rather than just discourage him. For now: ahoj!

Well ... Czech people living out of czech 'bannana' republic are mostly realistic ;) I call the current czech nation 'the nation I surrender' because if even 10% of whats hapening there would be happening in UK, Germany, Spain or France the citizens would not riot, they would revolt ... in Czech ... nothing ! Last fight for freedom and liberty was in 13th century. About the history ... yes its great, over one and a half millennium, but go there and take a look how they care about it. Old Slavonic / Ancient czech is a totaly different story thats even like 10times harder to understand and it has completly different type of language sytax. If you thing you can learn basics from lang syntax why not try some czech-english learning books and try learn it by 'reversiv' method. btw I was told that there is a slavonistic college in Sheffield ... they should have some books in the library and its just 40min of drive. Any way for learning czech you will definitely need to find some body who really speaks english on high level of equilibristic incl. vocabulary to be able to explain what those regular expressions means and as far as I know there are not many czech people in UK who can so, I suggest you cut of the condition on lessons be taken in Manchester, it could increase your chances to learn at least beginnings of the language.

Hey Francesco, I think it's amazing you want to learn our beautiful language. Please do not pay attention to any negative comments; you've spotted that quite right - Czech people tend to be pessimistic and discouraging, it's easier to give up straight away than start trying (sad LOL). Of course, Czech language is hard to learn but that just makes it a great challenge. And since you've got a clear goal in your mind you'll find it much easier :) I've recently started a language swap with a French person and he's doing really well. I live in London but am available for a chat over Skype to help you out in the beginning till you manage to find some Manchester based teacher. I'm currently studying five languages and one of them is Hebrew. Many people asked me why; that I probably won't have any use for it. None of them were Hebrew native speakers - those were actually pleasantly surprised and tried to give me various tips. There are a lot of helpful Czechs around too so I hope you'll meet as many as possible :)

Thank you everybody for all your positive (and non-positive) comments. I will not give up! I will find Czech tuitions and I will learn Czech - which is an amazing language. May I just reassure you that I am fully aware of what I am looking for and of what I am going to face? I am a professional linguist and philologist, and I do this for work at university. You may know that 'Linguistics' and 'Philology' are disciplines which study 'language' - not 'languageS'! The scientific theory behind will support me in understanding the structure of Czech, i.e., I am prepared to analyse the pragmatic-semantic-syntax interface. In other words, I am aware of the diachronic changes (see Old Slavonic vs. Modern Czech), I am aware of the pragmatic-semantic differences between SPOKEN Czech and WRITTEN (formal) Czech. I am aware of the dialectal variation, for example Moravan vs Bohemian. I am aware of the change of meaning according to context (words can have different meanings depending on the situation). I am aware of variation in aspect-tense verbal system (for example: delat: I am doing / I have done / I did / I did (and finished) / I did (and not yet finished)... punctual and perfective actions vs. iterative actions, etc.). I find all these aspects of Czech extremely interesting for my work. And I am (still) very happy to learn Czech. Thank you all.

[quote]Well...Last fight for freedom and liberty was in 13th century. ...[/quote] heh, really?? shake your head and get-up, pls. (1989)

My friends were learning Czech from Czech step by step, it was used as an official textbook at Charles University for Czech language course, not sure if it is better than any other. Otherwise, there is summer course in Pisek or Tabor, that is pretty good. Anyway, I think it is organized by Charles University. Good luck with finding the tutor - I am afraid the best way may be going via skype or so... Maybe anther suggestion would be there is facebook group for aupairs in UK, I am sure someone would like that as an extra pocket money... there is a group for czechs and slovaks in UK as well.

Thank you everybody for the useful comments.

[quote]heh, really?? shake your head and get-up, pls. (1989)[/quote] LLLOOOOLLLL Get back to real life !