How to learn Czech quickly at home?

Is it easy to learn Czech?

There is an opinion that it is much more difficult for Russian people to memorize Czech words than for other nations. A person who speaks this language faces specific difficulties in the learning process.

1. Words that create confusion in the head. For example, pozor (pronounced “shame”) among Czechs is a kind of call for attentiveness.

2. The difference in pronunciation. For Czechs, the stress is on the first syllable, the length of the vowels is important for them, there is an unpronounceable letter ř.

3. Simultaneous similarity and difference in grammar. Some words similar to Russian are declined or conjugated differently in Czech.

4. Dialects. There are many of them in the Czech language. So, the spelling and pronunciation of words in different territories of the state varies. Ignorance of the history of the country. You can learn the Czech language on your own if you simultaneously get acquainted with the realities of their past.

Given all of the above, a Russian person is able to master the Czech language. However, for this he needs to make some efforts.

How long does it take to learn Czech from scratch on your own?

When learning a language, there will be a positive effect if a person lives in the Czech Republic, communicating with the inhabitants of the republic. Some people receive such knowledge in a special local school. There are other ways to learn a language.

1. Get a tutor. This step will require financial costs, but it will be cheaper than living in the Czech Republic. An experienced teacher, using an individual approach, will teach the intricacies of colloquial speech.

2. Sign up for courses. This method is popular among those wishing to learn Czech. However, it is already suitable for those who have figured out the grammar and can build simple sentences.

3. Online learning. It does not require financial investments and takes place via the Internet. There are free courses and programs. Download textbooks and practice on your own.

So how much can you learn Czech from scratch? There is no answer to this question, because people have different abilities. You just need to practice regularly and hone your writing and speaking skills.

In the Czech Republic? Are you going to study or work? Or maybe you are just attracted to the sound of Czech speech? In any case, you are faced with the question “How to learn the Czech language?”.
In order to understand the whole variety of language teaching options, first you need to have an idea of ​​what the Czech language is, to which group of languages ​​it belongs, what kindred roots it has with the Russian language.

About Czech

Czech is spoken by about 12 million people. Czech is the official language of the Czech Republic. It belongs to the group of West Slavic languages, is related to the Russian language. The Czech alphabet uses the Latin alphabet. Unlike Russian, Czech has long and short variants of vowel sounds (for example, drahá - "dear" and dráha - "road"), which perform a semantic function.
It should be noted that the Czech language is quite soft in nature, has a large amount of soft hissing, it is even sometimes called "snake tongue". Therefore, a Russian-speaking person is easy to recognize, even if he speaks Czech, since the Russian language is characterized by greater hardness.
There is also one of the complex sounds in the Czech language - the sound "ř", which is not always easy even for the Czechs themselves. Often, in order to achieve correct pronunciation, Czechs resort to the help of a speech therapist. There is no similar sound in Russian, and our articulatory apparatus is not adapted for pronouncing it, so a lot of training is necessary to get a good result. For simplicity and convenience, in many tutorials it is recommended to pronounce this sound as “rzh”. But the Czech language is much softer than Russian, this sound is pronounced very, very softly, the sounds “r” and “g” merge into one. Moreover, this sound is original and practically does not occur in other common world languages. Czechs are proud of this sound. But if you pronounce it in the Russian manner, they will still understand you.
What is the ease of learning this language? The language is related to Russian, so you can find many similar words.
For example: people - lidé, seller - prodávající, teacher - učitel, and others.
Some of the Czech words and expressions may seem funny at first.
For example: čerstvé potraviny - fresh food, chytrý - smart, pozor - attention, and others.
You will find a lot of such words in the Czech language, which at first, perhaps, will cause laughter and smiles in you, but with a more detailed immersion in the language, you will understand the processes taking place in it.
If your native language is Russian or another Slavic language, you have a linguistic education and already have experience in, then learning Czech will be much easier for you than for everyone else.
So, you have decided to start learning Czech.

Phrasebook, tutorial, textbook

For a tourist trip to the Czech Republic, learning a language using a phrase book is the best option. In the phrasebook you will find the basic necessary phrases, signs, make purchases in the store, call an ambulance, pay in a restaurant, and perform other necessary operations. You will learn basic phrases and necessary words. In the phrase book, all words and phrases are divided into thematic groups, so it is quite convenient to memorize phrases, comparing them with the situation.
But I draw the attention of the readers of MirSovetov, we didn’t say “memorize phrases” for nothing, since using a phrasebook, you will not be able to understand the language system, the principles of word formation, the principles of constructing phrases.
The self-instruction manual in this regard is much more useful, since it gives out not only ready-made phrases, but also helps to understand how they are formed. Undoubtedly, a CD with phonetic exercises should be attached to the tutorial. Because, even knowing the spelling of words, grammar, being able to navigate in the text, but pronouncing words phonetically incorrectly, you will experience difficulties in communication.
Of the recommended textbooks, Shirokova's Soviet textbook for universities is still the best. Everything is worked out in great detail and consistently, so that you will immediately fall in love with the Czech language. Also very popular is the textbook for Russians "Chcete mluvit cesky". Many classes for Russians in Czech universities are based on the materials of this textbook. There is no clear system in the textbook, but the material is given quite fully.
But at the first stage of language learning, you need a specialist who would correct you and point out your mistakes so that you do not memorize them.

Audio aids, radio, television, film

In this age, all this has become available. To immerse yourself in Czech speech, you can tune into Czech radio frequencies and listen not only to Czech news and music, but you can also find audiobooks on the websites of Czech radio Rozglas. Czech films can be downloaded from the Vkontakte group specially created for this purpose, from torrent resources and other places. From the offered films you can also choose Czech films with Russian translation or Russian subtitles. Watching national films is very useful, because. Almost all Czech films have a peculiar, only for them, characteristic flavor. Specific humor, Czech realities, peculiarities of mentality - all this you can feel when watching Czech films.

Internet, online courses

Also a good option, since materials on the Czech language have now appeared. You can download not only textbooks, but also audio programs, study multimedia programs on the Internet. There are several copyright sites where materials are posted and seminars and language classes are held. The advantage of multimedia programs is that you can control yourself.

Tutor, courses, university

When enrolling in courses, it is better if you have classes taught by a native speaker. You will be able to avoid fixing in speech the mistakes inherent in the Russian speaker. Since the languages ​​are related, I always want to say by analogy. But here the readers of MirSovetov should be attentive and careful. In the Czech language there are many such controls in phrases and sentences, which in Russian are used with other prepositions or in a different order.
For example: to go to the university (Russian) - it to the university (Czech), to wait for someone - a check for ... (Czech)
Therefore, classes with an experienced teacher - a native speaker will be much more useful.

Linguistic environment

If you are going to study and think that in the language environment the language will learn itself, then you are deeply mistaken. Without systematic high-quality classes, only what awaits you is that you will learn to perfectly understand others, but you will develop language muteness in yourself. Or you will speak with gross errors in such a way that it will be very difficult for a foreigner to listen to you. And also remember that if you chose Prague for immersion in the language environment, then communication in Czech can be minimized.
When you arrive in Prague, you will be surprised how often you will hear Russian. There are really a lot of Russian speakers in Prague, so you will not have any problems with communication, you can always find a Russian-speaking friend who will help you. Firms in Prague also often recruit multilingual employees. And you, instead of practicing the language, you can always “chat” with someone in Russian. And the temptation is great, especially when you are a beginner and it is difficult for you to express yourself in an unfamiliar language. Therefore, I advise readers of MirSovetov to learn Czech not in the capital. For this purpose, it is better to choose a smaller city. But do not forget that there are 4 dialects on the territory of the Czech Republic - therefore, if you get to these places, then the speech of the inhabitants may contain elements characteristic of this particular area.
In the environment, you will learn to perceive someone else's speech well, to distinguish what is said, perhaps to model it with your own voice, adapting it to soft, hissing Czech speech.
Well, if you studied this language at the language department of the university, maybe even did an internship. In the Czech Republic, there are Czech courses at Charles University, at other universities of the republic, and you can also go to a Czech summer language school for a few weeks.
Of course, in no case should you go with zero knowledge of the language. You must have an understanding of the language, know the basic phrases. Since modern Czech youth are reluctant to learn Russian, and people of the older generation have already forgotten a lot, and they don’t always like to communicate in Russian.
Good luck with your study!

Belonging to the Slavic group of languages, Czech has many similarities with Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian, so it is much easier for residents of the CIS to learn it than, for example, for a German or an Englishman. This language is not devoid of grace and melody, and the streets of Prague conquer with mysterious legends, which, of course, will become clearer with the study of the language.

Czech lessons with Advent EuroConsult

The channel's materials will help you learn the Czech language at an elementary level, starting with the very basics - the alphabet, pronouns and conjugations. The video explains grammar, sentence rules, and more in a concise and understandable way. There are 10 lessons to conquer the entry level. Knowledge of a foreign language is not required - training is in Russian.

Czech with Czrepetitor

During the lessons, vocabulary with grammar is explained through presentations - an elementary level is taught. At the same time, explanatory comments are in Czech, but the presentations are so simple and understandable that even those who do not know the language can safely start the lessons. Course participants will be able to replenish their vocabulary, learn how to form simple sentences, and also put the correct pronunciation. The channel was created for closely studying and simply interested in Czech.

Czech with Elena Shipilova

The listener will find on the channel more than 30 video lessons that will help you immerse yourself in the world of the Czech language. Grammar, vocabulary and more. Charming Elena will tell you about the nuances and subtleties of using a particular word in a sentence.
Interestingly, the channel teacher, in addition to Czech, teaches other languages. By digging through the channel's archive, you can learn how to learn languages ​​correctly, overcome problems in learning a language, be able to put the correct pronunciation and much more. Lessons are well suited for those who are learning the language from scratch, are conducted in Russian.

Simple Czech

The perception of foreign speech by ear, as you know, is one of the main problems of the Russian-speaking user. The lessons posted on the channel are designed to correct this misunderstanding - a pleasant audio reading of Czech is so well, simply and clearly organized that you want to start learning Czech without any particular purpose. First, the student listens to the Russian version of a fragment of the book, then to its translation into Czech.

Czech with Go Study group s.r.o.

Here they will teach you to introduce yourself, introduce you to the Czech alphabet, teach you how to answer the question “what time is it” and ask “how much does it cost”, introduce you to public transport and help you solve other everyday issues that require explanation in Czech.

Czech with Kurz Češtiny

The channel contains many lessons for learning Czech. Educational information is provided mainly in the form of high-quality presentations.
Lessons are taught by a native Czech speaker, but explanations are given in Russian with a pleasant Czech accent. Kurz will talk about the peculiarities of learning Czech, introduce you to grammar, warn about the main mistakes that people make when learning this particular language, and introduce not only the language, but also Prague. On the channel you can also find frivolous, but interesting videos like “What is not worth shouting in Russian in the Czech Republic”.

Czech with LINGVOPORTAL

Learning Czech from a textbook with detailed explanations in Czech. The voice of the announcer is pleasant, the pace of learning is calm. The textbook comprehensively covers the material: grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, language history and much more are studied. In addition, the authors of the channel offer to take a full course of study posted on the official website. The material is qualitatively commented by the reader.

Czech language with Gennadij Jakimov

The author of the channel, being a professional linguist and translator, will tell you how easy it is to start speaking Czech and introduce you to the country itself and its customs and cultural values. Here you can expand your vocabulary and speed up the process of learning the language, put the correct pronunciation. Lessons are designed for beginners to learn the language and advanced users, training is conducted in Russian. All educational information is provided mainly in the form of clear and simple presentations.

In learning any foreign language, not only theory is important, but also the “correct” language practice. Moreover, we are talking not only about speaking practice in the classroom, but about connecting all areas of our lives to the process of “language absorption”.

Prague Education Center shares tips on how to learn Czech effectively, not only in class.

Watching TV shows and movies in Czech is a great way to learn the language. Czech "voice acting" with Russian subtitles will be the most rational start. We recommend that you start with movies and series that you have already watched in your native language.

Don't be discouraged by the fact that at first it can be difficult to understand the speech of the actors, and you will have to look more at the subtitles. Soon the process will begin to "work" and you will have a whole bunch of additional colloquial phrases, slang and correct pronunciation.

Where to see: Youtube, groups "movies in Czech" VK, cinemas.

2. Change the language of the OS and mobile apps

How many hours a day do you use a computer or smartphone? By changing the language of operating systems and applications, you can easily learn new words, especially technical terms. The number of words may seem insignificant, but you won't even notice how you memorize a lot of new and rather complex concepts. Don't put it off until later, do it right now:

iOS: Settings - General - Language and region - iPhone/iPad language - Čeština
android: Settings - Language and input - Language - Čeština

3. Chat more with native Czech speakers

Meet, communicate, be open! Make new Czech friends: in real life or online.

Prague, like other student cities, has a huge potential for dating and communication. Attend as many useful events as possible: exhibitions, galleries, forums and your "friendbook" will be constantly updated with new interesting people.

Text messaging is a great way to learn conversational Czech and improve your grammar.

Rule number 1: do not be shy and do not worry about possible mistakes, very soon your grammar will be perfect!

4. Sign up for group classes at a sports club

Sport is not only good for the body and spirit. This is great language practice! Try to enroll as soon as possible in a sports club that offers group classes and lectures. Believe me, sport really unites and helps to find new friends among the “locals”. From ballroom dancing to powerlifting, from chess to crossfit, in the Czech Republic you will find a huge offer of sports clubs and sections.

5. Read books in Czech

A very effective way, because unlike boring educational texts, you are involved in the plot of the work, expanding your vocabulary along the way. We advise you to start with children's books in Czech: the level of difficulty of such texts is moderate, and you can progress from book to book without much difficulty.

6. Radio, podcasts and audiobooks

Going about your usual activities, you can continue to learn, whether it's a morning run, a walk around the city or a regular evening at home. Radio, podcasts and audiobooks in Czech are perfect for these purposes. The logic of this method is similar to books - you are involved in the process and can choose the complexity and subject of the material. And although at first it will be difficult to perceive information by ear, as you progress, you will begin to better understand the intricacies of Czech speech.

Tune in to the "right wave". Top Czech radio stations: Spin radio (hip-hop), Europa 2 (international pop), KissFM (pop).

7. Learn on the go

Make the most of the time you spend in lines and in transit. Even a small part of the podcast you listen to or the book passage you read will undoubtedly have an impact on your knowledge. Also be sure to download developing language games and applications, daily exercises will soon bear fruit.

8. Download the PEC QUIZ App

The application allows you to learn Czech in a fun way, offering different levels of difficulty. In addition to the obvious benefits of constantly repeating the material covered, the leaders of the in-game rating are monthly awarded prizes for excellent knowledge. Learn new words every day and compete with your friends. The app is available for Android and iOS.

The first thing your “comrades in misfortune” who already learn it, and (especially) native speakers of this language, will do is tell you how difficult it is to learn. Judge for yourself: there are seven cases in Czech, many combinations of unpronounceable consonants, irregular plural forms, words whose meaning cannot be guessed based on knowledge of other languages, the letter ř is difficult to pronounce, just a nightmare!

As a generally optimistic person, I try as much as possible to ignore such useless comments from the panicky or the desperate. None of these "important" messages spurred me on to achieve new progress in my studies, so I decided to look at them from the other side.

Just a few hours after I started learning Czech from scratch, I have already found several reasons to say that it is not the most difficult language. First of all, I was pleased to discover that Czech is a phonetic language (distinguishing how it is completely different from, for example, French, and certainly fundamentally different from English: just try to pronounce though, through, plow, dough, cough from the first time without mistakes and time for reflection). Moreover, verb conjugation in Czech is similar to Latin. Since then, I have learned to deal with the difficulties and quirks of language in a different way, and you may find this way of dealing with obstacles interesting. I am not trying to prove that Czech is “easy”, I am trying to make it clear that by “obsessing” with the complexities of the language, we slow ourselves down and deprive ourselves of faith in our own strength. Fear of failure, doubt and doom to failure are the main killers of motivation, therefore learn to learn Czech the easy way!

• Study recommendations based on personal experience

An excellent book that helped me a lot is Czech: An Essential Grammar by James Naughton, Routledge Essential Grammars. It was recommended to me once, and now I strongly recommend it to you (of course, provided that you speak English). It provides detailed information about word formation (which I will talk about later in this article), explains Czech grammar very clearly in a direct, without unnecessary "water" form. No need to waste time on childish pictures and irrelevant examples, the manual explains the very essence of the language with full translations of all examples used and extensive collections of useful new vocabulary in each chapter. I needed a manual that presents the Czech language in the form of facts, understandable and analyzed in detail, so this book was the best for me, but in case you want material offered in the form of lessons, then this book is not for you.

As I always mention, I always carry a phrase book in my pocket. At any time, in anticipation of something, I take it out and repeat some words from the dictionary at the end, it is small enough to have time to go through all the words in a certain letter of the alphabet in 10 minutes, and at the same time, large enough to fit the most necessary words. Phrasebooks from Lonely Planet helped me cope with several languages, so the Czech phrasebook was also very useful to me.

If you prefer to study in front of the computer, there are a number of websites that can help too! Slovnik.cz has a very detailed dictionary, but sometimes it gives too many translations for simple words without contextual accompaniment, so I personally prefer the good old Wordreference’s Czech dictionary. I also found some excellent blogs, including Czechmatediary, which is run in both Czech and English by Czech natives who live in the US.

• Czech vocabulary and its patterns

When you learn French, Spanish and so on, you come across a lot of unfamiliar words. Since Czech belongs to the Slavic group of languages, be prepared for the fact that you will come across a lot of words similar to those in Russian.

Fortunately for us, Czech does not consist of hundreds of thousands of unique words, each of which will have to be memorized separately. In fact, there is a rather limited number of basic roots, prefixes and suffixes, most of which are attached to each other according to consistent and logical rules that are easy to remember. Let me show you with an example what I mean.

Let's take 4 prefixes: v, vy, od and za(everything except vy, are also prepositions) and add them to the root morpheme chod, which comes from the verb chodit, go. The preposition itself v, like the prefix, means "in", so when you encounter something that literally means "go to", "enter", you get vchod - entrance. Vy/vy means exactly the opposite, so vychod - output. Od, in fact, means "from", so odchod - departure, departure, departure, departure.

You will quickly realize with relief that a huge number of Czech words are formed with a small number of prefixes added to the root, and many of them have perfectly logical meanings. Therefore, learning new words sometimes becomes the study of not new words at all, but already quite accessible for understanding.

Although some examples require a little imagination, they still do not lose their logic if you have developed this very imagination. Let's take a prefix za in conjunction with chod: za can mean "behind / behind", that is, for example, go backstage, go out of sight. So, imagine: if you apologize and want to disappear from view for a while, in other words, leave, you go ... to the toilet! Although all signs in Czech say toaleta, in everyday conversation this word sounds strange, since most people, when referring to a toilet, say zachod! Yes, I know I'm going overboard a bit! But you must agree that I am not just pulling a logical connection by the ears, this is a really interesting and memorable image! This is one of the effective and simple mnemonics that has allowed me to learn thousands of Czech words with almost no effort.

In fact, the prefix + root combination is at the core of the language and actually gives you words exponentially. So, if you understand the meaning associated with the base prefixes do, na, nad(e), ne, o(b), od(e), pa, po, popo, pod, pro, pře, před, při, roz, s(e), spolu, u, v( e), vy, vz, z, za, you can combine at least half of them with, say, ten stems. Thus, after learning only 10 new words, you get 10×10=100 words thanks to all the possible combinations!

When you add knowledge of suffixes to roots or a combination of prefix + root, it is incredibly helpful in understanding a huge number of words without the headaches that come with trying to remember each word separately. For example, the suffix ar, meaning a person associated with the meaning of the root, and the word lek - medicine combined give lekar- doctor. "Film" in Czech will sound the same as in English, but filmař means the person who makes the film, fish is a fish, but rybar- this is a fisherman, and so on. An infinite number of words can be broken down into logical constituent parts, so the study of prefixes and suffixes provides a huge number of opportunities for understanding the language.

• Czech grammar is not so scary at all

When I was told that each word had 7 cases with different variants for singular and plural, I was worried that I would have to learn 14 "words" for each individual word. But this is not the case. All we have to do is change the ending of the word (in most cases, we just need to change one vowel to another, and all other changes follow stable rules, such as changing "h" to "z"). It takes a little getting used to and remembering when you need to change "o" to "a", and which case to use in which construction. But if you do enough exercises, communicate directly with the Czechs, and make mistakes in declension from time to time, they will correct you, and - believe me - you will remember it. You can definitely get used to it!

In fact, it will become very natural after a while! This can be annoying at first, but try to look at it from the perspective of the language. I'm so used to using Czech cases that now it even annoys me when people use the Czech word Prague in English instead of English Prague without its declension! Can't you tell in Prague(in Prague) or to Prague(to Prague); obviously it will in Prague and to Prahy!

You can object to me that it is not easy to “fit” all this in your head, but let's compare with other languages: Czech failed to surprise me with its difficulty regarding many nuances, noun declension in particular. Irish, for example, has a genitive and a vocative, and when we change a word, we change both its ending and its beginning. In Czech, only the ending changes, and the rules are pretty stable.

In French, you simply cannot use a noun without adding an article, which also requires knowledge of the gender of the word. Czech has neither definite nor indefinite articles. Moreover, in Czech there is a grammatical gender, but the gender of a word is easy to determine: almost always a noun ending in a consonant will be masculine, the ending “a” is inherent in the feminine gender, and “o” is the ending of the middle gender.

There are exceptions, but they are pretty obvious and understandable. There are three genders, but it's pretty easy to remember which gender of a noun, especially compared to languages ​​like French and, I remember, German, which have much more complex generic endings, association rules that seem a lot more disordered.

• The right attitude when studying is the key to success

There are no difficulties in Czech that you cannot overcome. Consonant clusters cause quite a bit of trouble, but in Czech some consonants can behave like vowels. When you focus and dedicate yourself enough to the language, these "strange sounds" will soon turn into words. Children learn this language all the time, so there is no excuse for a smart adult like you!

Of course, you can object to this post with a whole list of why Czech is difficult, but why embarrass yourself with doubts once again? In addition to these helpful study tips, it's important to work with and constantly refer to new sources of information.

Literary Czech can seem expressive, figurative and difficult to learn at the same time. But if your goal is precisely, then there is nothing that would prevent you from achieving it. I urge you to find more evidence for yourself that it is simple than to tell me that I am wrong. Give this language a chance and prove to yourself that you can really speak Czech quite easily and quickly enough.

Děkuju (Thank you) Czech, it was a real pleasure to teach you!