Product Description

Teach Yourself Bulgarian is a complete course for beginners in spoken and written Bulgarian. It aims to teach you to understand and use the contemporary language in a variety of typical, everyday situations. Above all, it is functional, enabling you to communicate and interact, using the language for positive, practical purposes. You are introduced to the Bulgarian alphabet right from the start of the course and there is help with both reading and writing the Cyrillic script throughout the book



The course is divided into 20 carefully graded and interlocking units. Each unit is devoted to a particular topic or situation and each successive unit builds naturally on the material covered in previous units.



The first half of the book is a basic grammar and thematic 'survival kit'. The emphasis here is on the present tense and on immediate situations such as those you would encounter in Bulgaria.



From unit 10 you progress to learn about the other tenses and more advanced grammar. As your grammar and vocabulary increase, you will be able to make more use of the tables and lists in the Appendix at the back of the book.



New language is introduced via the dialogues which are available separately on CD (978 0340 987360) or together with the book in a pack (book/CD 978 0340 987353). The recording will also help you with your pronunciation and give you extra practice with listening comprehension.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75799 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-27
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

About the Author

Dr. Mira Kovatcheva, Associate Professor in the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Sofia. Currently lectures on History of English, Languages in Contact, Formation of Slang. Dr Kovatcheva has been teaching Bulgarian as a foreign language since 1989 when on a three-year secondment to Leeds University. Jointly authored (with Professor Michael Holman) Teach Yourself Bulgarian (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993, revised second edition 2003). Since 1994 has conducted the Bulgarian oral examinations for the Test and Examination Services of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Language Group. Regularly teaches Bulgarian as a foreign language to visiting academics under the Fullbright Exchange Program. Recently authored a self-study sourcebook for advanced learners of Bulgarian: Bulgarian: Beyond the First Steps (Prosveta, Sofia 2005).
Michael Holman, Emeritus Professor of Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Leeds. Taught Bulgarian and Russian at Leeds 1966-1999. Has translated from Bulgarian and written on a variety of Bulgarian-related topics. While at Leeds and since taking early retirement has sought to promote Anglo-Bulgarian cultural interchange. For this he was awarded the ‘Order of Stara Planina’ (First Class) by the Bulgarian Government and an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sofia. Jointly authored (with Dr Mira Kovatcheva) Teach Yourself Bulgarian (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993, revised second edition 2003).

Customer Reviews

Don't just buy the CD!
The CDs are very comprehensive. They cover a huge range of everyday scenarios, with loads of vocab, conversation and exercises to practise. It is however spoken very quickly and you do need to concentrate to follow it. But hey, not all people are going to speak slowly and loudly just cos you don't understand the lingo, so it's good to get used to real life talking. I would however have bought the course pack (CDs and book), you really do need to use the course book with the CDs, especially if you don't know any of the language beforehand. I didn't realize I was just buying the CDs.

Buy the tape with the book if you want to be understood
A very good book to learn Bulgarian. To be understood by the locals in Bulgaria I recommend buying the tape with the book. I tried to teach myself Bulgarian without audio help and found that I was not easily understood.

Excellent
Just what you need in order to get a grip on the basics of the language and see if in fact you like it before you delve into it any further. I very much enjoyed the dialogues and the cassette - I suggest you buy the book AND the cassette or the CD. These are absolutely necessary for learning the particulars of bulgarian pronunciation