This is the first comprehensive textbook teaching English-speakers to read, write, and speak contemporary Bulgarian. The text is designed to be adaptable for students of varying skill levels and can be taught at a gradual or intensive pace. It is also a much-needed reference grammar of Bulgarian, incorporating the latest research and theories on Bulgarian grammar in accessible layman’s language.
    Volume 1 introduces the basic elements of Bulgarian grammar and contains Lessons 1–15, a Bulgarian-English glossary, an English-Bulgarian glossary for beginners, and an appendix of verbal forms. Like many popular language textbooks, the dialogues in Intensive Bulgarian form a continuing dramatic narrative that gradually introduces students to both language and culture. Throughout the text, Bulgarian constructions and phrases are compared with English ones to clarify grammar and idioms.

Lessons include:
o dialogues and sample sentences
o exercises and translation sentences
o basic and supplemental grammar sections
o reading selections
o a glossary for the lesson
o cultural notes.

    Together, Volumes 1 and 2 of Intensive Bulgarian provide all the materials necessary for teachers and students to learn lively, modern colloquial Bulgarian, to become familiar with Bulgarian cultural life, and to thoroughly understand Bulgarian grammar. Slavic scholars will also find in Volume 2 both a thorough presentation of the Bulgarian verb system, as traditionally conceived, and a new analysis of this system.

    Ronelle Alexander is professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. She has traveled throughout Bulgaria for her research on dialects and traditional culture and has been interviewed on Bulgarian radio. She has also taught at the University of California, Los Angeles; Yale University; and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
    Olga M. Mladenova, a native speaker of Bulgarian, is assistant professor of Russian at the University of Calgary in Canada.