Customer Reviews

Beginner's Russian: A Basic Russian Course (Russian Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What can I say!! this is one of the best books about learning the Russian language. It scores maximum points on many things including the following:

1- It is as complete as any academic textbook.
2- It is a 2 in 1 book. Textbook and workbook.
3- The books website has all the audio/video and answers which makes it ideal for self learners who don't have to rely on an instructor to correct them. Also the audio and video files can be downloaded to be played on a computer or mp3 player and the answers are in PDF which can be printed or downloaded.
4- The price of the book is under $30 which makes it affordable to everyone (note: Golosa, the only book that comes close to this one costs more than $70 with no answers to exercises and the workbook is sold separately).
5- I like the pace at which the book moves forward. The chapters are bite size and the vocabulary and grammar can be absorbed and understood by everyone including absolute beginners.

Bottom line, I've purchased many Russian language books, dictionaries, and software including Rosetta Stone; This is the first book that I will be recommending from now on to anyone interested in learning Russian. So buy it with confidence because it is worth 10 times it's value.

There is very little positives I can say about this book (and the online website). The table of contents is nice and organized, the back dictionaries are...okay and the appendix is good. But that's about it. Everything in between (including the website) was done very poorly. I'd say it'd be near to impossible to use this book to teach yourself Russian. In fact, I would suggest you only buy this book if it is required for a class.

The grammar and overall lessons themselves are in small print in the margins of the pages, and there is very few of them compared to what takes up the rest of the book - exercises. This book is just a workbook in itself. There are plenty of exercises (with no places to look for the answers, so there goes another reason why not to use this by yourself). Many of the students in my class agree in that they don't find the book helpful at all, not to mention confusing.

As for the website, at least it's organized by chapter then exercise. It's coded in Javascript (and not so great at that) which makes cheating very easy (as you just view the source and bam, enocded UTF8 answers that anyone with access to Google can look up; bad decision on their part). I do like that they offer audio and visual tools to help you, but it's very very hard for beginners as the audio quality is so poor and they speak so fast that it's almost impossible to follow.

Overall, I do not like this book. I do not suggest this book. In fact, I'm going to buy another (hopefully better) Russian learning book and only use this one for class. Hopefully the authors will see this and make improvements on any later additions they might do as well as their website.

I am a new Russian Major at Arizona State, and my school just starting using this book this year. Overall, it is not a bad text, and as one of the other reviewers said, a great price. That being said, it is completely useless without an instructor (one that has access to the instructors online portion of the book). It is very hard to study for an exam on say, translation, when you have nowhere to check to make sure that the translation in that you did from the book is correct.
After bringing these issues up with my professors, they said that the layout is kind of confusing for them at times as well, but is still better than some other texts that are out there.
So, as I said before, DO NOT BUY THIS unless you are taking a class and it is a required text, otherwise it will be completely useless to you.

This book is great, using it right now to teach myself. It is definitely not for someone that wants to learn the language quickly because they have an upcoming trip to a Russian speaking country, it is clearly intended for those that want mastery of the language. I read previous reviews that say that the lessons don't make sense, but I think those people don't have critical thinking skills.

I ordered the book and have tried using the "Interactive Website" -- both are a joke! I can't make heads or tails of the lessons, they don't seem to follow a logical train of thought or progression. On the website, lesson 1-3 I have absolutely no clue as what I should do. All it says is to "fill in the blanks", but what is the lesson? There is no help of any kind, and no place that I've been able to find to get help or to even contact anyone to ask questions. Worse, people I know who are native Russian speakers (in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine) say that the alphabet table on page #2 is incorrect, and (especially one who teaches Russian to children) that the online materials are essentially worthless. I feel that I've wasted my money on getting this book, and I also now have to get rid of the crappy iTunes software on my computer. I'd be better off taking the first level Russian language class at the University of Missouri.