Customer Reviews

Everyday English-Russian Conversations (Dover Language Guides Russian)

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2 star:		(1)
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I love the concept of this book and I have no complaints about the contents. Conversations about a variety of topics are presented side by side in English and Russian. My only complaint is that the printing is spotty and in some cases the letters are hard to make out.

The Nov/13/2008 reviewer of Leonid Kossman's textbook misses the obvious fact that this book wasn't written for native speakers of English who are trying to learn Russian; it was written for _Russians_ learning English! It can certainly be used as a Russian textbook by English speakers, but that wasn't the author's intent. The print is small because Dover reprinted it from a 1970s edition, which had been extremely successful with Russian students of English in the USA and--after the fall of the Soviet Union--in Russia.

Well-structured books written to assist the student acquire a new language follow a few simple rules: short sentences, lots of repetition, a careful gradual build-up of vocabulary that has maximum utility. This book, unfortunately, was obviously written by someone who lacks all comprehension regarding how to write textbooks. The sentences are too long, much of the vocabulary is not very useful, and the translations are often too approximate to help the novice reader. If you happen already to read Russian to an intermediate level then this book will present no challenges - but at the same time won't help advance your abilities in the language. If you speak basic Russian and are trying to improve your skills, this book won't help. In other words, it is useless as a learning aid. In addition the print is quite small so it is best read in good ambient light - which disqualifies it as a companion on airplane, train, or car trips.

There are better books out there and I would recommend that you save your money - this just isn't worth the purchase price.