Customer Reviews

First Thousand Words In Russian: With Internet-Linked Pronunciation Guide (Russian Edition)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
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The online pronunciation guide makes this book worth every penny! The pronunciation guide is the piece that is missing from almost every book on learning Russian I've purchased. I finally went to Pimmsleur's language CD's because nothing else had anything but text. (They're excellent, by the way, but they lack the text.) The online guide uses a native female speaker. She speaks clearly and distinctly, which is what you'll need to get it right. The 'push button' links to hear the word work well, although sometimes you have to click twice to get it to play. Yes, it would be nicer to have flash cards, etc. But for $10, it's a steal. Go Internet!

The book contains 1000 very useful words, like pillow, soap, kitchen, etc. Not many verbs, but many (if not most) of the nouns you will need for day to day conversation. It is certainly not a book to learn to converse in Russian but it does a great job of giving you the basic words to make this possible.

Regardless of your age, this book will be useful for the beginner in the Russian Language. I'd love to see the authors do a similar book for verbs and introductory conversation, complete with online pronunciation. Buy this book so they'll make more! :)

How can a student of Russian learn that a "lozhka" is a spoon? On each two-page spread of this dictionary, small sketches border a modern scene. Below each sketch a Russian word and an English transliteration are printed. Amery and Kirilenko aim to make Russian easy to read and learn for children and older students alike.

Yet older language learners may find themselves reading little of real substance. The dictionary primarily depicts nouns--only two of the fifty-some pages show verbs--and hardly mentions greetings or grammar. Students using The First Thousand Words in Russian will need more than these thousand words to learn Russian well.

Students may also have trouble interpreting some of the smaller sketches: which rectangle is the carpet, which is the rug, and which is the pillow among the pictures that surround a house scene? The Russian meaning may remain unclear even after finding that yellow or purple rectangle lying around in the larger scene.

Still, the book has advantages for the browsing reader: the pictures are expressive and the layout encourages casual vocabulary-building. Because it is organized by scenes, any location is an opportunity for learning: look around your kitchen, hospital, or house, and match the picture of the lozhka to the spoon in your hand. The First Thousand Words In Russian is a great introduction for children or an enjoyable diversion for the serious student of Russian.

this is a great resource to have for anyone learning Russian. The website with pronunciations is great!

This book is good for studying subject related words. It contains words for things around the house, the zoo, store, and other places. It even signifies, in bold letters, parts of words so you know what parts are stressed. Very useful for the beginner. A great resource to get words to place on index cards, so that you can study through out the day.

Amazon sells this book for about ten dollars. Look at the used ones THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS! Seriously, where's they're business sense? NO ONE will buy this book @ 300+ They might of been able to get away by charging 30-60. But 300? What a joke!

Great book to help you start learning the language. And thanks to whoever wrote those extra notes and tabs! It was very helpful.

One of the most used books I've ever purchased. My grand-daughter who just turned three "reads" it every day. She loves it (especially when you read it with her).

I am currently learning Russian and bought this book to use with the grammar and verb books I already own. I have the Pocket Oxford Russian-English dictionary(which is amazing) but I tend to memorize things better if there are pictures to associate them with. I also wanted to learn language in the same way that a younger child would, so these everyday words are great to get me through children's books. I love that they have both the printed and written alphabet in the front of the book, and show the pronunciation(with stressed parts in bold) under every word. And if any of the pictures are not clear they have an alphabetical list of all of the words with the printed russian, the page number, the pronunciation, and the english translation, in the very back of the book.

Okay...so this is like the English-language version that American kids have. While some may think there are too many words and pictures on each page, this works for adults. It's grouped according to themes (food,travel, party, etc) which are shown in scenes, with extra pictures around the borders. All pictures are labeled in Russian, with the pronunciation below each word. Most pronunciations are correct. If you can't figure out the word's meaning, there is a glossary in the back.

Kid's-style vocabulary* book for adults...and kids, too. Nice break to just look at simple pictures instead of Russian text-only.

*Vocabulary, NOT phrases/sentences

We are adopting a child from Russia, and found this book to be a terrific tool for beginners to the Russian language. I especially found the internet links helpful.