Customer Reviews

Golosa: A Basic Course in Russian, Book 1 (3rd Edition)

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

 

 

After two semesters of using this book it is my opinion that it is only useful for students who already speak the language but need grammar reinforcement. Even though there are many exercises in the manual and a workbook to accompany the material, there are no answers in either the manual or the workbook to verify that you have done the exercises correctly. In many cases, when I developed answers from examples in the dialogs in the book and tried to verify them with Russian friends, the typical response was "well, technically, its correct ... but we don't talk that way".
The book also seems to have no organized structure. It is very possible that it is organized to suit the needs of the professors who wrote it to fit the curriculum at George Washington University ... but I don't attend GW and it seemed like the information was just thrown at me and left to me to sort it out.
While the vocabulary presented in the book seems to be well suited to the material covered, five months of school lasted about 5 minutes in conversations with native Russians on a recent visit to St. Petersburg. There are a large number of words that just are not used in everyday conversations.
I suggest that if you know that you are going to be using this book because it is a college requirement, you should try to prepare yourself by taking a conversational Russian course prior to using the book.

I recently finished an accelerated Russian "101" course. We went through the whole book this past semester. Wow! I speak French and Spanish, so I understand more than the average student. I had never studied Russian before. By the end of the course, my Russian was good. This book/course work, in conjunction with constant conversation practice, allowed me to develop an impressive level of Russian. I surprised several Russian exchange students with my abilities. Not knowing all of the rammifications of the language, please consider that my review is from a STUDENT'S standpoint. I am not a linguistic scholar. Book 1 covers all of the cases, while enforcing basic vocabulary and common expressions. Book 2 I will see next semester! I am aware of two other modern Russian college texts: "Nachalo" and "Troika." I hope that my review has helped!

I have used this book in a two semester series in Russian language. Overall, the book is very good. I find that the grammar could be explained in more detail - this book would be difficult to use for self-study, and is not a very good reference. Plan on using the accompanying workbook as well - there are far too few exercises in the book.

This book is horrible. There is almost NO English in it. I'm not sure how you're supposed to learn a language if the book doesn't tell you what it means in English. I literally mean there is NO English translation for what you are learning. There are only English descriptions of grammatics. Its unlike any other language book I've ever used. DO NOT BUY THIS! It also relies heavily on the CD. (which I did not receive with the book.) It would be impossible to just learn from the book. Don't waste your money.

I highly reccomend this book for anyone looking to learn Russian. It's easy to understand, and very elementary in its methods. I feel that you should take a class while reading this book, because there are a few words that Golosa will slip in that they don't specifically introduce. Good luck learning a new language!