Customer Reviews

Golosa: A Basic Course in Russian, Book 2 (3rd Edition)

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I used this textbook in the second half of an intensive Russian class I took in college. (Used Golosa Book 1 for Russian 1.) It follows the standard textbook format: Each chapter introduces a grammatical concept and new vocabulary. There are a few short dialogues and several exercises to reinforce the grammar and vocabulary. There are also exercises at the beginning to practice cursive in the cyrillic alphabet. At the end of the book there was a grammar reference so it was easy to review and brush up on previous lessons. It was a perfectly good textbook to use as part of a class.

In this case I also used the workbook and tape set. The workbook has additional exercises for each chapter in the book. It helped, but isn't necessary since things are covered in enough detail in the book. The tapes were helpful for picking up on how to pronounce words, but by Russian 2 I had gotten the pronunciation right and they weren't so useful. Basically they contain spoken versions of the dialogues in the text and a few simple exercises. They just supplement the text and don't add to it.

This and Golosa Book 1 is a good textbook set to use as part of a class. I used it in college but it would also work for highschool. It did a pretty good job of explaining things and covered the concepts adequately. Teachers will want to know that there is a third edition out now.

If you are trying to learn Russian on your own: If you are at the level where you can study a second year book on you own, then using these texts to review and brush up on grammar would be fine. If you are not to a point where you can pick up a second year Russian text book and follow it then you should pick up a tape and book set designed specifically to teach you Russian on your own.