Hugo Language Course: Russian In Three Months [Paperback]

DK Publishing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0789435853 | ISBN-13: 978-0789435859

Now learning a foreign language can be enjoyable as well as challenging, and not require a trip back to the classroom. Available in both book-only or book-and-cassette format, these Three-Month Language Courses are outstanding self-study programs designed for the individual seeking to acquire a good working knowledge of a language in a short amount of time. Devoting just over an hour daily to the course, the program provides grammar lessons, contextual conversion drills, relevant word lists, and graded exercises, giving you an immediate and practical grasp of the language. In addition, pronunciation is made easy with Hugo's unique "imitated pronunciation" system, which represents foreign sounds with English syllables. Whether you are a businessman tackling an international account, a student preparing for an adventurous holiday, or simply a lover of new languages, the Three-Month Language Course makes learning easy, satisfying, and more fun than ever before.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT (September 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789435853
• ISBN-13: 978-0789435859
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,196,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It worked for me, April 25, 2000

By 

robert nt stewart - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hugo Language Course: Russian In Three Months (with Cassettes) (Paperback)

Three months after starting this course I went to live in Moscow. I bought food, travelled on public transport, had simple conversations with strangers, read newspaper headlines, spoke to my neighbours and went out to nightclubs.

I've read a lot of Russian language course books and this is easily, easily the best value.

To improve your Russian after this book - there's one 'Verbs of Motion for Intermediate Students of Russian', which is also fantastic. Also buy Offord's guide to Russian grammar if you're going to Russia. There are also a couple of great books published by Strathclyde University's Professor of Russian, do check these out. Don't buy any textbooks written by a Russian (unless it's from MGU), they're all terrible!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars well-integrated listening, speaking, and grammar, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hugo Language Course: Russian In Three Months (with Cassettes) (Paperback)

The book is attractive and laid out well...easy to find your way around. The tapes are clear, and in the first few lessons, very slow. Each chapter contains a grammar lesson, some vocabulary, and a dialogue illustrating both. There are also a few "quizzes" scattered along the way. The dialogues tell a story, which progresses from chapter to chapter, culminating in an "epilogue" at the end, telling what happened to the characters. The device sounds a little silly, but actually was rather motivating! The only real fault in the course was that there wasn't enough repetition. Some words appeared only once or twice in the dialogues...it would have been preferable to hear them several times, to develop the ability to recognize them in new contexts.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A simple way of learning Russian..., November 24, 1999

By 

T. Anderson (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hugo Language Course: Russian In Three Months (Paperback)

Even though I have not finished the book as of yet, I thought I'd still comment. Obviously with Russian you are forced to learn almost twice the amount as compared to an alternative European language due to the fact that you have to grasp the intracies of the Cyrillic alphabet. Once you've translated a word from Russian to English, the meaning could still be unknown. Anyway, the author realises this and has spent a fair deal of time on making the alphabet clear, and the first few chapters are dedicated to giving you a thorough understanding of it, including some basic rules, and of course letter pronunciations. The imitated pronunciation, which is present in all of Hugo's language books, is once more very helpful. Once you start repeating certain words with the pronunciation guidelines, you realise that what you're saying does sound like authentic Russian, or at least if you have heard Russian before anyway. Personally I may find it easier because I possess books by the same publisher in Swedish and Spanish, but even so, the explanations are clear and comprehensive. It's the little additions, like idiosyncracies and other tidbits which supplement your understanding. For example at the back of the book the author has included a section on how Russian handwriting is done, showing you how some of the alphabet changes when written rather than printed. Unfortunately the version I bought was without the cassettes which come with the book, and I feel that these would greatly assist me in learning the language. The cassettes do a lot for giving the student a real 'feel' for the sound of the language. If you are prepared to do a little bit of work and revision, you can easily master the basics of the language. I do and will continue to use Hugo's language courses exclusively. (And not just because they are nicely colour-coded...)