Customer Reviews

Hugo Language Course: Russian In Three Months

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4 star:		(3)
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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!

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.

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...)

This course is an excellent value. It has four cassettes with very good audio quality. The book in combination with the cassettes helps you see how the words are written as well as how they are pronounced. It would be nice if there were more repetition with the tapes -- but considering the price you are getting a lot for your money. I have also purchased Pimsleur tapes which are excellent but which are very expensive. This course also provides grammar and pronunciation rules that are very helpful and which make this course better in some ways than Pimsleur because many of the sounds in Russian are very subtle and are difficult to pick up when only listening to audio tapes. I highly recommend this Hugo course. I would also supplement it with other materials like Pimsleur.

I feel that this book offers a great deal in teaching the reader the basics of the Russian language. Like other Hugo language books its style and approach is very clear and comprehensive. Obviously with Russian you have to learn twice the amount as with another language which uses our alphabet, i.e Spanish or German. The author realises this and pays extensive attention to the Cyrillic alphabet, making sure that the reader becomes very familiar with it. The first few chapters are dedicated to its learning, as well as the pronunciation of the letters within words, and also additional letter rules. I'm really enjoying learning Russian by using this book and once more am confident that the imitated pronunciation offered throughout the chapters has given me a sound knowledge on making myself understood. It's the little idiosyncracies and tidbits which serve to impress the reader. For example, at the back of the book the author has actually included a section on how Russian is handwritten with a few examples of letters. I have not finished it yet, but with some dedication and a little bit of work, I am sure that I will have the basics of Russian down to a fairly reasonable degree. One comment I will make though is that I bought the book without the aid of the cassettes, and I think that without them I will find it harder. This could be said with all the courses, as the cassettes are critical to getting a real 'feel' of the sound of the language. Hopefully I will be able to get the cassettes separately. To conclude though, I feel this book offers one of the best ways of learning not only Russian, but other European and non-European languages too. I do and will continue to use Hugo's language courses exclusively. (And not just because they are nicely colour-coded...)