Customer Reviews

The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks)

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've compared dozens of books about learning Russian from scratch, and this one is the best. There are advanced grammar texts out there which have more information, but they aren't geared toward beginners. The beauty of this book is that if you know absolutely nothing about Russian, you can start at the beginning and work your way through each lesson in the order presented, and by the time you're done, you will have a solid understanding of Russian grammar. Not only that, but you'll have a vocabulary of some of the most useful words in the Russian language.

When I first started studying Russian, I had no teachers or classes or cassette tapes to help me. My eighth grade math teacher gave me a copy of the original version of The Penguin Russian Course, which was compiled by J.L.I. Fennell and published in 1961. The methodology was logical and straightforward with no spoonfeeding or watered-down grammar lessons accompanied by cutsy cartoon pictures. In each lesson, you would first memorize a list of new vocabulary words. Then you would study several concise grammar principles which were clearly explained. Third, you would examine a brief Russian text which incorporated the new vocabulary and applied the new grammar principles which you had just learned in the lesson. Finally, you would translate an English text into Russian to test yourself on the new vocabulary and grammar. At the end of the book was a key which showed the correct translation of the English text into Russian, so you could check yourself.

This new version of the Penguin Russian Course is not as concise and straightforward as the first version, but it's actually better. Nicholas J. Brown has incorporated the original structure of J.L.I. Fennell's version enough that the effectiveness of the lessons is preserved, but Mr. Brown has added much more in this modern version. He has provided numerous additional Russian texts and conversations so that you can see how the vocabulary is used in context. And in this new version, the answer keys at the back of the book show the Russian-English translation as well as the English-Russian translation of the exercises.

The best part of this book is the translation exercises at the end of each lesson and their corresponding answer keys at the back of the book. Translation is probably the best way to test whether or not you really understand the grammar and vocabulary taught in the lessons, and this book gives you plenty of opportunities to test yourself in this manner.

Another advantage of this book is that it's small enough to carry anywhere, unlike those bulky Russian 101 textbooks used in college classes which use a slow, watered-down, almost infantile approach to teaching the language.

If you want to learn Russian, buy this book and work through the lessons. The only major drawback is that you'll never really learn proper pronunciation without listening to native Russians speak the language, and this book doesn't have tapes to accompany it. Other than that, however, you won't find a better book for beginners who want to learn Russian.

It's easy to see from the reviews for this book that there are more than one type of language learner. If you want Russian spoon-fed to you, forget it and learn Italian, French, etc. Russian only becomes usable when you have all of the inflected endings organized and stored in your head. And the only way to accomplish that is by studying with some degree of passion.

I used this book along with the 3 pimsleur sets on russian and now have a very strong foundation to proceed into advanced studies. This book has a good mix of grammar and texts to translate. I never felt overwhelmed. That said, I progressed on a two-steps-forward and one-step-back basis. You will too if you want to learn Russian, so don't sweat it. It's normal. I was relieved when I got to chapter 10 or so and the book said something about "you have now met X number of words and have probably forgot most of them. That's ok. Just learn them again and it will get easier."

My one regret with the book: I wish there was a workbook for more exercises. The exercises in the book are good, but I had to make up my own to really become accomplished at slinging those endings the way I wanted.

Stay away from this book if you are looking for nice phrases for travelers. This book will teach you only if you put the right kind of effort into your studies.

I have dozens of books on Russian and this is the one that taught me what I needed to know.

The main strength of this book is its completeness. By using this book alone it is possible to obtain a good understanding of basic Russian. No other reference is necessary, thus for a single volume course this has no equal. By any standards this is a good book.

There are weaknesses. Dependent on your point of view, the focus on an academic type course of instruction with rigorous grammar might not appeal to some (and attract others), as stated in the introduction, one of the books objectives is to bring the reader up to UK 'A' Level standard (Roughly equivalent to the first two years of an American College course). This isn't one of those 'jaunty' conversational type courses, as reflected perhaps in the lack of an audio medium such as a CD or Cassette being available.

I'd recommend this book to Russian Students and those wanting a sound academic grounding in Russian. For those whom wish to just converse in basic Russian (lets say for a tourist or business trip) it may be better to look at other courses that are combined with an Audio package.

However if you have additional access to a Russian speaker or are based in Russia I'd not hesitate to recommend this book as your first choice of instruction.

Again, as a single volume, and if I could have only one Russian book this would be it. No question about it.

For those reasons I'd give it 5 starts for a self-contained course, 4 stars for an academic instructional course, and 2 stars if you just want a quick intro to conversational Russian.

I've bought Golosa (including the tapes), New Penguin Russian Course, Living Language CD, Passport to Russian, and a couple of others. This book is the best. We moved to Russia 4 months ago, and this book was really helpful in getting us going on vocabulary, cases, tenses, etc.

It is also the only book I've found with exercises. I'm now having our Russian tutor use this book in teaching me, as it seems better than having her create her own course from scratch.

Do wish it came with a CD or tape, for helping with sounds.

This is the revised edition of an earlier Penguin Russian coursebook available many years ago. I haven't seen that text, but this book is the best self study stand alone text for any language that I have seen. I wish Penguin had the same type of book for German.

The book progresses in a very sensible way, all of the things you learn are in an order that builds a very solid foundation before moving on to the next lesson. At times you will run into areas where the author offers "extras" that he says can be skipped. My advice is don't. In the first few chapters the "extras" are pages explaining the correct way to pronounce words. He claims that you'll be understood if you pronounce the words phonetically as they're written, but why not take the little extra time and get it right? There's also great information on Russian handwriting, some cultural info (very brief), but the book is all business.

One thing that it lacks is a way to hear native speakers, of course. While it goes a long way trying to explain how Russian is spoken, you won't be able to avoid tapes or some other method of actually hearing the language properly spoken. One inexpensive way would be Barron's Pronounce it Perfectly in Russian. The best way would be to purchase the Pimsleur lessons, but they're prohibitively expensive for most people.

This book is a great foundation for learning Russian. It's a bargain. I also recommend another book by the author, the "Russian Learners' Dictionary", especially along with the Vis-ed Russian flashcards.

I used this book in the second term of an accelarated version of First Year Russian at the University level. Brown's introduction to the language is really incredible.

Unlike many more expensive and flashier products, Brown covers ALL the main grammatical topics in the Russian language with a minimum of jargon. Other books either gloss over or over-complicate concepts like verbal aspect or participles -- discouraging students from continuing their study of the language.

At the same time, the shopper should be ware that this is not a phrasebook, or business travel course. It is oriented around teaching the reader Russian at a first year University level (or British A-level, as Brown himself notes). While I have no doubt that this text can be used on its own without tapes (Russian is, after all a phonetic langauge) or perhaps even an instructor, to self-study with this book, the student must be absolutely serious and disciplined. The book has a number of exercises and examples, which are very helpful.

The maximum benefit will be realized from this book by the reader who already has a good understanding of the Cyrillic script (not a very difficult one), and who will use Brown's book as the main text in a program supplemented by other vocabulary-building and grammar-practice texts, and preferrably an instructor.

After four years of serious study, I am now fluent in Russian thanks to the foundation that Brown's book provided. If you are serious about the language, and have the discipline to seriously study Russian through an instructional text, Brown's Russian Course is the book for you.

As far as learning a new language goes, I think that starting with being able to read it is equally important to being able to speak it. They go hand in hand with adult education. I was sick of discovering that most of the russian books out there are devoted almost entirely to teaching you catch phrases to "get you going". This book starts with the alphabet. It is detailed and actually does "get you going." Russian is a tough language to learn, but this book will help you through it without condescending you. I would highly recommend it for people who are serious about learning the russian language.

I have found the other reviews of this book to be so useful that I have only a brief comment to add. I used the old edition book in grad school in order to learn to read Russian. I could not believe how much progress I was able to make in less than two semesters. By the end of the book, I was able to work through some chapters in books on Soviet history with the help of a dictionay and a verb guide. I felt very indebted to Penguin, especially since languages come slowly for me.

But I must stress what previous reviewers have said: You will need to supplement this book with a CD/tape set, unless you are working with a tutor who speaks Russian, or are interested ONLY in reading. When I later went on to audit Russian classes at my university, I discovered that my pronunciation was WAY OFF. The older edition (I can't speak for the new one) doesn't address big questions like vowel-reduction in unstressed syllables; voiced- and voiceless-consonant pairs; "-ogo" as "-ovo"; and so on. It was tough to have to unlearn my bad habits.

With that said, I can't imagine a clearer, more concise, more user-friendly introduction; it was much better than the first year college text that my courses used. And $60 cheaper! If you use this together with, say, "Instant Immersion-Russian," you can learn a lot of Russian on your own.

A final note from my experience, for what it's worth: The trend these days is to teach languages by conversation, with as little old-fashioned grammar work and repetivie drill as possible. And I'll grant to my professors that I have been able to learn a good amount of French this way. But Russian is a language that really rewards the learner who studies the grammar. And I have found the "boring ole repetitive drill" method to be essential when I try to work on speaking. Russian is so heavily inflected that I can't think through adjective and noun endings while speaking. I simply HAVE TO practice sample sentences over, and over, and over, until I have the forms down, and can substitue the words I want to use.

I speak only modest--perhaps "Intermediate"--Russian. So don't take any of the above as Gospel. But I've found learning Russian to be so much fun. I hope you do, too. Good Luck!

Forty years ago I studied Russian in college and used the unwieldy British- and Harvard-oriented texts of that time. After a few years I forgot it all. I recently decided to relearn the langauage and bought all the good texts I could find. This is the one I keep going back to. It's straightforward, easy to use, and well organized. It's made virtually every commuter rail trip with me in the past year while I work my way through at my own pace. I've amply annotated it and filled it with 3x5 post-it notes for the exercises. I still use it for the easy-to-find tables in the back. And throughout the appendices, vocabulary lists, and glossaries, lesson numbers are noted for most words and concepts. It's short on subordinating and adverbial conjunctions. The letter-writing section is short and a bit formal for casual writing. It gives good conversational information but it would be better with accompanying tapes. This is the book I took to Russia with me.

I'm using this text to teach a first semester Russian course. I chose it in preference to a much more expensive standard text. My library includes at least a dozen Russian books meant for the beginner, and I think this one is the best. The vocabulary is useful (with a few exceptions - the complications of the Russian word for "Welshman" aren't even of remote importance to me), the order of presentation makes very good sense, and we don't dwell on minor points of grammar until the larger points are dispatched.

The book has some deficiencies as a primary textbook, e.g., not a very wide variety of exercises, a lack of charts to summarize cases for nouns, adjectives, possessive pronouns, etc., but I've managed easily (and cheaply) to compensate for those with handouts. My students find it to be a generally friendly, understandable text. It doesn't make Russian easy (nothing can do that), but it does make it seem learnable. The author displays a wry sense of humor ("The grammar or Russian numerals has other intriguing complications." At that point one of my students nearly wept) to go with his command of the subject matter.

I don't care for the author's pronunciation guidance - his English accent is obviously far from our Louisiana-Texas drawl. I think an American student would be well advised to buy some tapes for beginners and not rely on this book to learn correct pronunciation. But that's a minor point. If I were trying to teach myself Russian (which thankfully I did not), this would be the book I'd choose. It gives a lot of bang for the buck.