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Whether you’re learning alone or attending classes, you’ll find this complete Russian language course for beginners both accessible and indispensable. Designed to provide the student with an excellent command of basic Russian (the equivalent of A’ level standard) the book features thirty lessons punctuated by revision exercises to ensure you have fully understood what you have learned. The emphasis is on acquiring vocabulary, experiencing conversational language and learning useful grammar. The book also includes a vocabulary of 1,500 words and a glossary of grammatical terms.

Print length

528 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

December 1, 1996
Dimensions

5.05 x 0.91 x 7.78 inches
ISBN-10

0140120416
ISBN-13

978-0140120417
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This item: The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners

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Russian Grammar QuickStudy Laminated Reference Guide (QuickStudy Academic)

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Complete Russian Beginner to Intermediate Course: Learn to read, write, speak and understand a new language (Teach Yourself)

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (December 1, 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140120416
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140120417
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.05 x 0.91 x 7.78 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #19,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Word Lists
- #23 in Vocabulary Books
- #56 in Foreign Language Reference

Customer Reviews:
4.6 1,719 ratings

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Nicholas J. Brown

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Customer reviews

1,719 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book very useful to explain the grammar of amazingly complex language. They say it's loaded with exercises and fun. Readers describe the book as great, excellent, and the best on the Amazon market. However, some customers report that the pages tear easily and never seem cohesive. Opinions are mixed on the pacing, with some finding it fast and others saying it's too fast for someone's first approach to Russian.

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Language learning Exercise content Value for money Pace Pacing

169 customers mention "Language learning"129 positive40 negative

Customers find the book very useful to explain the grammar of an amazingly complex language. They say the vocabulary is accurate and the introduction to the language is incredible. Readers also mention the book has a great section for learning the alphabet and reading cursive. They say the transliteration is also very useful and notated in such a way to be helpful and not boring.

"...appear (based solely on conversing with friends) that most of the vocabulary is accurate and few is obsolete...." Read more

"...it has many exercises and examples throughout, and everything is explained in a logical manner...." Read more

"...This book has a great section for learning the alphabet and reading cursive, which as I've realized is confusing especially on packaging of Candies..." Read more

"...There is an excellent Eng/RU dictionary, enough text and conversation material to be helpful, and nice grammatical tables although there are never..." Read more

25 customers mention "Exercise content"18 positive7 negative

Customers find the book's exercise content to be loaded with fun and useful. They say the exercises are challenging and give a very interactive feel. Readers mention the book helps create a good foundation and provides support and confidence.

"...The exercises directly relate to the associated lesson, and you'll be amazed at how much you'll learn after completing a lesson, as you'll be able..." Read more

"...Each chapter contains multiple separate sets of exercises to practice the grammar in a progressive fashion...." Read more

"...The small size of the book does make the exercises look crowded and a bit daunting (doesn't help that I'm horribly nearsighted), so I have to write..." Read more

"...( The latter book is scary but good reference, loaded with exercises)..." Read more

15 customers mention "Value for money"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a good value for money. They say it's an excellent offering and the best on the Amazon market.

"...Amazingly, even though this book is far less expensive, I consider it superior to that textbook as well as other Russian textbooks I've seen...." Read more

"...This beginners course book by Nicholas J. Brown is the best on the Amazon market...." Read more

"...Well worth the modest cost. Five star. No way to go wrong if you have a serious desire to learn this language." Read more

"...It gives a lot of bang for the buck." Read more

11 customers mention "Pace"7 positive4 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pace of the book. Some mention they like it, while others say it's too fast for someone whose first approach to Russian is time-consuming.

"...I very much like its pace: I feel challenged by the exercises, but not so overwhelmed that I want to toss the book out the window..." Read more

"...The progress might be slow at the beginning, but I feel I can retain the knowledge better...." Read more

"...is heavy on verb and noun endings, so at least for me this slow approach works quite well because I can absorb this information in manageable '..." Read more

"...well organized and all inclusive and you notice a rapid progression into advanced reading. There are parts that are skippable (is that a word?)..." Read more

8 customers mention "Pacing"0 positive8 negative

Customers find the pacing of the book slow. They mention the pages tear easily, have few line breaks, and never seem cohesive. Readers also mention the book arrived damaged and the binding is poor.

"...I have received two books with rather large creases in them and some scuffs...." Read more

"...It's pretty much just text, with few line breaks, just bold type to indicate where new sections are...." Read more

"...Later exercises repeat very little of previous lessons and never seem cohesive...." Read more

"...examples and translations BUT in less than a week the book began to fall apart!..." Read more

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J. Rogers

First Thought? Meh. Second? Fantastic

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

I'll not lie, I bought this book based largely on the hype that surrounds it. So many reviews and recommendations that it simply wasn't possible for me to pass it up. On first arrival, having little more than knowledge of Cyrillic, I wasn't impressed. I didn't appreciate the EXTREME lengths the book typically went to towards explaining grammar. Out of fear of mispronunciation I didn't like the almost total abandonment of transliteration from chapter 5 on (and then only appearing occasionally or on words that don't sound as they are spelled) coupled with a lack of audio backup. I tried several other resources, none I'd call bad, but ended up sticking with this one. It honestly probably is the best.

Of the grammar - yes, it can get VERY intense and thorough; at times it seems overwhelmingly so. I soon gave up and moved on to other books, but still had a large problem - I could not form sentences correctly. After talking with several Russian friends on Skype, I found them correcting large parts of my Russian speech. Almost always simple mistakes, such as the endings of words ("ends with -y in this case", "this word following в ends -e", etc.) and I couldn't wrap my head around it. My knowledge of English, even as a native speaker, has never been from a highly grammatical viewpoint. It is my native language and despite not being an English teacher am quite capable of submitting a quality report. As an adult with no other known languages, I noticed one glaring flaw in my approach to Russian - it is most emphatically NOT English and, from my age anyway, requires heavy study of grammar. When I sat down, studied hard and completed some of the drills, things began to make much more sense. Sure, I still have to think about what I say before I say them, but mistakes are being made far less often.

Of what some reviews cite as being dated vocabulary - honestly? I haven't encountered many issues when speaking with friends. By and large it would appear (based solely on conversing with friends) that most of the vocabulary is accurate and few is obsolete. I tried Pimsleur (and Rosetta Stone, as well as many others, and most certainly don't recommend RS) and noticed something in the first eight lessons, totaling four hours of study - it does contain dated references and only addressed, "Вы" conversational. I suppose if your goal is pure travel this is not an issue, but to make friends? Could be an issue. The friends I spoke with also found it very amusing that it made many references to, "Mr. and Mrs./Miss" of which I was told even in polite Russian have almost entirely fallen out of disuse.

I suppose if I had to be critical in any way of this title, I would cite lack of audio. Really, I think this book could have served as a student textbook had it included more drills/exercises or had an accompanying workbook. Even then, seeing as we all have access to the internet it's a minor issue at best. Find a Russian speaking friend with a bit of English background, pick up this book and enjoy yourselves!

45 people found this helpful

Helpful

SD

Ideal for the independent learner

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2010

Verified Purchase

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I've been learning Russian independently for about a year now, and I bought this book along with a college textbook being used at a local university. Amazingly, even though this book is far less expensive, I consider it superior to that textbook as well as other Russian textbooks I've seen.

This book is great for the self-learner because it has many exercises and examples throughout, and everything is explained in a logical manner. Also, unlike most college textbooks, all of the solutions are in the back, so you can check and correct your answers (presumably you are buying this book to learn Russian and not to pass the class, so I'm sure there's little motivation to simply copy the answers to complete an assignment). The exercises directly relate to the associated lesson, and you'll be amazed at how much you'll learn after completing a lesson, as you'll be able to understand passages that were once unreadable to you.

Be warned that the book is deceptively thin. You might look at the book, which is smaller than most textbooks, and figure that it's light on information. Trust me, it's not. Although on the outside it looks like a beach-read paperback novel that you'll be able to get through in a day or even a week, each page is packed with information, and you'll have to spend a lot of time on many lessons before these concepts sink in. Russian of course is a difficult language for a native English speaker, so don't expect to fly through this book.

You shouldn't use this as your only resource if you are learning Russian. The biggest downside to this book is that it won't help your listening or your speaking (understandably, since it has no audio). You'll need to find another resource to work on these areas. Do not neglect this! I made the mistake of ignoring listening and speaking for the first few months, and I ran into an odd situation with a native speaker where I was able to read and write a few simply things in Russian but found it almost impossible to understand a single word or pronounce anything correctly (very embarrassing). In addition, you'll need to do a fair amount of studying and memorizing outside of the lessons. I found that I would learn words and grammar rules but then "forget" them after a few days or a few weeks. A lot of the grammar and declensions simply have to be drilled and memorized by brute force. Hey, nobody said Russian was easy.

In short, this is an absolutely fantastic resource for a beginner who wants to learn to read and write in Russian. It is well worth the price. Get it, and you will not be disappointed.

Udachi Vam!

25 people found this helpful

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Miguel C.

Muy buen libro

Reviewed in Mexico on October 14, 2024

Verified Purchase

Tenía mis dudas pues como dice el título es para principiantes. Yo ya tenía conocimiento del alfabeto, ya podía leer y entender algunas palabras, también cantar algunas canciones que me gustan. Sin embargo, a pesar de todo, mi conocimiento del idioma Ruso es bastante precario. Me llamó la atención por los comentarios de los compradores que mencionan que a pesar de ser muy básico abarca todo lo necesario para poder comunicarse y darse a entender aunque sea con un vocabulario limitado respecto a un hablante nativo en la vida diaria PERO suficiente para tener una conversción básica. Lo primero que revisé fue el índice de contenido y cubre varias de las cosas que yo no podía entender y nadie te explica, como el uso de las conjugaciones, los casos y los aspectos ya que el idioma Ruso no maneja artículos y preposiciones como en el Español, Inglés, Alemán, sino prefijos y sufijos (análogo al Latín). Vamos, no te quiero preocupar haciendo parecer algo imposible el idioma sino más bien animar a comprar este libro pues cubre muchos temas concentrados en un solo lugar. He tomado cursos en línea que solo son memorizar palabras y frases que no sirven para conversación fluída. He visto tutoriales y libros (pdf) que si bien te animan a aprender, estos solo cubren algunos pocos temas específicos y tienes que ampliar la información buscando en diferentes medios. Lo que me gustó de este libro es que contempla un poco de todo y cubre lo necesario para entender el mecanismo del idioma. Yo soy programador de computadoras, manejo varios lenguajes y veo a los idiomas de una manera sistematizada. Es decir, me parece más importante aprender cómo funciona que solo memorizar palabras, frases, etc. pues una vez que entiendes y aprendes las reglas, el vocabulario adicional lo puedes ir aprendiendo sobre la marcha y solo aplicas las reglas que ya conoces para utilizarlo y agregarlo al uso diario. Hay que memorizar vocabulario, eso es indudable, pero es más importante aprender las reglas de cómo usarlo. Reitero, asi a simple vista y ya conociendo algo del idioma es un libro PARA PRINCIPIANTES, vas a requerir más fuentes y continuar aprendiendo pero te va a ayudar a iniciar el camino en el idioma Ruso de la manera correcta. Ya para terminar, he tenido el pasatiempo de aprender varios idiomas aunque sea de forma simple pero ayuda mucho a comprender algunas cosas, por ejemplo, si algo no lo entiendes traducido al Español, seguro lo entiendes traducido al Inglés u otro idioma, ayuda mucho a entender la mecánica de los idiomas y tener comparativos o equivalencias que hacen más clara la comprensión. Algo más, el autor escribe de forma muy amena y agradable, no va a ser pesado leer y ponerse a estudiar. Apenas voy comenzando el primer capítulo pero en base a lo poco que ya conocía sobre el idioma Ruso les puedo decir que es un gran libro. Vean los comentarios de más compradores, no se van a arrepentir...

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G Mak

Good language book for studying Russian

Reviewed in Canada on August 30, 2024

Verified Purchase

The book is well written and systematic. The only negative thing I have about it is the size of the font which is small. In Russian alphabets, some alphabets look quite similar. When the print is small, sometimes it is hard to tell which alphabet it is. It would help if it includes an audio CD for the pronunciation of the words.

Thiago Uchida

Excelente para iniciantes em russo.

Reviewed in Brazil on May 30, 2023

Verified Purchase

Um livro necessário para qualquer autodidata em russo, ele apresenta uma introdução e aprofundamento em gramática, casos gramaticais, vocabulário, etcetera. No entanto, vale saber que a explicação sobre a pronúncia do alfabeto, bem como a pronúncia das palavras no geral, deixa a desejar. Não se pode, porém, culpar isso no livro, pois não é um audiobook ou um professor físico. Para isso, recomendo ver vídeos no YouTube sobre as pronúncias do alfabeto e sempre checar na Internet (tradutor do Google ou Yandex funcionam bem) para saber como pronunciar as palavras. Vem com sinal de estresse, que é de grande importância para ter uma ideia geral da pronúncia, mas não é o bastante.

O próprio livro afirma que é para ser um complemento para seus estudos, então faça dele assim. Complemente-o com vídeos, aplicativos, cursos, professores e etcetera.

Mas como complemento de aprendizagem, o livro é no geral excelente em tudo que apresenta. Tem exercícios bem como um gabarito, que serve perfeitamente para internalizar o conteúdo.