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

The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks) | Nicholas J. Brown | Fantastic!

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The New Penguin Ru...

	The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks) Nicholas J. Brown Penguin (Non-Classics), 1996 - 528 pages average customer review:based on 59 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent for Learning to Read and Write in Russian

I had decided that I wanted to learn Russian on my own. I started initially by attempting to learn from one or two Internet sites. I grew frustrated very quickly with these, as the concepts weren't very well explained. After reading a number of reviews on Amazon.com about various Russian instruction books, I decided that this one was the one I would buy.

I was not at all disappointed in the quality of the instruction in this book. I was able to learn quickly, as everything was explained extremely well -- not in some vague and hard-to-understand terms as some of the earlier lessons I had seen.

Let me break here for a moment to put in a comment about the Russian language: this is not an easy language to learn. I am not trying to offend anyone by saying this. However, I am a life-long learner of foreign languages. I am already proficient in German, French and Spanish, and I have (so I have been told) a high IQ.

Yet, the Russian language was hard for me to learn. It has six noun cases, and verb tenses are handled quite differently than in English. It is, therefore, even more remarkable that Brown manages to take something that difficult, and organize it into building blocks in the way that he has done. But, on the flipside, if you have absolutely no experience with foreign languages, I would not recommend starting with Russian as a first foreign language.

All that aside, the book is excellent in teaching a person to read and write Russian, from the perspective of knowing nothing to start with, and progressing to reading a Chekhov short story at the end of the book.

As with any foreign language, the book is only a foundation, and it is up to the reader to constantly improve his or her command of the language by doing extensive reading, looking up new vocabulary words (sometimes for the tenth time, before one actually remembers the word) and exposing oneself to various topics in the new language.

Now that I have told you about the book's good points, let me tell you about the major drawback. The big deficit this book has -- and it is a major one, no matter how well it is written -- is that it falls very far short in the pronunciation department. Yes, it does have the usual English simulations, using phonetics, after many of the words (which slacks off as the lessons progress). But there is a HUGE difference between reading about pronunciation and imagining how you THINK it might sound, and actually hearing it spoken by native Russian speakers.

I am even afraid that if I progress too far without some instruction in the CORRECT pronunciation, I may develop some bad habits, even if they are mostly only pronunciations in my head.

I have searched high and low for a GOOD beginning Russian audio. I purchased one that only sounds out miscellaneous words, and was not satisfied with it. I have tried podcasts, in which I have found the speaking waaaay too fast for an absolute beginner. And I have seriously considered buying the Rosetta Stone CDs (said to be the best), but have been a bit put off by the price.

What would be absolutely ideal would be a companion audio CD to go along with this book. (Publisher, are you listening?) I could almost guarantee that it would be a big seller. If there were pronunciation going along with the actual lessons, spoken by native Russians, this book would be unbeatable!

One last thing -- just a small annoyance really. My book started to fall apart (pages coming out at the binding on the lower part of the book) as I was only in the first or second chapter. Although I was able to do a homemade repair job that worked quite well, the quality of the instruction contained in the book deserves a better quality binding job.

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Fantastic!

This is just a really fantastic resource for a beginning student. Other Russian-learning products I've tried mostly attempt to have you memorize a series of useful phrases and words. That's fine if all you are going to do is spend a short amount of time traveling and only need to ask where the bathroom is. However, if you're wanting to truly learn the language, it's important to get started with the grammar. This book does that. Right away it provides grammar tables and exercises to help you learn the structure of the language. The only downside I've found that it appears to be focused toward British students because it refers to a lot of locations in the UK. Not a big deal, though. You still are able to learn the grammar.

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Excellent!

Real systematic, very detailed, and leaves no blind spots in your knowledge of russian... I'm not a native english-speaker, but it is perfectly understandable. Only the useful words are in the vocabulary, no childish "red-car, blue-car" stuff, just the crucial ones that you need if you go abroad. Besides it provides good exercises at the end of the lessons, and every 5 lessons (of 30) it reviews your knowledge of the past lessons. Okay some could say, there's no audio material, but I think the writer has done a good a job of explaining pronunciation. Recommended for everyone!

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Simply Unrivaled...!

To supplement an introductory-level college Russian class I purchased this book along with a reputable dictionary and comprehensive book on the finer points of grammar. Truth be told, it has been one of the best investments I have ever made while studying foreign languages. I spent more than $100 for mandatory textbooks that were simply inferior to this one. In my opinion, this book should be the fixture of any Russian-language class.
The author presents a clear and concise view of the most important aspects; a self-motivated student or individual learner with this book would have a solid command of basic/intermediate Russian by the end. In conjunction with good professional instruction, this book makes a fine accompaniment for the student to hone their skills. However good it is, I would recommend investing in an audio CD or enrolling in a class to get the feel for pronunciation, tone, and speed.

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It's great

I like this book it is easy to understand and has been very useful for me learning Russian. It is a little difficult to understant and get into at first but once you know a few things about the language it is really good. It is useful to have a little background in Russian first though.

reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

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