Recommended for serious learners
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I found this book very useful and very well structured. I used it as part of an evening class, which is very helpful for an absolute beginner, so I am not sure how it would work for self study only, though I am considering doing that with Ruslan Russian 2 next year. The book has a good balance of vocabulary and grammar and the way it progresses from lesson to lesson is very well done. What looked so difficult in an earlier lesson will be firmly acquired by the time one is facing more difficult material in later lessons. I used it in conjunction with the CD, which is very helpful to acquire listening skills, and with the exercise book, since "repetition is the mother of learning".
I would recommend this book to anyone that is serious about learning Russian. Definitely not for the "you don't need grammar, just use the nominative everywhere and you will be understood" crowd.
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Ugh.
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This book is awful, honestly, truly awful! Spend your money on many many other much better books.
The style is dull with quaint little stories and most importantly, the way in which the language is taught is terrible. You learn a tiny bit of one subject and thats it until section 8 again. Basically its a "read this dialogue and here is your translation" - poor explanation of grammatical points and verbs etc. Honestly, many people on my course bought this and we all dislike it, try something else, save your money.
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Great for beginners
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This was the book I needed to by as part of the basic Russian evening class I went to. The only reason for a drop in the stars line is because, sadly, the audio was tape and not CD. I do not have anything to play tapes anymore because I'm a little addicted to new technology. Apart from that, there's nothing wrong with it.
I'm not really sure what the reviews below mean about all the rubbish dialog and stuff, but I guess it can be depending on taste. I found it rather amusing, but then again, other people in my class did not. If you are a beginner, it's an excellent start. I knew the alphabet and a few words before learning Russian using this book, and I have to say that helped a lot first.
From a student's point of view, it is a useful book to use and, the best thing I found, it wasn't in American. Other CDs I'd borrowed were all in American with people visiting America and it meant nothing and the spelling was really irritating. However, this means a lot more with Russians visiting England and it meant more, but that's a personal thing. I only wish schools actually taught this language down to GCSE level and beyond.
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A textbook written by an old soviet style kitchen gossip
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This book was apparently written by a common as muck, old soviet style kitchen gossip. From a teacher's point of view it is very difficult to teach by and, apart from the drawings, the textual context is rather trashy ...
Amusing drawings by Lauchlan have been used to con the students and teachers alike into buying this rubbish, also, the authors Ms Veshneva and Mr Langran used a good illustrator in a futile attempt to cover up for a sadly obvious lack of talent on their own part.
The text is embarrassingly boring and common and drags on and on without any rhyme or reason. Ms V. alone might know what exactly she is going on about, leaving us all yawning and bored out of our wits.
My final verdict - this is a useless waste of time and money.
Without the pictures, - the book is total trash.
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Russian learners beware
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There is definitely a niche in the market for a communicative Russian course. This book doesn't fill it. In its attempt to bridge the gap from a hardcore grammar based approach to a communicative living language textbook, it falls short. There is very little functional language - about half way through the book, one learns how to say "my name is" and "what's your name?" and it is only in one of the later chapters that one learns the words for general greetings, to name but a few examples. In a communicative course, this is plainly absurd.
The dialogues are amusing but in general the presentation of new grammar and vocabulary is very dry. Does anyone want to help me write a better book?
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