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

If you're looking for a quick introduction to Russian for a short trip or holiday, then this probably isn't what you're after; I'd try Oxford Take Off in Russian (Paperback with CDs) instead for that purpose, or even something simpler and more quick-win like the BBC's excellent Talk Russian (Talk). However, if you're serious about studying the language in a methodical, structured way, then this is an excellent start. It's been around for quite some time, going through several editions, and it is traditional - grammar points come thick and fast, and expect to be shown them in-depth and not just glossed over. The vocabulary on the whole isn't presented in topic groups, but introduced bit by bit through written dialogues and grammatical examples. As such, it's not geared to those wanting to communicate straight away, but rather those who want to build up a solid base and good working knowledge of Russian with an eye to further study. This is the way language text books used to be written, and they're a dying breed - although new communicative courses might give quick results, the 'old' way is sometimes the best foundation for really understanding the language and not simply repeating learnt phrases.

The only down side is the lack of audio materials, although you could easily supplement learning by buying another course alongside this one, such as Colloquial Russian: The Complete Course For Beginners: (PB + CD). But for a solid start, you can't beat the Penguin course, for content or value for money.

Help please (0/3 people found this helpful)

Can someone tell me if this book has accents to show where the stress falls on a word? I have used "Oxford Take Off in Russian", which does have these accents, and found it very good, if a bit thin. So I bought another book Basic "Russian: A Grammar and Workbook", but the lack of accents renders it virtually useless for self-study.
Thanks

Discipline pays off! (8/8 people found this helpful)

This was a book I picked up whilst browsing one day, and bought on a whim. Little did I know that I was buying the book that would develop my knowledge of Russian far more than any other, and supplemented my understanding of the language to an extraordinary degree.

The description of grammar and the case system is punctuated throughout with recap exercises, which with practice burn-in these difficult rules without the reader realising it. In common with an earlier review, the choice of vocabulary is unusual and therefore this is not the best 'stand-alone' textbook, but by dint of this fact it has proved, in my experience, the very best supplement to an academic course that money can buy. The conversations and essays forming the end of each chapter are extremely useful, and add some eclectic knowledge to the basic that the beginner will run into. Armed with the first 10 chapters of this book, my first visit to Russia was a far easier experience because of some of the more unusual elements learned.

This is gaining an almost 'cult' following amongst students of Russian, being informative, brilliantly presented and immensely usable. The structure over 21 chapters means that these are digestible blocks of knowledge that can be repeated as needed without becoming too 'bogged down'. This is the best Russian reference book I own.

I love this book! (6/6 people found this helpful)

I don't know why but I do! When it first arrived I opened it to be greated with "what the hell is this going on about?!?!?!". So it went to one side for a while..... Well, after studying for a while and learning more from my course and to be honest more "beginner freindly" titles I thought I'd dig it out and give it another pop. I was not dissapointed! The book deals with many little extras that other books don't, such as voiced/unvoiced letters, a good section of help with stress and pronunciation. It deals with the various cases well with nice examples and good questions for you to test yourself, I found the vocabulary good - especially when starting out as it has an english pheonetic bit to help you unlike many books in which you are left to assume your reading of cyrillic is right.
I really recommend this excellent book.

Not for complete beginners (11/13 people found this helpful)

This book claims to be a complete course for beginners. It is not. The grammar is well dealt with; the order in which it is introduced is, in my opinion, not as productive as the author claims. I like to get things done as soon as possible. Studying the prepositional case in singular first, and then finding, after several units, the same case in plural is counter-productive. The explanations are nevertheless very good.

Now, the book tries to deal with vocabulary as well... unsuccesfully. Anyone interested in buying this book should be aware that they will also need a book that introduces vocabulary. At least a dictionary may be necessary. The author's understanding of what basic vocabulary is seems to be quite bizarre. I learnt what "borsch" (beetroot soup) or "kefir" mean, or the russian for "entrance hall", even before it taught me how to say "nearly", "to read" or "Merry Christmas".

Therefore, this book is not a very good starting point for someone with no knowledge whatsoever of Russian. The book lacks vocabulary, and when learning a language, there are some expressions and words that must be learnt prior to even learning some more complex grammar. Traditionally, the emphasis in teaching languages has been put on grammar. It is no use being able to build complex sentences if you can't say anything because you can't find the words to express what you wish to communicate.

All in all, this book is useful, above all, as a reference grammar book, or as a way of complementing other books, or of brushing up, but a rather confused knowledge of Russian grammar and random vocabulary may come of using this book alone to learn Russian from scratch.

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

Nicholas J. Brown

Reader Reviews:

Traditional and demanding, but a thorough introduction (0/0 people found this helpful)

Help please (0/3 people found this helpful)

Discipline pays off! (8/8 people found this helpful)

I love this book! (6/6 people found this helpful)

Not for complete beginners (11/13 people found this helpful)

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