Product Description

Colloquial Russian is easy to use and completely clear. Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Russian.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66905 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-14
• Original language: Russian, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From the Back Cover
Colloquial Russian is easy to use and completely brilliant! Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Russian. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

What makes Colloquial Russian your best choice in personal language learning?
* interactive - lots of dialogues and exercises for regular practice
* clear - concise grammar notes
* practical - useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
* complete - including answer key and special reference section

By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in a broad range of situations.

Customer Reviews

Truly appalling
I hate this book with a vengeance and have very few nice things to say about it. However, let's see what measly positive points it does have:
1) it is crammed with information- not always correct and clear information, you see, but still there's a lot.
2) in some areas it provides clear explanations and examples
3) there are numerous exercises with answers included if you want to check your progress.
Everything else about this publication is simply horrendous!
* The presentation and order of grammar points is completely illogical and leaves the reader more confused than anything. For example, the author thought it made more sense to cover all the other cases before mentioning how to form the nominative plural; ridiculous!
* The vocabulary covered is on the whole highly irrelevant to real life situations, especially all the cr*p about "wanting to become a sportsman" and "Russian education system". Come on, who is this book written for!?
* There are spelling mistakes littered throughout the book and also several errors regarding usage of words (I've been told).
* The dictionary at the back of the book mysteriously does not contain certain words that appear in the dialogues and exercises.
* I would say the writers of Colloquial Russian have very high expectations of the general reader: the progress you're supposed to make in order to follow each chapter is ludicrous. Furthermore, the exercises which are apparently meant to follow on from the dialogues and texts are very difficult and repetitive.

So in summary, unless you have a native speaker by your side explaining every single thing, this book is full of pitfalls and will likely fail to assist you in your Russian studies. At worst you may even be put off learning Russian or perhaps tempted to throw the book (and hopefully not yourself!) into a fire or bottomless pit. In other words AVOID!!!

A tough but rewarding introduction to studying Russian
Before I bought this book I looked at several other introductory books on Russian. I chose this one because it is clear and concise, and packs a great deal of learning into each chapter. If you are sufficiently determined, in an astonishingly short time you should have a grounding in grammar and a vocabulary of about 1500 of the most commonly used words, and be able to read and write confidently in Russian about everyday subjects. It takes you up to intermediate level, which I think means to about GCSE level. The last few topics introduce current affairs vocabulary, and have an A-level feel to them.

I understand this is the book that Cambridge University recommend to complete beginners in Russian studies. Be warned then: you will need either a Russian tutor or the kind of motivation and self-discipline that you would expect from a Cambridge student. There is little space devoted to teaching you either pronunciation or Cyrillic writing. It is simply assumed that you have other ways to learn these (e.g. the optional extra CDs or cassettes). There are few opportunities to consolidate your understanding (e.g. revision exercises): you are expected to grasp every grammar point and learn every word the first time you encounter it. There is a good English-Russian, Russian-English vocabulary section at the back, but the grammar topics are poorly indexed. Expect this book to become dog-eared as you thumb through it searching for the page where the grammar point that you need but can't quite remember is explained.

If you want to learn simply a little conversational or tourist Russian then this book is not for you. Buy this book if you want to learn written Russian to intermediate level, and have access to a tutor or previous experience of learning a language on your own. Buy the accompanying CDs or cassettes if you feel rich, otherwise look for other sources of spoken Russian to help you learn pronunciation. You will probably need to buy a grammar reference book later in your studies which covers this material.

A decent russian book
I take private Russian lessons, and this is the book I use. It is ambitious and highly useful, as you are likely to find anything you, as a beginner, will need to look up. The only thing is that it is not designed to be used alone, and you could find youself struggling if you don't have a teacher to guide you, or a basic book which spoonfeeds you everything.
Overall, however, it is a very handy book for the student of the Russian language.