Nicholas J. BrownThe New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners

If one is going to learn Russian--by which I mean learn it well enough to actually carry on an intelligent conversation--one must start with the grammar. Current products that promise easy, quick, learning of a language as difficult as Russian are simply marketing (expensive!)fantasy through huge advertising campaigns. I set about to learn Russian seriously, and this book was a good first step. I also got Kenneth Katzner's Dictionary, which is the absolute best in the world, and something I use daily. After a year's work, I bought an inexpensive Pimsleur audio disk, so I could hear what these words actually sounded like, and this package is doing the job for me. This book intelligently starts at the beginning, with the alphabet. It shows how letters are both printed and written in cursive, and then, from the 1st lesson, it begins to introduce the important grammatical principles underlying this extraordinarily difficult language. One quickly comes to appreciate how useless the exhorbitantly priced "interactive" programs are, which rely on the learning of many phrases. All they are is an electronic version of a phrase book. The person who has invested their hard earned money in such courses will realize, the first time they try to talk to a Russian, that they have squandered their money. In the first place, the words they have so carefully learned are virtually guaranteed to come back at them in a declined form, which, if they cannot recognize it, will sound like another word. How could they possibly commincate without knowing the accusative, genitive, dative, nominative, prepositional or instrumental case endings? A language like this is a serious undertaking (similar to classical Latin) and has to be approached with respect. Brown's "Russian Course" is a sensible, down-to-earth, traditional grammar, with exercises, readings, self-tests, vocabularies, and a really concise declension chart at the end which is ABSOLUTELY useful and necessary! Well worth the modest cost. Five star. No way to go wrong if you have a serious desire to learn this language.

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!

This is a very very good book to begin learning Russian grammar and basics. I always thought learning a language from a book would be incredibly difficult. So, when I decided to buy this book I was not expecting to get much use out of it. Boy was I wrong. This is actually a very great book to learn from!Though it may be a bit outdated in some of the cultural aspects, it teaches very well. I go through about a chapter a day and this has worked for me. It's great for being able to read, but to be able to actually pronounce I would suggest using some other method with audio. The grammar is explained in the simplest way possible. This book has helped me when other programs have not been able to. In every chapter there is new vocabulary, sample sentences, dialog or stories to read from, and a grammar lesson. There are also helpful hints on how to use certain phrases, or info on the culture. Also helpful is the use of accents on some letters, which will aide in pronunciation. I am really learning a lot from this book so far. I love it!This book is fantastic for those just starting out. As well as though needing a grammar refresher. I would, however, use this book in combination with something that will teach pronunciation, such as a CD, or a language learning program with audio.As a Russian beginner, I can say that this book is definitely okay to start from. Who cares if it doesn't include audio? There are plenty of resources out there that you can use to hear pronunciation of the words. This book is not dry. It is engaging, easy, and fun to read. I would recommend it.