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Best Russian textbook

  Tags: Textbooks | Russian
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
10 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
sousabrantes
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Brazil
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 Message 1 of 10
07 February 2010 at 6:06pm | IP Logged 
I'm looking for a good Russian textbook. It seems to me that Golosa and Nachalo are good ones. Which is the best? Is there any other good option?

Thanks a lot.

Leo
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FVerschoor
Bilingual Diglot
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 Message 2 of 10
09 February 2010 at 2:33am | IP Logged 
I use Nachalo in class, it's alright, though in my opinion it's in a odd order and it's best when you have an instructor to help you get through this.

For self-study, I use the New Penguin Russian Course, I find that it works very well for my needs and I really enjoy it.
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William Camden
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 Message 3 of 10
09 February 2010 at 4:58pm | IP Logged 
Nicholas J. Brown's books are good (he may have written the Penguin course, but I'm not sure). He certainly produced a superb frequency dictionary of the Russian language.
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unityandoutside
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 Message 4 of 10
09 February 2010 at 6:25pm | IP Logged 
I second the suggestion of the new penguin Russian course. For beginners, it simply can't be beat. I've used Golosa, and the second book in the series is alright, as it comes with a lot of adapted native level materials in it, but the first book is pretty mindless, I'm personally not a fan. If you want an intermediate text once you've finished the penguin course, V Puti is pretty good. For more advanced/reference, I would highly recommend "Using Russian: A guide to contemporary usage." You may want to consider getting this off the bat, as it's rich in material for virtually every aspect of the language, and is unrivaled in depth.

Edited by unityandoutside on 09 February 2010 at 6:26pm

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Wilco
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 Message 5 of 10
09 February 2010 at 6:31pm | IP Logged 
It depends on your present level. I would also recommend "Using Russian: A guide to contemporary usage." If you are just beginning learning it, then Assimil should be useful, but not enough, since it doesn't teach the complex grammar.




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sousabrantes
Triglot
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Brazil
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 Message 6 of 10
09 February 2010 at 7:13pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I have a few doubts.

I already know the alphabet and some basic expressions and grammar. So, I'm still a beginner.

Many of you recommended the New Penguin. Isn't it insufficient, since it doesn't come with any audio material? That was why I thought of Golosa or Nachalo. Maybe I'm wrong.

Another question: is it possible to skip directly to V Puti? Or its level is definitly higher?

Many thanks again!
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unityandoutside
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 Message 7 of 10
09 February 2010 at 7:55pm | IP Logged 
If you want all of your exposure to come from one place, then the new penguin is definitely insufficient. However, it's very possible to supplement by some other form of audio - from the bbc, euronews, podcasts (I've seen some pretty good ones). I personally like new penguin because it's a very well structured course that you'll exit with a very good "birds eye view" of the language -- it doesn't leave anything else. Furthermore, it's very portable, and very cheap (I bought mine for fifteen dollars on Amazon, and half of that was the next day shipping).

I've never really used Assimil, but it does come with audio, and boy do people around here love it. I also have a pretty high opinion of the living language ultimate series. Their Russian text, from the bit of it that I've seen, looks excellent. And you can get it with audio. But again, never having used it, I can't speak to what you'd ultimately come out of it with.

You may be able to skip straight to V Puti, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'd have to do all kinds of background work while trying to keep up with it. Also, whether you want to work through V Puti depends on what you want out of Russian. V Puti is a very practical approach. If you want to learn Russian to read literature , it's not the way to go. If you want to learn Russian in preparation for an impending trip to Russia, it certainly is. The Penguin course isn't super practically oriented, but I've found that with the strong base it gave me I've been able to pick up both written and conversational styles of Russian with less effort than if my grammatical base would have been less strong.
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stelingo
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 Message 8 of 10
09 February 2010 at 11:13pm | IP Logged 
I would definitely recommend the Living Language 'Ultimate Russian' book.The audio is excellent. If you use this along with the Penguin course you will have a good balance of grammar and audio


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