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Russian Resources Request | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Kyle Corrie Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 175 posts - 464 votes  | Message 1 of 8 07 June 2014 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've already begun my next adventure with 'Russian' and I figured it would be in my
best interest to ask the forum to see if there are any other learners out there who have already committed time to learning this language. In doing so I'd like to find out if you guys have any useful resources that helped you along or perhaps what you would recommend avoiding. As with all languages I am always heavily grammar dependent to begin with as I see it as the most important aspect and have become a rather fond admirer of the Rutledge series of books 'Basic/Intermediate X: A Grammar and Workbook' and I intend on starting with these two to get a handle on what I'll be dealing with. I'll forgo the usual Teach Yourself and Colloquial series this time because, although I usually find them helpful, I feel the time it takes to complete them can be better used with something else this time around. Finally, I'm also using the Collins Russian-English Dictionary app for Android as my main dictionary resource as well. So, if you'd be willing to dump on me any information or resources you've found helpful for Russian then it would be greatly appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3846 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 8 07 June 2014 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Kyle,
First, I suggest that you conduct a SEARCH of the forum discussions; you'll find that your question has come up numerous times in the past. Second, here is my own list: I. COURSES I WOULD RECOMMEND: U.C.L.A. BEGINNER'S RUSSIAN This introductory course is surprisingly well-conceived. All of the audio-visual study material is online at the U.C.L.A. website. Here's the LINK: Beginner's Russian You can purchase the accompanying textbook directly from the U.C.L.A via this link or on Amazon and elsewhere. Do not be deceived by the low price of the textbook (which serves mostly as a guidebook to the online material), this is a truly good introductory course. LINGUAPHONE COMPLETE RUSSIAN While I would not recommend that an absolute beginner attempt the Linguaphone Russian Complete course, it definitely contains a lot of very good material that will take you to the Intermediate Level. The U.S.A. agent for Linguaphone is Elite Commerce. The advertised full prices for their Beginning-Intermediate courses are in the 400 $US range and, while they are very good, I find them a little over-priced. Fortunately, there are two alternatives: (a) the company offers "Rebfurbished" courses at about half-price. These have been opened for display purposes, but have not been used, and (b) the company offers Inventory Reduction Sales two-to-three times a year at about half-price. Here's the LINK: Linguaphone U.S.A. MODERN RUSSIAN, Clayton L. Dawson Published in 1964 by the Georgetown University Press, this course uses the "FSI BASIC" Language Course teaching methodology. That is, it relies on the presentation of Grammar, Basic Conversations, and the (massive) repetition of sentence-pattern drills and exercises for absorption of the language. While some users might decry the vocabularly, some of which is now out-dated, along with the teaching style, which can be ferociously dull, it is quite effective. It is published in two volumes (Modern Russian 1, Modern Russian 2) along with two workbooks. Oddly, the "Supplementary Pronunication Drills" or "Sound Drills" that are part of the lesson material in Modern Russian 1 are included in the "Instructor's Manual", which is sold separately. So, if you choose this method, be sure that you purchase the latter manual. You can still find all of the textbooks on Amazon. The 60+ hours of audio files are freely available at the Indiana University CELTIE website. Here's the LINK: Modern Russian AUDIO files II. COURSES I WOULD AVOID PIMSLEUR RUSSIAN Generally speaking, I am quite a fan of the Pimsleur Method. However, my experiences with Pimsleur Polish and Pimsleur Russian lead me to conclude that the challenges of learning a Slavic language collide head-on with the major weaknesses of this method. The Pimsleur Method does not address grammar in a straight-forward manner, nor does it include even an elementary glossary of the new words that are presented in the lessons. In my opinion, these weaknesses, when combined with the mumbled endings of nouns and adjectives (that are subject to the case system), and with the decidedly different approach to verb conjugations or even verb choice, interfere with the learning process. Furthermore, a few of my native Russian or Polish speaking friends found that either the sentence structures or choices of vocabulary were, at times, so odd as to approach the point of being unintelligible. ROUTLEDGE INTENSIVE RUSSIAN First, I would underscore that the textbook and CDs are often sold separately and that this is not clear on Amazon. So, if you choose this method, be sure you order both. Second, I would point out that the Routledge Intensive Language Courses are designed for classroom instruction, NOT for self-study. While I have not used the Russian Intensive Russian course, I have used their courses for Dutch and German, and I found that the explanations of grammar bordered on the obtuse. You can find much better self-study material elsewhere. Nonetheless, once you have advanced in your study of Russian, you might consider buying the CDs alone, as the transcripts are posted on Routledge's website. Edited by Speakeasy on 09 June 2014 at 3:47am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kyle Corrie Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 175 posts - 464 votes | Message 3 of 8 07 June 2014 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Why is it you tell me to conduct a search and then proceed to provide me with the
information I asked for? If the dreadful search feature of this website made it possible to actually search for keywords that produced results, rather than simply rummage through 3, 4 or 5 year old tags that didn't result in a timeout error or were restricted to pro members, then you wouldn't have needed to add anything and your comment would have been justified. Nonetheless, the evaluation of different materials you personally found useful is exactly the kind of information I was looking for and the effort you made to provide it is appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 4983 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 4 of 8 07 June 2014 at 10:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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After 5 months I have used very many resources; these are the ones I keep coming back to:
1) Penguin New Russian Course (grammar + texts = best $11 you will spend) 2) LearnRussian.rt.com (grammar through practice not theory) 3) Assimil Russian (great all-rounder... google well and you might find a download...) 4) A Taste of Russian podcast (slow-spoken for beginners) 5) Ilya Frank's reading method (easy dual-language stories, nice learning curve) 6) Memrise Beginners Russian (memorise the first 500 words to get a head start - well worth the time IMO) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4509 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 5 of 8 08 June 2014 at 5:01am | IP Logged | ||
I agree! In my opinion this is hands down the best Russian book out there to teach you grammar. To get listening practice, you can get Assimil New Russian With Ease, which is also a great resource! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3846 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 8 09 June 2014 at 3:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello again Kyle,
Another possibility would be the FSI Russian FAST course. As far as I can tell, the FSI FAST (Familiarization and Short Term) courses were designed to be taught in a classroom setting by a qualified instructor over a relatively short period; that is, about 6 to 8 weeks. My impression, from having worked with the short German and Polish courses and the longer Italian course is that, while the FAST courses contain some very good basic material, they are not designed for the independent learner who has no knowledge of the target language. However, they could be used to very good effect as supplementary self-study material once the student has achieved a level of A1. You can find the Russian FAST course, which was last revised in 1995, as free PDF text files and MP3 audio files (4.5 hours) on either of these two websites: FSI Language Courses website The yojik Website 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 4983 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 7 of 8 09 June 2014 at 2:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't recommend FSI FAST. I've used it too and it's pretty shitty compared to modern materials. The content and presentation feels more 1955 than 1995. Edited by chokofingrz on 09 June 2014 at 2:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vadimzn Newbie Ukraine lppbooks.com Joined 5096 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 8 of 8 28 June 2014 at 11:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I do not know what your level is. Some Elementary Russian grammar and pronunciation rules
are given in Learn Russian Language Through Dialogue 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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