Golosa: A Basic Course in Russian, Book 1 (4th Edition)

This Russian Course is excelent. It is pricey but it is very detailed and looks great too. Just know that the book won't do miracles, Russian is very hard to learn. Good luck!

This book is not meant for self study, it is intended for college level instruction. This is the book I used when I took Russian in college. The publisher has a website with downloadable videos to aid the text. The lessons inside the book are great, but not intended for self study.

I stydy russian language for some years, and recently I re-started, using the volume 2 of Goloca. I became so found of this method that decided to have the number 1 also, despite my russian to be more for the second or even third. But I want to have both due to its beautiful language, contemporary texts, grammar and up-to-date approaches. I really reccomend it for those interested in studying this inteligent language. For those
that are just starting with russian, it will surprise that a so complex language can be quickly understood and give fast confidence in its use.

For an excursion into written Russian, this book is well done. The use of Russian throughout the text has been maximised, to push you towards as much of an immersion in it as possible.

The grammar is developed considerably over the duration of the text.

For spoken Russian, you need to turn to the accompanying Student Activities Manual with audio and video recordings. Plus, the authors offer a website with tests you can take and more recordings. Sadly, there seems no indication of the use of an Automatic Speech Recogniser for Russian, for the student to more fully test her pronunciation. For those of you who have studied the teaching of any language, this book and its companion recordings and website can be an unfortunate anachronism in this respect.

In terms of self study, this book *is* totally worthless... However, in a classroom environment with a good teacher, it becomes a lot more effective. I don't recommend this set for people who prefer studying on their own.

The website is more useful than the books.