Teach Yourself Beginner's Russian Script

I was hoping for a book that would teach me penmanship. I have all sorts of resources telling me what Cyrillic looks like, both in print and cursive. I have no idea how I'm supposed to get there. Do I start from the left and move my pen to the right? Do I start at the right and move my pen to the left? Somehow I had the idea that this book would tell me. It doesn't.

*On the other hand*, I found that it was more handy than either websites, software, or another book I had purchased, in that it provided some room to practice my letters, and I liked that it repeats things and teaches small words and words that sound like English words right away, because now I actually have a bit of a Russian vocabulary. I can honestly say that this book, more than my other tools, was helpful in getting the letters in my head and making them stick there.

I will be buying another book in this series, "Teach Yourself Russian Grammar", in part due to my satisfaction with this book.

Now. If anyone knows how I can learn how to actually write these letters correctly, feel free to look up my profile and e-mail me.

For the cost of this book, I expected more. My hope was that it would help me refine my understanding and use of Russian script. It contained about two pages of script exposition, nothing more than anyother teach-yourself type course does. If you are completely illiterate in the language, you may get some benefit from this book, but if you can read even a little Russian already, you're too advanced for the scope of this material.

One day I decided I wanted to learn Russian. No, seriously. And I was at the bookstore, and completely on a whim I bought this book. Seriously? Yup. And so far it's been GREAT. I just recommend that you really take the time to try out each activity, and memorise the vocabulary. Yes, it's a little pricey for such a slim volume. But it works like gangbusters. (Heh. "Gangbusters.") I can only devote an hour a day, at most, while reading on my lunch hour, with no homework time either because frankly when I get home I'm beat. And I'm already fluently reading the language. Okay, I don't know what the words actually MEAN yet, but it's a start! So I recommend this as a great way to get over our "english" letters, and move your brain into Cyrillic Gear.

I used this book to teach myself the Russian script and found it very helpful when I needed to decode Cyrillic in Russia. It took me through the content slowly and clearly enough, with enough examples and opportunities to practice, that I did not get confused or frustrated. However, the pronounciation guides for the letters rely on English equivalents, not exact matches. To go on to speak Russian, I strongly advise that you buy a tape rather than merely a phrasebook or book-based course because many of the sounds are so different to English.

I had a basic grasp of the Cyrillic alphabet already having used free online Russian language resources and thought that this book would clear up some of its peculiarities. It did not. The pronunciations of the Cyrillic x or that "shsh" character are not explained completely, and the alternative pronunciations of some characters are not mentioned at all. The basics of the Cyrillic alphabet are taught in excessive detail, while missing are some of the important inconsistencies common in Russian words.

"Teach Yourself Beginner's Russian" provides a much more concise and yet more detailed overview of the Cyrillic alphabet. Combined with sufficient Russian text which can be easily found online (I used the flight manual of a Russian MiG-29 "Fulcrum" fighter aircraft), the Cyrillic alphabet is not difficult to learn.