The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks)

I am trying to teach myself Russian and this book leads the way easily. The practices make the learning easier to learn as well. Well worth it!

This book is essential for learning Russian in a Russian-speaking country. I've had several (4-5) private Russian tutors and they all teach in the same rigid Soviet-style method using some ancient Soviet-era textbook. This generally includes learning 1-2 simple grammar items per lesson and then doing written and oral grammar drills over and over. You'll never be functional like this, plus it takes forever. You have to speed up the process by showing them you are a quick learner. You can accomplish that with this book, supplementing with words and phrases you pick up in everyday life.

I find that the best thing to do is learn the grammar yourself using the book and then find a tutor (this is the hard part!) who is flexible enough to sit and try to have conversations with you using the grammar you have learned from this book and who can teach you extra non-book things that you need in order to function in your day-to-day life.

Excellent reference, but very challenging. To reap full benefits, get a listening course like Pimsleur.

This is a great book. Very well organized, with easy to learn explanations. I would recommend this book to anyone. I learned to read (but not yet translate!) Russian in 2 days with this book.

I would, however, also recommend picking up a tape or cd Russian course to go with it to help understand the pronunciations.

This is how I learn Russian. I am not done yet, but thanks to this book it worked for me to study this language myself. The more I learnt, the more I went to love Russian.