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

I have used several books and courses with tapes to learn Russian, and this book is one of the best. It clearly explains Russian grammar and makes a great supplement to a conversational Russian course. Growing up in Europe, I used to speak Russian as a kid. This book helped me get back into the Russian language. Russian, German and Latin are grammatically very difficult languages. It is impossible to read and write these languages without studying the grammar in depth.
If you want to really learn Russian, buy this book!!

There's not much I can add to the positive reviews already noted, but just for the record, this book is extremely useful for dedicated and/or full-time (like myself) students of the Russian language.

This is the revised edition of an earlier Penguin Russian coursebook available many years ago. I haven't seen that text, but this book is the best self study stand alone text for any language that I have seen. I wish Penguin had the same type of book for German.

The book progresses in a very sensible way, all of the things you learn are in an order that builds a very solid foundation before moving on to the next lesson. At times you will run into areas where the author offers "extras" that he says can be skipped. My advice is don't. In the first few chapters the "extras" are pages explaining the correct way to pronounce words. He claims that you'll be understood if you pronounce the words phonetically as they're written, but why not take the little extra time and get it right? There's also great information on Russian handwriting, some cultural info (very brief), but the book is all business.

One thing that it lacks is a way to hear native speakers, of course. While it goes a long way trying to explain how Russian is spoken, you won't be able to avoid tapes or some other method of actually hearing the language properly spoken. One inexpensive way would be Barron's Pronounce it Perfectly in Russian. The best way would be to purchase the Pimsleur lessons, but they're prohibitively expensive for most people.

This book is a great foundation for learning Russian. It's a bargain. I also recommend another book by the author, the "Russian Learners' Dictionary", especially along with the Vis-ed Russian flashcards.

I used this book in the second term of an accelarated version of First Year Russian at the University level. Brown's introduction to the language is really incredible.

Unlike many more expensive and flashier products, Brown covers ALL the main grammatical topics in the Russian language with a minimum of jargon. Other books either gloss over or over-complicate concepts like verbal aspect or participles -- discouraging students from continuing their study of the language.

At the same time, the shopper should be ware that this is not a phrasebook, or business travel course. It is oriented around teaching the reader Russian at a first year University level (or British A-level, as Brown himself notes). While I have no doubt that this text can be used on its own without tapes (Russian is, after all a phonetic langauge) or perhaps even an instructor, to self-study with this book, the student must be absolutely serious and disciplined. The book has a number of exercises and examples, which are very helpful.

The maximum benefit will be realized from this book by the reader who already has a good understanding of the Cyrillic script (not a very difficult one), and who will use Brown's book as the main text in a program supplemented by other vocabulary-building and grammar-practice texts, and preferrably an instructor.

After four years of serious study, I am now fluent in Russian thanks to the foundation that Brown's book provided. If you are serious about the language, and have the discipline to seriously study Russian through an instructional text, Brown's Russian Course is the book for you.

The Russian language presents a lot of difficulties at the outset for beginners, even if you have already studied languages before. I first wanted to study Russian three years ago, and was constantly trying and giving up because of the endings and the verbal aspect, among other things. I had already gained a fair vocabulary, a fair mastery of noun endings, and an understanding of aspect. But when I bought this book, everything became very non-threatening. I easily learned a lot of small grammatical details, as well as ones that baffled me for years. All verbs are given in both aspect forms, and noun irregularities are shown. This did not discourage me, but rather made me want to lern the irregular stuff to enhance my correctness.

To all those fascinated with Russia and it's language, but cannot seem to get it right and are discouraged, fear not. This book will lift your spirits and show you that Russian is not that hard of a language afterall! I have also found studying Russian helpful in decoding the seemingly totally-irregular grammars of Polish and other Slavic languages. Knowing Russian will help you learn about ten more of these languages. Buy this book, grab a hold, and you'll soon be on friendly terms with Russian!