The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Russian, 2nd Edition (Complete Idiot's Guide to)

There are too many errors in this edition to recommend it to a beginner. Approximately 75 errors were encountered. For a second edition, it is surprising that these errors were not corrected. Otherwise, I think this book would have been a good introduction to the Russian language.

I think the book covers a lot in terms of range. I have a lot of these intro books. Russian is a very deep subject. The classes tend to hang up on a few items forever, and this book moves you along to new areas. The more compressed dense type is Oxford Russian Grammar and Verbs which is maybe too much for the pure beginner. This book also tries to show pronunciation and now has CD of some use. Author has done a service to the beginner. The book is not a large set of tables of endings which might be in a reference book. It is unlikely that one would speak much Russian after reading one book. I think the critics here are too narrow. The book is a good overview of basics. I would buy also an Intermediate next book in Russian in this Idiot Series if it is ever done (such exists in Spanish).

I didn't bother reading the reviews on Amazon.com when I bought this which was a big mistake. I decided to buy this book on impulse more than anything else at Dymocks. I just really wanted to buy something I suppose.
When I read about the author's credentials in teaching Russian (none), it should have rang a bell (ding! ding!) It didn't.
Whilst I'm sure the author's really, really good at... Russian, he's definitely not very good at *teaching* it, which is what I'm more interested in as the student. The way he teaches how to read the Cyrillic alphabet, the way to remembering what's stressed & what's not & various other essentials (some of which aren't covered) are very lax, to say the least. I don't mean to sound too harsh or anything but if you're intent on actually LEARNING Russian, this book won't help you. If you want to learn a word here & there to impress someone, then this book might be the one.

The reason I didn't give the book a 1 is:
-He can write English well & explains himself clearly
-The book looks pretty
-Some interesting points are made

I recommend "Russian Course". That's THE book to use to learn Russian.

Richard

Once you learn the alphabet (no small feat) you'll have fun with this book. And, you'll UNDERSTAND why Russian-speakers have difficulty learning perfect English (and that will be an epiphany).

So, in all circumstances, try this book out. Knowledge of another language that has gender cases for nouns (such as German) is helpful, because you have already jumped that hoop. Get ready to encounter a language with no real prepositional phrases, definite articles ("the"), and no particular concern about word order. However, it can be fun, and will give you some great insights into one of the world's great and most spoken languages. All thanks to St. Cyril, who wanted to invent an alphabet that took the best from the available ones. He missed on a few points, and those are worth discovering too!

One of the best free-standing Russian language books I have uncovered.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Russian starts where it should: the Cryllic Alphabet, and it gives a good breakdown and a lot of sample words to go along with it. Then it gets into grammar, slowly etching vocabulary into your mind as you read. It's a really good introduction, and the fact that it stays with the Cryllic alphabet throughout lends it a lot of face in my eyes, because in reality you're not really accomplishing anything without using their alpahabet. As always with languages, you'll want to get a good set of CDs or tapes to go along, because without hearing the language there's no point, but I really must strongly recommend this book. It's witty once in a while, fun all the time, and doesn't let you get bogged down in the extreme nuances of grammar. If you want to begin the road to fluency in Russian, buy this book. You won't regret it.