Reddit reviews The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks)
We found 65 Reddit comments about The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Penguin Books
Every Russian learner needs a copy of this textbook. I don't study the language any more, but it is a fantastic resource that somehow makes sense of the ridiculously complicated Russian grammar.
Good luck. I've definitely got a bunch more tricks, so just send me a message if you want them. These are just some good beginning ones.
Former employee, linguist, and guy-who-is-pretty-ok-at-russian checking in:
It is decent, but you'll want to make sure you actually understand the concept of grammatical case, and how it works and is marked in Russian.
I would highly recommend pairing it with the New Penguin Russian Course.
Definitely use studio as much as possible, and take notes case endings. RS will show you something like на невысоком мужчине черный костюм, and it will help to know that невысоком is declined for the prepositional/locative case. Well, really, it will help to know that that form is not the "default," and how to 1)figure out what the default is and 2)transform the word as you need to when speaking.
A friend of mine did just RS, and she has a problem with basically just saying a word in whatever case she first heard it in...so she might say невысоком when trying to say невысокый, or what have you.
Finally, evaluate after 5 months, and if you're not using it, it's not working, or whatever, send it back and get a refund. Mark it on your calendar, and decide before you miss the deadline.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416
For online resources, I'd strongly recommend the RT course over Duolingo. For books, Nicholas Brown's New Penguin Russian Course is very good. And Irina Sapegina, an experienced teacher, gives some very good advice here on the three worst tips for learning Russian that you'll probably hear!
I think a lot of the best resources can be found online for free but if you really want to buy her something physical as a gift the new penguin Russian course seems to get a lot of good reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Penguin-Russian-Course/dp/0140120416
Best Android app I've found yet: Russian in a Month. Best online site (for pocasts when you are driving: RussianPod101.com. Best book I've found: New Penguin Russian Course
Other then that, read children's articles, watch Cheburaska, follow the Russian subreddits /r/Russianlessons, /r/Russian101, and /r/Russian, read Russian wherever you can, and listen to Russian music. If you want any other tips or tricks I've used, just let me know. Good luck!
Here's my list,
free online courses incl audio
----
free srs / vocab practice
----
speaking practice
----
books and audio courses (library / search online)
----
etc.
----
https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416
Full beginner starter guide which includes grammar.
Sé varios, de mejor a peor: español, inglés, faroés, esperanto, francés, chino. También se algo alguito de ruso (hice muy poco tiempo pero me acuerdo como leer el alfabeto y decir cosas como gracias y qué se yo, igual no cuenta como saber) y toki pona.
Los únicos que hablo bien bien bien son español e inglés. Con esos dos me puedo manejar en cualquier situación sin problemas. Español nativo, inglés aprendí relativamente bien en el colegio pero lo más importante son las horas boludeando en internet, películas, libros, etc.
Faroés porque fui de intercambio a las islas faroe y aprendí ahí. Es un idioma raro pero que tiene su encanto.
Esperanto lo hablo, escribo y leo bastante bien (ayuda que sea muy regular y la pronunciación se corresponda con la escritura en un cien por ciento). Aprendí por internet, ponele dos meses estudiando de verdad, después leyendo y hablando con gente. Es un idioma fácil y simpático. De vez en cuando me junto con la comunidad en esperanto de acá a hablar pavadas. Es un submundo curioso.
Francés estudié un tiempo y me quedó más o menos. Conversacionalmente "zafo" (pude hacer de traductor una vez en Berlin entre un grupo de estudiantes franceses que se querían levantar a las intercambistas con las que estaba y las intercambistas en sí que solo querían saber dónde podían tomar una cerveza). Leer se puede leer bastante bien mientras no sea una novela. Escribir es un quilombo, nunca me salió.
Chino quería aprender porque me daba miedo quedar como mi mamá ahora: sin acceso a gran parte de la cultura por no saber el idioma dominante bien. Me tiré a aprender en el programa de Lenguas Vivas de CABA. Está buenísimo, super bien organizado y es gratis. Estudié un año y medio y aprendí lo suficiente como para rogar por mi vida si alguna vez los chinos me capturan. También aprendimos a escribir (de lejos lo maś difícil). Tuve que dejar por la facultad.
Ruso quedó como un sueño, estudié solo (bah, con una amiga) por un tiempo de un libro (excelente, era el curso de ruso de Penguin, si alguien quiere el escaneado lo tengo). Después comencé en una academia. La academía me pareció bastante mala, cara y desorganizada, así que elegí seguir con chino y dejar ruso porque estaba haciendo demasiadas cosas y no me daba el tiempo.
Toki pona, bueno, fue una nerdeada como el esperanto, pasa que es más difícil tenerlo presente porque muy poca gente lo habla y además es muy difícil formar conceptos porque hay tan pocas palabras.
Eso. Me quedó re largo el texto. En fin. Igual para lo que más me sirvió aprender tantos idiomas es para desconfiar mucho de la gente que te dice que sabe 5 idiomas y los habla fluído. Salvo que hayas vivido en un lugar donde se hable y le hayas puesto mucha bola, es muy difícil. No digo imposible. Pero sí muy muy muy difícil.
The New Penguin Russian Course
Super Easy Russian
Honestly DuoLingo is a meme. If you're serious about learning Russian (or any language) doing flashcards isn't going to get the job done. What you need to do is pick up The New Penguin Russian Course and read about the structure and theory of the language. Read Russian news/articles and literature/poetry. Look up all the words you can't understand (there will be plenty) and keep a journal of new words and phrases that are important to your goals. Then you can use DuoLingo to help supplement your vocabulary if you need to.
I found DuoLingo to be insulting and overpriced for its zero dollar price tag.
I'm just starting to learn Russian myself. I'm using this website and this book which supposedly gets you up to an A-Level grade. I think it's a great book but found it a little tough for an absolute beginner so I also got this book which is just basic phrases really, doesn't go into grammar in any real detail but it gives you a lot more confidence to be able to speak something rather than getting completely bogged down in grammar as soon as you've learnt the alphabet imo. As soon as a got a couple of chapters into the phrase book, I started using the Russian course book I linked above to understand the grammar and handwriting better. Can't recommend the penguin one highly enough and I'm sure it will be a great help that you will have a teacher to help you with the grammar.
You're correct in thinking that the alphabet is the most important beginning. DON'T try learning a language using English phonetics, that'll just confuse you (which i can confirm) and give you a weird accent (according to my Russian speaking ex-girlfriend). Next up is where the stress goes on words, how changing stress can change the meaning of a sentence, and how some letters can change sound depending on where they are (called [un-]voicing) but this will come after you have the alphabet and some phrases under your belt.
I also found it good to listen to a few songs to pick up how words flow together, and music helps me think anyway, personal favourites of mine are traditional songs such as Kalinka, Ochi Chernye and Katyusha. Just look on youtube and you will find plenty of them even some with the lyrics in English and Russian.
This is the alphabet, the kids version for when you're more confident and want to learn it in order, and this video has some starter words and phrases.
I hope some of that helps you out, but I'm just a beginner myself so hoping to pick up some more advice myself by watching this thread closely!
This book is incredible for learning Russian grammar and some vocab.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0140120416/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Yes, but it takes a long time, so I'll copy paste all my past comments here for you to trawl through yourself.
>/r/russian and /r/LANL_Russian are both good subreddits. Someone recommended http://learnrussian.rt.com/ which is great for beginners. http://www.russianlessons.net is good for lots of information, but is kind of incomplete. Definitely worth using regardless. Memrise is really good for vocab, but the courses are user-made and not perfect.
Note: LANL_Russian in particular has some great links in the sidebar.
Memrise:
>Interesting, there seems to be an influx of Russian learners lately. Take note, because I'm writing a lot, and I wouldn't do it if I didn't think that every bit was extremely important.
>Stop just trying to memorise by reading. Long story short, you're using a pretty ineffective technique. The good news is there are far better ways of doing it. Studies show that recollection, not repetition is a far effective teacher.
>As I've said to many, I can fully recommend Memrise (www.memrise.com) and the top rated Russian course there. It's great at using recollection to get you memorising a lot of words fast using mnemonics. Other than that, Anki is a useful flashcard program that does a similar thing.
>some tips for Memrise: don't use it passively; really try and think about and focus on the word you're learning. Secondly, make sure you've got a mem (their term for mnemonic) that works for you. Getting a word without a mem is harder. Memrise will really solidify your Russian-English, but if you are worried about the English-Russian part, just go though each level with a strip of paper covering the Russian words on the screen and work your way down. You will find it's really easy anyway, because Memrise has solidified the connection in your mind.
>Make use you check the course page and water all your plants EVERY DAY.
>Take note of how Memrise get's you recollecting as soon as possible after giving you a word, and then gradually spreads out the intervals at which you are prompted to recall a word, and in groups of 5 words at a time. Take this technique and use it to make yourself some flash cards. Write the English on one side and Russian on the other (you might like to include the pronunciation too). Now you can take these around with you day by day (I have some on my desk by me right now), memorising other words you've read whenever you have a spare moment. You can even have your own personal mems for them. I'd recommend buying some cards to use, because just cutting up printing paper is pretty flimsy and easy to mess up.
>I personally find I memorise better when focusing at my desk, because I'm a lot less distracted. If Memrise is done then feel free to use your flash cards at your desk. It is still more effective.
>If you ever do go back to word lists, don't just look at them, cover one side up and do a few at a time, really relying on recollection.
An extract from what I'd consider my best writeup:
>What galaxyrocker said is just as true for me. My interest in the language led me to try learning it, as opposed to wanting to learn a language and then finding one. I always thought the Cyrillic alphabet looked awesome and the Russian language sounded awesome, so I decided to try it and I've been going ever since. I was always interested in the history of eastern Europe and socialism so I guess that in some way led to it. Along the way I've discovered a completely different and interesting culture and now I am learning a way to interact with it.
>One bit of advice would be to find a buddy who is a native of your target language and get in regular contact. If you're doing this online, there are plenty of resources, but I found mine on the Skype forum. The time spent teaching him the more precise aspects of English and in turn getting a more interactive source of knowledge has been invaluable to both of us, and at the same time I've been prompted to think a little about my own language, especially regarding grammar. It helps only a small bit if you share interests, because the two languages provide such a huge range of topics and conversation. Since you're going to be a beginner, look for someone experienced but looking for regular practice, to them, teaching you WILL be the practice, and any insight into English you can offer a bonus.
>Secondly, relate your studies to subjects that interest you. No doubt you'll be different, but DotA 2 has a large scene in eastern Europe, so I often tune in there just to immerse myself. Find resources to attempt to read that are about a topic of your interest. If you don't enjoy the benefits somewhere, you'll lose interest. If you surround yourself with media relating to your language, you'll always be motivated to go back to the books and continue learning.
>Also, always go back and go over words you learned, otherwise you forget them fast. Recollection is a far better teacher than repetition, so make flash cards or use Memrise (it's amazing).
Now especially for you; Resources:
Pimsleur has an audio only course that teaches you basic conversational Russian using spaced repetition and simulated conversations. It's good for getting you speaking and pronouncing Russian, but I got bored pretty fast and didn't really have the opportunities to use it. The course itself is huge, split up into many lessons. This one does cost a lot of money, you you should PM me for a "sample" first.
Penguin Russian is like a giant grammar book. It will teach you the basics as well as the advanced. While not interesting or engaging, it does have everything you could ever need to know, and so is a good resource if you have the patience. This is another one you'll have to buy, but I have the PDF form if you'd like to "sample" that too.
Lastly, trying to read Russian books is a good way to learn once you have some words down. A heads up though, unless you have more than 1000 you'll be running into a lot of words you will be unfamiliar with, at least to begin with. One staple of language learners is Harry Potter, since its been translated to pretty much every language there is. That's the last "sample" you'll be needing to PM me about.
If you want to speak, the best way is to find a Skype (or real life) buddy who speaks both. There are huge amounts of Russians online who speak passable English who could help in return for some English help.
If you're not doing it that way, you'll need to practice speech to yourself while studying.
It becomes easier once you get used to the concept of cases & case endings in general. Basically, this concept forces you to think grammatically -- which is actually a good thing. In English, we don't really think this way except when using certain pronouns (me, him, her, etc.). In English, we could say "Who are you talking to?" and sound perfectly normal, while the more proper "To whom are you talking?" sounds stilted and weird.
I studied Latin for many years (two decades, in fact) before picking up Russian; so the concept was already familiar. That was a huge help.
Anyway, stick with it, man. Repetition and drills will get you there; just be patient with yourself. At some point, this concept will "click", and you'll find yourself looking back over earlier exercises and breezing right through them. It looks like you're using the New Penguin Russian Course (like I am); so whatever answers don't appear in the key at the back of the book can be posed here in this helpful forum. ))
The Cyrillic alphabet crash course videos by Mark Thomson (there's also iOS and Android apps if you prefer)
Russian Made Easy podcast / video series also by Mark Thomson
The New Penguin Russian Course by Nicholas Brown
These three materials will give you a super solid start and come out to a grand total of like $20. I suggest starting with the Cyrillic alphabet videos then going through Ch2 of the Penguin book, which teaches Cyrillic cursive. It will be best to do all writing in cursive as you practice. I'd then go through Russian Made Easy then the rest of the Penguin book. This method has been working out very well for me so far. I tried starting with the Penguin book and it's just a little dense to be a good beginner material imo. I also push the Mark Thomson materials pretty hard because he harps on contextual learning which is very important for efficiently learning a new language, yet many resources don't focus on it.
Many people like Duolingo. I wasn't super fond of it because the audio is compressed to hell and it doesn't give a good intro to the alphabet. This led to me having trouble knowing whether I pronounced something right because the example speech sounded like garbage and also taking guesses at what sounds letters made (a few of which turned out to be wrong when I changed my methods and actually learned the alphabet). I talked to a polyglot I know and he advised me that Rosetta Stone was most useful when you have a decent foundation in a language, not quite as great if you're totally new to it (and very expensive). All of this is just my two cents of course. There's many ways to go about it. Either way, welcome to the super fun hellscape that is the Russian language, and good luck getting started :)
I started learning russian because my ex bf was Rusian.
I bought this book, which is absolutely perfect for beginners.
I also met a Russian penpal who I help with English in exchange for Russian on penpalworld.com
Definitely stick with only the Cyrillic alphabet. The transliterations used on Duolingo don't really convey the sounds very accurately. To practice Cyrillic reading I used to go on a Wikipedia page with lots of celebrities' names (e.g. Best Actor Winners ) and change it to Russian and go through reading the names.
I had a look at the Duolingo course when it came out and I found that it was really lacking in explanation of grammar (cases in particular). I would strongly recommend getting a decent book to follow along with to teach you the grammar. I have found that this has quite a nice progression and explanation. YMMV but, for Russian, I have only found Duolingo helpful for practicing putting sentences together, nothing else.
> Sometimes the words end in one way and then another, but make the same sound
I'm not sure what this is referring to, could you give an example?
Speaking as in holding a conversation, or speaking as in pronouncing the words correctly?
If it is about pronunciation:
Russian is quite good in that it is mostly say-it-as-you-see-it. In English we have lots of letter combinations to remember, like "Sch", "th" and even "ough", which are rare in Russian. In English we also change the vowel sound by putting an "e" at the end of the word, like "run" and "rune".
The worst thing about Russian is the vowel stress. In each word, you have to stress the correct vowel. Stressing the wrong vowel can sometimes change the meaning of the word. It brings with it a whole word of annoying rules, such as an unstressed "o" has an "a" sound.
Duolingo doesn't help with any of these fundamentals (worst of all not even telling us where the stress falls). I used Penguin Russian Course to help learn the alphabet and exception rules, but others have talked about using Youtube videos.
Once you have those fundamentals, it should become increasingly say-it-as-you-see-it.
This book helped me the most to understand grammar.
And this is the best Russian-English dictionary I've found.
You'll want to carry this around with you to learn the case endings.
This is one of the greatest books for a beginner to start learning Russian with. It's easy to understand and well organized. Starts from ground zero, so you don't need to worry about not knowing where to start.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416
I'm not sure what you mean when you say "the same way Latin is taught", I guess you mean without the speaking aspect? But if you're starting from scratch, I'm just going to suggest what I suggest to everyone, the New Penguin Russian Course. It doesn't have any audio CDs, but that's not a problem in your case. It teaches all the basic grammar and starting vocab to get you going.
Then, learn some of the most common words. I would perhaps suggest using Memrise because as well as the most common words, you can find various courses on there for Harry Potter, or the Bookbox series course and they'll teach you the language you need to know to understand a simple story, which will help you get started.
Read a lot, find some native text and analyse the grammar and the vocabulary, learn what you don't know and so on.
This is an oft-recommended book on Russian grammar, from what I've seen.
Order that, then get on this site and learn the alphabet. It's not too difficult to get it down on a basic level.
From there, get used to some basic vocabulary using a resource like Memrise (vocabulary practice site). Sign up on Livemocha.com and start with the basic Russian course. You'll learn some beginning phrases, get used to reading, eventually the alphabet will become second nature.
After some time with these resources (maybe a couple hours, maybe a couple of days), start listening to Russian music. You need to practice listening early and often to get the ear for words and how they sound together. Go on a Russian radio streaming site that lists the track currently playing (you can do this using a phone app, TuneIn Radio, which may also have an online site), then look up songs you like the sound of and listen to them over and over again with the lyrics in front of you. Try to sing along, even if you're sort of just mumbling Russian-sounding noises along with the singer.
At this point, start watching movies with subtitles. Search Mosfilm on Youtube. All of this studio's movies are free online, and most of them have English subtitles available.
Keep practicing like this, study the grammar using your Penguin book, and then find a penpal or something via Livemocha. It'll be scary at first, trying to communicate with someone in a language you're still making a lot of mistakes in, but people who study languages understand each other and are generally patient.
TL;DR:
Good luck! If you need any other help, PM me! I absolutely love Russian and would gladly help out anyone else who's interested.
I'd suggest reading Penguin's Complete Russian Course for Beginners and then moving on to Modern Russian. But really, books can only help you understand concepts of the language on not to listen and speak the language conversationally. I'm an American, but I lived in Russia for a couple of years in my late teens to early twenties. I'd study Penguin's Complete Russian Course (and later Modern Russian) for an hour every morning and make mental notes of phrases I wanted to use and how to construct sentences and then I'd go out and talk with people. I'd be listening for what I was learning. It's so important to listen natives speak the language and you have to try to speak and make mistakes and have them correct you. I'd listen to native Russian podcast type programs as well and watch Russian movies. I started to be able to understand almost everything within the six to nine months. After a year, I could speak quite freely and then by 18 months I could understand the nuances of the language, make jokes, and almost always get my point across. So if you have the chance to speak with Russians, do so as often as possible. And make mistakes. Then learn from them. Study everyday. Practice everyday.
If you use the website version of Duolingo and click on the Lightbulb icon for each section, it breaks down grammar rules used in that course. The online forums also has a lot of helpful explanations for each answer.
Unfortunately the App version completely disregards this feature and isn't included for some reason. Duolingo and Memrise combined should get you pretty good understanding, maybe up to a B1 level. You can also pick up some grammar books such as the New Penguin Russian Course that goes over almost all grammar rules and is pretty easy to read compared to other grammar books.
A lot of learning is through practice and using additional resources to reinforce how to think in another language. Check out some YouTube channels or movies that are in Russian and try to follow along. Tarkovsky films are really good for this as they're really slow pacing, Stalker and Solaris being some of my favorite movies of all time.
In order to get anywhere with Russian, you need a invest in a good grammar book. For complete beginners, I always recommend Nicholas Brown's New Penguin Russian Course which is dirt cheap on amazon.
To help you get comfortable with the language in terms of reading, listening, and pronunciation, I'm a big fan of the Assimil series. If you're not familiar with Assimil, you can read up on their method. The Assimil Russian is a nice complement to the Penguin course and I'm actually half-way through it myself (for review purposes).
You can find lots of good learning materials on ilearnrussian.com. I've found that some of the best learning materials are made by Russians for foreigners, but those are generally more advanced.
Immerse yourself in the language as much as you can outside of your formal lessons (i.e. Penguin, Assimil, whatever). You can find tons of Russian music on youtube. If you prefer to stream music online, check out moskva.fm. Many of the Russian stations play English music, so if you just want Russian-language music, try the Russian Radio station.
You can watch tons of old Russian movies with English subtitles on Mosfilm's website for free. If you know where to look online, you can find all the latest movies for free (pretty easy to find with google). One of my favorite things to do is find a Hollywood movie that I know really well, and then watch it dubbed in Russian. The quality of Russian dubbing is generally pretty high, and the advantage to watching a movie you're already familiar with is that you can focus on the language. Once you get to a higher level, it's interesting to compare the English dialogue to the Russian translation.
Do you have an ipod? One way to tune your ear to a language is to listen to the rapid-fire delivery on news broadcasts or opinion programs. I like to listen to podcasts from the Echo of Moscow radio station. Here's an example program you could subscribe to Culture Shock with rss link.
As difficult as the alphabet and grammar seem at first, I can assure you that it's nothing compared to acquiring a good vocabulary. Everyone has their own method for learning vocabulary, but my advice is to make some flash cards and carry a stack around with you wherever you go. In any odd, spare moment that you have, review them. You should aim to get to 1000 words as quickly as possible. As others have said, that's a key threshold. If you do the Penguin Course and/or Assimil, be diligent about learning the vocabulary for each lesson.
Anyway, good luck! Удачи!
https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537562572&sr=8-1&keywords=russian+penguin
This was my personal favorite as a beginner book, but I used this book along with other beginner texts. It's definitely worth checking out though.
I'm working my way through this very, very, very slowly. The only thing harder than my dick is learning a 2nd language as an adult.
Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!
Here are your smile-ified links:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0140120416/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00
---
^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140120416/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
That one, the New Penguin Russian Course. I don't really think it was the "best" one I could buy, but it was a well-reviewed book and had recommendations from several websites I found. Plus it was only 13 bucks, so I didn't feel too bad about buying it if it happened to not be a great book.
So far the book has been pretty good. It's got exercises for handwriting and pronunciation, and thoroughly explains things that need explaining.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0140120416?pc_redir=1405490871&robot_redir=1
you'd be better of just searching for it yourself, but here's a thing for it on amazon and google books
http://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_New_Penguin_Russian_Course.html?id=DpAmYOS15RAC
I recommend you just search for it yourself, you might find something cool below those two links :P
Learn the pronunciation of the letters. Learn the difference between soft and hard consonants. Use youtube videos and various descriptions for it. This video is a good start, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsL8ZBDBNts Russian is very often pronounced just like it is spelled. You just need to know a few simple rules, and on which vowel the stress is.
The New Penguin Russian Course that covers a lot of stuff: grammar, words, idioms, phrases, culture, pronunciation, etc. and is intended for beginners. I'd say start with that and pronunciation, as I said above.
But maybe skip some words from the book that you don't think you will need, and learn words that are more useful to you instead.
The channel #russkij on FreeNode is helpful. If you don't know how to access it, this is probably the easiest way.
You may want to check out this tool I made for reading.
You probably want to use Anki for flashcards. Flashcards are very useful.
You might like this youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/vanilla167333/videos?view=0&shelf_id=0&sort=dd
Finally, try to focus on content that is relevant to you, i.e. reading about things that you like, talking about things that interest you, etc.
The New Penguin Russian Course is amazing and includes everything you need to know about Russian grammar. A book I am reading right now for beginners is First Reader in Russian. It is a very basic Russian book that has exercises and a dictionary in the back. The only bad thing about it is the dictionary doesn't include all of the words from the book so I usually have to go to my Russian-English English-Russian Dictionary. This dictionary also lacks many important words, but it hasn't given me any problems. Another good Russian reading source is Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book. If you just look around on amazon you will find many good resources.
I learned Cyrillic using http://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416 in about a day. It's really not as bad as you'd think! Give any thorough method a try and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
It's definitely better than Rosetta Stone.
I think paired with something to really cement the grammar will be pretty effective.
Use it with the New Penguin book. (only $15 on Amazon)
https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416
I super-duper recommend this book
The reviews give a good idea of why this book is so fantastic. I started using this book casually in high school and it concisely gets a ton of vital information.
It's not afraid to mention exceptions and weird things that a lot of beginner books would let you ignore and sound stupid later. It also has accent marks on all of the words past the first few chapters.
The pronunciation guide is priceless, as well. It's clear but comprehensive. I've seen tons of pronunciation aides for Russian but so far following this book's guide on it has yielded the best accent that I know of.
This is the one that gets recommended every time this question is asked: https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416
I don't think it's in the Books link yet.
I've been waiting as well. It's the one language, along with Swedish, that I've had an interest in. If you want to try and learn some on your own, I'd suggest Memrise.com along with their app. I've also heard this book is fantastic and I plan on getting it soon. Hope this helps!
https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1540842986&sr=8-5&keywords=Russian+language&dpID=51mscieyoQL&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch
www.babbel.com is a great paid service.
"The New Penguin Russian Course" is a little older and not the best order for learning imo but it's a solid book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140120416/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_RuoFDbMQ0YFF5
LiveLingua also has a ton of materials, including some produced by the government.
I learned to read the Cyrillic alphabet in about 3 hours thanks to this book. It breaks down the letters for English speakers in a way that makes more sense than merely learning them in order.
Grammar books, for a start. At university, we used NPRC and Ruslan which both had easy to follow structure. Ruslan was more fun, but with a decent amount of grammar. Our professor told us it was the text that the US Nasa astronauts used to learn Russian. NPRC was more serious, with more comprehensive grammar.
Here is the mobile version of your link
A tutor is probably the best way and is mostly how I learned, though Duolingo is quite good.
This is the best resource I've found on the Russian language: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0140120416/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521760943&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=russian+course+book
http://learnrussian.rt.com/ ist sehr nützlich für Anfänger.
Die beste Buchkurs ist "The New Penguin Russian Course for Beginners.
Ich finde es ziemlich leicht und einfach.
Ich wünsche dein Mitarbeiter viel Glück mit Russisch! Es ist ein faszinierend Sprach!
Not quite free, but I've seen many recommendations for The New Penguin Russian Course. And as always, I'd recommend checking your library to see whether they have any materials you can borrow; mine has Pimsleur CDs in about twenty languages, including Russian.
Thanks. I've found a New Penguin one from Amazon that I am ready to order.
​
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0140120416/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Penguin-Russian-Course/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348021896&sr=8-1&keywords=penguin+russian
This is a good intro book, and /r/russian's a pretty good sub.
The mother learned russian at school back in the day, i'm trying to follow in her footsteps, mainly by means of a teacher.
But this is the one book my mother recommends from back then. I bought it, and it is excellent. No stone is left unturned.
Multi qui linguae Russicae periti esse videntur hunc librum probant. Ipse tamen, qui modo huius linguae elementa disco, iudicare non possum. Si sermone Latino uti placet ad colloquendum vel ad scribendum, nihil obstat quin nobiscum aliquando in /r/latin Latine scribas.
Because you'd already be subjugated through propaganda :^)
Do something productive instead of crying about your next president. Here... https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481656596&sr=1-1
http://www.russianforeveryone.com/
Not the most visually attractive site, but pretty good in regard of its contents and explanations.
They say this book is also pretty good: https://www.amazon.es/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416
Just buy this book and use RS to supplement it.
Or get the Assimil course(s).
There was a workbook called Сила that I used to get off the ground, but I can't find it anywhere on line. I used it in conjunction with
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Penguin-Russian-Course/dp/0140120416
I'll tell you what you don't want to do though. Don't get a book that has a bunch of phrases that you need to memorize. Get a book that focuses on grammar principles and vocab.
EDIT: Join us in /r/russian as well! There is most likely more beginners there as well.
I'm in the same boat as you. I've been working through The New Penguin Russian Course and have found it very helpful and easy to follow.
The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140120416/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_MvtaCbFKB31BV
well... according to my textbook, that would be called "partitive genitive".
Here's what the Russian Penguin Course has to say about this:
A minor use of the genitive case is to express the meaning 'some' with food and drink nouns:
дайте мне воды/вина/хлеба
дайте хлеб corresponds to "Give me bread" or "Give me the bread"
A small number of nouns have a special у/ю ending for the partitive. You may hear the question:
вы хотите чаю?
чаю with a special genitive ending ю (an alternative to -я is the pratitive genitve of чай. Other nouns which may have this -у ending are сахар, мёд, сыр
No no. Its prolly not the fastest way. But if your learning and having fun then by all means.
Ya know on second thought there isn't as many as I thought at first.
You can ignore my statement.
I 100% say get this though. I've bought it twice it was so good.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=New+penguin+russian+course&qid=1564251934&s=gateway&sr=8-1
In my opinion, apps and software don't tend to be of much use; they don't let you advance quickly enough and don't expose you to enough material. If you're serious about learning Russian, grab a good book and study each text or dialogue until you understand it both in reading and aurally. There's Teach Yourself Russian, Routledge's Colloquial Russian, the FSI FAST (Familiarization and Short-Term Training) Russian, Assimil Russian (if you speak French), and I've heard good things about the New Penguin Russian Course. In all cases, be sure you get audio along with the book, or have a native speaker who is willing to help you learn. Good luck!
Here is the desktop version of your link
The New Penguin Russian Course is quite good. The textbook I've used is Russian for Everybody (there's also an accompanying workbook that I highly recommend). Once you start getting a hang of things, Shaum's Outline of Russian Grammar is a good, clear reference for grammar.
As for free websites? I'm not very familiar with them... MasterRussian.com is a popular one. From my experience with free internet lessons, they tend to be lacking in explanations of grammar, and more about giving you "useful" phrases. Everybody learns differently, of course, but I personally find that the more grammar lessons you can integrate, the better off you'll be in the long run.
Other than all that, I definitely recommend finding an easy to read book/article/text/something to work towards understanding -- children's books are good for this. Provides more motivation that way, and it's a way to apply what you're learning. Always keep a goal in mind. :)
My local library's website has the Mango Language program for free, and it has very easy to use and what I can only assume is accurate Russian phrases that would be used, so maybe that option is available for you to check out. http://www.russianlessons.net/ this is another website that proved mighty useful. While the book I have been using for my Russian studies, is the Penguin Russian Course: http://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372041401&sr=1-1&keywords=penguin+russian
Don't Use That Link! Use This Link HERE.
Name: The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks).
Price: $17.38
Hi, I'm Amazon Info Bot. Every time you purchase an item through one of these links, 10% of the products price goes to the American Cancer Society.
1st Month Donation Proof Please Upvote This Comment so that I may comment more, and raise more.
[My Motive](/s "My Aunt passed away this last year from Breast Cancer. I'm in my 1st semester of Computer Science and decided to take on a project that would make a drop of difference on this world and hopefully contribute to stopping others from losing an aunt they loved as much as I did.") | [Why Not Use Amazon Smile](/s "Amazon smile gives .5% of your purchase to charity, amazon affiliate gives ~10%. That is a 20x greater affect per purchase."| Amazon Music Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial | Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial | 6 Months Free w/ Prime Student