Job Discussion Forums

slaqdog · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 211

Hello
Does anyone have any suggestions for a classroom coursebook for beginners level Russian?
One very tired teacher is looking for help she has a class of expats here in Kazakhstan learning Russian and we cannot find a decent book that she can use.
All help gratefully received Shocked

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

An old-fashioned one that was great for me was "Russian For Everybody" (Russky Yazyk dlya vsekh) Russky Yazyk publishers
http://www.libex.ru/detail/book17863.html

It's old school but very comprehensive and easy to follow. (The edition I learned from still used the old Soviet texts.)

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

I use the Penguin New Russian Course. As I think you'll see from the Amazon reviews, others think it's the best around.
http://highbrowbooks.com/non-fiction/index.php?board=15.0

slaqdog · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 211

Thank you for the replies much appreciated

dirimini · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 74

As a student (not a teacher), I used both the Penguin and the following:

Kagan, Miller, et al. В Пути:Russian Grammar in Context. 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2006

I found the Kagan quite good, especially with the accompanying workbook; however they were ridiculously expensive, and are probably not easily obtainable in Kazakhstan.

I would guess the Penguin will be more than adequate; it certainly did me no harm.

macedonianmike · Joined: 28 Jun 2007 Posts: 64

I used Golosa beginner in university. Seemed pretty good

travelNick · Joined: 22 Feb 2009 Posts: 56 Location: Bogota, Colombia

By far the best introductory course is "В пути" (V puti) by Frank Miller and Olga Kagan. It has reasonably interesting topics, and the grammar is explained in a straightforward way. It has several levels as well.

The Penguin book is more thorough with grammar and vocab., but with В Пути you can use the language presented almost straight away i.e. it's useful and communicative, and up to date (2006).

Seeker of truth · Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 146

Check out this place:

http://www.transparent.com/languagepages/russian/russian.htm

They have stuff for various languages. The WOTD (word of the day) download is free.

Holbs · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 18 Location: Russia

I second what coledavis said, I've just picked up the Penguin one, and it seems great.

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

I'm back in the states and I use a Kindle 2 book reader because of my hand.

There are several decent Russian Laguage textbooks available in the Kinle store section on Amazon.

My girl friend and I used to get a laugh looking at each other's beginner's language texts.