Welcome to Divnograd: An Illustrated Workbook for Students of Russian

by Samuel D. Cioran, Gennadi A. Kalinin

Release Date: April, 1994

Edition: Paperback

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Outstanding!

"Welcome to Divnograd!" was originally designed as a companion to the RussianAlive! language course that Samuel Cioran wrote (and which I am using), but despite that, "Welcome to Divnograd!" could be used as a standalone product. That being said, the difficulty level of "Welcome to Divnograd!" is such that students would be expected to already know the Cyrillic alphabet and how to read some basic Russian words.

The strengths of this language workbook are that it provides extensive vocabulary backed up by graphical reinforcement and tons of grammar exercises, and it also makes the learning process fun by introducing twenty colorful personalities and by providing a big, fold-out map of the fictional city of Divnograd.

Aside from these strengths, Welcome to Divnograd! provides vocabulary and exercises covering the typical Russian apartment and the types of stores that one might encounter in visiting a Russian city. In describing the Russian apartment, each room of the apartment (living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom/toilet) is provided its own separate section with a full-page illustration complete with Russian vocabulary words specific for that room. Similarly, for the Russian stores, separate full-page illustrations complemented by relevant Russian vocabulary are also provided. For example, in describing the Russian department store, Welcome to Divnograd! has separate sections giving vocabulary words for womens' clothes, mens' clothes, electric products, and dishware. The vocabulary in each of these sections is reinforced by grammar exercises, although I thought the exercises were a little lacking.

The map of Divnograd (a fictional city remember) that is provided is actually quite detailed showing all the street names, the names of squares, and even the name of monuments. On the back of the map is an index showing where all the stores and other notables are located according to grid coordinates. It's fun just to look at the illustrations on the map!