Ultimate Russian: Basic - Intermediate : Cassette/Book Package

by Nancy Novak

Release Date: 07 April, 1998

Edition: Audio Cassette

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Personal Review

When I started Russian, I thought this was going to be a great book. I really loved the layout of the lessons, but I was very upset by the constant errors everywhere. The book would contradict itself in many places, and this is very confusing for anyone that is trying to understand the difficult grammar.

Good layout but too many mistakes

I bought this as a review text since I've been away from Russian for several years and needed to improve my verbal fluency. While I like the layout of the lessons (dialog first, break down of dialog next and finally an examination of grammar point by point), I have been disappointed to find that in virtually every chapter there are mistakes, either spelling (nedlyu instead of nedel'yu-i.e. accusative singular of the word for week) or persistent errors such as ubirat' v komnati instead of ubirat' komnatu. (This mistake was made 4 times in one chapter). In some languages, spelling errors are not a big deal because the word doesn't change form depending on its usage (English is an example of that). In Russian with its 12 case endings and many words which significantly change form depending on case, spelling errors can be very misleading (and ultimately defeating) to the beginner. For my purposes, as a review text, this has been great. Hence, the 4 stars. But, I can't recommend it for someone taking his first steps into the mind-boggling complications of Russian.