Customer Reviews
Good if Russian is your first foreign language - By: T. Stennett, 15 Sep 2008 
This book starts at the very basics & goes at a good pace, giving plenty of opportunity for practice, topics that one is likely to encounter on a holiday in Russia & clear pronunciation guides. However, as Russian is not my first foreign language, I found the grammar wasn't explained as clearly as I'd like. The verb declinations are given as set phrases (eg. I play guitar) & it doesn't explain how to then take the same verb & decline it differently (eg. he plays guitar) until much later in the book.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to those who haven't learned a foreign language before, but if you are already familiar with cases & verb declination, & want a more grammar-based approach, this probably isn't the book for you.
If Olga Bean is the best Russian tutor in Birmingham, Rachel Farmer is the best CD Tutor - By: Pen, 20 Jun 2008 
Rachel Farmer is the best CD Tutor of Russian......I had bought many CD Russian courses... many are by residents of the USA, with their own sloppy version of Russian. Rachel Farmer speaks very clearly & her voice becomes your friend, which is good for not getting stressed when you are listening & learning.... This contains 2 CDs & 256 page book, starting you from the basics & learning the alphabet. The alphabet is the key to pronouncing the words in Russian, not English spellings of the words. The only other Russian course i could recommend above this CD & book is actuallly taught at Birmingham University or Brasshouse by Olga Bean!!!
Great, great book! - By: cryingfreeman, 31 Mar 2008 Surely this is one of the easiest, most enjoyable, most enticing introduction courses for any foreign language available. My only quibble is that I'd have liked just a little more detail on the grammar. And yes, the cover photo is bizarre to say the least!!!
Terrific little guide - By: D. LORD, 06 Mar 2008 At first I thought this book looked a bit dry & hard-going, compared to just buying a phrase book or vocab builder. But it's concise & well structured. I've reallly come to enjoy reading it.. Every few days I take on a new lesson, which builds vocabulary, familiarity with the script, & fundamental grammar, with practical exercises. I'm also taking language classes which are conducted entirely in Russian, & I've found I can easily stay ahead of the class if I do a bit of work from this book rather than the home study suggested in class.
Helpful intro to the subject - By: H. L. Daniel Coppel, 08 Jun 2007 
I agree with the reviews already but why is there a picture of a plainly terrified scuba diver on the front cover? Depicted in icy waters he's surrounded by what look like sharks. Some kind of analogy with life in Russia? It makes me smile every time I pick the book up.
