Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Product Description
An ideal introduction to the language and culture of Russia, Russian Language and People is an integrated multi-media course for beginners. As well as teaching you to communicate in and understand Russian, this course provides an accessible introduction to the written language. There are also plenty of fascinating insights into modern Russia and traditional customs.Whether learning at home or in a class, Russian Language and People can help you to reach the equivalent level of a first qualification, such as GCSE.
Audio
- Closely integrated with the book, conversations and dialogues help you develop your listening and speaking skills
- Stage-by-stage pronunciation practice enables you to perfect your accent and monitor your progress
2 x 75-minute CDs
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
This is a thematically organised course, so how helpful you will find it depends greatly on whether your reasons for learning the language mesh well with the author's expectations.
It is worth pointing out, however, two editorial decisions which, in my opinion, significantly increase the student's task:
1) Rather than introduce the entire Cyrillic alphabet straight away, they introduce around 5 letters per chapter. Sounds good? Well, no - they don't restrict themselves to words that can be spelt with the letters covered so far (presumably because the thematic approach impedes this), instead they substitute letters from the Latin alphabet. This might work with a language, like Hindi, where there are no characters in common, but to do this when Cyrillic letters can look identical to Latin ones but sound different? - Madness!
I'd rather take a deep breath and memorise the whole alphabet than have to try to remember (for example) whether P is to be pronounced 'pee' (Latin) or 'err' (Cyrillic) depending on the typeface and chapter reached! In effect, you up learning a lot of words twice (one in the bastardized mixed form, and then again, properly, later); it also significantly decreases the speed at which the student becomes at ease in reading the Cyrillic alphabet without transliterating.
2) As a minor corollary: the script form of Cyrillic - which can differ greatly from the printed form! - is not discussed until quite late in the book; however, it is used frequently in examples of 'real Russian' in the earlier chapters, without comment.
3) The readers on the CD have different regional accents. This (as in English) can result in quite marked differences in how they pronounce certain letters. A brief discussion of this factor would have been helpful - otherwise the student is left puzzling as to why sometimes one sound is heard and sometimes another.
It is obvious to a native speaker of a language what variations in pronunciation are acceptable, and what change the meaning of the word spoken; to a beginner it is not. Whilst a full discussion of dialect would go way beyond the remit of this book, a brief discussion of the range of variations in pronunciation would have been helpful.
From my point of view, the two merits of this course are:
1) it is reasonable recent - important when discussing culture in a country where the social situation has changed so drastically over the last two decades
&
2) it does have a considerable quantity of aural material.
It is worth pointing out, however, two editorial decisions which, in my opinion, significantly increase the student's task:
1) Rather than introduce the entire Cyrillic alphabet straight away, they introduce around 5 letters per chapter. Sounds good? Well, no - they don't restrict themselves to words that can be spelt with the letters covered so far (presumably because the thematic approach impedes this), instead they substitute letters from the Latin alphabet. This might work with a language, like Hindi, where there are no characters in common, but to do this when Cyrillic letters can look identical to Latin ones but sound different? - Madness!
I'd rather take a deep breath and memorise the whole alphabet than have to try to remember (for example) whether P is to be pronounced 'pee' (Latin) or 'err' (Cyrillic) depending on the typeface and chapter reached! In effect, you up learning a lot of words twice (one in the bastardized mixed form, and then again, properly, later); it also significantly decreases the speed at which the student becomes at ease in reading the Cyrillic alphabet without transliterating.
2) As a minor corollary: the script form of Cyrillic - which can differ greatly from the printed form! - is not discussed until quite late in the book; however, it is used frequently in examples of 'real Russian' in the earlier chapters, without comment.
3) The readers on the CD have different regional accents. This (as in English) can result in quite marked differences in how they pronounce certain letters. A brief discussion of this factor would have been helpful - otherwise the student is left puzzling as to why sometimes one sound is heard and sometimes another.
It is obvious to a native speaker of a language what variations in pronunciation are acceptable, and what change the meaning of the word spoken; to a beginner it is not. Whilst a full discussion of dialect would go way beyond the remit of this book, a brief discussion of the range of variations in pronunciation would have been helpful.
From my point of view, the two merits of this course are:
1) it is reasonable recent - important when discussing culture in a country where the social situation has changed so drastically over the last two decades
&
2) it does have a considerable quantity of aural material.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
This an excellent, very interesting introduction to both the Russian language and the country and its people. Grammar is not laboured, but everything seems to be covered. It also has accompanying CDs, which do not go too fast for the beginner, unlikely some other courses. They provide plenty of practice. As there aren't many courses for adult learners around, it would be a good course to use for individual study.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
As a student of languages this course is an excellent introduction to Russian - maybe team it with Teach Yourself - it is good to learn from a couple of courses. The BBC are masters of language tuition and if you only buy one - buy this.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Languages > By Language > Russian > By Publisher > BBC
- Books > Languages > By Language > Russian > Learning Materials
- Books > Reference > Language > Translation & Interpretation
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Education Studies
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences
- Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Asia > Russia
- Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Europe > Russia
- Books > Travel & Holiday > Speciality Travel > Photo Collections
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
