Teach Yourself Russian Language Life and Culture

Rating:
Summary: Reader from Kazan, Russia
Review: As a Russian studying in the UK, I am often asked a lot of questions about Russia by my British and iternational friends. Very often I did not have the answers! So, I was actually looking for a suitable source on Russia. This excellent book is the best of this kind - it manages to compress a great deal of information and insights about all aspects of Russian life into just some 250 pages. It is refreshingly free of the usual stereotypes about Russia, but is still realistic. So, for a taste of what Russia is, I can certainly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Reader from Kazan, Russia
Review: I am a writer and I could have written this book in fifteen minutes using a Collier's Encyclopedia. It is terrible. Pay attention to the title that says teach yourself Russian CULTURE and HISTORY because it has nothing to do with teaching yourself Russian or Ukrainian. The book basically begins with an encyclopedia article on Ivan the Terrible and ends with an encyclopedia article on Boris Yeltsin. That's not Russian, that's not Ukrainian- it's nothing you didn't already know by spending a half an hour on the internet. Do Not Buy This Book!

Rating:
Summary: Does Not Gibe With the Title
Review: I am a writer and I could have written this book in fifteen minutes using a Collier's Encyclopedia. It is terrible. Pay attention to the title that says teach yourself Russian CULTURE and HISTORY because it has nothing to do with teaching yourself Russian or Ukrainian. The book basically begins with an encyclopedia article on Ivan the Terrible and ends with an encyclopedia article on Boris Yeltsin. That's not Russian, that's not Ukrainian- it's nothing you didn't already know by spending a half an hour on the internet. Do Not Buy This Book!

Rating:
Summary: An insight into Russia
Review: I wish I had had this book when I was teaching Russian culture, in its broadest sense, in UK universities. Most students took up the subject on entering the university and therefore had no grounding in it at all. This book, rightly, assumes zero knowledge on the part of the reader, yet manages not to assume a condescending tone. On the contrary it is readable, up-to-date, informative and interesting. Even an old Russia hand like myself learned a great deal from it. The fact that one of the authors is Russian, the other English, gives them a particularly broad insight into their subject.

Rating:
Summary: Previous reviewer misses point completely
Review: The previous reviewer of this books gets it completely wrong - their lack of credentials to write a review is shown by their failure to appreciate the fact that Russian and Ukrainian are separate languages. This book is about Russian life and culture, and is NOT a language textbook. And excuse me, the whole point is you CAN'T find a summary of such a wide range of topics as covered in this book on any internet site or indeed any other book I can think of, hence the value of this book (as recognised by schools, universities and individual customers of the book in the UK). Take a look at the reviews on the amazon UK site, in the journal of the Russian teachers of the UK (Rusistika).

Rating:
Summary: excellent overview of history and present
Review: this book does what it advertises, a consise discussion of cultural scene from historical context to present, very pleased;
ñïàñèáî for giving me everything in one volume, clear and full overview of most aspects of Russian lifestlye, great starting point