Rating: 
Summary: Ugly
Review: After going through this book -- I'm well equipped to enter a russian department store and charge like crazy. In fact, I've even been asked to help other american tourists get around in a department store. What you learn is how to buy things, order things. Russian culture doesn't seem to be very important. Instead of learning words like "war" or "literature" you learn "hat department" and "credit card." Perhaps it's the lack of interest/demand for good russian textbooks in the States. The grammar explainations are fine. Quite good in fact. I'm just depressed at what these authors think is of interest to an american/english audience. I can't imagine anyone interested in such an extremely materialistic introduction to Russian. Sadly, I haven't found any alternatives. But if I had to start learning Russian again -- I really would not use this book. You may learn some grammar -- but you'll end up learning words like "credit card" before words that will really help you experience Russian culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Get started now
Review: An excellent beginning text for learning Russian. It was very helpful to me in getting a start on learning this language, and I highly recommend it to anyone. The exercises are useful, the explanations are instructive, the diagrams are useful, and the text is well-written.
Rating:
Summary: Get started now
Review: An excellent beginning text for learning Russian. It was very helpful to me in getting a start on learning this language, and I highly recommend it to anyone. The exercises are useful, the explanations are instructive, the diagrams are useful, and the text is well-written.
Rating: 
Summary: I love this book
Review: Golasa RULES!!! I wouldn't want to learn russian any other way.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the rest (but wait for the 3rd edition)
Review: I am on the brink of completing an intensive Russian course (1 year of Russian compressed into one quarter) which has used this series. Over the course of 8 weeks with the two books and a PhD candidate as my guide I have found myself possessing enough proficiency to converse with a couple I met on a bus, to listen to the news in Russian, and assume I could keep my head above water were I to travel.The authors' approach is vastly different from other texts I have encountered. A large number of listening and reading excercises accompany lessons on grammar and a wealth of vocabulary. Texts and dialogues, unlike other texts, are not overly glossed and seem to focus on adding unknown words and phrases, forcing the student to pick out what he or she understands to follow the action. Such an approach approximates what a student might experience in a real world situation. For a student or teacher of early Russian classes I believe there to be few better books. I could not recommend the text and the authors' approach more. Although I would suggest awaiting the 3rd edition (the current edition is rife with confusing errors and typos as well as a cumbersome delivery system for the accompanying audio) the issues can be surmounted by a dedicated student and/or knowledgeable teacher. They do little, however, to detract from the overall quality inherent in the books' approach to learning.
Rating:
Summary: A student who has used this book
Review: I have used this book in a two course sequence that was taught by a native Russian speaker who has graduate degrees in philology from prestigous universities in Moscow. I consider her considerably more knowlegeable about the Russian language and how to teach it to Americans than the know-it-all, KMM, who gives this book an unbelievable single star. Our instructor, who actually knows something about Russia, having lived there for at least 45 years before coming to the US, repeatedly informed us that Golosa is the best text available and easily supersedes anything else that is available. It works for me. My teacher warned us that a very limited number of phrases weren't culturally authentic and explained why. But, this book is more than adequate. Though some of the tapes don't conform exactly to the text, this engenders some level of sponteneity and helps develop listening skills. Ignore KMM's diatribes against this book. Talk about a complete lack of crediblity! KMM rails against the American authors of the book, but apparently because KMM is French and knows a little English, too, KMM has expert status and superior knowlege about how native English speakers should learn Russian. Duh??? Wasn't KMM the person who essentially indicated that only a native Russian speaker can teach a Russian course? So, by KMM's own logic, ignore a native French speaker's comments on a Russian language text for Americans. KMM must agree that is it not possible for KMM to understand the needs of an English speaker in learning any language, except possibly French? The specific criticisms KMM makes of this book-bad graphics and an incomplete "how to tell time" section-miss the mark, widely. Graphics: I've used the book and have two advanced degrees from nationally recognized institutions. I've seen a lot of textbooks. These graphics are adequate. Though some of the letters and notes reproduced in cursive script are a bit difficult to read, isn't the handwriting of many people difficult to read? How to tell time: The time keeping information isn't introduced just to provide a complete discussion of how time is told in Russian. Rather, it is provided to acquint the beginner with one of the six complex "cases" that must be introduced to cover the basics. Hint to KMM: In Russian telling the time isn't as simple as "Six heures et demi", which is not different from English in structure. Maybe KMM is only upset because Russian is so much more complex and difficult to learn than French. There are six "cases" and the nouns and adjectives must be "declined" to agree as to number, gender AND case. Even the "gender" is more complicated than French, because there is a neuter, not just a masculine and feminine. Then, almost none of the words are English cognates, though there are some French cognates. Anyone who suggests that Russian can be learned in a self-instruction program doesn't know enough about the subject to be taken seriously.
Rating:
Summary: A voice for The Voice
Review: I recently finished an accelerated Russian "101" course. We went through the whole book this past semester. Wow! I speak French and Spanish, so I understand more than the average student. I had never studied Russian before. By the end of the course, my Russian was good. This book/course work, in conjunction with constant conversation practice, allowed me to develop an impressive level of Russian. I surprised several Russian exchange students with my abilities. Not knowing all of the rammifications of the language, please consider that my review is from a STUDENT'S standpoint. I am not a linguistic scholar. Book 1 covers all of the cases, while enforcing basic vocabulary and common expressions. Book 2 I will see next semester! I am aware of two other modern Russian college texts: "Nachalo" and "Troika." I hope that my review has helped!
Rating:
Summary: A voice for The Voice
Review: I recently finished an accelerated Russian "101" course. We went through the whole book this past semester. Wow! I speak French and Spanish, so I understand more than the average student. I had never studied Russian before. By the end of the course, my Russian was good. This book/course work, in conjunction with constant conversation practice, allowed me to develop an impressive level of Russian. I surprised several Russian exchange students with my abilities. Not knowing all of the rammifications of the language, please consider that my review is from a STUDENT'S standpoint. I am not a linguistic scholar. Book 1 covers all of the cases, while enforcing basic vocabulary and common expressions. Book 2 I will see next semester! I am aware of two other modern Russian college texts: "Nachalo" and "Troika." I hope that my review has helped!
Rating:
Summary: A voice for The Voice
Review: I recently finished an accelerated Russian "101" course. We went through the whole book this past semester. Wow! I speak French and Spanish, so I understand more than the average student. I had never studied Russian before. By the end of the course, my Russian was good. This book/course work, in conjunction with constant conversation practice, allowed me to develop an impressive level of Russian. I surprised several Russian exchange students with my abilities. Not knowing all of the rammifications of the language, please consider that my review is from a STUDENT'S standpoint. I am not a linguistic scholar. Book 1 covers all of the cases, while enforcing basic vocabulary and common expressions. Book 2 I will see next semester! I am aware of two other modern Russian college texts: "Nachalo" and "Troika." I hope that my review has helped!
Rating:
Summary: Perfectly adequate textbook
Review: I used this textbook in an intensive Russian class I took in college. It follows the standard textbook format: Each chapter introduces a grammatical concept and new vocabulary. There are a few short dialogues and several exercises to reinforce the grammar and vocabulary. There are also exercises at the beginning to practice cursive in the cyrillic alphabet. At the end of the book there was a grammar reference so it was easy to review and brush up on previous lessons. It was a perfectly good textbook to use as part of a class.
In this case I also used the workbook and tape set. The workbook has additional exercises for each chapter in the book. It helped, but isn't necessary since things are covered in enough detail in the book. The tapes were helpful for picking up on how to pronounce. Russian pronunciation is very tricky. Basically they contain spoken versions of the dialogues in the text and a few simple exercises. I would just try to repeat after them to pick up on how to pronounce. The tapes are only useful as a supplement to a class, and not to teach you Russian on your own.
This and Golosa Book 2 is a good textbook set to use as part of a class. I used it in college but it would also work for highschool. It did a pretty good job of explaining things and covered the concepts adequately. Teachers will want to know that there is a third edition out now.
If you are trying to learn Russian on your own: Don't try to use this as a tape and book set. It isn't designed for this and unless you have superhuman amounts of natural aptitude for Russian it isn't going to work. Instead find a good tape and book set specifically designed for studying on your own. If used copies of the Golosa books are on sale dirt cheap then consider buying them for the exercises and to use as a grammar reference, but don't expect to learn Russian from them alone.
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