Teach Yourself Russian Book and 2 Audio CDs
Brand New : . Book and 2 CDs
The aim of Teach Yourself Russian is to equip the complete beginner with the skills needed to communicate in practical, everyday situations and to give some background information about Russia and Russian society.
The 20 thematic units are designed to teach specific uses of the language related to situations you may encounter on a business trip or holiday to Russia. For example, you will learn how to give and ask for information about people and places, how to make requests, complaints, apologies, arrangements, how to express opinions and explain what has happened and what will happen.
The book starts with sections on the alphabet and pronunciation; the course does not use transliteration but gives lots of help with mastering the Cyrillic alphabet, so you will soon be able to read and write easily and with confidence.
The course is accompanied by two CDs with the book in a pack.
About the Author
Daphne West, the author, has been a Teacher of Russian to school pupils and adult students for more than twenty years, and is the author of six publications on the Russian language. Formerly Head of Modern Languages and a Chief Examiner at A-level, she is now Headmistress of the Maynard School in Exeter (where she still teaches Russian); in 1993 she was awarded the Pushkin Medal by the Pushkin Institute, Moscow, for contributions to the teaching of Russian.
About the Russian Language
Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three (or, according to some authorities, four) living members of the East Slavic languages, the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn, often considered a dialect of Ukrainian).
Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards. Today Russian is widely used outside Russia. Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian. It is also applied as a means of coding and storage of universal knowledge — 60–70% of all world information is published in English and Russian languages. Russian also is a necessary accessory of world communications systems (broadcasts, air- and space communication, etc). Due to the status of the Soviet Union as a superpower, Russian had great political importance in the 20th century. Hence, the language is one of the official languages of the United Nations.
Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels, which is not entirely unlike that of English. Stress in Russian is neither indicated orthographically, nor governed by phonological rules.
Russian is the official language of Russia. It is also an official language of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the de facto official language of unrecognized Transnistria, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics.
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