Thread: Russian In 10 Minutes A Day

Has anyone tried this book called "Russian in 10 Minutes a Day"
by Kristine K. Kershul? I was browsing through it today at the bookstore, it seemed pretty neat. Easy to read, some basic writing exercises, pictures, phonetics. I was tempted to buy it, but decided that i'd try and get some opinions on it first, from anyone who's used it before. Do you think it's a good book for beginners? I've already place my order for the Penguin Russian Course, but this does seem like a good supplemental guide. Does anyone recommend it?

I also have the book, and if you are trying to learn grammar from it, then don't get it. It's very colorful, and will teach you more vocab than anything else, which is still good.

You get a bunch of stickers with it, which can be helpful if you wanna throw that "make everything around you in Russian" thing in there, but you can't really put a sticker on your dog and have it stuck for a while.

You'll learn some tourist phrases in there, and do some crosswords to review your vocab, learn the alphabet, learn numbers and colors, months, days of the week, etc. It's pretty good if you get Penguin with it, to learn grammar, because you can skip the two pages of numbers they give you in the genetive case chapter.

I think it's great ! That's the book i started from, before i graduated to song lyircs of russian pop! anyways, i like that book. And it does teach you the basics of grammar, things that alot of other "colering books" don't... like, when where and why you would conjugate verbs, and it gives you their conjugations. It has LOTS of useful vocab, and by the end of the book, alot of the instructions are in russian. This is a great book for the absolute beginner, and is highly recommended before you graduate on to any higher level grammar book. (i used it, and look at me now )

that was the first russian book i bought! its a great book! i really encourage you to buy it! its a great start!

Ahem...erhem...perhaps I'm a little bit old-fashioned, but I would strongly recommend you to stay away from any book described as "colorful" that comes with stickers. Candy, or...Grammar? I had my own bad beginners experiences with "Learn Russian the Fast and Fun way"(stay away from any book with the word "fast" or "fun" in the title, as learning Russian is neither ). If you're looking to learn Russian for the sake of learning it, then definitely do not go with this book. If you plan on going to Russia as a tourist, I say take it if you'd like. Some of the older grammar books have the problem of teaching you grammar very well but only irrelevant vocabulary words that won't help you much if you're going as a tourist. There's enough stuff on the internet to teach you the tourist stuff, though, so it doesn't really justify spending 10-15 bucks on a happy glossy coloring book. Again, maybe I am a little too old-fashioned language learning-wise.

It really depends on what you are learning Russian for. If it is for an upcoming trip as a tourist and you don't plan on meeting anybody, then you can certainly buy yourself a tourist phrase book - you won't need to know any more than that - in fact, you probably won't even need to know the alphabet. If you're learning Russian "because it's there" as some of us are, then you certainly won't need to know tourist phrases at all. Not that it's a bad thing to know them, but you'll probably be more interested in being able to write letters and read newspapers. Of course, most of us in the second category end up yearning to go to Russia - but have you noticed that very few of us actually end up there? We're of course extremely jealous at the people who get to go but don't learn the language as seriously as we do

actully pravit, the book we are talkin about here is a book that starts from the VERY beginning, (sounds of letters, which are vowels..etc..) its a good book for beginners...even if you do plan on meeting a russian person or moving there..its a nice place to START.

Actually, Pravit, everyone should start with stickers and bright colors. I don't even know how people ever learned to read before the invention of cheap color printing. Also, all educational texts should be covered in bells and anthropomorphic dogs and pictures of smiling children of all races holding hands. You are obviously an elitist intellectual commie for suggesting that adults focus on more serious works that acutally convey complicated ideas, or maybe you just have no idea what we are talking about. Either way, you are out of touch with the common man. Be ashamed.

Originally Posted by Линдзи

Actually, Pravit, everyone should start with stickers and bright colors. I don't even know how people ever learned to read before the invention of cheap color printing. Also, all educational texts should be covered in bells and anthropomorphic dogs and pictures of smiling children of all races holding hands. You are obviously an elitist intellectual commie for suggesting that adults focus on more serious works that acutally convey complicated ideas, or maybe you just have no idea what we are talking about. Either way, you are out of touch with the common man. Be ashamed.

Indeed. If there was ever a better time for me to put my head into my hands and cry in front of my computer, it's now. I surrender to you, O learners of Russian in your car!

Lindzi, I...I...oh geez. Your post moved me to tears. +...+100 PAR. +1000. Beautiful post.

I actually learned to read on a children's placemat in a restauraunt, and boy was that a colorful work of art!

I still haven't finished that 10 Minutes a Day book, because it was mostly crap that I don't even say in English, e.g. "Where can I buy some stamps?". I did like to walk around with a different sticker on my shirt each day, because whenever someone would ask me what it meant, I would always remember the word, so now I have a vocabulary of "хлеб", "пива", and "чай"!

It was very poor in explaining any grammar though, which I posted earlier, because it would throw a word at you that you had seen before, but with a completely new ending on it... and they weren't verbs (which they do go over in that book)...

If you really want the book, you can send me $5 to pay for the shipping, and I'll send you mine. I'll erase the work I did in it, but you will still be missing a few stickers.

I just got this book a couple days ago and was going to start a thread telling people not to use it to learn from.

As said, it is good for vocabulary building but nothing else. Maybe I just haven't found it, but where in the book does it mention soft consonants? Also, there are no stress marks on the words. So even as a vocabulary builder, it isn't that great. Especially if you didn't know of these things ahead of time.

I knew how to pronounce the letters ahead of time and I look up each word in the dictionary to find the stress. I mark it in the book the first time the word is presented then try to remember it when it's used again.

Tim.

Thank you, all who replied to this post. I'm certain i want to get the book now. I did have another look at it today at the bookstore and noticed, just like some of you pointed out, that it doesn't have stress marks for the russian words, so you won't really know which sounds to emphasize on. But i think it should be a pretty useful tool, accompanying the penguin russian course and lessons in class.

Really Dogboy182? You learnt Russian through pop songs? Interesting! I'd like to find out more about this if you have the time.

Originally Posted by EffMah

If you really want the book, you can send me $5 to pay for the shipping, and I'll send you mine. I'll erase the work I did in it, but you will still be missing a few stickers.

Really?? That would actually be really cool, and GREAT help! It might be a little bit of a hassle for you to send it and stuff though. Are the stickers essential or beneficial to have?

I'm learning Russian, "because it's there" Not for tourism, though, indeed, some day, it would be nice if i could visit.

Heh, I didn't realize you were in Singapore when I wrote that. The stickers were actually the only thing I found to be fun about the book, because I already knew the alphabet (Internet taught me that). I guess I could send it, but it would be just as much hassle for you to send shipping money as it would be for me to send it to you.

Originally Posted by EffMah

Heh, I didn't realize you were in Singapore when I wrote that. The stickers were actually the only thing I found to be fun about the book, because I already knew the alphabet (Internet taught me that). I guess I could send it, but it would be just as much hassle for you to send shipping money as it would be for me to send it to you.

lol. yeah. It's no problem at all, thank you though, for offering in the first place. That was very generous of you You're right, it will be inconvenient for both of us. I'll still get the book though. Thanks for your recommendation very nice of you

Originally Posted by Pravit

...... that comes with stickers. Candy, or...Grammar?

I loved the stickers. My favorate one was the KOT sticker but it was hard to stick it on for some reason....

Originally Posted by z80

Originally Posted by Pravit

...... that comes with stickers. Candy, or...Grammar?

I loved the stickers. My favorate one was the KOT sticker but it was hard to stick it on for some reason....

hehehahaha yea..i didnt know where to put my cat sticker..so i just put it on my cats bed..haha woohoo good ole days, eh?

About the learning from pop songs...I've long held that often times it is easier for non-Americans to learn English by listening to our popular music, movies, etc. I found some great Russian stations on SHOUTCast (http://www.shoutcast.com), and I've picked up some things from songs that I later recognized when I was listening to the Russian CDs I have (language CDs). I figure the more Russian I'm exposed to, the better, right?

Speaking of learning pop songs, I just learned some Hindi from watching "Disco Dancer"(a great buy).

Nache - he dances
Aja - come
Zindagee - life
Ga - sing

Originally Posted by Pravit

Lindzi, I...I...oh geez. Your post moved me to tears. +...+100 PAR. +1000. Beautiful post.

Hee! Alas that I have no LAR to give you in return, but I will say that had I occasion to use the phrase, "I surrender to you, O learners of Russian in your car," on a daily basis, I really would. Alas, that I know no learners of Russian in their cars.

You....you use "Hee!" too! I think I'm in love!

Oh, I bet you say that to all the hun-huns.