Thread: WHO GOT NEW PENGUIN ?

Can i join the club? can I? can I? Yesterday this kid in my german class was talking about how he got some russian coursebook for christmas and it was just sitting there, and i asked him if i could take a look at it to see how far i am in a course book. Today he brought it, but i dunno, for some reason i didn't read the cover (maybe i was too intruiged by the "Кока-кола, Всегда лучше со лдьом" sign, i dunno) and just started skimming. By 4th period i hit page 95! Genitive of numbers! woot. Now im going to join the penguin club. Are you happy for me jasper ? are you o'l jasp?

我给你很高兴极了! <- Bad Chinese.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Can i join the club? can I? can I? Yesterday this kid in my german class was talking about how he got some russian coursebook for christmas and it was just sitting there, and i asked him if i could take a look at it to see how far i am in a course book. Today he brought it, but i dunno, for some reason i didn't read the cover (maybe i was too intruiged by the "Кока-кола, Всегда лучше со лдьом" sign, i dunno) and just started skimming. By 4th period i hit page 95! Genitive of numbers! woot. Now im going to join the penguin club. Are you happy for me jasper ? are you o'l jasp?

Thats the main book I use. I'm going to the university to study Russian where the guy you wrote the book is a lecturer. Methinks the book is veeeeeeery khoroshaya

actually, i dont see why it is any better than any other grammar book i have looked through. The first 4 chapters are just phrases and n00b dialogs anyways. But it does eventually pick up on grammar.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

actually, i dont see why it is any better than any other grammar book i have looked through. The first 4 chapters are just phrases and n00b dialogs anyways. But it does eventually pick up on grammar.

But it is a book for n00bs, like I was (you still think i am ) when i first got it.

i didn't say that it wasn't supposed to be n00bish, im saying... It is just like every other book that i have come across out there... why does everybody prefer "penguin", to say "joe's russian book"... seems like they both have the same crаp.

Well I don't know if you wanted a serious answer, but my suspicion is that the reason a lot of people here like the book is because of its academic emphasis. It doesn't have chapters like 'How to order a pizza in Russia'.. instead it gives detailed, concise descriptions of the grammatical details. I guess this is perfect for a)self-motivated individual learners b)people who don't need it for business or holiday but just like languages c)people who are linguistically talented and intelligent

Hmm why the **** did I buy it again?

the only thing that puts me off buying a book like this - even though it comes recommended is that as a total newbie to russian I like to hear the sounds I should be making. It could be popular because it is quite a cheap book?

Originally Posted by Eve

the only thing that puts me off buying a book like this - even though it comes recommended is that as a total newbie to russian I like to hear the sounds I should be making. It could be popular because it is quite a cheap book?

I got the New Penguin, and Oxford Take off in Russian. The Oxford one has got loads of audio with it, but the book its pretty crap (its all touristy stuff). Get the New Penguin, and then some audio thing, and just use the audio thing for the learning how to prnounce stuff.

Yeah, that's what I did. Except for the 'getting the Penguin book' part. Still working on that...