Good resources for Russian learners.
Feb. 22nd, 2004 06:58 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
learn_russianA common question people have when beginning to study a language is which books they'll find the most helpful. So I think that a discussion on this topic would be useful.
What books on the Russian language to you find the most useful? Which dictionaries or textbooks do you use? Do you have any books that you absolutely hate?
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My recommendation is Using Russian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage by Derek Offord. It's intended to be a supplement to Russian study, rather than a book to begin with. It covers topics that are frequently left out of or glossed over in textbooks. The topics are indexed and easy to locate, but there's too much explanation for it to just be a reference grammar.
501 Russian Verbs is also useful, but you have to be careful not to rely on it or you'll never learn to conjugate the verbs on your own! I use it primarily for double-checking my conjugation if I'm not sure that I've done it right. For those not familiar with this book, it contains hundreds of Russian verbs, fully conjugated. So you can see the danger in learning to turn to it. You don't have to think for yourself. :)
As for dictionaries, I use The Oxford Russian-English dictionary the most often. It's funny how opinions are so divided on this book. My professors and TAs (who are native speakers) love it, but a lot of other native speakers think that it's horrible. What dictionaries would you recommend?
What books on the Russian language to you find the most useful? Which dictionaries or textbooks do you use? Do you have any books that you absolutely hate?
---
My recommendation is Using Russian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage by Derek Offord. It's intended to be a supplement to Russian study, rather than a book to begin with. It covers topics that are frequently left out of or glossed over in textbooks. The topics are indexed and easy to locate, but there's too much explanation for it to just be a reference grammar.
501 Russian Verbs is also useful, but you have to be careful not to rely on it or you'll never learn to conjugate the verbs on your own! I use it primarily for double-checking my conjugation if I'm not sure that I've done it right. For those not familiar with this book, it contains hundreds of Russian verbs, fully conjugated. So you can see the danger in learning to turn to it. You don't have to think for yourself. :)
As for dictionaries, I use The Oxford Russian-English dictionary the most often. It's funny how opinions are so divided on this book. My professors and TAs (who are native speakers) love it, but a lot of other native speakers think that it's horrible. What dictionaries would you recommend?
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