Sputnik Workbook: An Introductory Russian Language Course, Part I

I just received this course book and I must let you know how impressed I am with the design of this inside and out! The Font is large and easy to read, there is ample space between every line, example and picture so you don’t feel overwhelmed and claustrophobic with „input“. The illustrations are very adorable. Kudos to the illustrator! There are audio files to listen to. At first, the audio didn’t work on my iPhone so I wrote to the website email and they updated my (free registration) account right away.

This is not an introduction to the Russian language

I really like that there is a companion website. It helps with pronunciation.

It helps a lot!

This is a textbook suitable for a classroom. For that purpose, it is probably pretty good. It is not good for conversational learning. After many man-hours of study of Tema 1 (25% of the course material), you will still not be able to converse. Without other people, you cannot practice some of the lessons. It is very good for learning the alphabet and numbers. If you complete the textbook, you might be able to converse, but I have only been into Tema 2. For the number of man-hours required, there are better ways to learn conversation, so try to find those means, if that is your goal. The website is essential. There is a workbook that teaches you how to write in cursive, but that doesn't help you to read. I would only buy the workbook if you plan to live in Russia or it's required to complete a course in school. Many schools no longer teach cursive English, because everyone types.