Nachalo, Vol. 1

by Sophia Lubensky (editor)

Available in a 2-volume format, Nachalo is the most exciting text available for beginning Russian courses. Written by a respected team of Russian scholars and linguists, Nachalo presents grammar functionally and teaches students the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing within the context of a wealth of cultural information. The abundant practice material in Nachalo ranges from focused and controlled to open-ended and communicative. Nachalo features an on-going story set in Russia with a cast of Russian and American characters, exposing students to new vocabulary and structures in authentic situations. Most exciting of all, Nachalo includes the most extensive package of support materials for any beginning Russian text on the market, including a video tied specifically to the text, shot on location in Moscow. The Second Edition is even more powerful with a text-specific Website and an all new student CD-ROM .

411 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2000

Reviews

[Tsai Wei-chieh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the book is a little bit out-of-date, the content is still ok. But the editors slipped some new vocab into every lesson without mentioning that. Sometimes that causes difficulty and inefficiency for studying.

Dec 31, 2010

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Russian language book for beginners. My only quip with the Nachalo series is it could be organized more logically. The editors had a tendency to split grammar concepts of certain cases over multiple books. Readers do not learn all of the cases until the second volume. There are not many series out there for English speakers wanting to learn Russian.

[Kw Estes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Serves its purpose decently--a bit out of date and a lack of updating on Russian cultural matters since early 1990s.