I am trying to learn Russian, I have a very good teacher but I am having trouble finding a good grammar book. I have 2 books at the moment, one presents Russian phrases in transliteration (Russian sounds represented with English characters) and the other with the Cyrillic alphabet.
So, the discussion point is this, to those of you who have also learnt Russian, do you have a good grammar book that you can recommend, and do you think it is better to learn via transliteration or with the Cyrillic alphabet? My aim is to speak Russian, more than write it, but I am concerned that transliteration will mean that I cannot read it properly.
What do you think?
Wow thank you everyone! It looks like I'll be doing a spot of book shopping today! I feel my enthusiasm has been revived too. Your comments and advice have been much appreciated. Thank you!
Well thank you all! I will take all of your advice!
I have learnt the alphabet, and the pronunciation, and the rules, so that is why I don't really want to go down the transliteration path. So thank you all for confirming my thoughts.
I look forward to speaking to you all eventually in Russian! I haven't done any notebook entries yet, but soon I hope!
I've used the Penguin Russian Course book and I've found it to be very helpful, especially if you are relatively new to Russian. I'd definitely recommend learning the alphabet- it'll take a little time but it’s worth it, in my opinion.
IMO to study a language completely ignoring its writing system might not be a very good idea. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just seems awkward to me. Some Cyrillic letters and sounds don't have analogues in English language, so English transcription would be quite inaccurate. Russian alphabet is not that difficult after all :) I'm sure you'll manage.
As to the textbooks... all my language exchange partners for some reason absolutely adore Поехали! / Let's go! course and The New Penguin Russian Course.
But I'm not a professional teacher, I just help them to struggle through the textbooks.
If you need any help, feel free to knock at my Italki window ;) I have quite many textbooks / tutorials too and I would be happy to share them with you so you could pick smth you like.
I came upon <em>Introductory Russian Grammar</em> many, many years ago, and deem it the best introduction to Russian grammar than any other of the grammars I have seen. Authors: Galina Stilman and William E. Harkins.
I would definitely recommend you learn Cyrillic. You will gain much enjoyment when you are able to read in Russian, and simply seeing the Russian letters will strike you as something beautiful.
