Short Stories in Russian for Beginners (Teach Yourself Short Stories for Beginners-multiple Languages)

I'm revisiting studying Russian after having taken some courses in college years ago. Combined with other study, such as Duolingo and YouTube videos, this book has really helped. The stories are engaging and fun. It's well laid out and well organized. The little glossaries after each chapter are useful, as are the synopses (in Russian) and the multiple-choice questions. Granted, there are some errors, but I found them to be minor and easy enough to identify so as not to be misled. I took their advice and usually avoided looking up words I didn't know, in favor of trying to get what I could from context. I will say that the text included quite a few words I didn't know aside from what the glossary provided, whereas some of the words in the glossary seemed surprisingly basic (but not too many). I guess it depends on your background going into it.

I have read a lot of beginning Russian texts and this one is my favorite. It is very easy to read, gives you vocabulary words at the end, and is an ongoing story that is entertaining. I have not finished the story yet, but it has kept me motivating to read, which is hard for me as a beginning Russian speaker. I would highly recommend to anyone in the beginning Russian phase of their linguistic journey!I recommend downloading the audible content with it so you can hear it being spoken. It does not come with audio, which I probably should have known, but would have liked an option for an audio setting with Kindle versus having to use audible and Kindle simultaneously. Overall, highly recommend!

While this is not a book for beginners, I was quite elated in that mostly I could read the various stories in one go. The book consists of rather different kind of stories. At the end of each story there is a synopsis, followed by multiple choice questions and some vocabulary. Most words are shown in such a way that you know where the stress is supposed to be, although I have to admit it is not very easy to see. At the end of the book there is still an alphabetical list of words and expressions and some words/expressions in the text are highlighted. In 1967 I took an intensive 3rd year summer course of Russian in Toronto, Canada. Of course, that was a long time ago. Since having a Kindle I have been reading bilingual fairy tales and other stories, some consisting of one paragraph in English followed by the paragraph in Russian. Some had longer stretches of text before the other language was shown, so for me this was the first time I could actually follow a whole story and then just check some of the vocabulary of which I might not have been quite sure. I also have to say that I am a linguist knowing several languages and Russian has actually a number of words adopted from other languages, just like with English and French.

I bought both this book as well as the dialogues in Russian. It’s a good resource, and I’ve been going through both books with a tutor.Improvements:- There is no translation in English for entire text but only some select words. I ended up buying both physical copy as well as kindle copy so that I can get translation. On Kindle, thankfully there is a feature where you highlight a sentence or paragraph, and it gives you the translation by Bing.- Audio is available, but you have to pay extra money. I wish it was already included. I already paid the 3 times the price of the book because I bought 2 physical copies, one for myself and one for my tutor as she is remote, then I bought the kindle version.Other than these two things, the stories are interesting, and I’ve been thankful for the resource to learn Russian.

First - the website lists this as a book for beginners. It doesn't say so on the cover however and it really isn't. I had a year of full time Russian at the Defense Language Institute and I still have to look a word or two up per story. However, these stories are just plain fun. This isn't Dostoevsky, the plots are contrived, but there are sufficient twists and surprises to keep you moving. I feel it's sort of an inside joke: the author teases you with improbable scenarios, and you refresh your Russian while having a good time. For example, a man falls asleep on a bus in St Petersburg and wakes up in Vyborg. That's like getting on a bus at the US Capitol and waking up in Baltimore. But these sort of twists make you want to keep reading. This is a fun,easy way to polish up your Russian. And since Eastern Europe is heating right now, it's a good time fro Russian speakers to hone their skills.

My husband loves this book! He reads it night and day and his Russian is getting way better

The book is great! The stories are engaging, easy to follow, and they use simple words. The book has a few stories, each one of which is split into bite-size chapters of around 2 pages each. To make the most out of the book, you need to be able to read Cyrillic, because it doesn’t have the phonetics. But if you know the sounds of the letters, then this book will be a great and fun tool to improve your Russian.