The Rough Guide Russian: Phrasebook

Since meeting my Siberian soulmate in 2005, I've suddenly become more interested in learning Russian ... fancy that. I've purchased several books (dictionaries, phrase books, learning Russian books, etc.) and I find this one to be my favorite pocket resource. No, it's not a complete guide to learning Russian ... hey ... it's small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. What do you expect? But as a handy reference for phrases and vocabulary, this one is the best of the ones I have seen. Many of the books I picked up in the beginning were filled with errors my partner noticed just thumbing through them, both in terms of spelling and other basics. Many didn't include much help at all in learning how to properly pronounce words. This book has been error free thus far and has excellent aids for learning correct pronunciation. We both recommend it heartily.

Rough Guide Russian is structured completely different from most phrase books: The first 50 pages gives you numbers, days of the week, time, etc., and a 20 minute course in Russian grammar. Oh no, you might be saying, but it is presented very simply. For instance it presents a handful of common verbs and their conjugations. So on one page you can see how to say "I have," "he has, " etc. and "I like," "he/ she likes," etc. The rest of the book is split between an English-Russian dictionary (130 pages approx), a Russian-English dictionary (70 pages, approx.), and a 20 pages menu reader. What makes the English-Russian dictionary pages unique, though, is that most every other page (at least) has dialogue boxes relating to the most useful word(s) on that particular page. For instance, when you thumb through the book for the word "live," you get the word itself, but also the phrases "I live in..." and "Where do you live?" It'll take you 10 minutes to find such a phrase in Berlitz or Lonely Planet in their "getting to know others' section. But because Rough Guide is structured as a dictionary, with hundreds of really useful phrases highlighted in boxes within, you can access something you want to say rather swiftly...and actually deliver it just a minute or so after looking for it. Add the grammar section, where you learn useful verbs and how to conjugate their past tenses, and the number section, and you can learn easily to chat with someone about where you are from, where you are going, where you have traveled thus far, what you like/liked, and so on. Likewise, knowing have to say "have" make sit easily to ask whether a hotel has rooms, whether the room has a shower (after thumbing through the book for the word for shower), etc. And when the answer comes back that the hotel doesn't have, or say "we have," you can actually catch what they are saying. If still not persuaded, next time you're in a bookstore compare a Berlitz, a Lonely Planet, and a Rough Guide language phrase book side by side. Lonely Planet Russian, for example, is basically several pages of basic grammar followed by many sections of phases you won't likely ever use. For instance, the guide provides several pages each of lists of occupations, nationalities, college majors, items of stationary, jewellery, colors, insects, flowers, aquatic sports(!), electrical appliances, camping terms,and so on. Also provided are pat phrases to employ at a hotel's front desk, at a doctor's, at the optometrist, and eating out, among other mini-sections. The book, in effect, is set up to be taken out to be used once a day, if that. It's an improvement on Berlitz phrase books, but not by much. (Berlitz simply divides their books into 10 or so color coded sections such as: "sightseeing," "relaxing," "shopping," traveling around," "money," "eating out," etc.) So, if you just want a book for emergencies (say, breaking a leg, etc.) then Berlitz and/or Lonely Planet phrase books wil