Living Language
I'm always pleased when an impulse purchase pans out.
Last week, I had 15 minutes to kill and was near a brick-and-mortar bookstore. That's sort of like an amazon warehouse, but you can actually see the books! I found a relatively cheap Russian package that included two books and a set of CDs, so I decided to pick it up:
Living Language: Russian in 4 Simple Steps
I haven't listened to the CDs yet, but the instructional book is outstanding. It teaches some grammar, but focuses on nice clusters of vocabulary and useful conversational pieces. It had nice recommendations for memorizing vocabulary, and its exercises felt useful, even at my current level of knowledge. And it feels like it gives some good recommendations on practical usage. I'll give one example:
завтракать is a verb that means "to have breakfast".
I had breakfast.
я завтракал
But, for example, you can't use this verb if you want to say what you had for breakfast. You have to use "to eat" and the noun form of breakfast instead.
I ate an omelet for breakfast
Я ел омлет на завтрак.
Anyway, useful usage notes that feels like they dig deeper than some books I've seen. We'll see what my retention rate is on the new vocabulary, but I plan to review those two lessons in a week and listen to the CDs.
Speaking more generally, I try to have things I can study both when at home and when I'm "on the road".
When I'm at home, I primarily study Rosetta Stone lessons and perform flash card drills, because I can sit in front of the computer for an hour or two. In the last few days, I've reviewed 9 of 16 lessons in the level 1 Rosetta Stone, with an eye towards incorporating the vocabulary and grammar into my own study files -- putting it in my own words. I have a list of things to do with those files: research grammar points, write practice sentences, incorporate knowledge into reviewable/testable flash cards. But the path seems clearer and better directed.
When I'm on the road, I listen to CDs or MP3s in the car and carry a dead tree book I can study at lunch. I have different books that have different teaching styles or discussions. I like the Living Language book because it feels like it clusters study around practical topic areas (e.g. eating out) and not around obscure grammar points. In that respect, it is more like Rosetta Stone, which also uses topic areas to explain grammar rather than grammar to explain topic areas.
Last week, I had 15 minutes to kill and was near a brick-and-mortar bookstore. That's sort of like an amazon warehouse, but you can actually see the books! I found a relatively cheap Russian package that included two books and a set of CDs, so I decided to pick it up:
Living Language: Russian in 4 Simple Steps
I haven't listened to the CDs yet, but the instructional book is outstanding. It teaches some grammar, but focuses on nice clusters of vocabulary and useful conversational pieces. It had nice recommendations for memorizing vocabulary, and its exercises felt useful, even at my current level of knowledge. And it feels like it gives some good recommendations on practical usage. I'll give one example:
завтракать is a verb that means "to have breakfast".
I had breakfast.
я завтракал
But, for example, you can't use this verb if you want to say what you had for breakfast. You have to use "to eat" and the noun form of breakfast instead.
I ate an omelet for breakfast
Я ел омлет на завтрак.
Anyway, useful usage notes that feels like they dig deeper than some books I've seen. We'll see what my retention rate is on the new vocabulary, but I plan to review those two lessons in a week and listen to the CDs.
Speaking more generally, I try to have things I can study both when at home and when I'm "on the road".
When I'm at home, I primarily study Rosetta Stone lessons and perform flash card drills, because I can sit in front of the computer for an hour or two. In the last few days, I've reviewed 9 of 16 lessons in the level 1 Rosetta Stone, with an eye towards incorporating the vocabulary and grammar into my own study files -- putting it in my own words. I have a list of things to do with those files: research grammar points, write practice sentences, incorporate knowledge into reviewable/testable flash cards. But the path seems clearer and better directed.
When I'm on the road, I listen to CDs or MP3s in the car and carry a dead tree book I can study at lunch. I have different books that have different teaching styles or discussions. I like the Living Language book because it feels like it clusters study around practical topic areas (e.g. eating out) and not around obscure grammar points. In that respect, it is more like Rosetta Stone, which also uses topic areas to explain grammar rather than grammar to explain topic areas.