When I was in university, I took Russian for several years, and began with the strangest language textbook I've ever experienced, before or since. Lipson's A Russian Course concerns itself not with greetings and everyday life but with... shockworkers. Loafers who conduct themselves badly in parks. Concrete-mixers (diminutive form). The nearly ubiquitous tigers. Poor mad Olga who steals shoes from under the table. Super-Person. And the rousing concrete song, as Languagehat reminds me:
Our plant is a concrete plant.
Our brigade is a concrete one.
Our plant is a concrete plant.
And our task is concrete.
Concrete, concrete, concrete, concrete...
(singing marked variously as "loudly" or "quietly")
It was awful, for learning the language. Our next year saw a different, more realistic textbook, and we had to redo a year of Russian in a hurry. But I can't forget the songs, or friends nicknamed ударники and бездельники.
Praise the archival glee of web 2.0. And the concrete tigers.
Oh wow. Just.... wow.
Да здраствуют тигры! :)
Posted by: Hope Dundas | April 26, 2007 at 07:56
I don't know which is worse, the text or the illustrations. What a find!
Posted by: Brenda Landis | April 26, 2007 at 08:08
You two never saw this book before? Oh, taking Russian through it is like joining a secret society. I think I have a couple of print copies somewhere at home, doubtless stained by coffee and tears.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | April 26, 2007 at 13:27