Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good, solid addition to the study program for students of the Russian language. , January 16, 2006
The basic premise of Learn In Your Car Russian (LIYCR) is to have an audio-based learning program which does not require book study, so it can easily fit into people's daily schedules while they engage in other activities. There are 9 hours of audio teaching 600+words for the entire course.
Level One is heavily oriented towards the traveler, and addresses important issues such as, transportation, money, hotels, finding your way around town, numbers, restaurants, shopping, time, schedules.
Levels Two and Three go beyond survival words and phrases, increasing vocabulary and developing core grammar skills.
STRENGTHS
I've been to Russia about 15 times , and can state that LIYCR teaches very useful vocabulary and expressions for a person who is actually going to put their feet on the ground in Russia
This is one of the few beginning study courses which does not shy away from the difficulties of Russian grammar for the English speaker. It gives practice in all tenses for verbs and all 6 Russian grammar cases for nouns. Also, this is one of the best courses I've seen for using a restricted vocabulary in almost all available grammar permutations, making it very good at showing how to form natural Russian sentences.
WEAKNESSES
There are few conversational dialogs and no real story lines, so there's nothing here to particularly capture a person's interest. It definitely takes some fortitude and motivation to go through these rather dry lessons.
For the absolute beginner, LIYCR is rather rough. There isn't very much repetition (unlike Pimsleur Russian), and the pace is very rapid fire. The result is that acquiring the presented vocabulary of 600+ words from the audio alone is difficult. As suggested by another reviewer, augmenting your studies with flash cards is very beneficial.
LIYCR does have a small booklet with the Russian alphabet, pronunciation guide, and transcripts with translations of the spoken dialogs. However, it is really beyond the scope of the booklet to teach a person how to read Russian.
This leads to my major criticism of LIYCR - if you are a total beginner and couldn't understand something from the audio (highly likely), the booklet doesn't offer much help since you can't read Russian either. Although the course's stated objective is to be a completely audio based program, it IS necessary to refer to a booklet, and the course does not prepare you to read the booklet.
WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM "LEARN IN YOUR CAR RUSSIAN"?
For students with some prior knowledge of Russian, this is a good addition to your study program. For what you get, the value is quite good. However, it is not a stand-alone course, and you will need other study materials. It really shines at developing intermediate grammar skills and providing a practical vocabulary for the traveler.
Although I have studied for years, I still use LIYCR (mostly levels 2 and 3). It's great practice for pronunciation and reviewing fundamental grammar skills used in everyday speech. I've had numerous compliments from surprised Russians that I don't have a foreign accent and that I seldom make the usual grammar mistakes of an English speaker. I credit LIYCR for much of this (Pimsleur Russian being the other main contributor).
WHO DOESN'T WANT TO BUY THIS?
For a one time traveler to Russia, even Level One LIYCR is probably more than you want to invest time wise. Buy something such as the book "Russian in 10 Minutes A Day" to learn how to read maps and signs in the Russian alphabet, plus a phrase book/audio CD.
For an absolute beginner who is seriously interested in learning Russian and wants a completely audio-based program that truly lives up to it's claims (i.e. doesn't need a book or other 3rd-party study materials), I recommend just going straight to Pimsleur Russian, and coming back to this afterwards. The 2 courses complement each other well, and Learn In Your Car Russian is more appropriate for someone with some prior knowledge of Russian.
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
great value for money, October 31, 2003
While it is certainly true that if you are willing to pay more you will get a more comprehensive course, this is exceptional for the price. However I would not recommend basing all of your studies on these CDs for a number of reasons:1. There is to little on reading and writing Russian
2. There is an emphasis on learning vocabulary word for word or short phrases and not conversationally based
3. There are no grammatical explanations As a supplement or refresher this course is superb and I provided you keep these caveats in mind, it is HIGHLY recommended that you buy this course!
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent for what it is, and for the price, worthwhile., September 10, 2003
I've been using this for a while now, and while it's not nearly as good as the Pimsleur method, it's much cheaper and has its uses. The lessons are very short in duration, so you can use these CDs on your shorter trips in your car. If you're willing to put forth a bit more effort, I would advise taking the time to make flashcards of the vocabulary on the tapes as you go through the lessons. There are booklets that come with the CDs that have this information. If you use them in your spare moments, it'll help with retention and also help you learn the cyrillic alphabet. While I can't really recommend any non-Pimsleur "listen only" method as a stand alone product, as part of a larger language learning program these CDs could be useful.
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