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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Other Review GROSSLY in ERROR - Fine Set!, March 7, 2004
This review is from: Russian Complete Course: Basic-Intermediate, Compact Disc Edition (LL(R) Complete Basic Courses) (Audio CD)
The first review of this product is incorrectly intended for the "Ultimate" series by Living Language, which has 4 cassettes (or CDs) to accompany the text, and 4 to "learn on the go." The product on this page is the very basic, intro course into Russian and it is quite good. 40 simple, digestable lessons to get you up and running, and to move on to intermediate or other beginner books to reinforce what you learn. Here you get a full review of the Russian alphabet, lots of vocabulary, sentence structure, and listening practice with the tapes. For under $20.00, I found this to be a great deal, and the next Living Language series a good next step. For beginner's, Barron's "Listen and Learn the Fun Way" is comparable, though more expensive with 4 cassettes and lots of pictures. The review also laments that lack of good Russian tapes aside from Penton to learn in the car, has he/she heard of Pimsleur or Instant Immersion? The former is good enough to take a trip to Russia, the latter MUCH better than Penton, the phrases are grouped in more sensible style. That having been said, I give it 5 stars for the value and general solid footing it offers for a beginner learning the language. After this I recommend the Ultimate Beginner-Intermediate, then the Advanced, while simultaneously doing the full Pimsleur 48 CDs (available at most libraries). If you make it this far, go for the full deal at audio-forum, and at this point YOU'LL be teaching Russian!
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32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tapes not well-designed for self learning, June 21, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Russian Complete Course: Basic-Intermediate, Compact Disc Edition (LL(R) Complete Basic Courses) (Audio CD)
A great deal of effort went into preparation of the tapes for this product, which is a shame because they have some fundamental flaws that make them very frustrating to use, especially in the car. First of all, there are actually two sets of tapes, one called Learn at Home, which is designed to be used with the text, and another called Learn on the Go, which is designed to be used without the text. They use the same lessons, so you are only getting half your money's worth. The Learn on the Go series rarely gives the student the opportunity to say the phrase in Russian after hearing the English phrase, so it is almost useless for practicing what you have memorized. It is better than some comparable products in that it doesn't have a lot of fluff (music, chatty cultural stuff) that wastes time, but not nearly as good as some. Penton's Learn in Your Car series is by far the best, but unfortunately does not go beyond the beginner level. The other makers of language products should learn from Penton's simple, efficient methods. I taught myself Spanish in the car and am now learning Russian, but I am frustrated by the lack of really good products beyond the beginner level.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hang in there., September 21, 2005
This review is from: Russian Complete Course: Basic-Intermediate, Compact Disc Edition (LL(R) Complete Basic Courses) (Audio CD)
When I first bought this item I really did not know what I was in for. I thought I was buying a listen and learn CD course. What you get are CD's, a dictionary, and a course book. I have to admit I was not keen on the idea of the course book and I hated the whole thing after a couple of days, but I stuck with it. Over all I will say that the course is good and you do learn to speak, read, and write Russian. This course teaches you how to pronounce the words really well. I feel this was better for me than courses I have tried for other languages. The only thing I really think could use improvement would be the CD's them selves. There is no English spoken with the words and sentences come one time really fast. You will find your self pausing and replaying a lot. If you want to learn to read and write Russian as well as speak it then this is a good course. If you just want to lean a few phrases and how to ask for things I might try something else.
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