Customer Reviews

Russian II 2nd Ed. (Compr.) [CD]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a high school student who decided last year to learn Russian, and no program has come even remotely close to Pimsleur, when it comes to helping me in real life situations, and practical vocabulary. I had completed a few beginner's written courses, and dabbled in the living language complete course, but when school started up again, I found myself without adequate time to effectively live up to a time commitment on the all-consuming and grammar intensive written courses. After this study, I found myself able to read simple passages, and string together sentences, but I lacked the seamless spoken ability that I wanted. It was around this time that I tried pimsleur for an introduction to Japanese, and fell in love with it. I immediately got the Russian level 2 course, and now I don't have to sit at my desk after my homework is done, and can just sit in my armchair, and pop in a tape. This course works completely different than any drill, and is so pervasive and effective that I am finding myself having trouble with oral practice in spanish class, becuase of the instinct to speak Russian that this course provides so well. Since then it has been a godsend, helping me actually put to use the vocabulary I had learned, and taking a whole new approach to grammar. I am now able to have real, meaningful conversations with Russian speaking teachers and kids at my school, and I would recommend Pimsleur whole-heartedly to anyone who is serious about attaining real and useful spoken language skills, but is very busy.

Rosetta Stone may be better for working from the ground up,.. learning like a child does.. But you learn much like a kindergartner and it is a long road to adult conversation. I found the Pimsleur method better for those who wish to communicate for travel and pleasure given the same amount of study hours invested.
I am very satisfied and bought the second volume after mastering the first.

I listened to Pimsleur's Russian 1 and 2 while taking russian classes at my University, actually during the drive to the University ;) They force you to constantly think and synthesize what has been taught. So you never finish a CD thinking you didn't gain any ground. These courses are not designed to teach grammer, so supplementary studies are essential. Pimsleur to me was simply a fun way to practice and fill in some gaps in my vocab.

Several years ago, over a period of a couple of years, I bought Russian I, II, and III and worked my way through them. While I was listening, I hungered to see the words I was saying. However, once I started taking Russian (at the university where I was near retirement from teaching in another field), I was able to hit the ground running. My pronunciation was reasonably good, and I knew a number of words. And, as I listened to pronunciation errors made by my fellow students, I recognized that saying Russian words before I could see them had spared me from those very errors. Of course I make errors that come from spelling phonetically, but since my goals are more oriented toward speaking Russian than writing it, I think I'd rather be vulnerable to spelling errors than to pronunciation errors. Also, as a music teacher, I am familiar with the Suzuki method and enjoy observing the similar approach of Pimsleur (aural; based on systematic rather than random repetition).

Although I agree that Pimsleur's Russian I,II and III CD sets are a great way to quickly learn to speak and understand spoken Russian, I am constantly frustrated by the lack of the written text of these dialogues! Surely, for the price we have to pay for these CD sets, we are entitled to a text copy of what the Russian speakers are saying on all of the CDs!! Why doesn't Pimsleur provide the text?? They already have it in-house (for the Russian speakers to read from) and should make it available to those of us who need to learn to read the Russian text as we are learning the Russian phonetic sounds.

This is my third Pimisleur language. Great program. But cd case now has a problem. The cd case for the 30 lession editions were designed for the user guide booklet and reading booklet to hold the cds in place. (My earlier purchased language sets with this arrangement work great and do not have a problem.) The publisher has changed the guide booklet to a fold out. With this simple change they created a major problem for protecting the cds. Now the first half of the cds will not stay in place. The secound half of the cds was designed to use clear plastic stays. They work great. The first half of the cds will NOT stay in place and do fall out. The act of carrying the case across the room will have the cds sliding inside the case. Great care must be used opening the case or the cds roll accross the floor. Pimsleur will replace a damaged cd. The plastic stay will not work on the front half of the set, only the back half. They have no solution for the disks falling out. They suggested I buy a cd case and move my cds into that case. My suggestion to them is they fix the problem. I paid full price for a set that now has improper working storing case.

5 star spoken language program. 1 star for case problem.

Any suggestion on how to hold the cds in the publisher's case is welcome.