Customer Reviews

Vocabulearn Russian Complete

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

 

 

I used Pimsleur to learn how to speak Russian. I am using Modern Russian 1 and 2 with the cds to learn to read, write and the formal rules. I was using Rosetta Stone for learning words. Yes "was". I found it was fun but not as fast or good for my memory as this Vocabulearn set.

I can put on these cds as I drive, or do things around the house or as I read along. It is not as exciting as other tools, but it works and is quickly adding words to my Russian knowledge. Once I finish all three levels, I will have a very respectable vocabulary of 3000+ words and 1000s of phrases.

You might not care for the music. I personally did not find it hard to hear the words with the music.

It is designed to give you words to use and expand on what you learn in Pimsleur or what ever text you use to learn the formal rules of the Russian language.

I very please with the series. I am learning words much faster than with any other aid.

I lived in Russia for a year and often had people tell me: "you speak fine, but you need more words." These CDs are doing the trick:

* clear pronunciation in both languages
* well-paced pauses, just long enough to repeat once
* soft classical music that keeps things interesting
* four tracks per CD, so repeating a section is easy
* useful printed booklet of all vocabulary
* nice carrying case

My only minor criticism is that the overall volume is lower than my music CDs or radio, so I need to be careful when switching sources. Otherwise, for simply adding vocabulary and improving pronunciation, VocabuLearn's a winner. I just wish learning a language took less time, but don't we all?

TIP: Try focusing on just one track at a time, rather than on an entire disk. I set my car's CD player on 'track repeat' after finding that one short segment is much easier to absorb.

I did take A. Khan's advice and borrowed the series from the local library on cassette tapes. I could do without the music as well - it really suits no particular purpose. However, as an intermediate Russian student, all I really need at this point is to hear 4,500 words and phrases repeated randomly. With most publications catering to the beginner, this was a refreshing discovery. I find that the series promises long-term usefulness as the vocabulary progresses from the pedestrian to a more sopisticated, advanced level. The buyer should already have a solid foundation in basic Russian grammar and vocabulary as this is exactly what it claims to be: words upon words spoken at random in Russian and English covering just about everything from soup to nuts. By just letting the audio play in the background a few hours at a time while I go about daily household tasks, I have greatly increased my comprehension of movies and books in Russian with little effort. With other programs like Rosetta charging the horrendous prices they do, this is a LOT of bang for your buck!

This review is based on listening to level 1 only. I assume that levels 2 and 3, which are included with the complete pack, are of the same quality. I will review this product by answering some of the questions I've asked my self before buying the product and by reading some of the reviews written by others.

Q. What is inside the box?

A. The level 1 box contains 4 CDs and a booklet with all the words and expressions heard on them. Each CD contains a different part of speech. disc1 contains nouns, cd2 adjectives and adverbs, cd3 expressions, and cd4 verbs.

Q. I heard some reviewers complain about the background music by saying it is loud, annoying, and makes listening to pronunciation more difficult. Is that true?

A. First of all, the music starts at the beginning of each track and runs for only 4 minutes or less while the speakers say the words. The music then stops and the speakers keep saying the words without the background music. Each CD has 4 tracks with each running for about 15 minutes. So you roughly get 11 minutes in each track without music, which is a good thing because I think it is annoying. I personally had no problem with the music being a bit loud since I have some background about Russian pronunciation. However, this might cause a problem for the total beginner. But once one becomes familiar with the Russian pronunciation, it shouldn't be a problem. In fact, it might be a good practice to hear Russian while there's some kind of distraction. This will improve the comprehension skills in the long run, which is what one will encounter in most real situations.

Q. Are the CDs for Russian speakers learning English or for non-Russian speakers learning Russian?

A. It can work both ways since each CD uses two approaches. For the first two tracks you hear a word said in English then followed by Russian. For the other two tracks you hear the word in Russian first followed by the English translation. In my opinion this reverse method is effective for both understanding and making your own expressions.

Q. Why did I give it 4 stars instead of 5?

A. I had few minor complaints that made this product miss the 5 star rating. First, I compared the quality of sound, music, and clarity of pronunciation with the Berlitz earworms CD, which I think sets the benchmark in how language learning CDs should be. It would be unfair to give them both 5 stars since the vocabulearn CD falls short in terms of the mentioned qualities compared to earworms. Also, the volume is a bit low for a cd so you have to raise your volume a bit to hear clearly. Second, the booklet that came with the CDs looks cheap. It says cassette on it. It seems that they had many cassette copies remaining so they said why not save on printing and just put them in the CD version. I just thought they could have improved the quality a bit by updating the booklet. Third, they should have included a sample track on their website in order to make it easier for us to decide if we need this product or not. Again, for the sake of comparison, earworms have full downloadable track samples on their website plus they have a free PDF download of the booklet included with their cd. I found some websites that had sample audio for vocabulearn CDs other than Russian. But I think the quality differs for each language depending on the speakers. So dont expect the same quality in the Russian CDs if you've listened to Arabic or Polish vocabulearn CDs.

Q. So after buying the CDs, would I have still bought them if I've listened to them before I bought them?

A. Yes, I think overall and despite some of the shortcomings, I would have still bought the CDs. Level 1 alone has tons of words and expressions to fill up a dictionary. If you have the cash (around $32 on amazon) to buy the whole set of Three levels then go ahead and buy it since it will save you money in the long run. However, I recommend learning one track and one level at a time since there is a lot of words to learn in each level. So if you don't wanna spend lots of money, just buy level 1. I'm sure it will take you lots of time to master all the words in one level.

One last thing worth mentioning, the CDs are made to help you develop correct pronunciation, increase vocabulary and improve listening skills only so it should be used to compliment some other Russian course book. I think it will be difficult to just listen to random Russian words without understanding how they are pronounced and why they change when used in a phrase. Hope this review will help you make an informed buying decision.

I have just listened to the CD and the music is EXTREMELY distracting to me. Russian prononciation is hard enough to learn let alone trying to decipher it among totally unnecessary background music. I do not know whose brilliant idea it was, but it made me extremely uncomfortable and distraught to have wasted a good deal of money to listen to shopping mall music instead of clean clear prononciatiation that I expected. Some words that I have already learned were barely decipherable in the crescendo of the musical notes. At least in my (XP-Multi-media edition) MS Windows media player machine the music is VERY LOUD and not at all very subtle background as their ad claims. In any case, please listen to it somewhere, somehow before you plunk down your hard earned money...it just may work out for you, but I won't bet a rusted penny on it.