Pimsleur Russian Conversational Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-16 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Russian with Pimsleur Language Programs

I got this course for my teenage son because my previous efforts to teach him Russian by providing him with a Russian mom (ME!), trying to have him meet other Russian-speaking kids who live in the US, and even hiring an American teacher with near-native fluency in Russian and a great sense of humor, failed miserably. So, we read the reviews and decided to try. A few minutes in the car each day seemed like a possibility with his busy schedule at school and tons of homework. We're about half way through these disks, and he is learning to say basic things and is getting more comfortable saying them. Of course, Russian is hard. Really hard. But what this course does well is that it ignores a lot of grammar issues and focuses on conversation. Russians slur and mumble the endings of their words, so perfect grammar might not be appreciated, especially if the circumstances of your Russian conversation are the same as these disks create. Now we get to the fun part. The first couple of lessons focus on the general tourist stuff: where is the Red Square, where is the metro, where is the ticket office, stuff like that. But by about lesson three, I was getting a little worried because most of the conversations go something like this (remember, I bought this for a teenage boy): "Imagine that you just met a Russian woman. Ask her what she would like to drink. Ask her where she would like to drink it. Ask her if she would like to go to a restaurant." My son and I were both laughing. When a later lesson was all about the "your place or mine" discussion, I wondered if I struck a bargain with this one. A Russian course and sex education wrapped all in one. Definitely worth the money. Our current lesson focuses on telling time. And, as my son put it, "it's amazing how many things you can learn, and all of them started with getting a drink." A profound point and a great cultural insight. If you ever go to Russia, you'll know what I mean. But seriously, a good course. Yes, it's repetitive, but there's no way to learn a foreign language without repetition. And you will impress your friends at your next party when you ask them in Russian if they prefer beer or wine.

If you want to start learning Russian while driving your car this is probably the best system available. It is completely audio and gives you 6 hours of very well-designed tutorial. You hear the English first, then the Russian, two or three times times, then you repeat it. Another sentence. Then the first one again. Amazing how quickly you forgot. But by the mix of new things and repeating, it starts to stick. The lessons are very well paced - at least they were for me - so that you only rarely have to stop the CD to go back, while it is also rare for it to feel slow or boring. The Russian is spoken by two native speakers giving you a good idea of correct pronunciation (intriguing how sometimes they pronounce the same word differently!). By the end of the course you have learned about 150 words and can speak and understand several dozen everyday sentences. There is even a little bit of grammar here and there. What you don't get: anything about the alphabet or the written language. Please do realize that the strength of this program is also its weakness: The 8 hours of teaching can very easily be accomodated, one 30-minute lesson at a time, on a daily commute. But doing that means you will be done in 3 weeks (they don't recommend more than one lesson a day). And then what? The program is so good that you have, in fact, learned all there is on these CDs and so repeating them is pretty useless. I guess you'd have to buy the next course... But all in all, this was the perfect introductory course for me wanting to learn while driving to work. Hope it works for you, too! PS I read some negative reviews here that say you only learn to say one or two things over and over again. That's hogwash. I suspect they only listened to the first lesson.

I bought these CDs as a way of working on basic speaking and listening skills. In addition to these CDs, I'm using a text book to learn grammar and writing. If you are using a different approach, this review might not be very useful. Working on the Pimsleur CDs definitely has improved my speech and listening skills quite a bit. They also have some useful vocabulary on them, although that wasn't a primary goal. I would give this product 5 stars, but I think they should add more indexing to the CDs. There are two tracks per CD, and fast-forwarding and moving backwards are a lot more annoying than they should be. I haven't used any competing products, so I can't do any comparisons. I don't think that these CDs would work well as a substitute for a text book, but that's just my opinion.

I'll be traveling to Russia and needed a very quick crash course in speaking the language. I've learned other languages but this course, by far, is the easiest way to do so. I've been teaching myself to read Russian but after listening to these CDs, I've realized I was really off on my pronunciations. Not only have these CDs strengthened my speaking ability but they've made reading the language so much easier as well. These CDs will definitely complement any studying you are doing of this language. True, the CDs may initially seem repetitive and a tad boring but get past lesson one and you find that this really works Give it a chance and you will learn quite a bit in these sixteen lessons.

I think it is important to learn a few key phrases of any country I visit, and I find this program to be one of the best to help you have a conversation with someone. You do repeat a lot of the same phrases throughout the sessions, but I think it's useful and helps the new language "stick." Some words are easier to hear and understand than others, but this language also has sounds that you don't normally say in English. Sometimes I listen to a lesson at least two or three times before a new word or phrase finally kicks in. The key is to continue trying until you can understand and say it correctly. One thing to know is that you are learning the formal way of speaking the language, not the casual or informal way of speaking to friends. For example, you will learn to say, "Wouldn't you like to have something to eat with me?" Instead of "Want to grab dinner with me?" The only complaint I have is that the male voice is slightly harder to understand than the female's. I wish I had the option to just hear the female voice. I also have the beginner versions of Pimsleur for French, Mandarin and German. I thought they were all a great way to learn some basic phrases. The best thing is that local speakers actually understand you! I would highly recommend this program as a way to start learning the basics. I'm almost ready to order Russian level two.

I only bought Pimsleur because you can learn by listening, and to some extent, it is good becuase you repeat what you have learned at various intervals. But what really annoys me is that I am wasting time learning how to say to a Russian man / woman: "You are not Russian" or "Are you American?" Come on, how stupid is this? If I am going to Russia I am not going to tell anyone they are not Russian nor am I going to ask them if they are American. This is standard in all Pimsleur courses I have taken so far..Tagalog, Japanese and Czech. I would have thought the Tagalog one have been obvious but he still has me asking "Are you Philippino?" (what part of being in the Philippines gave that one away?) Also...I am wasting time by learning; "I do not speak much Russian". I just spent an hour learning "I only understand a little Russian". I am quite sure that a Russian will get the idea if I use just ONE of the lines. Why waste valuable study time learning all this? I am on CD# 4 and have yet to learn things like, good morning, how are you, pleased too meet you, I am fine thank you, etc. You know, IMPORTANT greetings. At least by the time i finish this set, i will have mastered how to tell a Russian male and female that they are not American or that they are not Russian. (????)

I bought this Pimsleur Course aftrer beginning the Pimsleur Quick & Simple Russian 4 CD course. I realized that I needed a longer course to take because I had a girlfriend in Russian, who I spke with, and hoped someday to see and or marry. Russian is not an easy language.I speak English and some French after taking four years in high school and college. I find that to try to learn Russian with a new alphabet and different ways of pronouncing words quite challenging. I tend to be impatient. The Pimsleur course is entirely audio, bypasses grammer and alphabet and stresses conversational understanding. One must still use this more complete 8 disc, 16 lesson course, over and over to gain a grasp of the language. Of all the ways I have tried, books, internet, etc., I find this approach the most productive and helpful. One must realize that even with this course you will never sound like a native Russian, but you will come close. Supplement it with memorizing words or phrases from the internet or phrase books, but use the Pimsleur course as your main approach and you will do well.

I have been studying Russian at a local college for 6 months so It's nice to have CDs to listen while in the car but I was frustrated by the lack of subjects covered in them. It was mostly about asking a girl to go to lunch/dinner and ordering wine and beer and whether it was it her place or his place or a restaurant. It was almost too silly to listen to at times. Even worse was the two people talking were using formal speech even though they were supposedly friends. Friends don't talk to each other using Вы, they use ты. The first 10 several weren't even that useful to me but the last 3 do a pretty good job covering counting(which is a pain in Russian) items and asking how much things cost(сколько стоит) and the difference between wine as a subject(вино) and a quantity of wine like "a lot of wine" is много вина. They also did a good job of covering counting using nominative/genitive singular/genitive plural without forcing the actual grammar concept. I.e 1 Ruble is 1 рубль, 2-4 rubles is рубля, 5-20 rubles is рублей and also the different endings for dollars. One thing I really hated was the male voice. The female voice has a nice crisp, clear and cute voice and easy to understand but the male is horrible. He talks too fast and slurs his speech way too much. If you want to learn Russian I'd start with either a college course or pair this CD with Duolingo.com where you will learn the grammar although the computerized voice is annoying as hell. In the meantime I'm still searching for a good Russian CD set that covers more practical subjects.

The item arrived in perfect condition and I'm looking forward to starting the course. The seller was efficient in sending the item.

This works so well. I am heading to Moscow with confidence!

I've only just started with this, but learning the words from the end backwards is great. It gets round the issues of language audio lessons often speaking too fast with terrible diction. Pair this with the Earworms Direct Russian and you'll be speaking in no time.

Great starter course