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Pimsleur Comprehensive Russian #1
Russian: Pimsleur Comprehensive, British English Edition
Q&S Russian includes the first 8 lessons from the Pimsleur Comprehensive Level I. 4 hours, audio-only, effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions.
Audio Cassette
First published November 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 20, 2021
2.5 stars?
tl;dr I don't recommend this. Even despite the dry content, the pronunciations were hard to hear, and the grammar explanations were lack-luster, if they explained anything at all. If I do come back to this series, it'll be after I have a more grounded understanding of the basics of Russian, and only use this for speaking practice or review.
Not tl;dr
Heads up for anyone who only listens to the first lesson, (or first two lessons, as it's not addressed until lesson three), but the word for "American" is WRONG (ish). The word taught is for MEN. Russian is a gendered language*, and for some reason Pimsleur thought not to mention that until lesson three.
--
I'm coming into this series as effectively someone who knows zero Russian. (I can read the alphabet/words, I know a few words and phrases, but that's it.) And I gotta say, I found this extremely difficult for me. I'm coming out of finishing the Japanese levels, which I found much easier, but to be fair, I had been studying Japanese for years before that, so I was much more accustomed to the language. For this series, I think there are just a lot of sounds and sound combinations that English doesn't have, so it was really difficult to properly hear what the speakers were saying. Every lesson, EVERY lesson, I had to ask my native speaking partner what the words were, or try to find them in a dictionary. (Compare this to Japanese, which only has a handful of different sounds compared to English, but otherwise repeating patterns, ie consonant + vowel, which make it easier, at least for me, to hear/understand.) I had to listen to every lesson at least 2-4 times and really take it slow.
This is obviously more of a me problem, but for a course aimed at native English speakers, I would've liked it if they had explored more of the pronunciation (effectively half of the point of getting these products) due to Russian's fairly different sounds.
I don't know why this one seems so much worse than the Japanese course. I'm not sure if I'm misremembering the Japanese one, but I don't remember having so many issues with it. The grammar explanations for the Russian course are unclear and contradictory. The pronunciations are a mix of speeds, so you can't always catch what was said. Like I said above, I had to double check things every lesson.
Just as an example, the usage of the word "есть" and its grammar explanations here. One lesson they say, "Only use when giving specific answers," another lesson then says, "Remember, you're giving a specific answer, so don't use есть." Which is it?! I don't mind grammar having complex use cases with exceptions, every language has that, but that's not how its taught here. It makes it frustrating and confusing.
The content itself was unsurprisingly boring. I had gone through the entire Japanese course, and I do remember the first few levels to be very dry. It covers the bare bones basics of the following: saying hello/goodbye, invitations, directions, numbers, telling time, and possession (my/our). Very little vocab or grammar used, and almost no explanations.
This one just didn't click with me. I know the content in general from this company is dry, but this one felt especially so. (Several in a row were just numbers and I was so over it. I took a long break before I gave this another go to finish it.) I think if I wasn't an absolute beginner, this series wouldn't be so bad. I do have the next two sets, but I'll be taking another break in between and tackle some other resources first.
As it stands, I can't say I recommend this series. At least not for absolute beginners.
--
*[Gendered Language]
tl;dr I don't recommend this. Even despite the dry content, the pronunciations were hard to hear, and the grammar explanations were lack-luster, if they explained anything at all. If I do come back to this series, it'll be after I have a more grounded understanding of the basics of Russian, and only use this for speaking practice or review.
Not tl;dr
Heads up for anyone who only listens to the first lesson, (or first two lessons, as it's not addressed until lesson three), but the word for "American" is WRONG (ish). The word taught is for MEN. Russian is a gendered language*, and for some reason Pimsleur thought not to mention that until lesson three.
--
I'm coming into this series as effectively someone who knows zero Russian. (I can read the alphabet/words, I know a few words and phrases, but that's it.) And I gotta say, I found this extremely difficult for me. I'm coming out of finishing the Japanese levels, which I found much easier, but to be fair, I had been studying Japanese for years before that, so I was much more accustomed to the language. For this series, I think there are just a lot of sounds and sound combinations that English doesn't have, so it was really difficult to properly hear what the speakers were saying. Every lesson, EVERY lesson, I had to ask my native speaking partner what the words were, or try to find them in a dictionary. (Compare this to Japanese, which only has a handful of different sounds compared to English, but otherwise repeating patterns, ie consonant + vowel, which make it easier, at least for me, to hear/understand.) I had to listen to every lesson at least 2-4 times and really take it slow.
This is obviously more of a me problem, but for a course aimed at native English speakers, I would've liked it if they had explored more of the pronunciation (effectively half of the point of getting these products) due to Russian's fairly different sounds.
I don't know why this one seems so much worse than the Japanese course. I'm not sure if I'm misremembering the Japanese one, but I don't remember having so many issues with it. The grammar explanations for the Russian course are unclear and contradictory. The pronunciations are a mix of speeds, so you can't always catch what was said. Like I said above, I had to double check things every lesson.
Just as an example, the usage of the word "есть" and its grammar explanations here. One lesson they say, "Only use when giving specific answers," another lesson then says, "Remember, you're giving a specific answer, so don't use есть." Which is it?! I don't mind grammar having complex use cases with exceptions, every language has that, but that's not how its taught here. It makes it frustrating and confusing.
The content itself was unsurprisingly boring. I had gone through the entire Japanese course, and I do remember the first few levels to be very dry. It covers the bare bones basics of the following: saying hello/goodbye, invitations, directions, numbers, telling time, and possession (my/our). Very little vocab or grammar used, and almost no explanations.
This one just didn't click with me. I know the content in general from this company is dry, but this one felt especially so. (Several in a row were just numbers and I was so over it. I took a long break before I gave this another go to finish it.) I think if I wasn't an absolute beginner, this series wouldn't be so bad. I do have the next two sets, but I'll be taking another break in between and tackle some other resources first.
As it stands, I can't say I recommend this series. At least not for absolute beginners.
--
*[Gendered Language]
October 3, 2013
Substituído pelo curso do Michel Thomas.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews