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Assimil Russian With Ease
Paperback book, four audio CDs, and 1 MP3 CD
687 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 25, 2025
Got through to lesson 50 before deciding to give up on it. This is by far the worst Assimil course I have ever attempted. The first 30-35 lessons are actually fine, and I enjoyed them thoroughly. The pacing change around lesson 35 was welcomed, and the amount of new vocab would have been fine, but it never gets repeated, and highly specific, unhelpful words are taught way too early.
It is fine to have "highly specific, unhelpful words" early on in a course - it helps you understand culture and breaks away from the monotony that many courses suffer from. I find it however entirely ridiculous, for example, that lesson 36 is teaching us the words for how a cow "moos", and how roosters "crow". The next lesson, 37, then teaches me how to say "digestion", "depression", "nervous system", and "weak stomach". Lesson 38 continues this trend by teaching me "wrinkles", "insomnia" and "sight". These words do not get repeated, at least not in any spaced way that doesn't have you forget them immediately, and expect you to randomly recall them more than 2 months later in the active phase.
If that wasn't bad enough, the way they chose to mark accents is extremely unhelpful, switching between diacritics and bold print, and then opting to neglect them entirely in exercises.
On one side note, the dialogues do retain their assimil-esque humor that is often very dry. This was expected and fine. Often however, there are dialogues that miss a punchline entirely, yet are written as if there is one. This is just bizzare and does not help at all with retention. Example:
1 - I don't understand why everyone thinks I'm stingy
2 - Probably because you [never] give anything to anyone?
3 - That's not true!
4 - Let's see (check).
5 - Lend (Give) me your dictionary.
6 - I don't have a dictionary (now).
7 - Well then, lend (give) [me some] cigarettes and matches.
8 - I don't have any cigarettes or matches...
9 - OK, fine (So, well). [Let's say] you have an orange.
10 - If I had an orange,
11 - I'd share [it] with you...
12 - [What] a pity you don't have an orange!
It is unsurprising that this book is out of print and I suggest to anyone looking for a Russian Assimil to turn to the earlier "Le nouveau Russe sans Peine." Even with my mediocre French, it is leaps and bounds better than this edition that I unfortunately wasted 2 months on.
It is fine to have "highly specific, unhelpful words" early on in a course - it helps you understand culture and breaks away from the monotony that many courses suffer from. I find it however entirely ridiculous, for example, that lesson 36 is teaching us the words for how a cow "moos", and how roosters "crow". The next lesson, 37, then teaches me how to say "digestion", "depression", "nervous system", and "weak stomach". Lesson 38 continues this trend by teaching me "wrinkles", "insomnia" and "sight". These words do not get repeated, at least not in any spaced way that doesn't have you forget them immediately, and expect you to randomly recall them more than 2 months later in the active phase.
If that wasn't bad enough, the way they chose to mark accents is extremely unhelpful, switching between diacritics and bold print, and then opting to neglect them entirely in exercises.
On one side note, the dialogues do retain their assimil-esque humor that is often very dry. This was expected and fine. Often however, there are dialogues that miss a punchline entirely, yet are written as if there is one. This is just bizzare and does not help at all with retention. Example:
1 - I don't understand why everyone thinks I'm stingy
2 - Probably because you [never] give anything to anyone?
3 - That's not true!
4 - Let's see (check).
5 - Lend (Give) me your dictionary.
6 - I don't have a dictionary (now).
7 - Well then, lend (give) [me some] cigarettes and matches.
8 - I don't have any cigarettes or matches...
9 - OK, fine (So, well). [Let's say] you have an orange.
10 - If I had an orange,
11 - I'd share [it] with you...
12 - [What] a pity you don't have an orange!
It is unsurprising that this book is out of print and I suggest to anyone looking for a Russian Assimil to turn to the earlier "Le nouveau Russe sans Peine." Even with my mediocre French, it is leaps and bounds better than this edition that I unfortunately wasted 2 months on.
Displaying 1 of 1 review