Weird pronounciation, March 30, 2004
Reviewer: A reader
I bought this product a few months ago.I started using the cds and everything seemed ok at first.I also take classes in russian.My teacher is russian.I'm taking classes for 6 months now.As i was getting better i realized that some of the words where pronounced very wierd.For example the female speaker pronounces the word "shto" which means "what" as "chto" while the male speaker pronounces it regularly as "shto".This is not standard russian accent.I've never heard of any russian saying "chto".So i thaught that this must be some regional accent.I even asked my teacher about this and she laughed.She said that she is not aware of any region in Russia where "shto" is pronounced as "chto".Also some word endings are pronounced wrong.For example a "b" at the end of a word should be pronounced as p,while a b in this course is always a "b" no matter where it is positioned in a word.Has anyone else noticed these?A review of a native speaker of russian would help a lot.

Other Review GROSSLY in ERROR - Fine Set!, March 8, 2004

The first review of this product is incorrectly intended for the "Ultimate" series by Living Language, which has 4 cassettes (or CDs) to accompany the text, and 4 to "learn on the go." The product on this page is the very basic, intro course into Russian and it is quite good. 40 simple, digestable lessons to get you up and running, and to move on to intermediate or other beginner books to reinforce what you learn. Here you get a full review of the Russian alphabet, lots of vocabulary, sentence structure, and listening practice with the tapes. For under $20.00, I found this to be a great deal, and the next Living Language series a good next step. For beginner's, Barron's "Listen and Learn the Fun Way" is comparable, though more expensive with 4 cassettes and lots of pictures. The review also laments that lack of good Russian tapes aside from Penton to learn in the car, has he/she heard of Pimsleur or Instant Immersion? The former is good enough to take a trip to Russia, the latter MUCH better than Penton, the phrases are grouped in more sensible style. That having been said, I give it 5 stars for the value and general solid footing it offers for a beginner learning the language. After this I recommend the Ultimate Beginner-Intermediate, then the Advanced, while simultaneously doing the full Pimsleur 48 CDs (available at most libraries). If you make it this far, go for the full deal at audio-forum, and at this point YOU'LL be teaching Russian!

Learning Russian from the Ground Up, August 5, 2002

This series is great if you really want to set the foundations for truly learning Russian. This is not for travellers who just want phrases and a basic "gist" of the language. They take you step by step so that you can actually learn to read the language starting with the pronunciation of each letter and its possible sounds so you can sound out words if you are stuck and need to bring out a dictionary. This is a great series to start out with if you have the will power to dedicate yourself to being a student of the language and not just a parrot.

Tapes not well-designed for self learning, June 22, 2002
Reviewer: A reader
A great deal of effort went into preparation of the tapes for this product, which is a shame because they have some fundamental flaws that make them very frustrating to use, especially in the car. First of all, there are actually two sets of tapes, one called Learn at Home, which is designed to be used with the text, and another called Learn on the Go, which is designed to be used without the text. They use the same lessons, so you are only getting half your money's worth. The Learn on the Go series rarely gives the student the opportunity to say the phrase in Russian after hearing the English phrase, so it is almost useless for practicing what you have memorized. It is better than some comparable products in that it doesn't have a lot of fluff (music, chatty cultural stuff) that wastes time, but not nearly as good as some. Penton's Learn in Your Car series is by far the best, but unfortunately does not go beyond the beginner level. The other makers of language products should learn from Penton's simple, efficient methods. I taught myself Spanish in the car and am now learning Russian, but I am frustrated by the lack of really good products beyond the beginner level.