Okay....but not what I expected, March 19, 2004
Reviewer: A reader
I bought this product primarily because of the Pimsleur name and was rather disappointed. This CD set is of good quality, and it's great to play while driving, but its usefulness is limited (I feel) for the needs of a tourist. The conversations mostly concern asking your date(!)if she wants something to eat or drink, asking for directions, and telling the time and date. There's not a lot of the usual tourist-type phrases. (Where's the train/hotel/my luggage, etc.) In terms of teaching pronunciation, it's wonderful and I wish more language-learning sets were like it. If you're serious about learning Russian, I would at least buy a book to go along with these CDs.

Excellent way to get started!, February 17, 2004

This collection is an inexpensive way to get started with Russian. I've been with my Russian wife for almost five years and barely picked up more than twenty words from her. I listen to this CD collection in the car, to and from work, and within just a few weeks I was able to have a (small-talk) conversation with her. I've dealt with several different audio language courses for several languages and I would say this approach tops all others. They take the time to walk you through each syllable of every new word taught to ensure you are able to accurately reproduce the sounds. As well, they take the time to point out and explain minor differences in the way things are said. Most courses just rhyme off sentances for you to repeat and memorize. With this you actually learn. However, because of this the pace can be somewhat slow and so by the end of eight hours you may not have heard as much as some of the other eight hour courses, but for sure you will remember more! I'm sure the full (expensive!!!!) Pimsleur courses are worth the money if you want to go all the way!

Great for those just starting out, September 8, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
This product was my first experience with Russian. It is good for teaching you what I would call "Tourist Russian". This product actually got me interested in learning more than just basic Russian so I am planning on purchasing the rest of the course. I would also recommend buying a book on learning to read and write Russian if you are serious about learning the language. As I learned how to read the Cyrillic alphabet (or I should say I have started to learn it) it helped me to understand some of the things on the CD's and vice versa. Overall, I have been very happy with the product. Having them on CD is great because you can do this while you are driving back and forth to work every day.

A great start!, March 30, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
There is much more to this course than
"have a conversation with a Russian lady and ask her to dinner at 8:00".
This course gives you a good foundation in Russian.
You'll know what you are saying.
You start off understanding the words.
This is the perfect way to learn a language that you don't know at all.
It is too slow for the person who has extraordinary language ability.
For everyone else, it is just right. You will want to move on to Pimsleur's advanced courses and buy a book that teaches you the Russian alphabet and more grammar.

Pimsleur is DIFFERENT! Excellent starter to learn Russian, December 15, 2002

This is a great starter to learning Russian, unlike any other. If you've already read the multitude of great reviews for the Pimsleur Language Programs, and just not sure about shelling out for a programm you havn't tried, buy this Instant Conversation for a bargin and TRY it! If you havn't read one of the many excellent reviews for the Pimsleur Way on Amazon.com, here is mine.

As an immigrant to the U.S., I've personally experienced learning a 2nd language through osmosis, being steeped in an enviorment where only the foreign language (English) is spoken. It's a long and ardous process. When I decided to pick up a 3rd language, French. I first tried learning through the other audiobooks such as Berlitz and Barron, and through books such as French for Dummies. Then I tried Pimsleur French I, which made the previous methods seem like banging one's head against a wall. Unlike previous methods, learning French from Pimsleur reminded me of how I learned English, and even how naturally I've learned my native language, Chinese. Dr. Pimsleur, the linguist, has disected the natural process by which any language is learned, and applied this process to simplify your experience learning a new language without all the pitfalls I had to go through learning ESL.

Sure, compared with other self-teach language books and audio out there, the Pimsleur materials doesn't load you up with vocabulary, but Pimsleur BUILDS your vocabulary. Are you sure you're going to remember all the words from a typical language program after a day anyways? Unlike those other books, Pimsleur is SCIENTIFIC. And Personal! In many ways it's similar to a personal trainer in learning a new language, the lessons are INTERACTIVE, asking your questions along the way. Now, I've learned two years of Spanish in college and gotten good grades for them, and as I'm listening to Pimsleur Spanish III, I realized the lessons are still challenging for me because I've never learned Spanish this conversational way. And as far as the covered level is concerned, Pimsleur Spanish III is about this same as 3-4 credits of college Spanish. I'm also on French III now. I can understand a good deal of French in movies now, and I could definitely strike up a French conversation (with authentic pronouciation - something you can't learn by books alone!).

I really can't recommend the Pimsleur programs more, but you really ought to TRY IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!

not bad, could be better., July 19, 2002
Reviewer: A reader
This Pimsleur course, like others, is crafted with skill. I've come to expect great quality out of Pimsleur. There are 16 courses, 2 course per CD. Each course is 30 minutes long. The beginning of each course (except the first) is a small exercise in comprehension, plus review, and then the rest of the course (20-25 minutes) is devoted to new material or more review. The format is consistent, so in this course, there is a male and female conversationalist, and a narrator prompting you in english.

I would argue that the first 4 CDs generated the greatest momentum, in teaching one to do basics such as greetings, asking for simple directions, answering them, and the like. But the latter half tends to peter out and does not yield as much benefit as one should get from listening to the last 4 CDs.

As one reviewer noted, there's a tendency in this "instant conversation" course to overemphasize certain points of the language that may seem rather useless, including the ability to tell the time from one to twelve o'clock with great fluency, and the ability to tell the cost of items from one ruble to 20 rubles. (And few things cost 20 rubles). I gather that these lapses of overemphasis occur because these 16 courses were largely derived from the Comprehensive Level I course. There are slight differences between the two, but for the most part, the first 16 here map to the first 16 courses in Comp Lvl 1.

That being said, perhaps Pimsleur was a little hasty to release this condensed, more affordable version in the hopes that it would attract customers. When I purchased it, the front of the box proclaimed that one can save [more] on the Comp Lvl 1 course (!)...At least you can save...on the longer course. Otherwise, it is a good product. But falls short of Pimsleur's standard for excellence.