I really enjoyed these tracks. I like it that I'm asked to come up with some sentences on my own, rather than just repeating everything the narrator says. It has made me realise how much Russian I do actually know.
I have had a lot of aha, light bulb moments with the way things are explained in this course. For example the explanation of the difference between a and No, or the explaining of the bigger picture in learning Russian grammar and word order.
These lessons are excellent! I especially benefited from the clear presentation of the -то and -нибудь sections. I would recommend that people definitely go through the whole series of tracks first without looking at the written companion, and then review the companion and go through the same tracks again. Thank you. Excellent course as far as I can tell! I like the review and the chance to measure your progress against the initial dialogue. I think this is a good wrap-up to the lesson. I found the part on "alike" and "different" useful. I appreciated the introduction to case endings on this set of lesson, as I have so much trouble with those. It is good also how the lesson go back and review important words and phrases from the previous lessons . . . very helpful to keep those fresh
As a novice/intermediate Russian speaker I've enjoyed the AudiaLearn Russian tracks. Previously I had purchased book as my first introduction to the Russian Language. And although I enjoy learning independently, I feel that Audia learn has given me an edge on my studies of the Russian Language. The tracks 1 -5 have been great because you get a combination of grammar and conversational skills.
I think that the dialogues are good and I think that they are about the right level. I don't feel that I am making too much of a jump from the end of the 'advanced' Michel Thomas tape. I like the three-stage 'dialogue at normal speed' 'dialogue slowed down' and 'dialogue with translations' bit. I also like the way you tackle words which are often glossed over by most courses, like 'something' 'anything' etc. Getting the level of the language right is actually the hardest part and I think you are getting that bit right.
The lessons I found very useful. I now know the difference between perfective and imperfective verbs - I was always confused prior to this. Plus, I found the explanation of the use of the dative case instructive.
I have to say that I'm quite impressed about the quality of the lesson! I had a chance to study the new material and I must say I really like it! This is really what I was looking for: after completing the Pimsleur course, I needed to improve my vocabulary and grammar skills.
I'm already convinced that this course has great potential and will certainly lift my level of proficiency to Intermediate or even upper Intermediate.
I had no trouble understanding the grammar explanations. In fact they seemed a bit familiar already. Even the grammar sounded very familiar. The explanations of the grammar concepts were very concise and explained in a way that they make sense. After the given examples it was easy to predict the exercises. I think this is a very good method to improve confidence of the student. I especially like the learning method in which examples are given to demonstrate how the grammar works. This is what's lacking in most courses: immediate and sufficient exercises. Most grammar books only give 1 example and expect the student to understand completely from the first time. I very much liked the grammar explanations. They may be rather extensive, but in the end they seem to do the job! The grammar seems to make more and more sense to me now. There's even a good chance that I will remember it now. Some of the grammar concepts, i already read in grammar sections of written courses, but because of the lack of examples and sound fragments, they didn't stick and I forgot pretty soon, or I got confused because of the lack of good examples. This is where your course comes to the rescue for me!
Another plus is that (the course) explains when what aspects needs to be used and that you explain the finer details. I can't say that I would be able right now to pick the right aspect every time when I want to communicate with someone, but at least I have now some guidelines to help me decide which aspect to use. Before, I only guessed and usually wrong! :-)) At least now I will be able to make an educated guess.
Maybe it's because I recently finished the Michel Thomas advanced course, but I also like the break down of the pronunciation of new vocabulary. In most other courses, they keep pronouncing the different syllables without consideration of the word stress. This is the first course in which I can hear how and why the sound of the letter 'o' changes to 'a' when unstressed. So, I guess you made the right choice here! And through the usage of the vocabulary from the lesson throughout the grammar explanations and example sentences, I'm constantly expanding my vocabulary faster than I expected. The use of words already familiar through previous coursework, gives me more confidence to try to be more creative when forming sentences. I found it to be a good example of something I experienced while staying in a small hotel in Nizhny Novgorod: one of the receptionists was really friendly, bu no matter how hard she tried, i couldn't understand what she tried to tell me, while i could even have a conversation with her colleagues who didn't even try their best to talk to a foreigner!
So, I like the audio tracks more and more and I'm definitely learning from them! The element of constant repetition is also a very good concept to aid the learning process and to keep vocabulary and grammar topics stick in memory.....everything is finally falling into place. The other tracks (3 and 4) proved to be rather challenging at times; Nevertheless I found myself able to answer more questions than I thought possible. I realize that it will take a few more sessions to get the vocabulary and grammar fixed in my mind, it's reassuring that even after the first session, I was able to answer a lot of the exercises right. So, overall, I think the course will be quite effective in reaching it's goals! So, to sum up, I think the course is really working and even though I'm working through the course rather quickly, I feel the potential. I will have to repeat the lessons a few more times to get to the required 80%, but it's going better every time! I'm looking forward to hearing the continuation of this new course!