I noticed this and i think many courses simply have them so you can get used to the alphabet and simple reading ......however what i found is that these words have a tendancy to lure you into a false sense of achievement i.e. you believe you are better than you actualy are.

I have asked my tutor to stay away from international words wherever possible for he following reasons:

1: I want to learn Russian not where the words come from, i can pick stuff like that up here.
2: I do not actually learn anything and can typically work them out for myself as and when required.
3: I have found it can lure you into a trap as you can get into the habit of seeing a word, read it, think it sounds like something in English and end up being wide off the mark with what the actual word is.
4: As mentioned above you can believe you are better than you actualy are.

Look at these words as "bonus points".

These are just my experiences and hope this helps.