# Forum Learning Russian Language Resources for Studying Russian Book Reviews  Anyone finshed all 3 Pimsleur levels?

## 2CREATV

First and foremost, I'm a moron! My girlfriend of 2 years is Ukrainian and I think my vocabulary is somewhere around 100 words or so. I ordered instant conversation russian from pimsleur, listened to it twice a day on my morining and evening commute and to me its pretty effective in that atleast i can remember the dialougue. I see so many of you have different opinions about the pimsleur program but ive yet to see someone whos actually finished the 3 comprehensive courses. The pimsleur customer service rep claims college level fluency at the end of the 3rd level. Can anyone vouch for this claim? 
1: I am from spanish decent but born and raised in the US so im fluent in english and spanish.
2: my girlfriend is not a good teacher and only has enough patience to correct my mistakes.

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## waxwing

Hi,
descent, not decent. It took me quite a while to figure out what you ment there  ::  (like, 'I'm from Spanish, I'm a decent person, ... hehe ) 
Haven't used the Pimsleur so frankly I know nothing, but it seems a bit funny when sales reps try to make 'guarantees' about what their course can give you. Of course it depends hugely on your own effort and motivation. Let's not even mention how talent comes into it (that's controversial). And age. And about 1 billion other factors. 
As to 'college level fluency', well I'm afraid those are exactly the kind of utterly meaningless buzzwords that you can expect from reps. 
Hopefully someone who's used the course can give you a more interesting answer.   
Try to set a clear goal for your learning. Try to be consistent. Unlike me   ::

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## 2CREATV

i suppose you get what you put in
& thanks for correcting my english   ::   -- see what i meant "moron"

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## fx

Yes I did all 3 - it time well spent but you'll need to work after that to add extra vocabulary. See my other post  http://masterrussian.net/mforum/viewtop ... 0595#50595

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## Aleph

I tried Pimsleur French (90 lessons as well) - but turned out to be too overloading for my head, so I quitted after 4th or 5th lesson  and turned to my usual way of learning : textbook newspapers and now audiobooks and am doing pretty well. But this is because this cramming technique  is too boring to me so I lose interest.  For pronunciation improvement I think it's  worth the effort, but grammar and vocabulary are not addressed by this course as they advertise.

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## Pravit

fx, а разве этот Доктор Пимслэр так хорошо учит?

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## DDT

Well here we go again.  I have done all three levels of Pimsleur. It will get you conversing in a limited fashion much quicker than a college course will, and I have done that too. But be certain to understand; Pimsleur will not replace textbooks, grammar and hard work (and a rediculously insane drive to learn).
 I suppose you could just move to Russia.

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## Pravit

Excellent post, DDT.

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## irisheyes

If pimsleur will bring me up to college level I will buy all of the stock the sales rep has and marry him as well.  Alternatively I guess DDT is right about the hard work & slog & punishment.  So I plod along with that ridiculously 'insane drive' (and I must really be insane - like it's going to come in really useful here) to learn Russian and remind myself that I'm doing it 'cos I love it...............  ::

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## 2CREATV

---Just finished my Pimsleur Russian Course (found a complete collection of  the lessons in MP3 format on EBAY!)  ::  Y dumayu shto ya seechas harasho panimayu pa russki -- no ni dastatechna shtobi fso panimat.  ::  I'll be heading to Borders books soon to pick up some vocabulary books. Any suggestions as what to pick up?

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## Pravit

A ya schitayu shto u tebya russki deistivtelno bezgramotno. Obyazatelno kupi "The New Penguin Russian Course by Nicholas J. Brown."

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## 2CREATV

Thanks for stating the obvious Pravit.   ::   I'll look forward to your grammar suggestions after I complete the New Penguin Course.  ::  By the way, is there an advanced level Russian Course available. (ya znayu shto ya yesho ni-gatov)

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## jcougar1

I liked the book : The Russian's World: Life and Language, Third Edition
It isn't a grammar book, but it does give you lots of interesting facts about russian life, and a very good vocabulary.  It isn't very boring like most of the books I have read. Amazon has the best prices. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/searc ... 43-4111307

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## Woland

I have done all three. It was a great help with pronunciation. I was working in text books at the same time, so that played a part in the results I got. My problem with Pimsleur is my odd memory. I have a hard time memorizing words, etc., but after listening to a Pimsleur tape once, I had it memorized. It made review of the tapes worthless and prevented me from internalizing concepts; therefore, it was difficult for me to apply the concepts outside of responding to the tapes.

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## 2CREATV

i would have to agree that apart from salutations and invitations -- you'd have to be looking for a job as an interpreter in st. petersburg for the kodak company to get any real world use of pimsleur (pimsleur user's insider joke...  ::  )

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