# Forum Learning Russian Language Getting Started with Russian  Life after Pimsleur ?

## Lylandra

Hi everybody,
well Pimsleur's behind me now and boy do I feel lonely without their lovely voices in my ears !   ::  
Seriously, I'd like to keep on learning, and I know there are many, many ressources on the net, but my problem is that I would like to keep doing this during commuting... I don't have much time for anything else, so the audio method was really great for me. 
Do you know other audio methods, but for a more advanced level ? (Well for someone who just finished Pimsleur's ,you got it...)
Or audio stuffs that could be understandable for me ? 
Good day to all,
Lyl.

----------


## Crassyo

> Hi everybody,
> well Pimsleur's behind me now and boy do I feel lonely without their lovely voices in my ears !   
> Seriously, I'd like to keep on learning, and I know there are many, many ressources on the net, but my problem is that I would like to keep doing this during commuting... I don't have much time for anything else, so the audio method was really great for me. 
> Do you know other audio methods, but for a more advanced level ? (Well for someone who just finished Pimsleur's ,you got it...)
> Or audio stuffs that could be understandable for me ? 
> Good day to all,
> Lyl.

 A lot of people have said that the 'Michel Thomas' method is better than pimsleur (I agree because I am doing both for French and Italian) 
A Russian version of Michel Thomas is out in the U.K and should be out in the States next month. I am very much looking forward to it!  ::

----------


## Matroskin Kot

The next step is to talk to Russians as much as possible. If you've finished Pimsy, then you should have enough ability to carry on a conversation. 
From now on, the best way to learn is through use (even if you have to refer to a dictionary often), with a bit of daily vocabulary work on your own.

----------


## Dogboy182

Listen to Russian radio, watch Russian TV and movies, listen to Russian songs.

----------


## Grogs

Congratulations on finishing Pimsleur, Lylandra.  I've nearly finished myself, and I've been wondering the same thing.  While Russian radio, TV, etc. are excellent resources, they're not really an option during the daily commute to work (and I haven't found a native Russian to carpool with yet  :: ).   
I have a  45 minute drive each way, and Pimsleur has helped to make that time productive.  More importantly, no matter how busy I get, there's nothing else to do during the drive, so unlike my studies at home my Pimsleur lessons have never slipped.  So, it would be nice to have something to fill that void.  It seems that the best thing would be audiobooks.  Preferably, it would be something at a fairly low level -- children's books, perhaps.

----------


## Haksaw

Why not make some Audio CDs for yourself? The course that was at Princeton University has plenty of conversations.........  http://www.freelanguagecourses.com/   I'm also progressing through Level 3 of Pimsleur, (lesson #6). I have also returned to the Princeton course for review ( I was using it about a year ago), for vocabulary and conversations, I've downloaded the entire course; and I'm making CDs for use in my car -   ::

----------


## Lylandra

Hi everybody !
Although I would love to, it might indeed be a _little_ difficult to find someone to talk russian with during commuting...   ::   
I was considering finding a way to record russian radio, but I'm afraid I just won't understand a thing and eventually get discouraged. 
Crassyo: is the 'Michel Thomas' method for complete beginners too, or does it exist for a bit more advanced students ? 
Haksaw: now you may just be my saver for some time ! The download is so heavy (1.5 Go) that I havn't seen the content yet, but I'm pretty sure I will find material to feed me for some time again. 
So, thank you everybody, and keep posting if you know any other audio ressources ! (So I don't have to come back in few weeks to ask the same question again   ::  ) 
Lyl.

----------


## Matroskin Kot

> Although I would love to, it might indeed be a _little_ difficult to find someone to talk russian with during commuting...

 A) I didn't realize that the only time one can learn a language is during one's commute.  ::  
B) Do you commute by car? If not, you might be surprised to find Russian speakers on your train or bus. I'd bet that any decent-sized city has enough Russian-speaking immigrants, that you will find at least one riding public transport at the same time you do.

----------


## Crassyo

how long did it take you guys to complete all 3 levels of pimsleurs?

----------


## Lylandra

Matroskin Kot: that's an idea indeed... unfortunately, even if I do travel by metro, I have 2 connections and I therefore spend little time on the same line. Anyway... 
Crassyo: I realize that I started Pimsleur only in mid-november! But I'm a kind of learnerholic (learning about 2 lessons a day); besides, I focused on speaking, and I merely learnt reading. I did not spend much time on grammar either, and I know it will soon become an inconvience.

----------


## Haksaw

Crassyo -  I usually progress through 1 lesson a week, unless I find any individual lesson a bit more difficult (or I'm distracted for some reason). Or, I might take a little longer - it's just that I want to thoroughly learn  everything in a lesson before moving to the next. Perhaps I'm a bit slow?........but it really doesn't matter!   ::

----------


## Dogboy182

> I was considering finding a way to record russian radio, but I'm afraid I just won't understand a thing and eventually get discouraged.

 You will  ::  It's hard at first. But u just gotta keep doing it, and keep learning vocabulary. Its pretty much like a puzzle. The more words you learn, the more the pieces fit. 
When I first started learning Russian I would get discouraged with all the words I didnt know, but I just kept learning them and kept telling myself, as long as I keep learning them, eventually people will run out of words to use that I don't know! 
But that was just me.

----------


## Lampada

> I was considering finding a way to record russian radio, but I'm afraid I just won't understand a thing and eventually get discouraged.
> 			
> 		  You will  It's hard at first. But u just gotta keep doing it, and keep learning vocabulary. Its pretty much like a puzzle. The more words you learn, the more the pieces fit. 
> When I first started learning Russian I would get discouraged with all the words I didnt know, but I just kept learning them and kept telling myself, as long as I keep learning them, eventually people will run out of words to use that I don't know! 
> But that was just me.

----------


## gRomoZeka

> ... but I just kept learning them and kept telling myself, as long as I keep learning them, eventually people will run out of words to use that I don't know!

 I like your attitude.  ::

----------


## Grogs

> how long did it take you guys to complete all 3 levels of pimsleurs?

 I started on January 4th last year, and I've finished 80 of the 90 lessons.  Assuming nothing major changes in my habits, I'll be done by March, so call it about 14 months total.  I tend to listen to each lesson 3-5 times before moving on, because I want to learn as much as I can.  I figure that I may as well listen to each lesson as many times as I can stomach because, really, there's no going back to old lessons.

----------


## Trzeci_Wymiar

The fundamental problem with Pimsluer from a language acquisition perspective, is that it has you learn by rote ... imitation and memorization. So it's hard and probably nearly impossible to generate sentences on your own .... I mean, you're certainly equipped to recite what you've learned if you happen to be falling within the parameters of Pimsleur's meager handful of milieus at any random point (gas station, train complementing each other's language skills, asking someone to eat etc), and even this isn't a sure thing, as Pimsleur asks you to recall a phrase based on a certain input, i.e., what's been said or asked by the other speaker ... In a language as morphologically monstrous and labyrinthine as Russian (and syntactically flexible), the conflict is obvious. A Russian might say the same thing to you in a thousand different ways, at which point you, the Pimsleuree, are holding your pumpkin between your palms as your eyes bulge and rotate wildly and spittle flies out your mouth (they call this "офигеть" in Russian). The ability to actually generate sentences, in addition to being paramount in all languages, is especially so in Russian owing to its highly complex grammar. For this Pimsleur is ill-equipped. I will say, however, I've purchased Pimsleur for the sole reason that it can't be surpassed in its teaching of pronunciation.

----------


## Lylandra

Hi there
how is that different from any other method for *beginners* ?
No beginner will ever be able to understand a russian "say the same thing to you in a thousand different ways".
Any method has to start by something, and cannot teach everything at once.
Unless supposing that Pimsleur students are brainless parrots, I think they can (hope I did!) understand some logic with which the sentences are constructed, and thus make some of their own, provided they have the vocabulary, which again is a problem for *any* beginner.
So, in what book can I find this miraculous method which so quickly make beginners autonomous ?  ::  
Lyl.

----------


## paulb

I've just been trying to use as many methods as I can. One method that I've found helpful has been finding some "learner's texts". These are stories in Russian with the more difficult vocabulary translated in the margins of the page. If you can find these, they are great since it saves the time of flipping through a dictionary. I would work through much of a beginning grammar text first, since they expect you to know your grammar and approximately the amount of vocab you would get in one year of Russian study. 
I think Pimsleur is honestly one of the best methods for assimilating grammar at the level it works at (since it gives you everything you need to know for the problems then makes you work to retrieve that info), but the total amount of vocab in the Pimseur course is not very large.  
Just think about the four skills you need (reading, writing, speaking and listening) and try to make yourself do activities in each of those.

----------


## Grogs

Here's a good resource for life after Pimsleur folks:  http://www.gwu.edu/~slavic/webcast/ 
With downloadable MP3's, a vocabulary list, and a transcript for each news story, this makes an excellent resource for improving listening comprehension.  It's also great for building that particular (and generally not pleasant) set of vocabulary that seems to go with news stories.

----------


## fortheether

I've been using this lately:  http://www.gefix.net/sazov/ 
Its a free online textbook.  It has tests for each chapter also.  I didn't get the audio though. 
Scott

----------


## Lylandra

Great great great !
I am currently going through the Princeton courses, trying to catch up with all the grammar I never learnt so far... It's nice to get to know the level one is supposed to reach semester after semester.
However, the dialogues to listen to are quite short compared to the time it takes me to read a whole lesson. Therefore, I am glad Grogs found those downloadable mp3's!
fortheether: I think the audio can only be bought, but the texts and exercices seem nice to go through.
paulb: any link to an example of one of these "learner's texts"? 
Take care all!
Lyl.

----------


## Lampada

> ... I think the audio can only be bought...

 If you can bring here the texts and exercices, we can record an audio for you.

----------


## Grogs

> I've been using this lately:  http://www.gefix.net/sazov/ 
> Its a free online textbook.  It has tests for each chapter also.  I didn't get the audio though. 
> Scott

 Very professional looking.  I'll have to give that a closer look.  Are the answers to the chapter exercises online as well?  I didn't see them anywhere.   

> I am currently going through the Princeton courses, trying to catch up with all the grammar I never learnt so far... It's nice to get to know the level one is supposed to reach semester after semester.
> However, the dialogues to listen to are quite short compared to the time it takes me to read a whole lesson.

 I'm not quite sure I follow you.  Are you saying that all of the PDF's in the SLA101 folder are an entire year's worth of Russian?  If that's the case then is SLA105 folder the entire 2nd year?  Honestly, I didn't even realize there was more than one semester in the zip file. 
As for the reading taking time, I don't think there's any way around that.  Learning grammar is a necessary evil and a book is about the only way.  Just keep telling yourself, "Я люблю трудные задачи."   ::

----------


## fortheether

> Originally Posted by fortheether  I've been using this lately:  http://www.gefix.net/sazov/ 
> Its a free online textbook.  It has tests for each chapter also.  I didn't get the audio though. 
> Scott         Originally Posted by Grogs  Very professional looking.  I'll have to give that a closer look.  Are the answers to the chapter exercises online as well?  I didn't see them anywhere.

 I don't see the answers either but generally they are in the text.  Also as you know, there are a boat load of people here who can help.

----------


## fortheether

> Originally Posted by Lylandra  ... I think the audio can only be bought...   If you can bring here the texts and exercices, we can record an audio for you.

 Lampada,
   Almost at the end of:  http://www.gefix.net/sazov/ 
is "Listening passages".  I believe that's the text of the recordings.  It's a lot of stuff to record.  Up to you. 
Thank you, 
Scott

----------


## Lampada

> Originally Posted by Lampada        Originally Posted by Lylandra  ... I think the audio can only be bought...   If you can bring here the texts and exercices, we can record an audio for you.   Lampada,
>    Almost at the end of: http://www.gefix.net/sazov/
> is "Listening passages".  I believe that's the text of the recordings.  It's a lot of stuff to record.  Up to you.
> Thank you,
> Scott

 Тексты же не нужны все сразу.  Я думаю, что вы бы могли здесь размещать нужные в данный момент тексты, а я или кто-то ещё будем их начитывать по мере поступления.

----------


## fortheether

> Originally Posted by fortheether        Originally Posted by Lampada        Originally Posted by Lylandra  ... I think the audio can only be bought...   If you can bring here the texts and exercices, we can record an audio for you.   Lampada,
>    Almost at the end of: http://www.gefix.net/sazov/
> is "Listening passages".  I believe that's the text of the recordings.  It's a lot of stuff to record.  Up to you.
> Thank you,
> Scott   Тексты же не нужны все сразу.  Я думаю, что вы бы могли здесь размещать нужные в данный момент тексты, а я или кто-то ещё будем их начитывать по мере поступления.

 Excellent idea!  I am on chapter 5 so it would be cool to hear the readings from the Listening passages for that chapter.   
Thank you, 
Scott

----------


## Lylandra

> I'm not quite sure I follow you.  Are you saying that all of the PDF's in the SLA101 folder are an entire year's worth of Russian?  If that's the case then is SLA105 folder the entire 2nd year?  Honestly, I didn't even realize there was more than one semester in the zip file.

 Ouch, then I guess I should get help from english forums as well  :: 
I actually asked the Princeton Courses guy why there were no 27th and 29th lessons. He replied :
"... beginning after Lesson 26, we spent 2 days every week on the Sarah Story - almost always with one "regular" lesson in between the two.  First we did the "Text" lesson, then two days later the "Grammar" lesson."
And after that : "Yes, the words marked 27 are actually from the first part of the Sarah story (I never noticed this before).  Also, for the most part, there are never any new vocabulary items in the Sarah Grammar lessons - which is why the number in the Text lessons can be quite high.
Here's are copies of the syllabi for 101 (first semester) and 102 (second semester)."
So I guess SLA105 and SLA207 are 2nd year, but he hasn't answered me about that so far.

----------


## Grogs

> Here's are copies of the syllabi for 101 (first semester) and 102 (second semester)."
> So I guess SLA105 and SLA207 are 2nd year, but he hasn't answered me about that so far.

 I'm pretty sure you're right about 105/107 being the 2nd year.  In the first 105 lesson, it says that the first two lessons of the course will review "what you learned last year in SLA101."  It's just an unfamiliar numbering system (I'm used to 1xx classes for freshmen, 2xx for sophomores, etc.) and that paired with the fact that none of the folders are labeled 102 or 107 (only 101 and 105) makes it confusing.

----------


## Lampada

> Originally Posted by Lampada  Тексты же не нужны все сразу.  Я думаю, что вы бы могли здесь размещать нужные в данный момент тексты, а я или кто-то ещё будем их начитывать по мере поступления.   Excellent idea!  I am on chapter 5 so it would be cool to hear the readings from the Listening passages for that chapter.   
> Thank you, 
> Scott

 Scott, а где же эти тексты для начитки?

----------


## fortheether

> Originally Posted by fortheether        Originally Posted by Lampada  Тексты же не нужны все сразу.  Я думаю, что вы бы могли здесь размещать нужные в данный момент тексты, а я или кто-то ещё будем их начитывать по мере поступления.   Excellent idea!  I am on chapter 5 so it would be cool to hear the readings from the Listening passages for that chapter.   
> Thank you, 
> Scott   Scott, а где же эти тексты для начитки?

 Lampada,  
They are here:  http://www.gefix.net/sazov/ 
Click on "Book" then "Listening passages" 
Thank you, 
Scott

----------


## Lampada

> Originally Posted by Lampada        Originally Posted by fortheether        Originally Posted by Lampada  Тексты же не нужны все сразу.  Я думаю, что вы бы могли здесь размещать нужные в данный момент тексты, а я или кто-то ещё будем их начитывать по мере поступления.   Excellent idea!  I am on chapter 5 so it would be cool to hear the readings from the Listening passages for that chapter.   
> Thank you, 
> Scott   Scott, а где же эти тексты для начитки?   Lampada,  
> They are here:  http://www.gefix.net/sazov/ 
> Click on "Book" then "Listening passages" 
> Thank you, 
> Scott

 Could you please copy and paste here these passages for me in order for us to be on the same page?

----------


## Lampada

У меня не получается сору and paste c http://www.gefix.net/sazov/ Там какая-то другая кодировка.  Если кто-нибудь может в этом разобраться, расскажите, что нужно сделать, чтобы можно было их тексты скопировать.

----------


## Lampada

Пятая глава.  Четвёртое задание. Стр. 85  http://sayandpost.com/ynofcu76a2.mp3
__________________________ 
Можно, конечно, подвешивать здесь аудио и без текста.  
Если хотите чтобы я что-то начитала, напишите здесь из какой главы и над какими заданиями вы работаете.

----------


## Grogs

> Do you know other audio methods, but for a more advanced level ? (Well for someone who just finished Pimsleur's ,you got it...)
> Or audio stuffs that could be understandable for me ?

 I've found a product that's a pretty good follow-on to Pimsleur in my opinion:  Vocabulearn 
The package consists of 12 CD's.  Each CD consists of an English speaker saying a word, followed by a Russian speaker saying it in Russian.  Halfway through the CD, they change the order (Russian first, then English).  As far as quality, it's not the greatest, but unlike Pimsleur the set comes with a book that has a complete transcription of everything that is said.  Also, unlike Pimsleur, the CD's have a lot or replayability.  There are probably ~350 Russian nouns on the first CD, and unless you're a savant like Lylandra  ::  you won't pick them all up on the first, or even the tenth time you listen.

----------


## Forrest

The original site for the S Azov book has been down recently; I don't know whether or not this is likely to be an ongoing problem, but the materials can also, it seems, be downloaded at the following link:  http://www.wlv.ac.uk/Default.aspx?page=12159

----------


## DaleD

The Spoken Language Service's Spoken Russian is good for in the car. It has a text. You do need to use the text but the audio has English and Russian. first read through with the text and audio. After that doing the audio in the car works very well. The text has the need grammar information. 
The one down side is being on cassette tape. I copied mine to the lap top and burned cds for the car.

----------


## Lampada

> The Spoken Language Service's ...

 Dale, welcome to MasterRussian!   ::

----------


## DaleD

> Originally Posted by DaleD  The Spoken Language Service's ...   Dale, welcome to MasterRussian!

 Thank you. Nice forum with some great information. 
I am using Spoken Russian, Linguaphone Russian, Modern Russian 1&2, Vocabulearn Russian. I have used Pimsleur Russian 1-3. I am not a good  language student. I need the audio these series offer to learn. 
I visited Russia and spenting my time photographing some old towns dating to Kiev Rus time. (I like Russian art, history, liturature, classical music. I love my Russian lady and Soviet era comedy cinama.  ::  )

----------

