By Pimsleur Russian III (Pimsleur language program), Second Edition (Comprehensive) (2nd Second Edition) [Audio CD]

Pimsleur Comprehensive Russian #3

by Pimsleur Language Programs

Comprehensive Russian III includes 30 additional lessons (16 hrs.), plus Readings, which build upon the language skills acquired in Levels I and II. Increased spoken and reading language ability. Level III will increase your vocabulary and grammatical structures and triple your spoken proficiency. Upon completion of a level III, you will be able * participate in most informal and some formal discussions on practical, social, and some semi-professional topics, * form longer sentences while maintaining the target language syntax, * be understood even by native speakers unused to dealing with foreigners, * handle increasingly difficult grammatical structures, * enjoy fluent conversations with a variety of strangers, * have a near-native accent, and the subtleties of the language will be apparent in your speech, * read at the same level at which you In order for the Pimsleur Method to work correctly, you must first complete the Level I + II language programs before proceeding to the Level III language program.

Genres: Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

First published December 1, 1998

Reviews

[David Rubenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

After listening and using this audiobook for the past year or so, I have finally finished. This is the third, and last course of the series for learning Russian. In most of the course, someone with an American accents reads a phrase or sentence in English, followed by a pause. Then a native-speaking man or woman repeats the same phrase in Russian, followed by another pause, and then repeats it again.

Here are the pro's and con's for the program:
PRO's
The SRS (Spaced Repetition System) is used throughout the course. This is the basis for Pimsleur's method. Of course, other language institutes also use the SRS, but Pimsleur may have been one of its pioneers. The system consists of repeating a word or phrase frequently at first, then progressively less frequently with time. The idea is that you learn not by sheer repetition, but by recalling after some time has elapsed.

Native speakers are used, and the emphasis is placed on correct pronunciation.

This third installment of the course consists of 32 CD's, so it gives a lot of practice. And practice, of course, is essential for learning any language.

CON's
Despite the sheer volume of CD's, a rather limited vocabulary is learned. Well, this could also be taken as a "PRO", because a consequence, you can learn the vocabulary very well, as well as the grammatical constructions.

Very few explanations are given, as to why all the different conjugations and declensions. That is to say, there is no attempt to systematize the complex Russian grammar. It is assumed that a student will pick up the grammatical constructions automatically with repetition.

The emphasis is entirely on speaking; there is little chance to try out listening skills. And since this is an audiobook, there is no practice at reading.

Nevertheless, since I was already very familiar with the basic grammar, I found this audiobook to be a great aid in learning how to speak Russian. So, while this is not a fully self-contained course in Russian language, it is an excellent complement to a more traditional course.

[David Rubenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished Level 3 of Pimsleur's Russian audiobook, for a second time. The review was worth my time. I am not sure, if you are new to the material, how well you could really grasp the subtle grammar rules. For an English speaker, Russian is a difficult language. Learning all the cases and verb forms is not easy. I learn visually, and I have to see something in print before I understand it.

Nevertheless, I enjoy Pimsleur language audiobooks, because they are more than mere repetition. They provide very good practice, translating from English into a foreign language. They force me to think, and provide plenty of opportunities to think of words in different contexts.

The Pimsleur language programs are expensive, and I borrowed my copies from the library. The Pimsleur Russian Level 4 was published just a year ago, and it is not yet available from the library. (In fact, for some reason it is not even available yet for the library to acquire!) But I can certainly recommend the Pimsleur language programs to anyone who has the time and is willing to put in the effort to embrace a challenge.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

tl;dr: I am never using Pimsleur again. And honestly, neither should you.

Not tl;dr:

I was looking forward to finally giving this one a go, and once the first lesson started playing, all my memories of how much I didn't like the Russian Pimsleur smacked me hard, haha.

When I used their Japanese course, it wasn't that bad. The content was super boring, I was presumed to be a traveling business man with a wife and kids, but the nice part is, that aspect didn't matter so much, as Japanese isn't a gendered language, and is extremely flexible due to its built in formalities. (Super enby friendly language.)

Russian, however, is entirely the opposite. It's a gendered language, and a strict one. You have the two binary choices, and it is integral to the way you speak, if you're a man or a woman. So when the overwhelming majority of the audio is male speech, you're missing 50% of the language. (So why isn't this course permanently 50% off, huh??)

You are assumed to be a man if you are listening to this. There is very little female speech covered. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, "Как ОН говорит?" I could buy the Pimsleur company and have leftover to re-record everything with balanced speech. I swear it was at least two weeks in a ROW with ZERO female speech ever used! And when it finally DID show back up again, it was in relation to the MAN needing a CAR (female object), and then the female speaker speaking in relation to her HUSBAND or her HUSBAND'S BROTHER. (Pimsleur would not pass the Bechtel Test lmao) A huge factor in my slowness in getting through this course, apart from how angry I was about the obvious sexism, was how infuriatingly frustrating it was to have to independently remind myself what all the female speech patterns were, so I could practice saying those instead.

Their audience is obviously assumed to be male only. But what, are these men never going to talk about their wives? Sisters? Daughters? Mothers? Co-workers? Are they never going to talk with other women ever? Or people who talk about women? It's an insane gap in their program, y'all men should be pissed too. Half of the language is not being used or taught in the MAJORITY of their entire Russian course. How is this not a rip-off? (Even if their point was to aim at a male audience, that male audience still HAS to learn female speech in order to actually genuinely understand Russian.) Really only the last couple lessons have female speech crammed in, like it was a last minute after-thought of, "Oh yeah, if you want to learn Russian, you actually need to know how women speak lol oops."

Additionally, all genders are default male unless stated otherwise. So all 'acquaintances' or 'friends' are male. Other characters or people you talk to/about are also almost always male. This can make it confusing at times to know how to answer until you realize that bias.

And as an aside, I also don't know why this series is so insistent on using the word "знакомец" for friend, when, one, it means acquaintance, and two, I've never heard nor seen this word used for friend outside of this series. Every resource I've seen uses друг/по-друга. Just why not teach an infinitely more common and beginner-friendly word? And after writing this, in lesson 22 (22!! Of their third level!), they finally teach друг, and reveal that знакомец actually means acquaintance, when it's like, why did you not just say that from the start?? Those are entirely two different words! How does this not make things super confusing for learners? Of course, they don't even teach that "друг" is specifically a male friend until several lessons later too. They've done this already with "Russian/American" and "acquaintance" as well. They always teach the male form first, as if it's a gender neutral word, and several lessons later do they mention, "Oh by the way..."

As an aside, most of the conversations are formal, with very rare times where informal is used. And even when informalities are told to be used, they will still randomly switch back to formal without telling you that's what they're looking for. It gets confusing to know how to answer in those cases too. This course is literally frustrating is so many ways. I have no idea how this got approved to be recorded and sold. I really don't remember the Japanese course having THIS many problems. It's ridiculous.

I'm giving this two stars because it's not entirely useless, you DO learn SOME things. CEFR wise, you're still looking around A1.

Honestly, if you want infinitely better and free resources for listening practice, please go check out and support Nastya (her new 365 series is fantastic!) or 'In Russian From Afar' on YouTube. Both share amazing videos and teach Russian from absolute beginner and beyond. "Mango Languages" app is also free through certain libraries and a decent resource for learning Russian as well.

Pimsleur is just an outdated resource nowadays, not worth the money. Don't get caught up in their brand name, it's time to move on to better resources, properly built for ALL language learners in mind. Resources that ACTUALLY TEACH you the language.

[V.G. Castle. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't think this should be counted in my Goodreads challenge as this is not a book,but an audio program.
Pimsleur is always great for learning a language but don't depend on it. Learn a phrase, a dialogue, grammar rules on the sideline.
The track does not teach anything. It's a repetitive dialogue so learners can adopt on the language easily. It's about conversations.
This should only be a complement to language learners.

[Vlad Ardelean · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's nothing better than Pimsleur! Pretty expensive, but worth it!

With Russian, you need to get more help though. You need to learn more grammar somehow (wikipedia worked for me), and even though Pimsleur is awesome, you still need additional sources for vocabulary acquisition (wikipedia works for me, along with a lot of other things).

Highly recommend.

...still not sure why I'm learning Russian though.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would be nice if Pimsleur taught you how to use past tense in the feminine form.

Also, can the company boss/ president ever be a woman? Nahhh. Here, women mostly arrange meetings and advise their male colleagues on gift-buying.

I wouldn't pay for these courses, despite the otherwise useful content. But my library has them on Libby. So next up is Russian 4.

[Clifford Dunbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the whole series. I am amazing all my Russian friends. :-) I can communicate some basic ideas but of course I still have a long way to go. I wish there was a Russian 4 but I guess I will have to find other materials to continue my studies.