Max Bollinger

Over the years, I have taken a few Russian courses and used many different study guides/tools to help learn the language. Obviously, one will never become fluent in a language after listening to one cd, but this particular disc is a good one to listen to for a quick introduction. It is always interesting to hear what one person considers to be the most important parts of the language, but there are no major surprises on this cd. For some reason, Russian seems to be more popular (at least for sources like this) in England than in the US, so there is a bit of British English to American English that must be done, but nothing major. Overall, this is a quality effort and I'd be interested in more training materials from Mr. Bollinger.… (altro)

This series of bite-sized Russian lessons will not turn you overnight into a Russian speaker, but it does include those phrasebook nuts and bolts (hello, goodbye, please and thank you) that would be helpful to a traveller in Russia, as well as wandering into some more complicated territory – you learn to point out an interesting barn, for instance. The later sections include some hardcore stuff – readings from Chekhov in Russian (I fear I would not even understand Chekhov in English), as well as Yuri Gagarin talking about space travel. Perhaps its key benefit is the way it familiarises the listener with the sounds and subtleties of the Russian language – the way the words are formed, the different ways the same consonant might be pronounced, and advice on the positioning of the tongue. Listening to repeated audio is perhaps the most natural way to start learning a language – the way we all learned our first one.

The vocal delivery is clear and precise throughout, and new vocabulary is repeated, as well as being broken down into sections which I found particularly helpful. But to be really effective this course needs to be listened to in conjunction with some kind of printed material. There is no accompanying written guide, though transcripts of some of the sections are available online (I found downloading was a lengthy process). The use of a whole new alphabet means words don’t look the way one expects when written down! Furthermore, the lessons don’t stray very far into the realms of grammar; many verbs and nouns are introduced but transposing them to different contexts requires understanding of the case system with its fearsome array of word-endings. So a proper visual course would be needed in order to go beyond repeating the vocab in the lessons.

The whole thing can be downloaded onto an iPod which is exactly what I did, and I found the concise sections were perfect for listening to on short car journeys, or when in one of those pesky British queues. I have probably listened to it through about four times and some sections are starting to stick though the section on telling the time still ties my brain in knots. It has undoubtedly expanded my vocabulary. It even includes the verb ‘to listen to something to the point of forgetting everything else’, so I guess if I ever do get carried away whilst plugged into this on my iPod, there is a chance I could formulate a Russian excuse.… (altro)