Ruslan Russian 2: A Communicative Russian Course with MP3 audio download (3rd Edition) (Russian) Paperback – 1 Jun. 2007

My work hours don't fit in with evening classes so after reading the reviews I decided to give this course a go. I've been through books one and two - classroom and work books. Before I started it I had a basic understanding of the language, having done a few weeks of home study before and spent a couple of weeks in a Russian speaking country.the books are logically set out in terms of getting through the grammar (and there's a lot of grammar in Russian) - and there's a lot of useful vocab etc. each chapter basically deals with a situation you might find yourself in as a visitor abroad and also gives information about the country.So that's all good but I do have a few gripes, mainly about the listening passages. They quite often used grammar which we hadn't yet learned at that point. As Russian nouns have more than a dozen potential different endings this was very confusing. The first couple of chapters of Book two were also a big leap up from book one rather than a logical progression, and again in book two you're bombarded with new vocabulary - very little of which seemed to be in the key in the back of the book. It's difficult to take all that in at the same time as learning all that grammar.I did enjoy this course (and got to the end of the book!) but it does take a big effort of will if you're not part of a class. Having said that, most people probably are in classes, with the help of a teacher, and for them I'd say it was a good choice.

I am writing this as an intermediate-level student of Russian. The workbook is intended for use in conjunction with the Ruslan 2 Russian language course text. The course as a whole has been well thought through, based as it is on interesting materials and pitched at an appropriate level of difficulty. The workbook provides an excellent companion, with exercises designed to consolidate students' grasp of Russian grammar while presenting information on different aspects of Russian life and culture. I found it a little hard initially to understand those sections that are presented in cursive rather than typescript format, but one quickly adapts. It's also worth getting the optional CD, which includes conversations and other audio material linked to the exercises.

Not perfect Russian in this course!

I have absolutely no complaints about the content of the Ruslan 2 workbook. My complaint is that the pages are glued, unlike the Ruslan 1 workbook which had a wire spine. This has meant that in only three weeks of page turning it has split and there are now loose pages with frayed edges which will only become more frayed. Not the end of the world I know but why oh why change the design of the spine? The old design worked just fine thank you!

A well planned course that takes one through the grammar step by step in relation to the conversational texts in each chapter

Great book for beginners, but I would recommend it with a teacher.

Great book for beginners, but I would recommend it with a teacher.

I am now addicted to the Ruslan Method