People, who have just heard about my course, often ask me the same question: Dmitry, there’s so much stuff on learning Russian in the Internet. There are lots of Russian courses out there. Why do you expect me to choose YOUR course? Why do you think it’s so special, that I should pay you money for it?
So I ask back: Well, I’m sure you have already surfed enough through the Web, looking for Russian language courses, didn’t you? You have surely noticed that very few sites have something orderly, something systematic, that goes beyond greetings, numbers and days of the week, haven’t you?
First, my Course of Russian is not a phrasebook and not a wordlist. It is actually a language COURSE. It teaches you to use Russian language in actual life situations. The lessons will take you into 60 different situations, that you will most probably take part in, when you start dealing with Russians or when you arrive to Russia.
“You know, it’s like I’ve just returned from Russia!” said one student after having completed my course. Then he added: “And I want to go back there.”
Second, my Course will not overwhelm you with never-ending grammar tables. You definitely know, Russian grammar is rather complex, and many Russian teachers demand that their students just memorize grammar rules and tables. But take an average 6-year old Russian kid – he hasn’t ever seen any grammar table, but he speaks rather correct Russian! That’s what my students achieve – they just speak Russian. They use it. Without grammar tables.
Third, let’s face the truth: a good audio course usually has at least 10 hours of audio recordings and really teaches you a language (and I mean listening, speaking, reading and writing). Such a course might cost more than a hundred dollars. This is more or less the “common sense”. In my course, you get 60 audio lessons FREE. You only pay for transcripts and for reading, writing AND TYPING lessons. I haven’t seen a course yet, which teaches you typing in Russian. Although I bet that last week you typed much more than you hand-wrote. All these cost hardly a half of any other good audio course (check it yourself).
The Course of Russian is intended to fit the “Can Do” requirements, put forward by the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) for the Breakthrough level. You may see the requirements lists for various ALTE levels here. The Course is based on tutoring I provide face to face or via Skype. All explanations are made in English. A very important feature of this course is that you can spend as much time on each lesson as you want, there is no time limit. You may just download the lessons and their PDF transcripts and start learning Russian at your own pace. Starting with lesson 29, PDF transcripts contain sections that will teach you reading, typing and writing Russian.
Every new lesson is built on the vocabulary and grammar of the previous lesson. Therefore, I would recommend you to review each lesson a few times and make sure you understand everything and you are able to say the phrases from a previous lesson, before you start with the next one.
I recommend you to listen the audio lessons with RealAudio or with Windows Media Player. You can also transfer these lessons to you iPod or MP3 player and listen to them anytime, at your convenience.
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You may always contact me if you have a question or need some assistance and I'll be glad to help you.
