Reviews

Lingo Mastery has embarked on another mission - to make Russian more accessible to a wider population. In their Introductory Note for the initial Russian Language Lessons book Lingo Mastery stated: 'Have you ever heard of Russian being one of the most complicated languages in the world? Well, we're not going to tell you it isn't - we're just offering a fun efficient way to expand your vocabulary. We believe that learning a language should be associated with the pleasure of rewarding mental activity and the joy of discovering another culture rather than with the stress inherent to endless grammar drills...' And now they add 'We've written this book to cover an important issue that seems to affect every new learner of the Russian tongue - a lack of helpful reading material...Our goal with this book will be to supply you with useful entertaining, helpful and challenging material that will not only allow you to learn the language but also help you pass the time and make the experience less formal and more fun...'

After their success teaching Spanish, French, Italian, and German now they turn to teaching Russian! And it works. To make the Russian Cyrillic alphabet accessible, transcriptions are provided in the form of transliteration and conventional signs used for transcription. Taking it slowly, step by step with practice, Russian language becomes accessible through entertaining stories! After each story in the Russian Cyrillic mode, a translation in English is offered, then vocabulary lists, and finally questions (and answers!) about the story - offered in both Russian and in English.

The technique is solid and the lessons well taught. This is a very fine introduction to learning Russian, appropriate for all age levels, and a book much needed at this time in our national status! Grady Harp, December 19- Grady Harp This is a handy guide for improving Russian vocabulary as well as reading comprehension. I like that the stories are written in everyday Russian. The vocabulary lists for each story were helpfully placed at the end of the corresponding story, and the words were listed in the order they were used. The vocabulary does get more advanced throughout the book. I also appreciated the questions about each story so that you can see how much you understood. I definitely found this book helpful in improving my Russian.- Michelle Simply said, Lingo Mastery is the best foreign language publisher that I have encountered (and I've read a lot of books from quite a few different publishers). They really know what they are doing and make it fun to learn a foreign language by creating original, interesting stories. For example, they realize that the key to learning a foreign language is to repeat each new word or phrase until it is embedded into your long-term memory. Lingo Mastery does this very well without making it a boring or tedious process. Another thing that I've noticed is that the audiobooks by Lingo Mastery are truly exceptional in comparison to other publishers. They use professional voice actors and make crisp, high fidelity recordings. In addition, they have excellent customer support and respond rapidly to emails for support. I feel so fortunate to have discovered their books they have really helped me learn Russian.- SanDiegoGuy