Ruslan Russian 1: A Communicative Russian Course. Pack (5th.

5th Edition PACK (book AND audio CD). Colour photos and B&W sketches. Ruslan Russian 1 is the book for beginners. There is an introduction to the cyrillic alphabet followed by 10 lessons. The lessons are based on a series of compelling dialogues set in Moscow, and with an exciting story line, telling the story of Lyudmila and her three admirers, and with the "typical foreigner" struggling to understand life in Russia today. The lessons are traditionally laid out, with cartoons to introduce the language topics, dialogues, vocabularies, grammar explanations, background information, and lots of exercises for listening, speaking, reading and writing. There is not too much grammar to put learners off, but enough to give beginners a solid basis for further study. There is a 750 word dictionary and a key to the exercises at the back of the book. This course is widely used in the UK by schools, universities, adult education colleges and private language schools, as well as for 1:1 tuition. The audio CD contains all the dialogues and listening exercises for the Ruslan Russian 1 Course Book, plus some additional recordings. The dialogues are recorded by artists of the Rossica Choir, Saint Petersburg, to a very high quality standard. Not too fast to be difficult to understand, but not unnaturally slow.