There aren't very many audio resources (at least not stocked on the shelves of your local Barnes and Noble) in Russian, and this second volume is, like the first, a valuable resource for anyone trying to learn the language.

I'm not sure if all copies are packaged this way, but mine came with quite a lot of written material on learning Russian as well that was very helpful. On its own merits, though, I'm not sure that you could learn Russian only with the aid of the CDs, though that may not be what Bollinger is going for. At the beginning of this one, he states that he wants you to learn Russian like a native, and I think he succeeds in that - when I learned English as a child, no one sat me down and said, "This is English, and here's how we're going to sequentially learn it." Instead, you learn new words as the need arises, in life, which is a lot like what happened as I listened to the CD. But this hopping around-approach is a little disconcerting to the casual listener. We may start learning about how Russians view Shakespeare, segue into something like how to say "oil and gas company", and end up with Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy.

On the other hand, I do feel that the CD has a real strength - it teaches you a lot about Russian culture and heritage. You learn about the aforementioned Russian approach to Shakespeare, about patronymics (Russian middle names that indicate a person's parentage), saints' days and many other things that may be unfamiliar to an American or other native English speaker. And with such an eclectic approach to the language- when you do get to Russia, many of the words will probably be at least a little familiar. I would certainly buy this, if I were trying to learn Russian, but you will also need a good dictionary, and something a little more like a textbook wouldn't hurt (though, to be fair, Bollinger also mentions a number of helpful websites on the CD). ( )

Easy Russian is a fun and pretty simple way to learn some basic Russian. this is Volume 2 so I had a little trouble catching up since I don't own volume 1 but I speak a little Russian, just about enough to get by and start out with this volume. I liked using it but I wish I had had volume 1 to start with so I would know exactly what the writers wanted me to know. I do like the approach that was used and it was fun to be able to read a little "real" Russian writing right away! ( )

The problem with this material is it isn't aimed at a specific learning level. It moves quickly and assumes the student has already acquired an ear for Russian and since there is minimal written material (just some PDFs you can download from the website) a tuned ear is essential leaving beginners in a tough spot. Anyone that has completed a beginning Russian course ought to be able to get a a fair amount of what's going on, but then anyone that's done that will have already learned some of the material anyway. There is no discussion of any sort of grammar, little room for repetition and response, but there are several long Russian recordings sure to confound all but advanced Russian students. Though on the plus side it does provide insight into the nuance of pronunciation that I didn't get from three semesters of college Russian.

Ultimately this could never serve as a very substantial Russian language resource. Even as an audio resource I'd still say you could take it or leave it, primarily because next to systems as extensive as Pimsleur this doesn't offer much for new Russian students and there's too much intro Russian to be very worthwhile for intermediate and advanced students. It's far from useless, but it could really only function as supplementary material. ( )

I did a year's course in Russian as a subsidiary module at university a number of years ago and reached a stage where I could speak it reasonably well (although far from fluently). Since then I have made several attempts, mostly working from books, to revise my Russian skills but have not retained a very firm grasp on the language.

This CD, focusing as it does on the spoken language, provides a very useful complement to grammar books and other written study materials for someone in my situation. I have not seen Volume 1 and I don't know how suitable the series would be for learning the language from scratch; I suspect that it would be very useful in conjunction with other courses but probably quite difficult to use on its own.

The CD lasts for just over an hour and is divided into 11 tracks, consisting of a short introduction, 6 lessons, 3 short readings (including a translation of Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" speech and an excerpt from Chekhov) and an extract from a recorded speech by Yuri Gagarin. The reader, Max Bollinger (who is also the author of the course), speaks fairly quickly but quite clearly and repeats most of the Russian words and phrases 3 times, as well as breaking many of the sentences down word by word and providing quite extensive explanations of how things work.

In addition to covering a range of grammatical points, there is quite a lot of discussion about points of pronunciation as well as Russian culture, both of which are important in order to gain a good working knowledge of the language.

This strikes me as a well-produced and well-structured course. Although it lacks the true interactivity of working directly with a teacher, it provides a very useful complement to other study materials for anyone studying without easy access to native Russian speakers. ( )

Overall, I like the CD. It is easy to follow and language lessons seem well thought out and grouped in a logical manner. My only real complaint is that the CD is supposed to be stand alone and honestly I do think that the first volume is needed prior to listening to the second volume. I feel like I would have much better comprehension of the lessons if I had begun with volume one.
Still, all in all, I feel like the CD is good. ( )