Language and Experience Help

[kenosis.livejournal.com]

Hello and greetings,

My name is Jason and I'm a Social Studies teacher from Chicago. I was accepted for a scholarship to study for a month this summer in Vladimir, Murom, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, and I figure I'd better try to learn a drop of the language as quickly as possible. I can transliterate from Cyrillic to Latin font but that's about it ... anyways, I went to the local bookstore in hopes of finding a good book or book-cd set that could operate as a crash-course in Russian, but there were a great many available. Are there any that any of you could recommend?

Also, as a Russophile that's never had an opportunity to see Russia, can any of you recommend anything that I should (or must) do while in anyone of those cities? Thank you in advance - from reading the posts on this community I am amazed at the warmth and friendliness you have, and I appreciate any and every bit of help I can get.

Comments

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

I've heard that the Pimsleur (I think I spelled that wrong) system works pretty well, though I have not tried it. The "Teach Yourself Russian" book it pretty good, and includes lots of cultural tidbits. Ive also found the New Penguin "Russian Course" to be pretty great.

Hope that helps!

[devinshire.livejournal.com]

Hi. I will be in St. Petersburg for the entire month of July. If you'll be there during that time, my friend and I can be your guides for an afternoon.

You're welcome to email me at devinluvsrussia @ hotmail.com

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Depends on when exactly are you coming...
If you know this already, please specify when exactly are you coming to Moscow - I can try to show you around a little bit if I'm in town, or at least to give you a bit of more or less detailed directions to some must-sees.
The whole great city of Murom you'd be able to cross in a few steps, so don't bother to ask in advance for what to see - you'll find it on the spot, no doubt.
Vladimir is a bit larger, but still: all worth seeing is within a walking distance in its historical downtown. Local Kremlin (the fortress) and the ancient cathedrals are in fact some of the most beautiful places in Russia.
I'm a great fan of St.Pete (though I am a Muscovite and they say there is some kind of rivalry between those two Russian capitals,) but I am sure somebody else can give you a lot of better advices concerning the Northern Capital than I can.

VLADIMIR

[katrina-vl.livejournal.com]

Vladimir is the place I've been living for my entire life... So you may ask for help anytime you're here. The Golden Gate is a true symbol of Vladimir so it's a #1 on your list. The streets around (1 km or so) in fact cover all the territory of the ancient town. So I guess you will hardly spend over 1 day exploring all the historical sights. However at night they are all quite different because of the lights and night Vladimir (I mean the downtown actually) is a mustsee thing!!! I'm not sure if any other part of Vladimir except the downtown would ever interest you since Vladimir is now supposed to be a typical Russian city, rather small (30 minutes to drive across) and rather provincial. However you should also visit Suzdal that is a small town near Vladimir, it has got a lot of historical sights too, mostly churches.
Anyway in several weeks comes the city's anniversary and here should be a great show so you are lucky if your studies in Vladimir start in the beginning of June.
By the way, just curious, where you are going to study in Vladimir and what exactly you will do here?