Michel Thomas Method: Russian Foundation Course (Michel Thomas Series)

The teacher here has found novel ways of interpreting Russian words as vivid images which stick in your mind. The learning process comes naturally as if uncovering a Russian tongue you never knew you had. References to Russian culture as well as etymology of certain words further aid the memory.
Having taken a few Russian classes for beginners some years ago, these CDs were a very useful refresher for me and I wish they'd been made earlier! I found the pace comfortable as you're constantly learning and practicing what you learn at each stage. You're encouraged to revisit words and constructions already learnt by building them into new sentences.
To the extent that your mistakes are similar to the 2 students, you learn from their mistakes as if you yourself are being corrected. Common pitfalls are pointed out and gentle reminders flag points to watch yourself on.
As a native English speaker, I didn't appreciate the importance of tone and pitch in spoken Russian at first. You learn how stress can affect the meaning of a sentence or word depending on where it falls. Through examples and repetition you become accustomed to this as well as the subtleties of "hard" versus "soft" sounds. I found sounds much easier to distinguish by listening to the CDs than I did learning in the classroom.
Although primarily a spoken course, it also touches on how to read the Russian Cyrillic script and the small booklet has a vocab list along with the alphabet. Grammar is explained in lay man's terms to make it easy to use. You learn to use all three tenses with ease which is a pretty remarkable for a short course.
The course is fun and really facilitates learning. It's less demanding than real classes in that you're free from homework and have no time/place commitment. That being said, you can't treat it lightly: it's not something to listen to in your sleep or while cooking a new recipe. It deserves more attention so needs uninterrupted time. You have to focus on what you're listening to and picture yourself sitting at a table with the teacher and two other students. I used the 30 min commute to work to listen to this and it worked well although my vocal practice was somewhat limited!
Overall, it's a superb introduction to Russian and achieves what is stated on the box with great success. For me personally it only served as a boost to my existing knowledge as it covered familiar territory. I'm left wanting more and am eagerly awaiting delivery of the advanced course so I can follow up and learn more Russian using this amazing technique!