| Hi hobbitofny, Yes, I am familiar with TRKI. TORFL-0 is comparable with TOEFL, which is pretty high level. After passing TORFL-0, a person can study at the Russian University. I would compare definition of the levels of RSBS books with Berlitz levels : http://www.berlitz.us/Berlitz-Proficiency-Levels/167/. Even though it is difficult to relate the description of English or Spanish levels to Russian, I would say that TORFL-0 is Berlitz level 5-6. Therefore RSBS 3 (which is not published yet), Intermediate corresponds to TORFL-0. The most challenging thing, when you start studying Russian is the Case System of nouns. It is completely different way of thinking. The student has to except the fact that Russians connect the words in the sentence by changing their endings and then learn those endings gradually. My task for the RSBS, Beginner, Level 1 book was to teach the Case System of nouns. So, in RSBS1 all cases are introduced. I did not want to bombard a student with a lot of vocabulary, but rather teach them thinking ‘Russian way’, learn those endings in a meaningful and fun way, step by step. I had a student, who finished RSBS, L2 with me and afterwards he went to Siberia on his own. He was able to communicate with people who did not speak a word of English. His Russian is not perfect, but he can express himself and talk on many topics.
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