“The course of surviving, or a magic wand for a real tourist” is a course for those who plan to go abroad in the nearest future.

   If you have ever been abroad without the knowledge of a foreign language you must know that the most fascinating journey may turn into a nightmare. We don’t advice you to travel abroad without the elementary knowledge of the English language. If you are a clever and intelligent person you must realize it yourself. That’s why we have started this course with you. We called it “The course of surviving, or a magic wand for a real tourist” because it will enable you to get the minimum of necessary and important knowledge in a short period of time.
The aim of the course is to help you get command of everyday language necessary to survive in English speaking surrounding. Having finished this course successfully you will be able to:

• speak about yourself;
• feel comfortable in the airport;
• take your bearings in the city;
• check in to the hotel;
• order food and pay on the bill;
• consult a doctor and buy medicine, if necessary;
• conduct a telephone conversation;
• buy tickets and use different kinds of transport;
• appoint business meetings and take part in negotiations;
•  exchange the currency and talk to bank employees.

    The difference of this course from numerous Conversational Russian-English textbooks is that every lesson is accompanied with exercises which quicken the process of memorizing words and phrases.
While working on the course we purposely chose the most typical and widely used expressions to help you communicate using the minimum of conversational tools.
   Every lesson:

• covers one topic and starts with vocabulary notes;
• contains tasks for memorizing words and word-combinations, tasks for self control and learning a specific language phenomenon;
• includes exercises for developing language intuition as the speech of the person you are talking to is full of surprises and you will have to take your bearings in the situation that is constantly changing.
• offers psychological advice which lets you  react adequately in the English speaking environment.

Every fifth lesson is aimed at revising the material you have learned.
And here are some pieces of advice which will make your work with this text-book more interesting and effective:

• First of all you should understand that learning a foreign language is not a difficult work but an exciting process. Treat this course as a joyful game. Making dialogues in pairs, saying each phrase imagine yourself a real actor and try to cope with your role: play using intonations, smiles and gestures.
• Working with the text-book and in pairs try to talk as much as possible. This will help you to overcome the barrier of shyness when the time to use the language in real situations will come.
• Before learning the word consult your teacher or the disc about its pronunciation.
• Don’t be sad if you are not able to understand the use of this or that verb construction, it is natural on this level of language learning. Consult your grammar notes, if necessary.
• Do your exercises attentively and consistently because every exercise is aimed at achieving some specific purpose.
• Doing the exercises try to react quickly.
• Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Only those who do nothing make no mistakes.

Remember that this course is only the first step in English language learning. If you want to have a good knowledge of the language you should take not only this step but the following ones as well.
Pedagogical        collective     of    “Prestige School”
is heartily thankful to you for your trust and hopes for productive cooperation.