This FSI Russian FAST text  course is designed to teach and prepare students  for life in Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union by giving them the necessary basic skills in the language.  The course is structured to provide the student with realistic situations encountered in the everyday life. The course includes an introduction to the Russian alphabet. The course is designed to inculcate the three following principles critical to a student of the Russian language:

1. The ability to ask simple questions pertains to daily practical needs. You will need to know how to get something done and how to elicit necessary information.
2. The ability to understand key words in the answers to your questions. You will learn to use those keywords in your own speech.
3. The ability to work with numbers as used in prices, phone numbers, addresses, etc. especially larger numbers which  are in use today. The student will learn to recognize and understand numbers when you encounter them, either in written or spoken form.
4. The ability to read and understand street signs, sings in the metro, and other forms of transportation, in stores, hotels, etc. You will be able to read and decipher such things as concern/theater programs, menus, instructions for guests in hotels, rules for using public transport, hours of operation of various establishments, etc.
5. The student will be come familiar with the telephone and be able to handle many types of different calls.
6. The ability to introduce yourself, and others when necessary; to appropriately greet people and to distinguish between different levels of formality and informality in the language. The student will be able to speak about yourself, your family, your interests and work and be able to ask your friends and colleaques the same.
7. The course also includes a brief review of geography, history, and politcs of Russian and other former  Soviet Republics.

The course includes grammar but minimizes the extent of this to the content of the scenarios that are presented.