(no subject)

[alternakittyn.livejournal.com]

Hi there! I'm new to the community and I thought I'd introduce myself. My name's Carolee and I just started trying to learn Russian. I'm doing this because my boyfriend was born in Kiev and his whole family speaks Russian. He and I are living together and have plans to buy a house so I figured it's time to learn the language!

Right now, I'm learning with the aid of the Pimsleur Beginning Russian CDs, Russian in 10 Minutes a Day (which I liked because it had phonetic pronunciations and Schaum's Outline of Russian Grammer. However, I've encountered a hurtle that I'm having some trouble getting over.

The biggest problem I'm having right now is learning cyrillic. For some reason, the way the two books present cyrillic (not very well!) makes it really hard for me to wrap my brain around it. How did you all learn? Ideally, I'd like to get a program to quiz me (it's how I learned hiragana and katakana when I learned Japanese years ago). Does anyone know of one?

Once I know enough to make actual conversation, my boyfriend and I are going to switch over to speaking as much Russian as we can to help me learn more. Any other tips for a real true beginner?

Comments

[uber1337n3ss.livejournal.com]

I learned from basically just looking at the alphabet. But many of the characters are taken directly from, or adapted from, the ancient Greek alphabet, which I already was familiar with, so maybe that helped, too.

I don't speak Russian or anything, but I know the alphabet. The hardest part is probably resisting the urges with the letters that look like ones in English, like "P" and "B."

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

I got the opposite of that. I was taking Spanish and strarted reading "e" as "ye." Which causes problems.

[kart.livejournal.com]

After enough Russian it can go the other way, too.

Yesterday I saw a big "NOËL" sign and it looked like "nuh-yole".

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

taken directly from, or adapted from, the ancient Greek alphabet

I'd rather say, more-or-less modern Greek. And that's why "B" is "v", not "b", and "И" is "i", not "e".

[forever--more.livejournal.com]

A really good way to help memorize tne alphabet is to write lots of English words in it like names and just random things. Try to transliterate it anyway you want, the point is that just from "using" it to write, it really sticks in your head.

[kart.livejournal.com]

I 2nd this suggestion!

If you ever need to take notes in mixed company where people might be looking over your shoulder, switch to Russian. It' s fun and effective. You can enjoy writing "secret" things and be all agent 007!

[devinshire.livejournal.com]

Yeah! When I was in middle school, I'd write in my diary using the cyrillic alphabet so my mom wouldn't be able to read it.

[ignite.livejournal.com]

I think that learning cognates will help you make the transition. Cognates are words that mean the same thing and look aproximately the same in two languages. I know we did some of that in my class. Here is one such page: http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/language/alphabet.html .

[yk4ever.livejournal.com]

there's a bug: "цифр". Seems to be a crossbreed of цифра (digit) and шифр (cypher).

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

If you're living with your BF, why doesn't he help you? Otherwise, definitely play with the alphabet. MUCH easier than Hiragana and Katakana, IMO.

[rumball107.livejournal.com]

my favorite thing to do was this: write down the names of all of your friends in Russian by taking the sounds in their name and transliterating it into cyrillic letters.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

I don't even know the alphabet in order, I just sounded out words with the aid of a chart very, very slowly until I was comfortable with it. Eventually it has to work out!

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

just in case -
А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ь Ы Ъ Э Ю Я

[yms.livejournal.com]

hmm... are you sure with Ъ and Ь? ;))

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Actually, no. ЬЫЪ or ЪЫЬ... In fact, I never knew :)

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that ы is actially ъi digraph, so hard sign appears first.

[fox-c.livejournal.com]

I made notecards with the Russian letter on one side and the pronunciation on the other using the pronunciation symbols like what you would find in a dictionary. Then quiz as usual.

It had the dual effect of teaching my now husband Russian so he could do my cards with me. Obviously, not a problem for you, as your model seems to have come with that language already installed. ^_^