wish me luck...

[sunniegreen.livejournal.com]

So I was referred here by the russia_love community.... I don't have much actual experience with Russia, except a real and unfulfilled interest.
This past September a friend and I decided to learn Russian. I thought it would be easy since I have some experience with Greek(kindergarten level, I assure you. less, even.) and he has a good work ethic. We learned the alphabet within days, it was easier for me but he was better at it because he studied far more. And naturally the independant study dissolved into nothingness within the month. It's hard/impossible to study together because we are 3000 miles apart(Cali versus N.Carolina) and also because his coursework and my location prevent us from taking actual classes. Enough with the prattle:
In short, I was wondering if anyone could recomend a good book or CD-rom or tape or anything at all that might be effective. I don't have much trouble with pronounciation or alphabet. It's mostly grammar and busywork that would be most helpful. Busywork most of all.
Here's hoping.
*crosses fingers...and self.*
Thanks.

Comments

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Just to correct a misconception that you (and many other people) seem to have:

Russian isn't closely related to Greek--both are Indo-European, but so are English, Spanish, German, etc.

The Cyrillic alphabet was based on the Greek alphabet, but this wasn't because the langauges were related; Greek was a language of prestige way back then, so educated Slavic speakers were mostly familiar with its alphabet.

[sunniegreen.livejournal.com]

I guess I was being vague. I was referring to the alphabet, in that bit. The similarity is one of the reasons I was able to pick it up. I thought it would be easier because I wouldn't have as much trouble with the initial hurdle of learning to read(recognizing words only) it. It's proved true, though not a major benefit in the long run.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Surprisigly enough, present-day Russians cannot read Greek - I mean not UNDERSTAND it, but simply READ it - because the characters seem to be very different from modern Cyrillics. Well, exclude those who learn modern or ancient Greek, for some reason. But there aren't that many of those. There is no high school in the whole Moscow (12 million people) which offers a Greek course. And the knowledge of Greek alphabet is mostly reduced to Alpha, Omega, Beta and Gamma - because they use it in mathematics.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I certainly couldn't pronounce modern Greek using only my knowledge of Cyrillic. I could guess easily what certain characters meant (not all of them by any means), but it's probably only immediately apparent that the alphabets are related to people who know a little bit about both languages.

[sunniegreen.livejournal.com]

There really don't seem to be many places that teach Greek at all. It was initially my first choice since I attend a Greek church, imersion factor and all, but there seem to be far more Russian classes than Greek.
I know the decision seems silly, since I'm trying to learn on my own anyway, but I'd like to eventually take classes regardless of learning on my own. Is the Greek language "dying", or just suffering a lapse of popularity?

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

No it's not dying, at least in Greece :) There's a population of several million people who speak Greek as their native language. Modern Greek, of course, which is quite different from ancient Greek.

Many people in Russia, Ukraine and several other post-Sovet countries speak some dialects of Modern Greek as well, being ethnic Greeks who moved to the Russian Empire back in the 18th century, escaping from Turkish reign.

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

But even if they know the entire alphabet, they won't read anything properly, since letter names used in science are ancient ones, which have nothing to do with the modern language and even with the language contaporary with the invention of Cyrilic (for example, our В and И correspond to modern Greek "vita" and "ita", not "bēta" and "ēta").

[ilya1.livejournal.com]

Another thing to consider is that Greek has a lot of grammatical concepts (e.g. case inflection) that Russian also has but English does not. Knowledge of Latin has helped me a great deal while studying Russian, even though they're not that closely related, and I did enough Greek to know that the same woudl be true with it.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

I used a good book by Nicholas Brown (forget the name, but it was probably called "Learn Russian" or something) a couple years ago, but was not self-motivated enough to actually learn Russian from it, so now I'm taking classes in college. I'd recommend it anyway, though, the fault was purely mine.

[sunniegreen.livejournal.com]

Hopefully it works! That is actually th book I got from Amazon not long ago. Along with a couple others (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/sunniegreen/New%20House/P9030032.jpg).

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Learning Russian on your own will be difficult--reading and writing will be the easiest part. What makes Russian such a difficult language for so many people (including me) is the incredibly foreign sounds, so you'll need some sort of audio tool to help.

The first two years of my university's Russian course uses a program called "Live From Moscow", which is a book, workbook, video, and audio tape. It's designed for the classroom, but the first year book is fairly easy to learn from on your own--I was gone from class a lot due to health and figured that out first hand. The second year book isn't as good as the first for learning from--it needs a classroom, since it focuses on conversation practice.

The workbook is especially useful, because it gives you structured practice. Practice is key.

It isn't perfect and it's expensive, being a college textbook, but if you're serious about learning Russian, it's a good investment. (I'd sell you mine for $20, as broke as I am, but I still occasionally refer to it when I've forgotten something.)

[sunniegreen.livejournal.com]

I like the sound of Russian, and luckily it's something I'm not terrible at. I'm not in a financial situation for textbook diving, nor would I want to deprive anyone of theirs (I know how attached I am to some of mine. They come in handy!), but I picked up "Russian Course: For beginners" by Nicholas Brown. So far it seems pretty promising. Also a grammar and a verb book (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/sunniegreen/New%20House/P9030032.jpg) from the same line that I used in French class.
I think my pocketbook will lead me to check out the library's audiotape selection.

[ichokewithoutu.livejournal.com]

Good-luck learning I hope you do well.

[sunniegreen.livejournal.com]

Thanks much.