hello

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

Привет!

I would love to write in Russian, but I don't think I'll embarrass myself on the first post. I just recently got a LJ account, but I've been following this community for months. Thank you for helping me survive a horendous year of Russian.

I've just finshed up my second year of college Russian, and have transfered to the Univeristy of Washington to major in REECAS (Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies). It's really exciting, but kinda scary going in. Russia's music and language have fascinated me since I was a little kid, and having the chance to study it is... wow, a dream come true. Jeez, that sounds corny! My father told me that Russian was going to be a dead langauge by 2000 and I should study something else. So I took French, Latin, and Greek and hated all of them! Well, the Greek alphabet certainly didn't hurt. To make the long story short, he eventually allowed me to take Russian at a community college while I was in highschool, and now I'm going to major in Russian everything:-)))

So, that's the story.

Quick question, and then I'll shut up. I've never had to take a placement test before, and there's one for Russian staring me in the face next week. What's to be expected? Speaking, reading, writing, all of the above? Any info. would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

~Sarah

Comments

[yozhevich.livejournal.com]

Hi, Sarah! Congrats on winning the battle over your major with your father. I had the same difficulty, but it should be worth it in the end!

As for placement tests, it really depends on what level you're testing at and what the university's Russian program is like to predict what they might be looking for. However, I'd imagine that they would test reading, writing, and conversation for anything above second year. If you give us a bit more information about your situation, we might be able to predict better what would be on the test.

Good luck! :)

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

> it should be worth it in the end

It already is. I'm so happy! And it's nice to know I'm not the only one with major/family issues.

I'm going to call the lang. department on Monday, so we'll see what they can tell me. Just wanted to know what I'm about to walk into:-)))

Thanks!

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

Great thing you want to learn the langauge ^_^ It's kinda funny though... you didn't take Russian because your dad said it would be a dead langauge, so you learned Latin and Greek... I think thats hilarious lol

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

Eh, my family is really strange isn't it! Latin was supposed to help with the SATs, which it must have, but what a language to suffer through. We homeschooled until this spring, so my parents had more than typical influence on my schoolwork. Maybe Russian was my teenage rebellion?

[vyacheslav.livejournal.com]

I think greek is still used by a small minority of people in the country of Greece.

I think learning latin can be very beneficial if you're interested in learning a romance language. Latin and ancient greek have both worked their way into the vocabulary of pretty much every european language, so that's another added benefit. But I do agree that the prediction of russian being a dead language by 2000 is a little silly.

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

I think you misunderstood me a little ^_^ I love Greek and Latin... and I also think that learning Latin actually helps you learn a lot of languages, not just the Romance ones. Learning Latin actually helps me A LOT in Russian because of declensions and cases and etc.

I just thought it was funny he said "Don't learn Russian, it'll be dead soon. Learn Latin instead!" since latin is typically considered a dead langauge (though I know soooo many people that will disagree with that lol)

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

True. Even I have to admit that Latin really prepared me to understand all that gender and declining business in Russian. But that didn't make two years of it any more fun:-) Sadly, I never studied verbs enough in Latin to prepare for all of the aspect troubles in Russian.

And to everyone out there, sorry to have gotten the whole "dead Russian" discussion going. Dead, dying, or whatnot, we're all trying to learn or share what we know.

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

I think verbs in Russian are a little easier than verbs in Latin. In Russian, you only big problem, for me at least, is the whole perfective vs. imperfective thing. In Latin, you have to deal with perfect/pluperfect/future perfect VS. present/imperfect/future, do that for 6 persons (like Russian, yes), but with a passive tense and :shudders: a perfect passive tense.

When all is said and done, I love both Russian and Latin, dead, living, or undead lmao ^_^

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Hello from all the bearers of the dead language (well, the supposed-to-be-dead-for-five-years-already language :))), and welcome aboard (добро пожаловать на борт!) :)

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

It's not a thing to be joking about, don't you think so? Russians is an extincting nation, as well as the white race at all.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

This community is not a place to discuss racial, national or political issues. It is the place to help people learn Russian, though.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Well at the community college where I did some self study, the prof had given me a sample placement test to see how I was doing. As for the grading scale (and therefore placement)... I don't know, but here's the site with the sample test.

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/russian/sampletest.html

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

Ooo, thank you so much!

[devinshire.livejournal.com]

Hi Sarah!

I don't know anything about the placement test (sorry!), but I just thought I'd welcome you. I'm also a UW student. My major is Russian Language, Literature and Culture, but I'm with the Slavic Dept. and, unfortunately, have never dealt with REECAS. Good luck to you!

Devin

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

Yay! Good to know there's another Huskie out there. Which year are you in?

You've got a really amazing major... best of luck to you!

[padruka1988.livejournal.com]

*WHY* would your father say that Russian would be a dead language?? More people in the world TODAY speak Russian than speak French, Latin, and Greek!! Of course, French is an important language for business, but still...

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

lol. Yep, I know. But this was right after the Soviet Union had collapsed, and he was afraid that the country wasn't going to survive. Russia obviously deserved a little more credit!

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

Russian is going to be a dead language by 2035, you'd better study Chinese instead.

[tikvi.livejournal.com]

But you're a Russian, aren't you? How can you say that of your own language? And what makes you so certain it? Yes, Russia has many serious problems, but.... Hey, maybe I'll be dead by 2035 too, lol. I'd rather spend the next 20 years getting to know a dying language than wrap my brain around Chinese. (no offense to Chinese, it's just not my style).

I'm just really amazed... do explain!

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

Well, certainly, I am Russian. Look: population of Russian Federation is 140 million people. This number decreases by 5 million every year. (By the way, population of the western countries is also decreasing). On the other hand, China has a population of over a milliard and China is smaller then Russia... There are miilions of emigrants from China and other asian countries in eastern part of Russia right now, and their number is increasing. Soon they will just outnumber us... And I'm afraid it'll all end like it did with the native americans.
Yes, our weapons are the best in the world ever, but they can give nothing against such cultural expansion. We are all doomed. And you are also doomed, but West will fall a bit later. A centaury later, perhaps.
The only way to prevent such destiny is increasing number of Russians (and other europoids), but it's just impossible, mentioning up-to-date economical situation.
I know this opinion is rather extreme. I can say in my pardon, that its' 6:11 in Moscow, and I had spent the night in net.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Sir,
This community is not a place to discuss racial, national or political issues. It is the place to help people learn Russian, though.
As one of the community maintainers, I ask you to refrain yourself from making dubious political statements here.

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

OK, no problems.

[padruka1988.livejournal.com]

Actually, many of your facts are incorrect, and your arguments are highly unreasonable.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Again. This community is not a place to discuss racial, national or political issues. It is the place to help people learn Russian, though.

Let's refrain from starting an useless discussion, even if it's itching ;-))