Keeping up over vacation

[nyessax.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone.

I finished my first term of Russian a little over two weeks ago, and I have about four more weeks before the spring semester starts and I continue with the second term. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to keep up on what I've learned between now and then.

There are a few little things I've been doing so far. I come across a lot of Russian journals while I'm browsing around LJ, so I pick out whatever words or phrases I recognize and puzzle out the simpler sentences with a Russian-English dictionary to build up my vocabulary a bit. I've also been listening to Russian music every day. But I definitely need some way to work on my speaking skills, which is particularly difficult for me since I have trouble just speaking in English. I only made two friends in the class who I keep in contact with outside of school. One dropped the class and the other, though he finished this term, isn't continuing so I don't know if he'd be interested in practicing with me. I haven't seen any of my Russian speaking friends offline in over a year, so finding someone to subject to my horrible pronunciation doesn't look like an option. Does anyone have any tips or ideas for how I can keep up and practice on my own over the break?

Thank you!

EDIT: I'm sorry, I didn't think to mention when I posted that I can't do voice chat, otherwise that would have been my first thought. I don't have any sort of microphone for my computer, or the money to get one until February at the earliest (really broke college student at Christmas, hah). But thanks for suggesting it, in any case! It's something I'll keep in mind for when I'm able.

Comments

[capricosha.livejournal.com]

you know when i needed to practice German before my trip to Germany I found a way out just speaking to myself)) I imagined a situation, a person, something else and started a converstaion. It's funny but it really helped me:-)
Good luck

[natha1ie.livejournal.com]

You can talk to someone who's a russian native speaker via Skype for example, don't you?

[elven-d.livejournal.com]

Use Skype or MSN to chat with russian speaking people :)

[fire-81.livejournal.com]

Use some IP-phone programs to speak with russian LJ-users %)

[nymphatacita.livejournal.com]

I'd offer to chat with you, but I'm learning as well. I'd hope for us to be making the same mistake, and so not catch each other on it. What do you think?

[jooniper91.livejournal.com]

make little word lists and tape them up in places you do tedious activities...ie. dishes, laundry, bathroom (lol).

get some Russian flash cards and do 10 a night before you go to bed...then quiz yourself in the morning. Whichever ones you can't get save for the next night, and so on until you master them. The ones you can get, replace with new ones.

[nymphatacita.livejournal.com]

*steals that idea*

[alamar.livejournal.com]

You probably shoud re-read http://www.livejournal.com/community/learn_russian/358831.html

=)

[iriwe4ka.livejournal.com]

hi)i'm from russia and i need your help-i need to master my english
and it would be awesome if u help me) i will help u in learning russian;)
если тебе нужна моя помощь в изучении языка в замен на твою помощь то напиши мне email...
pis_2_pis@yahoo.com i'll be waitin for ya)

[temcat.livejournal.com]

Sorry, grammar police here:

Если тебе нужна моя помощь в изучении языка взамен на твою помощь, то напиши мне email...

Ж:-P

[punkndisorderli.livejournal.com]

i would love to help you, but i am still a first year student as well. i dont have any friends that speak russian around here, so ive mainly been talking to myself,or reading random websites in Russian just to keep the pronunciations in my head. good luck, and if you figure aything out, le tme know as well!

[michmanm.livejournal.com]

I can help you, too :) If you want I can record some words, and I always post messages on Russian, and trying on English :)
I'm sorry for my mistakes...