going to russia to study russian

[see-kret-nono.livejournal.com]

umm, hi.
i've just joined, and im not sure if this is allowed, so, sorry if it isnt.
but I used to learn Russian on my own. and i feel that there's something about this language that makes it VERY different from the other languages i know (and no, it's not just the 'alphabets'). and so i stopped because i felt that something i was doing was not quite right.
there aren't any language schools in my city that teach Russian.
But i found a university in Tomsk that offers a degree in Linguistics and Translation. (i chose such a degree because Im going to major in linguistics in college anyway, and i've always liked translation.)

I just thought i'd ask for opinions regarding going to Russia to study. Or perhaps, if you have studied this language on your own with no help from others, what methods/books/etc did you use?
(i'm fluent in english and Mandarin, and have learnt Spanish and French for a few months before, and have never faced the problem where i feel that i'm doing something horribly wrong.)

i did a search and found a LJ community for tomsk, but it's all in Russian which i cannot understand. I can read and pronounce the words, and understand some basic simple words, but that's about it for now. I would like to go into Foreign Service or something later on, so i think actually learning a third (for me) language properly would be great.

again, I apologize if this post should not be here. but i didnt know where else to put it as i cannot quite read Russian...
thanks

Comments

[inept-fabricato.livejournal.com]

originally I'm from russia and i wouldn't go.

[uncle-gora.livejournal.com]

Is this degree in Tomsk that you are referring to designed for students with native language other then Russian? If not, then I do not think you will learn much in those classes. It would be better for you to go to University in your own country that has Russian Studies program, and possibly offerers an exchange with university in Russia. If you cannot read Russian I can tell you right away that you do not stand a chance to get past first test in any Russian university (where they actually teach in Russian)

[cassandraclue.livejournal.com]

i agree.

[cherniavska.livejournal.com]

It's a good point. Well, I actually graduated from Tomsk State University and my classmate as far as I know teaches Russian to foreign students. If you have any questions about Tomsk I would be happy to answer them. Tomsk is a unique university center in Western Siberia and has great reputation - http://www.tsu.ru/WebDesign/TSU/coreen.nsf

In 2001, TSU was certified and accredited by the State Committee of the Ministry of Education after a successful complex assessment of the university's activities. It confirmed TSU's status as a leading university. According to the Russian Ministry of Education, TSU is ranked fifth following Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technologyand the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomsk_State_University)

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

Here's the English book that I use at my school:

http://www.gwu.edu/~slavic/golosa/

They also offer it in other languages.

[ksushis.livejournal.com]

+1
Unless this is a program designed for foreign speakers, I don't think you'll get much out of those classes. Basically, try to imagine having your literature English class taught in Russian and think about what portion of it you would understand. If you don't have enough vocabulary, it would be probably impossible for you to follow lectures. I also think that maybe you should try an exchange program of some sort in Russia, preferably the one that has intense Russian courses. That would help you with learning the language faster without the stress of trying to deal with classes.... Hope this helps.

[pozhidaev-jr.livejournal.com]

We have a faculty "Russian philology as foreign" in State University (СПбГУ* in Russian) in Saint-Petersburg, the second - cultural - capital of Russia. If you are iterested in it, i can ask my Friends, who study there for more information.

* СПб - SPb (Saint-PetersBurg)
Г - Государственный (State)
У - Университет (University)

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

... and the teacher you should ask for at spbgu is Elena Seliverstova, she is fatastic.

My advice to somebody who goes to study Russian in Russia is to have very high demands on the teachers. If you get a bad teaher, demand to get another one.

We were a group of germans, swedes and finns, and our phonetics teacher had only teached chinese students before, and she must have been half deaf, because she spent three lessons teaching us the difference between r and l, wich is not really a problem for finns and swedes and the germans in aour group could do it too. We complained about it and got a new teacher, who helped us with what we needed to improve, wich was alot, but not r and l.

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

"My advice to somebody who goes to study Russian in Russia is to have very high demands on the teachers. If you get a bad teaher, demand to get another one."

I didn't mean that teachers are bad, I just meant that they actually listen to your complaints.

[adri-nwnderland.livejournal.com]

I think it's really important to have a good grounding in russian before going to russia, or you will be seen as another stupid american, ready to be taken advantage of (not by all, but by many).
I think 2 years of study or one summer at an intensive language institute such as Middlebury or Monterey Institute might be in order if you really don't want to enroll in an american uni. However, I think everyone should go to Russia at least for 6 months if they are serious about learning russian.

[brumeux-aurore.livejournal.com]

I went to Moscow this past summer, with very minimal Russian - and made it around the city just fine. I stayed for 6 weeks on a summer abroad program. I intend to go back for this:
http://www.rlcentre.com/russian-language-course.shtml

[cassandraclue.livejournal.com]

a really good option, if you can afford it, is to go to the middlebury summer russian language school. www.middlebury.edu. it's in vermont and very intense, but one of the best ways to learn russian. i would suggest maybe going there and then going to russia, if you're out of university and can't take classes as a part of your program.

[je-me-forcis.livejournal.com]

i am seriously considering entering this program next year and studying there for an entire academic year. Are you at all aware of the level of fluency a student achieves after 10 months in this program?

[pozhidaev-jr.livejournal.com]

I'll ask my friend, who studied there, and reply you as soon as possible.
You can be sure that you'll find lot of friends, than will help you in studying Russian, SPbSU is something like a great family - everyone from thousands of students knows one another!
I have a friend from French part of Canada, who visited Russia for three months and started to speak good Russian WITHOUT ANY studying programm, just reading manuals and speaking a lot with native Russians.

[pozhidaev-jr.livejournal.com]

Sorry for my English again )

[krasbutch.livejournal.com]

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