(no subject)

[barbarakelley.livejournal.com]

I've been tempted to splurge and buy the Rosetta Stone program for learning Russian. Does it work? Is it a good way to go?

But quite honestly, I can't afford it anyway. Does anyone have a copy they don't use that I could have/borrow?

Comments

[barbarakelley.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I'm glad I didn't go into debt for it. I do have a series of CD's that I bought awhile back... my experience with that is that I listen and repeat and promptly forget--but maybe if I keep at it...

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

Several things to understand and bear in mind when learning a foreign language:
1. Your interest and motivation are the first requirement and a key to success.
2. Regular studies are a must (at least an hour every day). It's the long disruptions that make you forget things.
3.a. There's no single magic method or product that will make you speak the language in a few weeks or months. It usually takes 1 to 2 years to get to some intermediate level.
3.b. You have to mix different activities: learning the grammar, reading a lot, listening a lot (CDs, radio, TV), learning the vocabulary, doing exercises to understand and memorize the material being learned, conversing with other people (live (if possible) or over the internet (forums, IMs, Skype, etc)). If you tired of one activity, don't stop, switch to another one.

In Russian I see a few problematic areas that you will need to work on a lot to master:
1. cases, which have a very broad impact on words (nouns, pronouns, adjectives)
2. perfective and imperfective verbs, verbs of motion, verb prefixes that change verbs' meaning
3. accentuation (it's even more random than in English, virtually never indicated in written text, the accents move as the words change their forms due to the cases)

You will need to learn the grammar and read and listen a lot to get the above right or at least almost right. As usual, the more practice, the better.