Hello?

[krikketgirl.livejournal.com]

This community was kindly recommended to me by wolk_off. I thought it might be a good idea to introduce myself very briefly!

My name is Katherine, and I am trying to teach myself Russian through some textbooks and "teach yourself" books that I bought. It is slow going! I am helped a little bit because my pastor (vkubik) speaks Russian, but of course he hasn't the time to offer advice all the time.

I came to study Russian because I wanted to challenge myself by learning a language that was very different from English or the 'romance' languages (as I already speak French, although no longer fluently).

a few questions

[lynxypoo.livejournal.com]

I've been going back and doing old exercises in my Russian for Beginners book (I fear I went far too fast after chapter four and absorbed NO vocabulary)- and I just have a few questions.

"Here is a blackboard, and there is a map." - would one use вот for both "here is" and "there is"? If not, what would "there is" be?

"This is not a pencil, but a pen." "This is not a book, but a magazine" - would one use а or но for 'but'?

--will add more in a while.

>> A little while later....

"I am home today" - "я дома сегодня" or "я сегодня дома"?

"What is Mr. Petrov reading?" - "что госпордин Петров читает?" or "что читает госпордин Петров?"?

спасибо!

Script Issues

[krikketgirl.livejournal.com]

I thank everyone for their kind welcome! My first (and most currently pressing) question: can anyone recommend a good resource for learning how to properly write Russian? The books I am using have the alphabet written out, and perhaps a few example words here and there. I am able, then to write each letter (more or less) correctly, but I seem unable to join them to one another properly. My pastor, when he writes in Russian, tends to write each letter more or less separately, but I would really like to learn how to do it the 'right' way.

Have you any suggestions?