Introduction & Greetings
Jan. 13th, 2004 02:37 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ex-rumspring720.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
learn_russianI'm hopeful that I can use this community membership to assist me in maintaining my independent Russian language studies, and begin with a disclaimer as to what a non-authority I am. :-)
I am marrying a Russian man, and his parents are very much involved in the Russian community of our area. From the first time I heard him talking to his mother on the phone in Russian, I made up my mind to set aside a little time - in addition to my law studies (I graduate from law school this year) - to learn Russian.
What I've found most helpful for learning Russian are:
- Pimsleur (I found it at my public library)
- Russian "fantasy films" (e.g., "The Snow Queen", "Tsar Saltan", "Ruslan and Ludmilla", etc.)
- and having a "Russian only" room (our kitchen).
What I've found have "hurt" me most in my progress are:
- my fear of making mistakes in front of my new family, who look confused when my tongue just can't move properly for those tough sounds;
- my disappointment at the gap between how I know I should be sounding when I say the words, and how I actually sound when I say the words.
- Having a "Russian only" kitchen; at Russian parties I can dazzle all attending with "Do you want something to eat? To drink? How about some cabbage?" Little more!
That in mind,
I'd like to assist others learning Russian who feel insecure about how they sound with my worst experience thus far. It should makeyou feel much, much better about your insecurities in speaking Russian aloud! :-) Should also make you more aware of how ESSENTIAL it is to concentrate on your studies!
Background:
I'm an over-achiever. I've been going to law school, been doing scores of other things, and trying to pick up Russian on the side. Regardless with the great progress I'd made, I just didn't feel I was living up to my potential to speak the language. That was really frustrating, but I just couldn't find more time to devote to learning Russian.
So, I compensated when I decided to get "cool" and pick up "hip" phrases that beau wouldn't have to teach me. I picked up "Lonely Planet Guide" to the Russian language. I so wanted to dazzle my new future in-laws with a quick phrase here and there. Why, I'd so sound modern if I used slang! My then-boyfriend had giggled over the fact that my Pimsleur-level had me stuck at "Gespadim" and "Gespaja", and that I knew no informal modes of address. His family found this "charming", but I'm unaccostomed to that "patronized" feeling - so I set about to become more "contemporary" with this book via slang.
I _swear to God_ that I somehow didn't see the literal transation of a few choice phrases, but thought the phrases particularly useful. These were:
"He's gotta do it his way", and "He's incredibly lazy"
Imagine my mother-in-law's surprise when, while on vacation with the family, my beau was behaving most stubbornly. I looked at her sympathetically, and let the forth my "He's gotta do it his way"
My father-in-law doubled over laughing. My beau doubled over laughing.
I knew something was wrong, but here I was - so grandoise and certain in my pronounciations - and I was being laughed at....
His mom asked me to repeat myself. She scolded the men, and then explained what was happening. Turns out I was literally saying, in my most proper behavior, "A guy is going to masturbate however he's going to masturbate" - only dirtier.
They all demanded to know where I'd learned such a thing, and I confessed to the little guide book.
My father-in-law then asked me what else I'd learned, and I responded before my mother-in-law could stop me. This time, more self-conscious and aware of how stupid I'd been not to "check" with beau as to how "hip" I was, I said (literally) "He is so lazy that he gets pears by knocking his penis against a tree"
The end to the story?
* I taught all my dirty phrases to my new little-brother-in-law, who grew up primarily in the U.S. and simply doesn't know any dirty language outside everyday explicatives.
* The new family joke? I can make my sweetheart laugh uproariously if I whisper even the beginning of either phrase into his ear at family events. Meanwhile, poor mom-in-law and I are trying to find me time for a tutor so that I (a) reach my goal (fluent-enough Russian speaker to speak solely in Russian in our home once we have children), and (b) so that she never ever worries again that her new daughter will come home with a brandnew phrase that will be the death of my new grandmother-inlaw, or be heard uttered from the lips of my children.
:-)
Good luck with everyone else's studies!
I am marrying a Russian man, and his parents are very much involved in the Russian community of our area. From the first time I heard him talking to his mother on the phone in Russian, I made up my mind to set aside a little time - in addition to my law studies (I graduate from law school this year) - to learn Russian.
What I've found most helpful for learning Russian are:
- Pimsleur (I found it at my public library)
- Russian "fantasy films" (e.g., "The Snow Queen", "Tsar Saltan", "Ruslan and Ludmilla", etc.)
- and having a "Russian only" room (our kitchen).
What I've found have "hurt" me most in my progress are:
- my fear of making mistakes in front of my new family, who look confused when my tongue just can't move properly for those tough sounds;
- my disappointment at the gap between how I know I should be sounding when I say the words, and how I actually sound when I say the words.
- Having a "Russian only" kitchen; at Russian parties I can dazzle all attending with "Do you want something to eat? To drink? How about some cabbage?" Little more!
That in mind,
I'd like to assist others learning Russian who feel insecure about how they sound with my worst experience thus far. It should makeyou feel much, much better about your insecurities in speaking Russian aloud! :-) Should also make you more aware of how ESSENTIAL it is to concentrate on your studies!
Background:
I'm an over-achiever. I've been going to law school, been doing scores of other things, and trying to pick up Russian on the side. Regardless with the great progress I'd made, I just didn't feel I was living up to my potential to speak the language. That was really frustrating, but I just couldn't find more time to devote to learning Russian.
So, I compensated when I decided to get "cool" and pick up "hip" phrases that beau wouldn't have to teach me. I picked up "Lonely Planet Guide" to the Russian language. I so wanted to dazzle my new future in-laws with a quick phrase here and there. Why, I'd so sound modern if I used slang! My then-boyfriend had giggled over the fact that my Pimsleur-level had me stuck at "Gespadim" and "Gespaja", and that I knew no informal modes of address. His family found this "charming", but I'm unaccostomed to that "patronized" feeling - so I set about to become more "contemporary" with this book via slang.
I _swear to God_ that I somehow didn't see the literal transation of a few choice phrases, but thought the phrases particularly useful. These were:
"He's gotta do it his way", and "He's incredibly lazy"
Imagine my mother-in-law's surprise when, while on vacation with the family, my beau was behaving most stubbornly. I looked at her sympathetically, and let the forth my "He's gotta do it his way"
My father-in-law doubled over laughing. My beau doubled over laughing.
I knew something was wrong, but here I was - so grandoise and certain in my pronounciations - and I was being laughed at....
His mom asked me to repeat myself. She scolded the men, and then explained what was happening. Turns out I was literally saying, in my most proper behavior, "A guy is going to masturbate however he's going to masturbate" - only dirtier.
They all demanded to know where I'd learned such a thing, and I confessed to the little guide book.
My father-in-law then asked me what else I'd learned, and I responded before my mother-in-law could stop me. This time, more self-conscious and aware of how stupid I'd been not to "check" with beau as to how "hip" I was, I said (literally) "He is so lazy that he gets pears by knocking his penis against a tree"
The end to the story?
* I taught all my dirty phrases to my new little-brother-in-law, who grew up primarily in the U.S. and simply doesn't know any dirty language outside everyday explicatives.
* The new family joke? I can make my sweetheart laugh uproariously if I whisper even the beginning of either phrase into his ear at family events. Meanwhile, poor mom-in-law and I are trying to find me time for a tutor so that I (a) reach my goal (fluent-enough Russian speaker to speak solely in Russian in our home once we have children), and (b) so that she never ever worries again that her new daughter will come home with a brandnew phrase that will be the death of my new grandmother-inlaw, or be heard uttered from the lips of my children.
:-)
Good luck with everyone else's studies!
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 12:40 pm (UTC)One book that I've found really useful is "Using Russian" by Offord. It's meant to be a supplement to other Russian courses -- it covers things that they might not, like diminutive suffixes, common idioms, neologisms, formal and informal greetings to use in letters ...
Apart from that, I can't really help since I'm learning Russian in college.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-14 01:49 am (UTC)Don't expect what nobody else does.
Date: 2004-01-13 10:16 pm (UTC)In short, as long as you make the effort to learn, and use what you know; then people will be impressed. Sometimes so impressed that they will keep talking to you in russian even though you have no clue what they are saying or how to answer (even if you know the answers.) This happens with my mother-in-law all of the time. Be patient and use what you know...you can't ingrain the proper pronounciation without actually pronouncing the words. Hang in there and Good Luck!!!
no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 10:56 pm (UTC)Thank you for sharing your story, and good luck!!
no subject
Date: 2004-01-19 06:45 pm (UTC)I too am very self-conscious when speaking Russian. It seems that fear can almost be debilitating for a speaker of any foreign language. I think it is important just to go out on a limb and speak as much as you can, and learn from your mistakes.