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learn_russianHi... thought I'd introduce myself.
I Just joined...
I'm 20 - a student - from Dublin, Ireland. I've only really just started learning Russian. 2 - 3 months maybe. I do intend to stick with it. And at this point have a good amount of motivation.
I am interested in suggestions as to how I might get a good start. I know the alphabet and about 100 words. So I'm quite a beginner. But if anyone has some advise for me... about anything really... it would help and be appreciated.
Thank you,
Green
I Just joined...
I'm 20 - a student - from Dublin, Ireland. I've only really just started learning Russian. 2 - 3 months maybe. I do intend to stick with it. And at this point have a good amount of motivation.
I am interested in suggestions as to how I might get a good start. I know the alphabet and about 100 words. So I'm quite a beginner. But if anyone has some advise for me... about anything really... it would help and be appreciated.
Thank you,
Green
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 04:15 am (UTC)I am russian student and I am supposed to become a teacher of Russian a s a foreign language. :-)
You can always e-mail me in Russian or English and we could think of something to improve your Russian. :-)
tucha_dashka@mail.ru
???
Date: 2004-03-28 08:17 am (UTC)Re: ???
Date: 2004-03-28 09:32 am (UTC)Re: ???
Date: 2004-03-29 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 04:26 am (UTC)I dont't know,if my advice would be helpful, but this is how I struggled with my German and Greek and this what I say to my students..
The first thing that helped me is purely psychological. I noticed that I tended to think about Greek as if it were some esoteric knowledge that one either has or does not have. The most important is that any healthy individual who managed to graduate from secondary school has abilities to learn any foreign language if s/he is motivated and studies regularly.
Second, it is necessary to study regularly. It is better to open the book for 20 minutes every day than to study once a week for 3 hours. Call me boring, but I made a little table where I mark every 30 minutes I spent studying Greek. By the end of the week the table looks very encouraging. :)
Third, I think that on the beginning level it is not necessary to spend too much time on phonetics and to try to imitate the russian sounds. Say, I am aware that I would never be able to get rid of my accent, no matter how hard I try. The most important is that people do understand me (hopefully). In my opinion, it is necessary to go further and to approach more complicated texts and grammar. Sounds are at this stage of little importance. If there is a necessity, it is possible to correct the pronunciation later.
Then, again, it may sound meaningless pastime.. it is actually the old method, but for some reason it worked with me.. Every little text from the textbook I read at least 5 times aloud, and then copied it. It sounds idiotic, but it worked.
Communication! Any chance to communicate with native speakers should not be missed. There shoud be some Russian community in your university. There is ICQ. There is E-tandem service. http://www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ "In eTandem, you work together with a learning partner from another country - by telephone, e-mail or other media. From your partner, you learn his or her* language while he or she* learns your native language." I think that it would be easy to find russian speaking partner matching by age, interests, etc.
I found it very helpful to record radio-programms with trascrips- to translate them with dictionary first and then to listen, listen, listen- at home while washing dishes, in the car, strolling with the dog.. I could not find any Russian station that broadcasts programms and provides scripts, but BBC has special online audio-courses for Russian learning English.http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/learn_english/default.stm These programs are both in Russian and in English.
THen, it was important for me to start exploring Greek internet. Just to start with some search engine/ browser, to look for anything, to find some chat, on-line magazines or newspapers, to read the headings. Later the online newspapers can be an important sourse of materials for reading and translating. For Russian internet you can start with http://yandex.ru or http://www.rambler.ru/ By the way, http://www.rambler.ru/dict/ here is an online English-Russian/Russian-english dictionary. It is quite big.
If you have some particular Russian author in mind, you can take Russian and English versions of the book and move slowly, word by word. It may be useful to study several pages in this way just to understand what is the language like. It helps even in the beginner's level.
And then comes routine- learning new words (better within the whole phrase), keeping a special note-book for verbs only, etc.
Good luck!
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 05:54 am (UTC)Also, a little phonological knowledge goes a long way in Russian, in regards to fill vowels, spelling rules, and the like; for me, it was much easier to remember all of the rules when I knew some of the reasons behind them.
The best way to work on Russian pronunciation is to listen to as much Russian as you can. Russian songs, Russian news, Russian movies -- if you try to imitate the sounds, it may not come right away, but the more you're immersed in it, the easier it will be to spot whether you're doing it correctly for not.
This isn't to say that I think pronunciation is the most important, just that it's *also* important. But how important it is, I suppose, dependent on what you want to do with your Russian. If you don't think that you'll be speaking much, it may not be one or your top priorities.
For me, I find that my small vocabulary is often the most limiting factor in communicating. To combat this, I try to learn at least one new word a day, in addition to the words that we learn in class. It may not seem like a lot, but at the end of the year, I'll have 365 extra words. If I was less lazy and tried two words a day, I'd have even more. :) I make flash cards, so I can refresh myself once in a while.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 09:27 am (UTC)*points to the russian music/news/movies bit*
I can fully agree with that! I have a nice little playlist of Russian pop songs *some 118 at current*. Some of it I probably wouldn't touch the english equivlents, but I've found it very useful in keeping my feel for speech patterns.
:D
xoxo
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 09:12 am (UTC)I really liked your idea of the table- I used to do that a few weeks ago, when I was slightly more organized, but since then, my Russian table has been a free-all pile of library books, plants, photos and my ashtray.
I agree with other comments, that that pronunciation is important, especially since I tend to mispronounce words (even in English)... Pronunciation is a large part of Russian conversation. It's easier to get it right the first time than to change something you're used to saying.
Hm... a verb notebook sounds like a good idea. I have one for the cases- declensions and such...
One thing I'd like to add is it's helpful to immerse yourself when you're studying Russian. I like to get myself in a "Russian mood" by listening to my fave Russian rock bands and smoking cigarettes (ok, not the most healthiest thing in the world, but it reminds me of nights when I studied in the corner cafe in Petersburg)... Find your own groove and it makes the process a lot easier and fun!
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 06:44 am (UTC)If you can study for a semester or a year abroad (Most universities offer that option) that's the best way to learn the language.
Barring that, right now just stick with it. Join communities like this one, rent Russian movies, and don't let cases scare you.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 10:19 am (UTC)I love these books:)
Good advise...
Date: 2004-03-28 11:50 am (UTC)Thank you for the suggestions... recommendations etc. - Very very helpful. Glad I came across this community.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 02:22 pm (UTC)As for pronunication, I think it matters a fair bit. I have trouble understanding people who speak English with a very thick accent, and I feel bad asking them to repeat themselves. Russian pronunication isn't too hard, but the stress is almost impossible to guess, so that's one of the hardest things about the language. Putting the stress in the wrong place will change the pronunication, particularly with the letter 'o'.
~ squodge ~
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 02:36 pm (UTC)Yes pronunciation is very important... I did this (http://langintro.com/rintro/first.htm) online introduction to the alphabet and pronunciation. It explains things very good for a complete beginner. Atleast I hope it did. lol.
Thanks for all your suggestions!