(no subject)

[bandonbanshee.livejournal.com]

Um. Hello.

I sort of joined this community on a whim - but I do have another reason, I swear! I'm going to be spending a month in Moscow this summer, working in a hospital, so I figure that some familiarity with the language might help me - as things stand, I know nothing... Which is a little unfortunate, to say the least.

Anyhoo - hello to everyone. :)

Comments

[svetosila.livejournal.com]

I'm a native of Moscow, I live here and I know English, so feel free to ask me any relevant ^))) questions through comments in my LJ (which is in Russian). As for tips on quick learning, try at least to learn the Cyrillic alphabet, that'll come in handy.

[bandonbanshee.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :) Yes - we're slightly worried about street signs and placenames and the like, so the Cyrillic alphabet is definitely on our to-do list. (There are six of us going altogether)

[svetosila.livejournal.com]

As there are 6 of you, i would recommend, ideally, if you can afford the fees and find time, to hire a private tutor for the lot of you, preferably a native speaker of Russian who has experience of working with groups. There are good methods of intensive language teaching. The professor, sadly, is the key here - if he or she isn't a good professional, you won't learn anything. But with a good professor, miracles happen. If you work among Russians here, you'll soon pick up basic vocabulary. But you'd better learn some grammar and phonetics beforehand.

[bandonbanshee.livejournal.com]

We should be getting lessons organised for us but we're hoping to persuade the Central Languages Services in our own university to give us some lessons before we go...