What is the best way to learn Russian?
Saturday, August 8th, 2009 at
2:31 pm
I am trying to learn Russian.
I know all of the Cyrillic alphabet and the sounds made by them.
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I simply need a good coursebook suggestion, or an excellent method for learning such a difficult language.
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Thank You.
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Tagged with: coursebook • cyrillic alphabet • suggestion
Filed under: Russian Language
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Isn’t it an awesome language? Truthfully, the best way to learn Russian is to go to a Language School in either Moscow or St. Petersburg, and do intensive immersion.
Otherwise, a Russian girlfriend. Because there are sounds and inflexions you simply cannot distinguish from tapes. You need a Russian speaking human being to make it work.
If there still in business, Berlitz offered intensive Russian courses all over the world, including the USA. There your teacher is usually 1:1 with you.
I don’t mean to sound like a prick or a downer, but you won’t be able to learn Russian with a "good coursebook." There has to be that human interaction to get it right.
Go for it. An amazing language.
have you checked rosetta stone
Practice with a native speaker.
A good book has lots of exercises and an audio companion (CD). That is very helpful, but when it comes to learning a new language, the only way to become fluent is to use it often in conversation. The best thing you can do is find someone who will help teach you or at least converse with you on a very regular basis.
Hi, Sacred Forest
I’m learning Russian too. The most helpful thing I have used is the "Michel Thomas Method" Russian audio course. It may be because I already had experience with several other things. I don’t know what course book is better than another, but Princeton’s is available for free.
Edit: for some reason I can’t post the link here. If you’re interested, google Princeton Russian – it’s the first link.
Edit 2: You can learn Russian, please don’t listen to people saying how hard it is, etc.
Some time back, Oxford University researched languages in the world to rate them by difficulty level. The first 3 were:
(1) Arabic (most difficult)
(2) Chinese
(3) Russian
(English was of course much easier, like #14 on the list.)
I’ve spent several years trying to learn Russian. It is very hard if you don’t have a natural propensity for languages – - and I don’t. But I love the language, and have lived in Russia for several years, and love the people there, the old culture, etc. I am functional, but still not fluent.
Russians can have very different accents depending on the person speaking, and upon where they live. Just like here, I guess. But some Russians I can understand almost 100%. Others less, and some almost zero!
But it is an amazing language. The grammar is almost bewildering! A book I have shows just one verb can have up to 120 different forms when you count all the prefixes and endings and tenses and numbers. Can you imagine!?
At least spelling in Russian is easier than in English. Usually, Russian is spelled just like it sounds.
Another zany example: You know English nouns have a singular and plural form; Easy! But Russian nouns have a singular form, a plural form (non-specific as to the number of them), another plural form (if the number of them is 2, 3, or 4), and yet another plural form (if you know the number is 5 or more). And there isn’t a consistent system to follow to know the plural forms. You just have to memorize them.
A final example: In English you know the same spelling of a word can be a noun, a verb, or an adjective depending on how it appears in the sentence; We understand the part of grammar because of the word-order in the sentence. However in Russian nouns, verbs, and adjectives always have different forms, and because of this a strict word order is unnecessary.
Not at all trying to scare you away from it. But just know you are will be learning the 3rd hardest language in the world, but also a very rich and wonderful language.
While I was there, I had some American friends who had very young children. As their children grew and played with Russian children, they learned Russian very easily without ever studying a textbook! I was jealous! But of course they could not write or read Russian, but they could speak it and almost without accent – while their parents had to labor in the textbooks to try to learn. Ah… the advantages of a young brain.
Rosetta Stone is really excellent software. I have it. Russian I and Russian II cost me $360 total. Too bad it is so expensive.
But today I learned of a FREE website with excellent interactive instruction, and it is similar to Rosetta Stone!
http://www.LiveMocha.com
(check it out!)
There is another very good Russian teaching package called Transparent Language. Google it. It is a LOT cheaper than Rosetta Stone. I think you can buy it for under $75. But it teaches Russian in an entirely different manner than Rosetta Stone. But just like Rosetta Stone, it also uses only native Russian speakers so that you can hear the true pronunciation.
Good luck!
С Богом