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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| morphine Newbie United States Joined 4425 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 24 17 October 2012 at 9:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am planning to try to learn Russian. I previously studied Russian a bit, but it has been over 7 years ago. At that time, I completed all of the Pimsleur program, and I found it was a very good start. I learned lots of words, and my pronounciation was very good (according to several native Russians).
What should I do next? Should I repeat the Pimsleur series, since I've forgotten much of it? (I can get it for free at the library). How about Rosetta Stone? My employer allows me to get this software for free. Or FSI? Or books? What is your advise. Thank you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| morphine Newbie United States Joined 4425 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 24 17 October 2012 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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More information: I am a 34-year old married man with children, a full-time job, and several other responsibilities. I do not have endless hours every day to devote to language learning. Maybe, on average, 20-30 minutes per day.
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| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5380 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 3 of 24 17 October 2012 at 9:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm afraid I don't have specific advice to give you about Russian, except that I notice all the sources you mention are audio. Have you familiarized yourself with the Cyrillic alphabet?
I don't think doing Pimsleur all over is a bad idea if you think you have something to learn from it, but I would urge you to stay away from Rosetta Stone. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 24 18 October 2012 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||
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20-30 mins a day is too little. Make sure to use your "dead" time (driving, queues, some of your 'responsibilities' etc) and most importantly, try to have more of your fun in Russian. like music, TV, books (comic books at first) etc.
For slow, steady progress, Assimil is the best. You'll learn a lot more from devoting 30-60 mins a day to it for 3 months than from Pimsleur (in Assimil you'll complete the passive wave in that time). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6232 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 24 18 October 2012 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I would suggest either Assimil or Linguaphone Complete Russian course.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6908 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 24 18 October 2012 at 1:02am | IP Logged | ||
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If 20-30 minutes is all you have, make sure you do something really beneficial during those minutes, and try your best to use dead time - maybe you can find time to at least listen to the same lesson once more per day (e.g. while commuting).
If you have access to Pimsleur (and can't "avoid" it), do one lesson a day until you've completed all volumes. It should take ~90 days, but as Serpent said, you're able to finish the first wave of Assimil in the same time - and get way more vocabulary and grammar. FSI Russian can be downloaded free of charge (legally), and nothing beats a free lunch. In the FSI courses I've studied, the lessons (=tapes) have been anywhere from 10 minutes up to half an hour, so that's also an option with your 20-30 minutes in mind. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 24 18 October 2012 at 5:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Like the other posters here, I suspect that 20–30 minutes per day will be a little on the low side.
Before talking about courses, let me summarize the CEFRL scale: A1: Has some basic knowledge of the language. A2: Can handle basic survival situations (more or less). B1: Can travel as tourist using target language almost all the time. B2: Can function as an independent adult and defend an opinion. C1: Can take a college course or work in an office job. C2: Has significant mastery of the language (by non-native standards). I spent 20 to 40 minutes per day studying Assimil New French with Ease. After about 6 months of Assimil, my skills were somewhere around A2. Some people may make it to B1 using Assimil. Note that you may need longer for Russian, because it differs more from English than French does. Getting from A2 to B1 would require some more studying, but probably nothing too drastic—just more of the same, with or without a course. It's realistic to do this in a year or two if you put in some time every day. As always, consistency is the key. After B1, unfortunately, you may start chafing at your 30-minute limit. The usual trick around HTLAL is to start using your target language for stuff you were going to do anyway. For example, I'm going to read kayaking books and science magazines in any case, so I might as well read them in French. Every bit of extra practice helps, because B1->B2 is longish hike. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5055 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 8 of 24 18 October 2012 at 11:39am | IP Logged | ||
20-30 minutes a day is quite a lot if you do it every day. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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