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 Language Learning Forum : Immersion, Schools & Certificates |  | |
| metrodorus Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5607 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Indonesian | Message 1 of 5 07 May 2012 at 6:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I am hoping to take a gap year before entering university in order to learn Russian. I am strongly considering this program http://international.mslu.by/forforeignstudents/russian/ in Minsk but I was wondering if anyone knew of any other semester or year-long, inexpensive, intensive Russian courses in Russia or one of the countries of the former Soviet Union? I was also wondering how long would you think it would take to get to an C1 or even C2 level? Would one semester be sufficient in a full immersion environment?
Thanks Edited by metrodorus on 07 May 2012 at 7:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5542 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 5 07 May 2012 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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The US Foreign Service Institute claims that they can get a complete novice to ILR 3/3+
in 44 weeks. This roughly corresponds to CEFRL C1, at least according to the American University Center of Provence. For the sake of comparison, French takes 24 weeks. And these are very intensive courses. The following quote is from the wife of an American diplomat, who earned her 2/2 in Chinese a few weeks ahead of schedule:
So I doubt you could count on reaching C1 from scratch in 12 weeks of intensive Russian classes and immersion. I'm not saying it's completely impossible, just that you'd need some special combination of talent, insane work, and highly favorable circumstances. If your goal was C1 or C2, you might improve your chances by learning some basic conversational skills here in the US (say, somewhere between A2 and B1), and planning on a year in Russia. Even if you only spent the first 3 months in intensive classes, that would still give you 9 more months for immersion. But you shouldn't completely discount B1 and B2, either—they're actually pretty respectable levels: B1: Good enough to travel, at least in normal situations. You can carry on a 1- on-1 conversation about your daily life and your most important interests. B2: You can discuss fairly complex ideas using simplified vocabulary, without undue strain for you or the native speaker. Your listening comprehension is pretty good for formal speech, but you may only get 50% of a movie. C1: You can function in a white-color job, within some limitations. I'm currently working on B2 in French, and I'm pretty comfortable with casual, 1-on-1 conversation. If I need to express something complicated, I can usually do it—if I'm warmed up. But native books still require some actual work, and movies are just too hard, which means that it takes actual effort to maintain my skills. I hope you have a great time in Russia! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6607 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 5 07 May 2012 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know much about this university, but my aunt got her degree there:)
However one semester won't be enough for C1. Is Russian your first foreign language? I recommend studying it in America first, you'll benefit more from immersion if you already know something. There are also people who get fluent without ever leaving their own country. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| AvidLearner Hexaglot Newbie Germany Joined 5889 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Speaks: German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish | Message 5 of 5 20 May 2012 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I once asked myself similar questions, so here is what had I figured out after some research. A common study plan for students living in an immersion environment in Russia and studying Russian fulltime*(->below) seems to be like this:
<required time>: <Test expected to be passed> (<level>) 1 semester (04 months): ТБУ/Базовый уровень (A2) 2 semesters (10 months total): ТРКИ-1 (B1) 3 semesters (16 months total): ТРКИ-2 (B2) For example, after 10 months of study in Germany with a very high degree of motivation and devotion (but limited time due to fulltime work plus postgraduate study plus learning three languages at the same time**) I went to Moscow State University for 2 months and passed the ТРКИ-1 (B1), achieving something in the range of 80-90%. With this in mind, I believe passing the ТРКИ-1 even with high marks to be a realistic goal for an arbitrary student after 10 months of immersion. However, I am not so sure about the amount of devotion required to pass the ТРКИ-2 within a year. For instance, students sitting the ТРКИ-2 are expected to know almost three times as many words as those sitting the ТРКИ-1 (there are offical lists called "lexical minimum" you can buy). *Believe me, 20 hours/week plus homework is fulltime if taken seriously **I highly recommend only focusing on one language at a time. PS: The Russian universities I considered at the time only offer programs with significantly higher tuition fees, so I'm afraid it'll be not so easy to find cheaper study programs than the one you mentioned. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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