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Sight Reading Question (Russian) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| marcflo09 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5240 days ago 3 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 6 24 July 2010 at 1:59am | IP Logged |
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I started studying Russian a few weeks ago. I've made good progress (though I know I'm still new in my studies), but I had a quick question.
About how long did it take you guys to be able to sight read Russian? Maybe not necessarily understand it, but just to see a word somewhere and be able to sound it out rather quickly. I speak English natively and have had 3 or so years of Spanish, but both of their alphabets are quite similar in pronounciation and I have no trouble with the transition between each. I take it its inherent with a different (Cryllic) alphabet. Any thoughts? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dagojr Groupie United States Joined 5590 days ago 56 posts - 131 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 6 24 July 2010 at 3:05am | IP Logged |
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I know your looking for a specific time range, but ... I think it depends.
To be honest, even though I'm a native speaker, I need to slow down and sound out words in English sometimes too, though not very often. For example, I have to slow down to read "chiaroscurist," and even then I'm not sure I've pronounced the word correctly. (Incidentally, this was the winning word in the 1998 national spelling bee in the United States.) I've been studying Russian for about a year. Some words (like, well, русский) I know right away by now without really thinking, but others take time. Length doesn't always enter into it. I can read and understand удовольствием relatively quickly since I've seen it so often, but sometimes a 5-letter word will give me pause. I think it simply has to do with how familiar you are with the words, how exposed you have been to them, and how much practice you've done. By the way, don't be intimidated by Cyrillic. It's a very, very tiny obstacle and not nearly as difficult as you expect it to be. Edited by dagojr on 24 July 2010 at 7:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| marcflo09 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5240 days ago 3 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 6 24 July 2010 at 9:45am | IP Logged |
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I agree; there are some English words which are difficult. I attribute this English pronounciation difficulty to the various additions to the language. English has a vast vocabulary, spanning from the Celtcs, Norse, Romans (Latin), French (Normans),and Greeks. Also, while I think the claim that "Russian is a phonetic language" is false, I will say that Russian spelling is largely easier than English (see the -ough- in though, thought, bough,). But I think it is, like you said, a matter of exposure.
Cryllic didn't give me a headche; Russian just seems consonant heavy when compared to English. This gives me reasonable pause with, for example, the Russian words for Hello, Where, and What. I do enjoy the language, though. Much more than Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Light_1 Newbie UkraineRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 6 posts - 7 votes | Message 4 of 6 25 July 2010 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
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I am a native speaker of Russian so I have a chance to compare Russian and English too. Russian spelling is much easier just because of (maybe too long but) list of rules. English has too many exeptions :)
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| VanessaCorey Newbie United States Joined 5093 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes | Message 5 of 6 16 December 2010 at 9:02am | IP Logged |
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It took me just a few short days. I was scheduled to begin an intense Russian fluency course taught by native Russian speakers. In the meantime I decided to to learn to read out loud to master the sounds, since Russian is a very phonetic language. First I learned the values of the Cyrillic alphabet, which I found quite easy. I took advantage of access to books with accompanying audio components, as well as asking for voice samples from Russian speakers. I also listened to Russian speakers and audio of any source available. Listening to radio, TV, and conversations around you is of high value to any student of language, even if you do not understand the content. The same is true of "reading" practice. The mind has the ability to automatically collect and store away in memory bits of information and structure for later use, that we may not be aware of at the time.
I began "reading" out loud from various sources of literature, reading each piece over and over into a tape recorder. I compared my pronunciation with that of native audio samples and adjusted as necessary. I wanted to develop that native Russian sound inside my own head. I wanted to own it so that my mind would not translate, but rather, simply have a different voice, different words for the same thing. By the time I started my Russian course, I was already far ahead of other students in a basic understanding of the foundations of the language because I had learned not only pronunciation, but had learned to "read", a tool that would be key to developing fluency. In the process I had also learned a lot of vocabulary, grammar, syntax, specific cultural information, and cultural concepts. Find out how you learn best. I love to read and everything in my life seems to start and end with text. In my book, reading is a fundamental tool to learning and progress. Good luck! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 6 16 December 2010 at 10:58am | IP Logged |
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I have moved this thread to "Specific languages" because it is written ABOUT Russian, but IN English.
My answer to the question is that it just took a few days, where I transliterated several pages of Russian. I did it just before a study tour to the USSR in 1975, where I knew that it might be practical to be able to read street signs etc. At that time I had no intention of learning the language. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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