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Six months to learn some Russian... | ||
Tags: Study Plan | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| elijahjones Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5244 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 1 of 6 19 July 2010 at 9:03pm | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone,
I'm in the early stages of planning a trip to Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan for early next year. I've been to Russia before and have always wanted to go back, but my total inability to communicate last time was somewhat frustrating. I'm here to ask for a little help in formulating a plan to learn as much Russian as I can between now and then. It would be brilliant to be able to: 1. Read and have a reasonable go at pronouncing place names, even if I haven't seen them before. 2. Conduct (very) basic conversations - getting directions, booking hotel rooms, buying travel tickets, elementary getting-to-know-you chitchat and so on. 3. Understand the answers people give me in these basic conversations, even if they have to talk to me as they would talk to a small child ;-). I know that Russian is regarded as a hard language; are my goals even reasonable, given the timeframe? I've found an enormous list of learning material, and I've already downloaded the Princeton course, which I believe is highly regarded. Beyond that though, there's so much to choose from and I don't really know where to start. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Edit: OK, my link was removed. It was just to another post on this forum entitled 'Russian Links' in the 'Links & Internet Resources' subforum. Edited by elijahjones on 19 July 2010 at 9:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Thatzright Diglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5674 days ago 202 posts - 311 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: French, Swedish, German, Russian | Message 2 of 6 20 July 2010 at 12:30am | IP Logged |
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Yes, it is entirely possible to do this in six months, even less would be more than enough if you have the motivation and dedication to cram in atleast thirty minutes of study every day. Atleast in the case of pretty much every European language, I'd imagine that getting to a level where you can conduct - very, as you say - basic conversations and can understand what people are telling you even if they tell it to you as if you were a small child is pretty much doable in around a month. I'm almost tempted to say it's possible in a time as short as a week, but yet I don't want to go there. Russian is indeed a challenging language, but if very basic conversations are what you're looking to accomplish for starters, you will be able to get there very quickly.
There are non-slavic people, most of them with blogs available for reading, who have learned even languages like Czech and Russian, for example, to conversational or even pretty fluent levels in timespans as short as three or six months. What you're looking to do is very much realistic, but it will take dedication and discipline to regular studying routines. I would recommend the Michel Thomas Russian courses for a quick beginner's overview of some of the basic aspects of the language. It quickly gets you to a level where you genuinely feel like you're able to say a lot, even if some of the stuff taught is a little unnecessary. The Princeton course is apparently excellent, too. If you feel like memorizing grammar, sites like Masterrussian.com and Russianlessons.net are highly valuable. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6235 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 6 20 July 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged |
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I would start with Earwarm's Rapid Russian for listening as you are doing things. There are two volumes. After about 2 or 3 weeks you will know the words and phrases cold. You get about 200 words per cd. It covers the need words for a tourist to get by. The booklets can be carried with to help. Here is the link to the booklet. The company posts them on the web site. :) http://earwormslearning.com/pdf/Booklet_Russian.pdf
I would do the three reading booklets from the Pimsleur course. I found them helpful for getting use to decoding Russian. After finishing them you should be able to handle signs and names. Add either the MT or Pimsleur course. Maybe do both if you want. You might find this Russian learning site helpful: http://masterrussian.net/mforum/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=31c02 c9cdcbb000ed04932f4933d0ea4 You should find some help with the free computer software offered by Russkiy Mir Foundation. They are a Russian government supported foundation that works to help people learn Russian. Golden Russian Deluxe is a good program to start with. http://www.russkiymir.ru/russkiymir/en/education/ http://www.russkiymir.ru/russkiymir/ru/education/news/news00 04.html To down load the software, you want to click on the choice labeled •Начать обучение (для говорящих по-английски) Edited by hobbitofny on 21 July 2010 at 1:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| elijahjones Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5244 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 4 of 6 21 July 2010 at 4:01am | IP Logged |
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Thank you both very much. Some great links and advice. Greatly appreciated. Edited by elijahjones on 21 July 2010 at 4:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6235 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 6 23 July 2010 at 4:34am | IP Logged |
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I forgot to add a very fine book and cd set called "Survival Russian: A course in Conversational Russian" by N.B. Karavanova isn 978-5-88337-038-9
The book is about 800 words. It covers most normal events a person living in Russia will encounter. It also has culture information. The dialogues are very natural for current Russian use. You have mp3 files of all vocabulary lists and most all the dialogues. It is Moscow State University tested. If you are looking for the better Russia produced language learning items, MSU is as reliable are it gets. (The Linguaphone Russian course was written by MSU staff.) Should you want a complete Russian course from Russia, Antonova V., Nahabina M. "The road to Russia" is great. If you are thinking of attending University in Russia, it will cover the material need to pass the TRKI (TORFL). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Khublei Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Yugoslavia homestayperu.net Joined 5349 days ago 90 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English*, Irish*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Khasi, French, Albanian | Message 6 of 6 23 July 2010 at 1:32pm | IP Logged |
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In six months I learned more than enough to get by in Moldova, and I was working a lot
and certainly didn't have time every single day to study. I used Pimsleur, and worked through all 90 or so lessons. And then used the internet to learn how to read and get some more phrases. It's definitely doable. Have a good trip! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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