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French or Russian?

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karashi
Tetraglot
Groupie
Japan
Joined 6583 days ago

81 posts - 81 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, Japanese, German
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 57 of 60
09 December 2008 at 5:36pm | IP Logged 
gogglehead wrote:

As with Italian, I use a learning manual (Assimil), is there something a bit simpler for Russian that starts at the ABSOLUTE beginning? I am a slavic novice.


Hi, I also use(d) Assimil for Russian. I finished the passive wave and am doing the end of the active wave (today lesson 42/70). I have also ordered several books, and since a few days ago I am working with Russian for Beginners, by Charles Duff. It is exactly what I needed after Assimil, to tidy up my grammar. Each lesson has about 20 vocabulary words (of which I know many from Assimil), and introduces one piece of grammar.
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gogglehead
Triglot
Senior Member
Argentina
Joined 6081 days ago

248 posts - 320 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Russian, Italian

 
 Message 58 of 60
13 December 2008 at 5:52am | IP Logged 
Is Assimil Russian even available in English? An important point since I don't speak French

Also, although I am using Assimil Italian with Ease (with success, in my own opinion) I cannot help but think it is a little to much for the absolute beginner. I had already used several Italian sources to get a preliminary grasp of the language, and went into Assimil at just the right point in my progress.

Like I said, I am starting Russian from the complete beginning, I have learned the alphabet and now I am using russianlessons.net to get a grasp of a couple of the cases (nominative and accusative), a concept that is, in my language learning experience, alien to me. This method might not be for everyone, but I found it quite easy to slide into Italian without too much effort once I was on the first rung of the ladder. I studied a bit of grammar beforehand because I tend to get impatient with the way that some courses allow grammar to be "absorbed" through dialogues. If something happens a certain way, right away I want to know WHY. This is just my method

Thankyou in advance for any more advice.

G Head
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Leopejo
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
Joined 6115 days ago

675 posts - 724 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English
Studies: French, Russian

 
 Message 59 of 60
13 December 2008 at 6:06am | IP Logged 
gogglehead wrote:
Is Assimil Russian even available in English? An important point since I don't speak French

As I said, there is Assimil Russian in Italian - and perhaps Spanish.

Quote:
Also, although I am using Assimil Italian with Ease (with success, in my own opinion) I cannot help but think it is a little to much for the absolute beginner. I had already used several Italian sources to get a preliminary grasp of the language, and went into Assimil at just the right point in my progress.

There are softer starts as well.
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karashi
Tetraglot
Groupie
Japan
Joined 6583 days ago

81 posts - 81 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, Japanese, German
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 60 of 60
14 December 2008 at 5:30pm | IP Logged 
gogglehead wrote:
Also, although I am using Assimil Italian with Ease (with success, in my own opinion) I cannot help but think it is a little to much for the absolute beginner. I had already used several Italian sources to get a preliminary grasp of the language, and went into Assimil at just the right point in my progress.


I think Assimil is not about learning grammar, but about having the music of the language in your head. This is why I find it useful to start with it, and only then to work with a traditional vocabulary/granmmar textbook. I intuitively know a lot of the vocabulary of the textbook thanks to assimil, and with the grammar it is not foreign, but every time I study a new lesson I have those "Aha" moments, where everything fits in place.


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