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Anyone Use Crossword Puzzles?

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12 messages over 2 pages: 1
patuco
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 Message 9 of 12
12 May 2009 at 9:08pm | IP Logged 
I've done crosswords in various languages and I always find them annoying. I prefer some other methods of practicing vocabulary.
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Russianbear
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 Message 10 of 12
12 May 2009 at 9:54pm | IP Logged 
Just a word of warning: many Russian crossword puzzles tend to be heavy on cultural references, like proverbs, quotes from books, movies, etc. The one that was linked to in the original post is not that bad in this respect, but still, it does some of that and it also seems to be quite challenging. I think a lot of the answers in that one may end up being some very specialized and obscure words that aren't of any use to an average learner - or even an average speaker- of Russian. Perhaps it would be a good idea to look at the answers and see if those words are actually words you would want to know/learn.

For example:

"8. Белый круглый хлебец, употребляемый в православном богослужении." - "a white kind of bread used in Orthodox (church) service" - I have no clue what it is, and I am a native Russian speaker.

"24. Волна возбуждения, распространяющаяся по нервному волокну." - "A wave of stimulation that is propagated along a nerve fibre". Again, I imagine many a Russian lived a happy and fulfilling life without knowing - or even caring about- the answer to this one.

Perhaps this method could be useful if one managed to find a set of crossword puzzles that have neither too many obscure cultural references nor too many specialized/technical terms, but most of these puzzles seem to have either one of those things, or both.

Edited by Russianbear on 12 May 2009 at 10:03pm

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chelovek
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 Message 11 of 12
13 May 2009 at 6:00am | IP Logged 
Thanks for the warning. I actually find that it's more useful for me to pay attention to the definitions (since there are 1600+ puzzles and the words in the definitions are often repeated), and the solutionss are more of a bonus.

So far I'm liking this more than the other methods I've tried. :p
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Julie
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 Message 12 of 12
13 May 2009 at 9:40pm | IP Logged 
Russianbear wrote:
For example:

"8. Белый круглый хлебец, употребляемый в православном богослужении." - "a white kind of bread used in Orthodox (church) service" - I have no clue what it is, and I am a native Russian speaker.

"24. Волна возбуждения, распространяющаяся по нервному волокну." - "A wave of stimulation that is propagated along a nerve fibre". Again, I imagine many a Russian lived a happy and fulfilling life without knowing - or even caring about- the answer to this one.


Thank God there're some words in crosswords (in my native language) I don't know. :) Otherwise it wouldn't be a challenge at all, just some boring filling out squares.

I can imagine that crosswords targeted at children / teens are easier, and that's what would probably be better for a language learner.


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