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Have any of you taught yourself Russian?

  Tags: Self-Study | Russian
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
22 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
shadowzoid
Groupie
United States
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Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Russian

 
 Message 1 of 22
19 July 2009 at 3:33am | IP Logged 
i want to know if its possible to teach yourself russian
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dmg
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Canada
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 Message 2 of 22
19 July 2009 at 3:50am | IP Logged 
Yes.
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Kyrie
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United States
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 Message 3 of 22
19 July 2009 at 3:53am | IP Logged 
I have had a phase where I wanted to learn Russian. I never have successfully taught myself even the basics of the language, but that's only because my desire and motivation to learn was only a small spurt.

I know that if you ever want to teach yourself Russian there are tons and tons of materials available on the internet and in book stores.

The way I did it was I first learned the alphabet. I made flashcards and reviewed them thrice a day. I then used Pimsleur plus Google translate to teach me basic conversational words. (I used Google translate because Pimsleur is an audio only course and I wanted to know how to spell certain words.)

Then I took a look at Princeton's free downloadable Russian Course. I only got through lesson one though before I lost interest.

But I still would have mastered the basics if I'd have stayed with the language and the studies.

In sum: it IS possible to teach yourself a language. In fact, I'd recommend self study over formal classes because what you learn in class in two sessions, you could learn by yourself in 30 minutes.
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goosefrabbas
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 Message 4 of 22
19 July 2009 at 4:36am | IP Logged 
Possible? Of course.
Easy? Not in the least bit. :)
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tanzoniteblack
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Speaks: English*, Russian
Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Japanese

 
 Message 5 of 22
19 July 2009 at 4:44am | IP Logged 
If you can get through the pronunciation and new alphabet part, then you'll find that teaching yourself Russian isn't any more difficult then teaching yourself any other language. Unfortunately, due to the peculiarities of the writing system and how it matches up to the phonetic system, that can be a little bit of a challenge. As you start doing this, be sure to try to learn the differences between the "hard" and "soft" consonants from the get go, or at least recognize the fact there is a big difference between them even if you have problems hearing it (and doing it) at the start. That was one of my biggest mistakes in learning Russian, was ignoring the difference between those for 2 years because I couldn't hear them and no one explained them very well to me.
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Juan M.
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Colombia
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460 posts - 597 votes 

 
 Message 6 of 22
19 July 2009 at 4:55am | IP Logged 
I'm on my way to learning it, and feel pretty confident. It is a challenging but rewarding language. As with everything, beginning is the hardest part. It gets easier as you go on.
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keith1569
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 Message 7 of 22
19 July 2009 at 5:19am | IP Logged 
Juan--what programs you learning to teach yourself russian?
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fanatic
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Australia
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Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch
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 Message 8 of 22
19 July 2009 at 5:42am | IP Logged 
I began learning Russian with My First Russian Book by Arakin and Samoylova. It came as a package with long play records.

The first lesson began:
Eta Tom (this is Tom)
Eta Nina
Eta mama
Eta papa
Eta Tom? Da, eta Tom
Eta Nina? Da, Eta Nina, etc

They introduced the alphabet just a few letters at a time.

I found it deceptively simple, but by the time I realised the language was complicated I was hooked.

So, learning the alphabet was no problem, the way they taught it. So far as the difficulties were concerned, I decided to just keep going after I had been bogged down for a while.

So, yes, I have taught myself Russian with the help of material from Russia, My First, Second, Third and Fourth Russian Books and Russian for Everybody.


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