|
 |
Have any of you taught yourself Russian? | ||
Tags: Self-Study | Russian | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| snovymgodom Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5725 days ago 136 posts - 149 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian | Message 9 of 22 19 July 2009 at 9:37am | IP Logged | ||
|
Sure, it's possible.
In high school I taught myself enough Russian that I was able to skip two years of Russian classes at my university. I did it by obsessively listening to Russian music, using some textbooks (most notably the New Penguin Russian Course, which I highly recommend), poking around in the dictionary, and speaking with/e-mailing native speakers. I did this without any real schedule or method, and I slacked off quite a bit at times, but it gave me a good foothold in the language so that I could already take high intermediate classes by the time I started college. When I first started I didn't even have any real "reason" to learn it, at the time I just thought the language sounded really cool and mysterious. And I still think it sounds cool...but my appreciation is much deeper by now. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 10 of 22 19 July 2009 at 2:09pm | IP Logged | ||
|
It's doable, though like most languages it takes motivation. I happen to believe the textbooks and learning resources for Russian (at least those directed at English speakers) are among the best there is.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5899 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 12 of 22 19 July 2009 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
I started with Livemocha to acquaint myself with the sounds and the alphabet, along with pages like this: http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/track/7635/alphabet.html After learning a few words and the alphabet, I continued with Rosetta Stone V3 and Nina Potapova's Learning Russian (4 Vols.) which is extraordinary for learning the complex grammar. I copy all the featured texts and read them a couple of times. I also listen to some 20 minutes of streaming Russian Internet radio or TV every day. I'm only starting, but already have a sense for the structure of the language and thus feel confident that with time and dedication I'll be able to at least read and understand Russian with increasing ease and comprehension. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5899 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 13 of 22 19 July 2009 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | ||
Which ones are your favorites? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 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 14 of 22 19 July 2009 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I have had an on-off affair with Russian for some time now, and like Fanatic I also thought that it was simple in the beginning. But the initial phase lasted far too long time because I practically never heard any Russian (even G.L.O.S.S was too difficult back then). Now where my vocabulary is half-way decent, I know the basics of the grammar and and I can read things on the internet without getting lost all the time I still listen (and read) far too little, and every time I write something I'm told that it is rubbish ... and then I feel that my time time would be better invested elsewhere. But slowly my Russian does get better, and someday I may even want to go to Russia again to get one more dose of immersion.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 15 of 22 19 July 2009 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Two works by Nicholas J. Brown, The New Penguin Russian Course and The Russian Learners' Dictionary. These show greater sensitivity to learners' difficulties than are usually shown by textbooks. The Vis-Ed company's Russian vocabulary box is also excellent. Perhaps because of the Cold War, Russian materials for English speakers have tended to be well above average, comparing favourably with those on offer for other languages. The Russian-English Oxford Dictionary is excellent. Although aging, a Russian-English dictionary by Smirnitsky, published in the USSR, is very good.
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
