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To students of Russian

 Language Learning Forum : Русский Post Reply
10 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
polyglHot
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 4825 days ago

173 posts - 229 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 1 of 10
21 February 2011 at 7:21pm | IP Logged 
Let's not be shy now, let me know when you started studying Russian, whether immersion
in Russia or in your own country, what resources you've used, how many hours per
day/week and at last, what level would you say you are at.

I'll start;

I started studying Russian in late September 2010.So that's about 5 months. I did a
month at home and 4 in Russia, where I'm still living.

My resources have been; the internet, a small pocket dictionary, Penguins new
coursebook, access to locals, minimal use of Pimsleur while in Norway, SMS and
vkontakte. Google translate.

I don't know how many hours per day or week I have studied. Today I have studied all
day, whereas this week I haven't studied at all. A few hundred hours I suppose, but I
don't know whether or not I should include countless hours merely communicating via SMS
and looking up words in the dictionary.

Regarding my level I must say I'm rather stuck on A2, taking my sweet time to learn
everything thoroughly!
1 person has voted this message useful



FrostBlast
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4858 days ago

168 posts - 254 votes 
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic

 
 Message 2 of 10
22 February 2011 at 8:08pm | IP Logged 
I started learning the alphabet and practicing my cursive hardwriting before xmas 2010, but my russian courses actually started on january 10th. So I've been at it for a little less than 2 months.

My biggest ressource is obviously my course at university. This here website has also helped out quite a bit. I also use a french-russian/russian-french dictionary, and this website http://www.translate.ru/

I'm a big fan of russian/soviet cinema (that and russian litterature are the two main reasons I started leaning the language in the first place). I listen to russian movies quite often and it definitely helps me develop my ear for the language. And then, I've always been an avid language learner and through my love of world cinema, I guess I'm kinda used to hearing many different languages and catching on structures (japanese, swedish, icelandic, danish, Spanish, German, Italian, etc). I guess it can give me a certain edge in my learning.

I guess I must spend roughly 20 hours a week studying the language, so 6-7 weeks, plus the time spent learning the alphabet and the cursive writing before my course, that must come to about 150 hours. More or less.

Edited by FrostBlast on 22 February 2011 at 8:11pm

1 person has voted this message useful



fleurdeneige
Diglot
Pro Member
France
Joined 4799 days ago

11 posts - 16 votes
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Italian, Russian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 3 of 10
23 February 2011 at 4:20pm | IP Logged 
I started off in August 2010 with three weeks immersion in Ukraine so it’s coming up on 7 months.

Resources

Resources I use include (i) taking a class twice a week, (ii) the internet – videos and articles from Russian sites or on youtube, quizzes, games, and practice exercises on various sites (there are a bunch of site addresses in a post my language log), (ii) printed matter, books (dictionary, a boring French textbook for my class, the Penguin book, another textbook all in Russian) and print outs of texts in Russian for reading practice (iv) lots of post-its all over the place with important words to remember and (v) flashcards.

I also follow the forums here and have found two interesting techniques: Kato Lomb’s reading method and the critical frequency concept.

Time invested

Four hours of class per week, plus one to two hours every day with the rare day off if it starts feeling like it’s becoming a burden. This breaks down into my reading time on the way to and from work – 15-20 minutes on the metro each way. Lunch when I do quizzes, homework, study various grammar points, etc. – usually 30-45 minutes. Evenings reading, flashcards, listening practice, etc, anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. On weekends I sometimes do more if I am feeling particularly motivated.

I’ve also just started to work on typing, doing a page of random words every day or so, trying to memorize the keyboard and get some speed.

Level

This is the tragic part because even with all that work I consider myself a borderline A1/A2 or perhaps a very low A2. My speaking skills are almost non-existent. My reading skills are improving as I learn vocabulary but there is still a very long way to go.

Anyway, I’m giving myself two years until August 2012 and if I still can’t read a book or a newspaper article and understand it by then I will switch over and do something easier (ie, more closely related to French or English – maybe Italian).

1 person has voted this message useful



polyglHot
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 4825 days ago

173 posts - 229 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 4 of 10
23 February 2011 at 5:39pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for your replies!
When speaking of levels I believe that one must have actual speaking abilities, so that's
what I mean by that.
2 persons have voted this message useful



FrostBlast
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4858 days ago

168 posts - 254 votes 
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic

 
 Message 5 of 10
23 February 2011 at 7:56pm | IP Logged 
I just looked up the language proficiency scale. Interesting stuff.

At the moment, I guess I'd be a mid to high A1.
1 person has voted this message useful



polyglHot
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 4825 days ago

173 posts - 229 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 6 of 10
25 February 2011 at 12:37am | IP Logged 
FrostBlast wrote:
And then, I've always been an avid language learner and through my
love of world cinema, I guess I'm kinda used to hearing many different languages and
catching on structures (japanese, swedish, icelandic, danish, Spanish, German, Italian,
etc). I guess it can give me a certain edge in my learning.
.


Danish, Swedish and Icelandic definitely have great cinema!
1 person has voted this message useful



infosim12
Newbie
Russian Federation
songtalks.wordp
Joined 5263 days ago

14 posts - 16 votes
Speaks: Russian*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 7 of 10
20 October 2011 at 1:11pm | IP Logged 
Dear friends!
If you like any special Russian songs, let me know and I add it to my
blogVideo, text and speaking exercises
1 person has voted this message useful



petrklic
Triglot
Pro Member
Czech Republic
Joined 4845 days ago

95 posts - 109 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, English, Russian
Studies: Vietnamese
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 8 of 10
25 October 2011 at 2:36am | IP Logged 
Hi there! I've been studying for three years now (I just started my fourth year). I think I'm about C1. I was taking group lessons, 1.5 hours a week, for about two years. Then it stopped being interesting, so I switched to individual courses with native teachers (I took two courses in parallel for good measure). Now I'm back to group course again, for various reasons.

Apart from that I've been listening to lots of Russian radio, and watching telenovelas and news. This all helped immensely. I semi-regularly read. Plus, I'm Czech—that peels off a couple years.

I also spent 3 weeks in Russia about a year ago, which helped somewhat, but clearly, three weeks just don't cut it. It was mostly useful as an indicator that I can get around on Russian only, without resorting to English. Of course, waiters would try to speak English on me, as they would quickly figure out that I'm not local. But I wouldn't comply ;)

I have a log for this year's TAC (total annihilation contest), should you be interested. Though, in my case this year has been comparatively slow and not much of an annihilation at all. Oh well.

Feel free to drop me a line if you need help with anything.


1 person has voted this message useful



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