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Beginning Russian Advice? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| IowaHawkeye Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5693 days ago 42 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 1 of 70 08 April 2012 at 10:03pm | IP Logged |
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Hello,
I have decided to begin learning Russian and I'd like some advice as to how to go about it. What courses are best? What is the best way to learn printed Cyrillic and its handwritten counterpart? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5145 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 70 08 April 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged |
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For the printed Cyrillic I would use "Teach Yourself Russian Script". It is the only language book I can honestly say that I enjoyed so much that I finished it in a day.I had done some Cyrillic letters already though, so do not get discouraged if you prefer to take a bit longer.Just take it in your own pace.
I also warmly recommend Pimsleur and Michel Thomas, which are both good at getting you used to listening and speaking Russian. They have three levels in both series, so you have quite a lot of material there. As your regular Russian course I would take Assimil. Particularly Pimsleur and Michel Thomas are fairly expensive though,so you may want to try and see if your local library has it or can order it for you. Just a word of caution. Russian takes some time, since it is more complicated than your average language. It is sooo worth the effort though! I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| IowaHawkeye Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5693 days ago 42 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 3 of 70 08 April 2012 at 11:30pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the advice! My library has all levels of Pimsleur and MT so I will definitely look into those. In terms of Assimil, is it best to complete Assimil in tandem with the other two or is there a certain stagger that works better? Edited by IowaHawkeye on 08 April 2012 at 11:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5145 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 70 08 April 2012 at 11:57pm | IP Logged |
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That would depend on your preferred learning style. I found written Russian to be so hard, that Pimsleur and Michel Thomas were good for my ego, and it felt comfortable just doing Pimsleur for a while before going to Assimil. If you like learning the written part at once, I would definitely do them in tandem.
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4518 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 5 of 70 09 April 2012 at 12:31am | IP Logged |
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In contrast I do not find written Russian as hard as Solfrid Cristin, if it is within your possibilities you should definitely do it in tandem. Once you get the hang of how the script works a world will open up for you in no time :)
I just practiced writing by using handwriting for answers to textbook questions (translations, reading comprehension and such). Unlike Solfrid I don't use audio-only materials to study Russian, I use Assimil in combination with Teach Yourself, an old Colloquial pdf to reinforce grammar, and some class materials. Horses for courses. :) I guess you need to know whether you learn better by audio or by reading. For me it's definitely reading and an analytical approach. :) Edited by tarvos on 09 April 2012 at 12:32am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4526 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 6 of 70 09 April 2012 at 4:19am | IP Logged |
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You should try Michel Thomas.
In my opinion, the best book for Russian I've found so far is "The New Penguin Russian Course". It doesn't have many exercises, but it's divided in 30 lessons, each one giving you some aspect of Russian grammar in a very didatic way, and there are also many texts. I love it! =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4827 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 70 09 April 2012 at 4:26am | IP Logged |
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I believe that there is a video series that teaches basic russian on youtube. It is by a british person who uses the screen name 'Huliganov.' He sings, cracks jokes and gives relevant cultural information.
The series starts with the distintive alphabet and goes on to teach some grammar. I am sorry that I cannot provide any links but a simple search should yield results. Happy learning, Napoleon Edited by napoleon on 09 April 2012 at 2:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4820 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 70 09 April 2012 at 1:39pm | IP Logged |
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Firstly, I admit the only thing I have learnt from Russian is printed cyrillics. But I
learned it really fast with memrise.com and for free. For handwritten, I have found this somewhere on the forum: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/LRC/RU_writing/index.htm And if I start learning Russian seriously one day, it will be probably among the first things I'll use. The "meanings" of written symbols, some of which are a bit mixing up with Latin handwritten alphabet, can be found at the beginning of any textbook. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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