|
 |
Russian reading.. Frustrated :-( | ||
Tags: Listening-Reading (L-R) | Russian | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| nwperson Diglot Newbie Israel Joined 3997 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Japanese, French, Italian | Message 1 of 17 14 August 2013 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hello everyone (or at least those reading my message..)...
I've started learning Russian about a month ago, officially.. The thing is, my mom is a native speaker and even though I've never studied it before, I have some knowledge of the language - I can understand most of the daily conversations. I've learned the alphabet and I'm using Assimil - which so far (lesson 20) seems pretty easy to me. So I tried the L-R method, taking a children's book and reading after listening to the audio - and the reading part is so hard!!! I can understand pretty good what they are saying, but it takes me forever to read :-( How long did it take you to get better in your reading? And most importantly - Where can I find the "rules" for the reading?? Is there a book or a website which explain how to read Russian? Are there even any rules, or like in English, too many exceptions? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6709 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 17 14 August 2013 at 5:47pm | IP Logged | ||
|
You say you know the alphabet. Reading while listening at the same time shouldn't be that difficult. The audio helps you to figure out how the spelled words should sound, and that's all there is to it. If it works for languages with non-alphabetic scripts, it definitely works for Russian.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4515 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 3 of 17 14 August 2013 at 7:08pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I guess it takes about a month to be able to read in a slow but normal pace. But that varies a lot, for example, even after 2/3 years of study I still stuck for some seconds when I face a new (and long) word in Russian, so don't worry, it'll come.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5134 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 17 14 August 2013 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Too me Russian and frustrated naturally go together. Enjoy the fact that you have an enormous advantage by
knowing the language as a heritage language, and that whenever you feel frustrated, the rest of us are 10 times more frustrated :-) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4644 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 5 of 17 14 August 2013 at 7:42pm | IP Logged | ||
|
By saying you know the alphabet you obviously mean you know the letters, but you don't know the pronunciation rules, right? Well, you should learn about "soft" and "hard" letters and things like vowel reduction as soon as possible. I'm a bit surprised that Assimil didn't teach you that already. How are you supposed to read the dialogues?
Well, there must be websites that teach the Russian pronunciation rules, but unfortunately I don't know any because I had a very thorough textbook that explained the rules excellently. I would advise you to get a good textbook or grammar of Russian which explains the pronunciation rules. Other than that, you could try this site, which seems to explain the basic rules quite well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5356 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 6 of 17 14 August 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
|
AYa's original L-R method works as a whole system, so perhaps there are some elements you've missed out that could help facilitate the process.
She/he wisely suggests spending some quality time on pronunciation at the very beginning. This includes getting to grips with the sounds and orthography of the target language, as well as your own native language, which will help you notice the differences and build a firmer foundation for future listening and reading. If you haven't already, try reading a translation of the book in your own native language from cover to cover first (step 1). Then follow this up by reading whilst listening at the same time to the target language, so you can link what you hear with what you see and get used to the narrator's intonation and speed (step 2). These couple of preliminary steps aren't necessarily compulsory, as aYa suggests, but they may well help make life easier as a beginner when it comes to listening and reading the book at a later stage. I'm not sure how you're tackling step 3 of the original L-R method, but this is how aYa describes it in his/her extensive set of notes on the subject: "look at the translation and listen to the text at the same time, from the beginning to the end of a story, usually three times is enough to understand almost everything". I wasn't too sure from your original description if you were reading the translation whilst listening to the Russian for step 3, or if you were even listening and reading at the same time? In your initial post you mentioned "reading after listening to the audio". Finally, here are a few other things to consider that might help (and I'm sure there are plenty of others I've forgotten to mention that are addressed in more detail in aYa's notes linked above): - are you using comfortably aligned parallel texts? - are you listening to quality audio? - do you like the voice of the narrator? - is this a good translation of the original? - are you really enjoying the story? I hope your frustrations are dispelled soon, and that you can draw on all your heritage listening to fast-track your enjoyment of Russian literature. :) Edited by Teango on 15 August 2013 at 12:45am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4507 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 7 of 17 15 August 2013 at 2:02am | IP Logged | ||
|
It is unrealistic to think you can read
swiftly after a month in a language divergent from English. Patience and effort do the trick. I am two years into Russian and I have trouble with literature and fiction. If you don't understand everything 100% move on. Don't expect miracles overnight. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nwperson Diglot Newbie Israel Joined 3997 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Japanese, French, Italian | Message 8 of 17 15 August 2013 at 8:24am | IP Logged | ||
I know the alphabet.. That doesn't mean I know how to read... I guess I should just look and listen a lot.. 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. |
