Post: #551

Has anyone taken official language classes in university in Moscow / Saint Petersburg? I'm thinking of doing this for a few months to become fluent.

Post: #552

I find that Russians who have emigrated may hate the country because of lack of opportunities for them, but they still love their culture and language.

If you speak Russian, they'll be impressed and curious why you decided to do it.

I tried Italki on skype a few years ago and didn't like it. I prefer in person conversation, but if that's not possible it's an alternative.

Post: #553

(01-07-2018 07:48 AM)Heightcel Wrote:  Has anyone taken official language classes in university in Moscow / Saint Petersburg? I'm thinking of doing this for a few months to become fluent.

Haven't done it but have looked into it. If money isn't an issue those cities are good, if you'd like to save some money doing it in either the 2nd tier Russian cities or somewhere like Belarus will save a lot of money for the same basic thing.

(01-07-2018 01:51 PM)edlefou Wrote:  I find that Russians who have emigrated may hate the country because of lack of opportunities for them, but they still love their culture and language.

If you speak Russian, they'll be impressed and curious why you decided to do it.

I tried Italki on skype a few years ago and didn't like it. I prefer in person conversation, but if that's not possible it's an alternative.

This is another part that you want to have a strong answer for when it comes up.

It totally comes down to why they emigrated for sure, you'll pick up pretty quick how they feel about the country in a conversation from my experience and can gauge where to go from there.

Post: #554

I think regardless of why they are living in the west. Most Russians will be impressed even if you speak at an A2 level.

Russian immigrants are a mixed bag, quite a lot of them will still love their country. They just feel like it’s a better life for them. For the women that is probably mostly true.

This has changed over the years now, there are a lot of videos in Russian. Where Russian expats are explaining why they want to leave America.

From my experience it seems to be more of a youth thing.

Post: #555

(01-07-2018 02:20 PM)JimBobsCooters Wrote:  

(01-07-2018 01:51 PM)edlefou Wrote:  If you speak Russian, they'll be impressed and curious why you decided to do it.

This is another part that you want to have a strong answer for when it comes up.

I think as long as you don't say you're only learning it to bang Russian lizards your answer will be strong enough. In fact, with the right swagger you can probably say that.

I'm open about the fact that I prefer a woman who is sexy and feminine and not brainwashed by feminism. It's important to signal that you're the man, not some Westernized pussy. Imagine what a Russian guy from Siberia would say.

Post: #556

Another educational way of learning Russian is to look at pop videos.





NSFW

Post: #557

(01-07-2018 01:51 PM)edlefou Wrote:  I find that Russians who have emigrated may hate the country because of lack of opportunities for them, but they still love their culture and language.

Lack of opportunities is not the only reason for all Russians who left the Motherland. Anyone knows that the political situation is not that easy at the moment (actually for some years now for that matter). Many left for political reasons, like Chodorkowski. Some Olis left to Londongrad.
Others, like some former politicians, left to avoid been caught in bribes / tax cases. Specially now that the top Krisha fell (the ex Federal Economy Minister) is in jail because of corruption, there is an air of panic among the crooks)))
And, last but not least, a growing number of refugees from Russia are coming to the West. When I was in France last year for example, I talked to a Russian man who is homosexual, he applied for asylum status for being a oppressed person in Russia because of his "sexual orientation". And he got the right to stay in the EU.

Post: #558

What countries is Russian still very useful in in terms of gaming younger women?

Do younger populations still speak it in Mongolia and Central Asia?

Post: #559

(10-18-2017 12:42 PM)estraudi Wrote:  

(08-20-2017 05:39 AM)peterfoo22 Wrote:  How long has it taken people on here to get to close to fluency in Russian?

It's taken me 700+ hours in about 1 year and I still have not mastered an ability to conversate other than "typical american greetings" whereby you exchange pleasantries, maybe a name, and then move on.

Are you using Pimsleur? If you are not, you should be. 700 hrs in a year is almost 1/10th of the year. If your proficiency is this low after 700 hours you are doing something wrong in your practice.

Speak out loud with all the lessons. Mastering a language is a physical act as well as a mental act.

Post: #560

(01-19-2018 06:52 PM)demolition Wrote:  

(10-18-2017 12:42 PM)estraudi Wrote:  

(08-20-2017 05:39 AM)peterfoo22 Wrote:  How long has it taken people on here to get to close to fluency in Russian?

It's taken me 700+ hours in about 1 year and I still have not mastered an ability to conversate other than "typical american greetings" whereby you exchange pleasantries, maybe a name, and then move on.

Are you using Pimsleur? If you are not, you should be. 700 hrs in a year is almost 1/10th of the year. If your proficiency is this low after 700 hours you are doing something wrong in your practice.

Speak out loud with all the lessons. Mastering a language is a physical act as well as a mental act.

Or you live in a russian speaking country or you can forget about fluency.

I speak russian on a daily basis and I get complimented by russian speakers for my skills and accentuation, but I still don't get 50% of the stuff they say.

Post: #561

What is the difference between Pimsleur and Memrise? I use Memrise for learning German, but haven't tried Pimsleur.

Edit:
What about additional learning tools for Russian? I found this: http://learnrussian.rt.com/
Anyone having experience with it?

Or this: http://www.russianlessons.net/

Or this: http://masterrussian.com/

Post: #562

If you are serious about learning Russian, I would find a real Russian teacher. Things like accent and pronunciation can really mess you up further down the line and interfere with your most basic communication.

Post: #563

I am Croat and that would probably help me. It's after all a Slavic language. But I agree with you, all these apps and websites are fine, but they will not make you ready for real eye to eye conversations.

For example, while I understood German since I was a kid, I didn't learn it in school for real and my understanding of words atrophied. Last year I started using Duolingo, Memrise, reading some websites and what not and while I got back understanding, I am still struggling with "thinking on German". You know what I am talking about?
While I am writing this post, I don't even think about English, I just spit out words. I cannot say same thing for German as there I must think what I am going to write and if I have spelled it correctly.

Post: #564

Yep agreed. It is different for different people but I am just speaking from my own personal experience. I was able to communicate with certain people for a while and have conversations about different topics even though my grammar and pronunciation was messy; because they got used to me.

However now I am having to go back to basic stuff, to iron out the creases.

I also recommend being careful with which teacher you get. I had two teachers for a short time, who were simply inadequate for teaching the language. Perhaps when it came to intermediate conversation or if you are at a high A2 level, they would be completely fine. But to really master the language, I recommend getting a genuine teacher with some university experience who can take you through it and even scold you if you make mistakes. As they tend to do in the FSU.

Either way, speaking Russian opens up the world for you, a very useful language to know. Second to that I would say Mandarin.

Post: #565

(01-19-2018 06:52 PM)demolition Wrote:  

(10-18-2017 12:42 PM)estraudi Wrote:  

(08-20-2017 05:39 AM)peterfoo22 Wrote:  How long has it taken people on here to get to close to fluency in Russian?

It's taken me 700+ hours in about 1 year and I still have not mastered an ability to conversate other than "typical american greetings" whereby you exchange pleasantries, maybe a name, and then move on.

Are you using Pimsleur? If you are not, you should be. 700 hrs in a year is almost 1/10th of the year. If your proficiency is this low after 700 hours you are doing something wrong in your practice.

Speak out loud with all the lessons. Mastering a language is a physical act as well as a mental act.

I do not prefer pimsleur and I have a very slow methodical way to learning. I do use Duolingo though and found it ok. I have to switch keyboard language on my Mac every time I do lessons because even though I can type the transliteration or translation, Duo does ping me if its not the direct letters.
Included in my 700+ hrs of learning is writing out cyrillic and practicing all those complicated letters, so I don't think I'm pacing slowly, just at my own pace.
Just had a baby boy and between him & work I hardly have time for practicing my Russian. He's tying up alot of my funds so I don't plan on going to Russia and I'm not meeting to many people in my metro who are Russian either, as that would definitely help my proficiency increase.

Post: #566

For me, podcasts are really good. You can download them to your phone and it's a good way to use deadtime. Also, I find there's no point trying to learn Russian from books, as the pronounciation/written blows your mind and you learn it wrong nyway.

Here are some links;

https://russianpodcast.eu/
https://www.russianpod101.com/

Also online tutors. They're pretty cheap ($10)

http://www.italki.com

I find most online courses plateu out at beginner/intermediate level though. Can anyone make any good recommendations for intermediate+, as podcasts alone aren't enough)

Post: #567

Haha, couldn't help but laugh seeing your nickname!

Post: #568

(02-09-2018 08:28 PM)sterlingarcher Wrote:  For me, podcasts are really good. You can download them to your phone and it's a good way to use deadtime. Also, I find there's no point trying to learn Russian from books, as the pronounciation/written blows your mind and you learn it wrong nyway.

Here are some links;

https://russianpodcast.eu/
https://www.russianpod101.com/

Also online tutors. They're pretty cheap ($10)

http://www.italki.com

I find most online courses plateu out at beginner/intermediate level though. Can anyone make any good recommendations for intermediate+, as podcasts alone aren't enough)

Good advice, I'll be careful with the cheap ones though. Some of them really won't help you at all unless you are least high A2 level; or able to have regular conversation. Which of course takes time in Russian.

I had a couple of 'cheap' tutors before, and they ended up being a waste of money.

Post: #569

(01-07-2018 07:48 AM)Heightcel Wrote:  Has anyone taken official language classes in university in Moscow / Saint Petersburg? I'm thinking of doing this for a few months to become fluent.

Yes, course at MSU. Give it miss I'd say. PM.

Post: #570

(02-10-2018 08:03 AM)Constitution45 Wrote:  

(02-09-2018 08:28 PM)sterlingarcher Wrote:  For me, podcasts are really good. You can download them to your phone and it's a good way to use deadtime. Also, I find there's no point trying to learn Russian from books, as the pronounciation/written blows your mind and you learn it wrong nyway.

Here are some links;

https://russianpodcast.eu/
https://www.russianpod101.com/

Also online tutors. They're pretty cheap ($10)

http://www.italki.com

I find most online courses plateu out at beginner/intermediate level though. Can anyone make any good recommendations for intermediate+, as podcasts alone aren't enough)

Good advice, I'll be careful with the cheap ones though. Some of them really won't help you at all unless you are least high A2 level; or able to have regular conversation. Which of course takes time in Russian.

I had a couple of 'cheap' tutors before, and they ended up being a waste of money.

My favorites so far are голос америки - it's a news podcast with video so you can follow along with the main news stories of the day. Another is and Australian podcast - SBS Russian radio - they have discussions on a wide variety of topics - from health, to culture, to politics. Just scroll through the episodes and listen to whatever you are interested in. For these you have to be at least intermediate level.

Post: #571

(02-10-2018 10:25 AM)Arado Wrote:  

(02-10-2018 08:03 AM)Constitution45 Wrote:  

(02-09-2018 08:28 PM)sterlingarcher Wrote:  For me, podcasts are really good. You can download them to your phone and it's a good way to use deadtime. Also, I find there's no point trying to learn Russian from books, as the pronounciation/written blows your mind and you learn it wrong nyway.

Here are some links;

https://russianpodcast.eu/
https://www.russianpod101.com/

Also online tutors. They're pretty cheap ($10)

http://www.italki.com

I find most online courses plateu out at beginner/intermediate level though. Can anyone make any good recommendations for intermediate+, as podcasts alone aren't enough)

Good advice, I'll be careful with the cheap ones though. Some of them really won't help you at all unless you are least high A2 level; or able to have regular conversation. Which of course takes time in Russian.

I had a couple of 'cheap' tutors before, and they ended up being a waste of money.

My favorites so far are голос америки - it's a news podcast with video so you can follow along with the main news stories of the day. Another is and Australian podcast - SBS Russian radio - they have discussions on a wide variety of topics - from health, to culture, to politics. Just scroll through the episodes and listen to whatever you are interested in. For these you have to be at least intermediate level.

I've posted about https://russianpodcast.eu/ before and I love it. She speaks slowly and goes over the new vocabulary and everything is in Russian. Good for cultural insight as well.

голос америки is great with the subtitles. Otherwise it's waaay too fast for me to understand anything more than the general gist. I'd say it's native level, not intermediate.

Post: #572

'голос америки is great with the subtitles. Otherwise it's waaay too fast for me to understand anything more than the general gist. I'd say it's native level, not intermediate.'

Yep, it seems pretty fast. Great tip though)

I like watching native Russian shows on YT, because you can slow it right down to 50%. 'Кухня' is a great show anyway, and there are about 7 seasons for free on YT.

Post: #573

One thing I like about Russian, that many languages don't have, is the fact that it's unified. There are no MAJOR regional differences or accents in Russian. The language spoken in Moscow is the exact same as the one spoken in Vladivostok, 8 time zones away. Makes it somewhat easier to learn.

Post: #574

(01-07-2018 07:48 AM)Heightcel Wrote:  Has anyone taken official language classes in university in Moscow / Saint Petersburg? I'm thinking of doing this for a few months to become fluent.

I looked into the Russian lessons at the universities and they were pretty expensive. For around the same amount, maybe less, you can hire your own private Russian tutor. The benefits of this should be obvious

https://preply.com/en/vladivostok/tutors

Though it's best to do a web search:

[site:preply.com vladivostok]

Post: #575

(02-23-2018 01:42 PM)gework Wrote:  I looked into the Russian lessons at the universities and they were pretty expensive. For around the same amount, maybe less, you can hire your own private Russian tutor. The benefits of this should be obvious

Well-designed group courses can be superior to private lessons. Courses tend to have better sequencing and materials, plus the social/interactive aspect can be a plus for language learning. Overall hours of contact with the language tends to be higher. Many group courses suck, but the ones offered by top universities are usually among the good ones, despite being a bit academic.

Private teachers, on the other hand, are often untrained and think that being an educated native speaker is all it takes. Good private tutors charge an arm and a leg.