Someone suggested to me that if I was seriously having issues with learning Russian, I might want to look into getting some of those 'readers' books.
As in, you know as a kid in primary school you had Janet and John books, very simple, easy books to help a child learn to understand writing and read?
So I got one of those, only in Russian. Difference between the english ones I had back in school is that these seem to be based on simple conversations, 'popular' songs and such.

I must say, learning from this approach may seem lame, but in regards to Russian I am a child, so learning like one seems quite a cool idea.



I'm getting better, learning the alphabet now, getting better at pronounciation..


But the bit that made my head explode?
Even once I'd understood a work and suceeded in pronouncing it correctly, I still didnt know what it meant.
So I was pronouncing the word, then having to flip through a dictionary, just to understand a childs reader.



Is this it?
I mean,after you've got an understanding of the Cyrillic alphabet, it's little quirks and rules and all it's pronounciation, is tackling understanding the several million words the next challeng?

I'm not at that point yet. I've still got alot to learn. I was just wondering if that's the final step of learning a language.

I can totally relate. I got my French pronunciation down quite quickly, even to a point where other students in my class said "Slow down!". But when I said that I only understood about half the words I read, they felt better.

So keep up in the pronuciation of the Cyrillic letters, its words, sentence structure, etc., and you'll eventually understand the nuances and meanings of Russian.

(PS: My French now is at intermediate level; been studying it for 3 years now. Hard to keep up a language when the people around you speak other ones besides French.)

How do you keep up a good level of a language that others dont speak? Do you have to talk to yourself alot? The guinea pigs are quite used to me randomly shouting strange things at them now.

How hard would you say French is to learn? It's one of the next languages I'm planning on Learning when I get Russian up to a good standard.

I was hoping it would be easier, as it's a same alphabet as english. Learnt it back in School but that was a *long* time ago now.

You'll need to find a russian speaker to converse with. Because even when you become decent at speaking it, if you never have someone to talk to in said language it'll just fade and you won't be able to speak it all.

I know, I've been through 3 years of french and I can hardly have a simple conversation. Because it's been like 7 years since my last french class and I'm never confronted with it.(we got childrens books too in highschool in french, great way to learn)

My German is only still decent because I also have it in college.

I'll be learning French, It's going to be the next phase of my big plan in.. about 2 weeks time. If you like, we can attempt to converse in french Via Email? I'll need a bit of time to remember the basics of course!
yoyobek@yahoo.co.uk

How do you keep up a good level of a language that others dont speak? Do you have to talk to yourself alot? The guinea pigs are quite used to me randomly shouting strange things at them now.

How hard would you say French is to learn? It's one of the next languages I'm planning on Learning when I get Russian up to a good standard.

I was hoping it would be easier, as it's a same alphabet as english. Learnt it back in School but that was a *long* time ago now.

I usually read French texts (news reports usually) on the internet. I try to watch/listen to as much French language as I can. I also try to speak French in my class at school (university), but the only catch is that the rest in the class are dimwits in French and are only taking it for the credit.

I live in NYC, and there are tons of Francophone events here, but I want an authentic French atmosphere so I can REALLY be engaged in the language. Hopefully I'll be accepted to study abroad in France for this summer.

I'd say French is quite easy once you can get past the idiosyncracies, like not to pronounce the last "s" in words unless the next word starts with a vowel (ex.: Ils ont = EEl-Zon). I think even studying Italian this semester has helped me understand French a bit more (I didn't understand the direct/indirect object pronouns, but with Italian, it cleared things up greatly for French).

Also, I think the European languages that use the Latin alphabet is a lot easier to learn, but then again, there's Hungarian.

Fza, hoe gaat het?

Cool, I'll have to look for my french schoolbooks tho. :p You wouldn't happen to speak German or something. :( I need someone who wants to practice with that.

I usually read French texts (news reports usually) on the internet. I try to watch/listen to as much French language as I can. I also try to speak French in my class at school (university), but the only catch is that the rest in the class are dimwits in French and are only taking it for the credit.

I live in NYC, and there are tons of Francophone events here, but I want an authentic French atmosphere so I can REALLY be engaged in the language. Hopefully I'll be accepted to study abroad in France for this summer.

I'd say French is quite easy once you can get past the idiosyncracies, like not to pronounce the last "s" in words unless the next word starts with a vowel (ex.: Ils ont = EEl-Zon). I think even studying Italian this semester has helped me understand French a bit more (I didn't understand the direct/indirect object pronouns, but with Italian, it cleared things up greatly for French).

Also, I think the European languages that use the Latin alphabet is a lot easier to learn, but then again, there's Hungarian.

Fza, hoe gaat het?

Hungarian is the root of all evil. It's completely unintelligeble.

Goed, met jou? Nog bezig met nederlands leren? :)

I usually read French texts (news reports usually) on the internet. I try to watch/listen to as much French language as I can. I also try to speak French in my class at school (university), but the only catch is that the rest in the class are dimwits in French and are only taking it for the credit.

That's a cool idea.
I cruise Russian forums at times, but that trips me up because no matter what the country you'll allways get ppel ho tiep lyk dis, regardless of country.

I thought my french was tolerable. Untill someone reccomended I go download a band called "Diams" which is a female black rapper. And.. I'm lost all over again. I reccomend the music though.





FZA,sorry, no real German as of yet. English, Russian and a smattering of french and polish (fuck polish. Fuck it royally).

Hungarian is the root of all evil. It's completely unintelligeble.

Goed, met jou? Nog bezig met nederlands leren? :)

Hungarian is very, very hard and complicated. Agreed.

:( I've all but given up on Dutch...for now. I will be taking German for the fall semester, so I know my Dutch interest will come back. I just hope I don't mix the two up.

And god damn it, if I handed in my study abroad application for France this summer much earlier this year, I'd be in Europe another month from now!


To yoyobek: That's true. There's illiterate and/or lazy fucks for all languages. Imagine the African clicking languages and their laziness to spell out certain words.

Continuez vos etudes en francais. Surement, ce sera mieux.

Ugh, I know what you mean. They teach us Russian at school but I suck at it (mainly because I don't really like the language that much). I understand it at a very basic level and I can read it, but when it comes to translating some text I'll have to look up like 80% of the words.

French on the other hand is much easier and comes more naturally to me. French and English are quite closely connected so that makes it easier but the grammar is a bitch.

I learnt an awful lot of my German from reading the 'Foto Love' stories in

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/126/405921462_dfcc2c2e92.jpg

No I am not joking. They are written in such away that you can understand 90% of the story just from the exaggerated facial expressions.

Example:

http://nd.blog.cz/d/didlinka-d.blog.cz/obrazky/17150662.jpg

Now I don't speak a word of whatever language that is but I can guess at what they are all saying.

Couldn't find a German one to show you but they get quite...graphic...

Anyways there will be a russian one i'm sure.