Thread: Second Year.

Hey Folks,
Did/Do any of you find second year Russian to be hell? My professors tell me it is the hardest year. Most of the students are not doing that well, including me. I study 3 hours a night for just one class, and we have four classes a week. I have A's in all my other classes, and I study max 3 hours for a test that I can get a high A on.
I am going to Russia for one year in August. I sure hope it won't be like this the whole time.
Can anyone offer me their stories of improvement from one year abroad?
On a scale of 0-5. My professor told me I am at 1 or 1+ and that I would be lucky to get to a 2 or 2+ with one year of study?!?!
I have come to two conclusions: that Russian as your first foreign language is a bad idea, and that basic fluency in the language will take ~5 years.
Thanks,
Jerrod

as long as you study and have russian friends abroad you can improve by 50-70% no problems. all the britts i know in our faculty speak cr@p russian becuase they live in a big group of other english speakers and dont speak russian. find russian gf is poss...

Hello Lt.,
I actually have a Russian GF. I will be living with her during this time and she has agreed to only speak Russian with me.
The program I am taking at SPB State Univ. is 880 hours of language instruction. This should be very intensive. I just wish that I had more foreign language experiance. Russian is hard.
Did you study abroad?
Jerrod

Originally Posted by Jerrod

Hey Folks,
Did/Do any of you find second year Russian to be hell? My professors tell me it is the hardest year. Most of the students are not doing that well, including me. I study 3 hours a night for just one class, and we have four classes a week. I have A's in all my other classes, and I study max 3 hours for a test that I can get a high A on.
I am going to Russia for one year in August. I sure hope it won't be like this the whole time.
Can anyone offer me their stories of improvement from one year abroad?
On a scale of 0-5. My professor told me I am at 1 or 1+ and that I would be lucky to get to a 2 or 2+ with one year of study?!?!
I have come to two conclusions: that Russian as your first foreign language is a bad idea, and that basic fluency in the language will take ~5 years.
Thanks,
Jerrod

The second year is no different than the first for me.

Grades do not matter.
If you are in Russia and trying to hail a taxi to the train station, do you think the cab driver would give a sh!t that you got an A in Russian?

Good luck on your trip. You will learn a great deal more when immersed in the language and culture, especially at times when you are forced to speak the language.

I hope to reach basic fluency by the end of my 3rd year.

Originally Posted by kwatts59

I hope to reach basic fluency by the end of my 3rd year.

That ain't gonna happen. And isn't basic fluency a bit of a contradiction?

yeah dude i give you props.It's my second year either.and it's damn hard.I hope both we can cope with it



Safe

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by kwatts59

I hope to reach basic fluency by the end of my 3rd year.

That ain't gonna happen. And isn't basic fluency a bit of a contradiction?

I hope to be able to carry simple conversations by the end of the 3rd year.

Originally Posted by kwatts59

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by kwatts59

I hope to reach basic fluency by the end of my 3rd year.

That ain't gonna happen. And isn't basic fluency a bit of a contradiction?

I hope to be able to carry simple conversations by the end of the 3rd year.

Arch, does it really take that long? One could be fluent in Spanish in that time.

ive was in moscow on a 5 month thing from 03-04, went back to mother england and ive been back in moscow since august. 05 i would say im fluent in the sense i can watch movies and read books fine and i only talk russian with my gf (very good for slang). still make mistakes tho. 4 years and counting

Originally Posted by Jerrod

Hello Lt.,
I actually have a Russian GF. I will be living with her during this time and she has agreed to only speak Russian with me.
The program I am taking at SPB State Univ. is 880 hours of language instruction. This should be very intensive. I just wish that I had more foreign language experiance. Russian is hard.
Did you study abroad?
Jerrod

Hahaha! You are going to the same place I went two years ago. I also went for a year, you'll love it. You will find it very difficult at first, but as long as you study and do not go to every single dorm party (because they are nightly), you will see a genuine and large improvement (of your language abilities, not your lower body part in case it sounded like that). Say hello to Vladimir for me!

I didn't do a damn thing during Russian class. I just doodled on my paper. Whenever my teacher would ask me a question I would answer it as directly as possible. I never studied. I never "practiced" outside of class and I got straight As. After the third year I came to university and we had to take a test to determine our Russian skill. My teacher said I scored the lowest possible score to get "fluent." Then for the last half year I've actually tried to actually get fluent.

I never memorized words or any of that cr@p. Do you think little Russian kids carry around flashcards?

Originally Posted by BlackMage

I didn't do a damn thing during Russian class. I just doodled on my paper. Whenever my teacher would ask me a question I would answer it as directly as possible. I never studied. I never "practiced" outside of class and I got straight As. After the third year I came to university and we had to take a test to determine our Russian skill. My teacher said I scored the lowest possible score to get "fluent." Then for the last half year I've actually tried to actually get fluent.

I never memorized words or any of that cr@p. Do you think little Russian kids carry around flashcards?

Do you think in Americ you are immersed in the Russian language and have spoken it from the moment you were first able to talk?

Originally Posted by TATY

Do you think in Americ you are immersed in the Russian language and have spoken it from the moment you were first able to talk?

No, but that doesn't mean that I should be memorizing things. Memorizing -> translating which is bad.

Originally Posted by BlackMage

Originally Posted by TATY

Do you think in Americ you are immersed in the Russian language and have spoken it from the moment you were first able to talk?

No, but that doesn't mean that I should be memorizing things. Memorizing -> translating which is bad.

Not when translating is what you are meant to be doing.

Memorising is not translating, anyway. Yes, the idea is that you don't think of something in English, then translate it in your head into Russian.

Memorising just means learning.

Like I know the word стол means table. I have memorised it. It doesn't mean I sat down with a flashcard, wrote the word out a hundred times on paper. I could say, I have passively memorised it. You seem to suggest that the best way to learn a language is not to do much homework, just turn up for class. You seem to suggest there is something wrong with actively learning words. The fact is, if you try and learn the grammar rules, vocab, or other part of speach and you sit and write out tens of sentences using a specific construction, case, word, you are more liekly to be able to use it for yourself quicker.

Like I said, Russian kids don't have flashcards, but that's cos they see and hear Russian everywhere, everyday. Outside Russia we don't have that so we have to compensate with flashcards and such. Flashcards do exist for a reason. If they were so useless they wouldn't be so widely used

But good luck with your "I'm gonna let Russian come to me" approach, but the fact is a foreigners learner can't acquire a language in the same way that a child who is growing up in that language does. If that was possible don't you think they'd teach using that method.

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by BlackMage

Originally Posted by TATY

Do you think in Americ you are immersed in the Russian language and have spoken it from the moment you were first able to talk?

No, but that doesn't mean that I should be memorizing things. Memorizing -> translating which is bad.

Not when translating is what you are meant to be doing.

Memorising is not translating, anyway. Yes, the idea is that you don't think of something in English, then translate it in your head into Russian.

Memorising just means learning.

Like I know the word стол means table. I have memorised it. It doesn't mean I sat down with a flashcard, wrote the word out a hundred times on paper. I could say, I have passively memorised it. You seem to suggest that the best way to learn a language is not to do much homework, just turn up for class. You seem to suggest there is something wrong with actively learning words. The fact is, if you try and learn the grammar rules, vocab, or other part of speach and you sit and write out tens of sentences using a specific construction, case, word, you are more liekly to be able to use it for yourself quicker.

Like I said, Russian kids don't have flashcards, but that's cos they see and hear Russian everywhere, everyday. Outside Russia we don't have that so we have to compensate with flashcards and such. Flashcards do exist for a reason. If they were so useless they wouldn't be so widely used

But good luck with your "I'm gonna let Russian come to me" approach, but the fact is a foreigners learner can't acquire a language in the same way that a child who is growing up in that language does. If that was possible don't you think they'd teach using that method.

Taty, are you really 19?

Originally Posted by Lampada

Taty, are you really 19?

I'd say so for a certain reason. Unless he somehow got access to a student computer account.

Originally Posted by Lampada

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by BlackMage

Originally Posted by TATY

Do you think in Americ you are immersed in the Russian language and have spoken it from the moment you were first able to talk?

No, but that doesn't mean that I should be memorizing things. Memorizing -> translating which is bad.

Not when translating is what you are meant to be doing.

Memorising is not translating, anyway. Yes, the idea is that you don't think of something in English, then translate it in your head into Russian.

Memorising just means learning.

Like I know the word стол means table. I have memorised it. It doesn't mean I sat down with a flashcard, wrote the word out a hundred times on paper. I could say, I have passively memorised it. You seem to suggest that the best way to learn a language is not to do much homework, just turn up for class. You seem to suggest there is something wrong with actively learning words. The fact is, if you try and learn the grammar rules, vocab, or other part of speach and you sit and write out tens of sentences using a specific construction, case, word, you are more liekly to be able to use it for yourself quicker.

Like I said, Russian kids don't have flashcards, but that's cos they see and hear Russian everywhere, everyday. Outside Russia we don't have that so we have to compensate with flashcards and such. Flashcards do exist for a reason. If they were so useless they wouldn't be so widely used

But good luck with your "I'm gonna let Russian come to me" approach, but the fact is a foreigners learner can't acquire a language in the same way that a child who is growing up in that language does. If that was possible don't you think they'd teach using that method.

Taty, are you really 19?

Is that because I seem more mature or less mature? I always thought I came accross as a 15 year-old.

Originally Posted by TATY

Is that because I seem more mature or less mature? I always thought I came accross as a 15 year-old.

Make it 15 year-old STONER, and I'll agree...

TATY,
I thought you're about 25 before you said you are 19.

Originally Posted by TATY

But good luck with your "I'm gonna let Russian come to me" approach, but the fact is a foreigners learner can't acquire a language in the same way that a child who is growing up in that language does. If that was possible don't you think they'd teach using that method.

Russian already came to me; I'm just telling you about it in retrospect. If you can't learn it my way you won't sound natural.