Thread: new member

Hi I am new to this site. I was interested in Russia for awhile ever since I was a little kid. I never knew I actually had Russian blood in me until a little while ago but suspected I was some how related because my first dog was named Pushkin . I am also fascinated with Russian history and willing to learn more about the country itself. I one day hopefully wish to travel to Russia and visit at least.

Anyway I was wondering where to start learning Russian. It seems kind of intimidating because of the Russian alphabet but i'm sure you Russians think the english alphabet is just as hard. But how should I start learning it?

I think you should to find a teacher at first

Originally Posted by Iamtinych

I think you should to find a teacher at first

I speak, write and understand Italian not bad, and I never had any Italian teacher.

Originally Posted by Оля

I speak, write and understand Italian not bad, and I never had any Italian teacher.

You are very clever person!
But I think it's better to learn a language with a teacher

Originally Posted by Iamtinych

You are a very clever person!

I am.

But I think it's better to learn a language with a teacher

I don't.

Teachers who are not natives often are unqualified, by the way. Sometimes they do more harm than good.

Originally Posted by Оля

Originally Posted by Iamtinych

You are a very clever person!

thanks!

not at all Iamtinych, i taught myself for 5 years straight before coming to moscow with much better results than people at university level.
still in moscow and i still study russian every day (new words, reading etc)
although it never hurts to have a teacher

Originally Posted by Lt. Columbo

not at all Iamtinych, i taught myself for 5 years straight before coming to moscow with much better results than people at university level.
still in moscow and i still study russian every day (new words, reading etc)
although it never hurts to have a teacher

I don't mean that only teacher is needed to learn language. every person need learn language himself or herself. but I see here a lot of people who learn languages themselves and I agree that a teacher is not binding. just it's simple for me to learn english with teacher

Originally Posted by Iamtinych

every person (everyone?) needs to learn a language himself or herself.

The alphabet is the easiest part. Not that I am trying to scare you or anything, but once you learn the letters, you'll realize just how simple it is. The first thing you'll learn is that it is A LOT easier than the English (or Latin to be specific) alphabet. Words actually sound the way they look.

You can find great alphabet lessons anywhere, you don't need help finding one. It took me a week to learn it, and about a month to actually get by in reading it. All it takes is practice.

Originally Posted by Iamtinych

I think you should to find a teacher at first

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've been learning for like 6 years and I've never had a teacher and I speak better than people who have a degree in Russian or who have taken intensive year long Russian immersion courses.

So you really don't need a teacher.

I agree about the teacher. For the moment I follow Russian in evening school and my teachter is a native Russian speaker (from минск) and her dutch is in my opinion not good enough to teach beginners.

Before I had a native dutch speaker and that was better.

For example we learned the word коза and she had no dutch word for this so she was acting like a коза in class.......