Sharing experiences and helping each other (spin off from another thread)

[it-ogo]

[I]Unfortunately I have to interrupt this discussion and give an urgent English lesson to Ito-ogo.

Oh, no, Jo, no! I liked English so much for its simplicity but you gradually make of it second Russian.

(correct me if I am wrong!)

I have no red hat. (У меня нет красной шляпы. - feminine)
I don't have a blue hat either. (У меня тоже нет красной шляпы.)

I have a a blue hat! (У меня синяя шляпа!)
I have a blue hat too! (У меня тоже синяя шляпа!)

[Hanna]

Oh, no, Jo, no! I liked English so much for its simplicity but you gradually make of it second Russian.

Thanks for the corrections!
This is crazy though! I have studied Russian now, for almost 1.5 years, and I cannot even seem to say sentence like "I do not have a red hat" correctly!!!

Honestly, I am not sure if I have taken water over my head with this "project"!!

But the more I learn about Russia and the CIS countries, culture etc... the more I want to learn Russian.

Initially it was just a hobby project for business/tourism reasons... and because it annoyed me that I had failed it in school....

However, now I feel rather passionate about this!! I *really* want to learn to speak Russian!
Stopping now would be pathetic. The skills that I have now, I could probably use for tourism but I couldn't have any sort of serious conversation, and it would be useless for business.

If languages were games, Russian would be chess and English would be.... three-in-a-row

That said; I agree with you, it-ogo that English has some challenges. Unexpected speech patterns and expressions are the worst. I think.

The way to get over it is to start reading almost only in English..
Basically immerse yourself in English. Anything you'd normally read/watch/listen to in Russian, do it in English instead.

I think that's how some people who speak perfect English without living in an English speaking country have done it. Like bitpicker and translationsnmru