Thread: Spoken Russian

This thread has two purposes. Firstly, to congratulate anyone who isn't a native speaker and can speak Russian fluently.
Secondly, I would like to know how on earth it's done!! With the case system, having to change words to suit their purpose in the sentance seems incredibly hard to do spontaneously whilst speaking. Any tips? Good god it's hard.

With the case system, having to change words to suit their purpose in the sentance seems incredibly hard to do spontaneously whilst speaking.

It becomes more natural with time. If you keep at it.

Originally Posted by Pravit

With the case system, having to change words to suit their purpose in the sentance seems incredibly hard to do spontaneously whilst speaking.

It becomes more natural with time. If you keep at it.

Pravit, I thought one had to give it up for a little while, then it would be easier the second time you try

Yeah, that is the definition of keeping at it. As opposed to give it up one time and never coming back.

You must think in the language you are trying to speak. Don't translate in your head.

ive got the alphabet pretty well but how can i learn the russian WORDS? btw i want to type it well before i begin to speak it

You must listen to a native speaker to learn the correct pronunciation. Language courses on tape or CD, movies, radio, internet etc.

Getting your case endings right isn't as important as it's cracked up to be. Go to any market place in St Pete or Moscow and listen to the vendors from the Caucausus speak Russian. Do they get their case endings right? Heck no. Do we care? No. It's not really important for us. They're all pretty fluent in Russian anyway.

Originally Posted by VendingMachine

Getting your case endings right isn't as important as it's cracked up to be. Go to any market place in St Pete or Moscow and listen to the vendors from the Caucausus speak Russian. Do they get their case endings right? Heck no. Do we care? No. It's not really important for us. They're all pretty fluent in Russian anyway.

Oh, very useful advice! To study Russian in markets! I can develop the idea: let's study Russian in our prisons. You'll have very special dialect

Dear foreigners, do you want to learn real wonderful language or its stinking remains? If you choose first, you have to learn cases and endings.

(Хотел написать "воняющие ошметки", но не нашел слова "ошметки" в словаре. Не подскажите, как это будет по-английски?)

Originally Posted by VendingMachine

Do they get their case endings right? Heck no. Do we care? No. It's not really important for us. They're all pretty fluent in Russian anyway.

Yes, but one would get laughed off the stage at a professional conference. No, better to learn it properly so as to get the rules down right. Then one will sound educated at the Kremlin, yet be able to bargain and gossip with the vendors at the street market.

I don't think VM was suggesting that anyone should try to learn street-market Russian, just that a learner need not panic when they inevitably get their declensions in a muddle, as they will still be intelligible anyway.

Originally Posted by lolajl

Originally Posted by VendingMachine

Do they get their case endings right? Heck no. Do we care? No. It's not really important for us. They're all pretty fluent in Russian anyway.

Yes, but one would get laughed off the stage at a professional conference. No, better to learn it properly so as to get the rules down right. Then one will sound educated at the Kremlin, yet be able to bargain and gossip with the vendors at the street market.

Again not true. You will not get laughed off the stage just as 99,9% of all those professionals from the ex republics who speak Russian like that do not get laughed off the stage. It's OK for foreigners to make mistakes, they are expected to. I'm not saying that one shouldn't try to get one's case endings right, all I'm saying is that they shouldn't be your stumbling block - at the end of the day they aren't that important (I mentioned marketplaces for illustration purposes only). Thing is, you will learn to get them right in the majority of cases anyway, but at first you want to butcher the language a bit in order to get a boost in fluency. Forcefeeding yourself with case endings when you're just a beginner is a very silly thing indeed. Want to speak Russian haltingly for years, fine, go ahead and torture yourself with case endings - you know what, you will never learn to get the right all the time anyway (let this horrible thought haunt you).

Originally Posted by scotcher

I don't think VM was suggesting that anyone should try to learn street-market Russian, just that a learner need not panic when they inevitably get their declensions in a muddle, as they will still be intelligible anyway.

Exactly.

I wouldn't worry to much, because declensions and conjugations become habitual with practice anyway. It just takes time and practice.

Dmn, I used to hate VM because he is so fkng intelligent. But the fact is, he is right. You must be prepared to make mistakes, because no matter how hard you study, you will. AND, you need to learn from those mistakes, otherwise you will talk like Georgian in the St. Petersburg makets. So, try your hardest on the stupid case endings, but in the end, you need to be in Russia or be engaged in the Russian community and parrot correctly what the people say, and when you make a mistake once, never make it again. THEN, and only THEN, will you speak fluent Russian.

P.S. Before you discount VM's qualifications, remeber that this man is NOT a native English speaker, yet he has a larger vocabulary AND follows the rules of grammer better than you. I bet, even in St. Pete, that this guy make 90,000 rubles a month ($3000.)

Originally Posted by carperdiem

Dmn, I used to hate VM because he is so fkng intelligent. But the fact is, he is right. You must be prepared to make mistakes, because no matter how hard you study, you will. AND, you need to learn from those mistakes, otherwise you will talk like Georgian in the St. Petersburg makets. So, try your hardest on the stupid case endings, but in the end, you need to be in Russia or be engaged in the Russian community and parrot correctly what the people say, and when you make a mistake once, never make it again. THEN, and only THEN, will you speak fluent Russian.

P.S. Before you discount VM's qualifications, remeber that this man is NOT a native English speaker, yet he has a larger vocabulary AND follows the rules of grammer better than you. I bet, even in St. Pete, that this guy make 90,000 rubles a month ($3000.)

So, carper old boy, how was Afghanistan? Fun?