Thread: A crafty little russian orphan!

3 months ago our family was enriched with a beautiful 12 year-old russian orphan girl. Unfortunately her adoptive parents did not think it would be necessary to at least learn a few phrases to communicate with their new daughter.

I, being the oldest, and the "grandma" figure - decided I'd plunge into my 4th language and started with Pimsleur tapes because I knew that I needed to at least know "some" Russian to get started with.

Yes, this all will come to the part where I need help with translating a sentence, but bear with me:

First lesson: I copied down a list of russian words, specifically the days of the week. I wrote the same words in english on a separate sheet.

I tried to "read" the russian words to her and of course failed abysmally. Then I looked at Anna and had HER read them. I made her repeat them over and over and wrote the phonetic equivalent next to each word.

I then took the english words and had Anna read them. I corrected as she had done and she quickly got the message and wrote the phonetic equivalent next to the english words. We practiced a lot that first afternoon and I thought my method would be a success, specially because Anna had difficulty with english pronunciation. Riiiiight.......

A week later.......... Anna's 6 year old sister informed me that Anna has not looked at all at any of her notes. BUT.....the entire family now knows how to say: "I don't understand" in Russian. My crafty Anna has turned the tables on her parents. Instead of learning english herself, she is teaching them Russian!

So here it goes, please translate this for me:

"Anna, I might be your b

[quote=Oma]
"Anna, I might be your b

Not to worry, once she goes to school she'll be speaking fluent English in no time.

Originally Posted by adoc

Not to worry, once she goes to school she'll be speaking fluent English in no time.

Anyway, before going to school, she should know at least several phrases and should know how to communicate on a basic level. Otherwise, she'll miss essentials that other children will know just because they do undersrtant the teacher. And the more she missess, the worse she studies. That's usual way things are going with schoolchildren in their own country. And for the 12-years old children in a foreign country this can either demotivate, or motivate her. But there is no need to play with luck here.

It has nothing to do with luck, it is the natural course of things. I have seen it before sufficient number of times to draw the conclusions. There is no point in psychologizing just yet, unless you are in a hurry to sell something of course.

Anna, I might be your b

Originally Posted by adoc

Not to worry, once she goes to school she'll be speaking fluent English in no time.

My nephew spent 2 years in fifth class because of his poor English. It is a big problem for children.

Originally Posted by Al Polonski

Я учу русский настолько быстро, насколько я могу. Поэтому, я могу НАУЧИТЬ ТЕБЯ АНГЛИЙСКОМУ.

I just want to note the one difficiency in Al Polonski's translation and that is what DragothWarez wrote:

I am learning Russian as fast as I can so that I can TEACH YOU ENGLISH. – Я учу русский настолько быстро насколько могу, чтобы УЧИТЬ ТЕБЯ АНГЛИЙСКОМУ.