Thread: Learning Vocab....

OK, odd question.

I feel, no matter how many new words I learn, I rarely see them used in real life or in songs. As I don't live in a Russian speaking area, I rely on movies/songs/books to learn vocabulary and to use said vocab...but then I rarely see the words I've learn. What's more, I always seem to choose the wrong word in the dictionary.

So, does anyone know of good places to learn vocabulary you'll actually use? Or do you just read/listen to music and learn words as you go?

I know, the age old question on this forum...

Originally Posted by ZelyeUrsuli

OK, odd question.

I feel, no matter how many new words I learn, I rarely see them used in real life or in songs. As I don't live in a Russian speaking area, I rely on movies/songs/books to learn vocabulary and to use said vocab...but then I rarely see the words I've learn. What's more, I always seem to choose the wrong word in the dictionary.

So, does anyone know of good places to learn vocabulary you'll actually use? Or do you just read/listen to music and learn words as you go?

I know, the age old question on this forum...

The Russian Learner's Dictionary by Nick Brown has 10,000 Russian words in frequency order. So if you start at word 1 and work down you are learning the most commonly used Russian words.

Originally Posted by ZelyeUrsuli

Or do you just read/listen to music and learn words as you go?

This is a good way, in my personal opinion.

Originally Posted by ZelyeUrsuli

OK, odd question.

I feel, no matter how many new words I learn, I rarely see them used in real life or in songs. As I don't live in a Russian speaking area, I rely on movies/songs/books to learn vocabulary and to use said vocab...but then I rarely see the words I've learn. What's more, I always seem to choose the wrong word in the dictionary.

So, does anyone know of good places to learn vocabulary you'll actually use? Or do you just read/listen to music and learn words as you go?

I know, the age old question on this forum...

This site has 2000 Most Common Words in Russian Language:

http://www.learnrussianfree.com/

Scott

FWIW when I was learning Russian, in my very first year, I subscribed to Правда, which at the time probably got me on the CIA's list.

Since you're in NY (I guess), pick up a copy of Новое русское слово. You'll see articles about stuff you are hearing about on the news and in other news media. It's also on the web , but I always prefer to hold reading matter in my hands.

I bought that Russian Learner's Dictionary. Total waste of money, I think I glanced at it about 3 times in 5 years as a quick way of checking my progress when I had absolutely nothing better to do for 3 minutes.

The thing I did which had the biggest impact on my vocabulary was reading BBC Russian "World" and "UK" and "Sport" sections every morning for twenty minutes before I started work. The reason the BBC site was cool is that it containes UK-centric or genuinely international stories in Russian rather than Russia-centric stories in Russian, so I was reading articles about which I knew the background and which interested me rather than trying to read stories about people I'd never heard of in places I'd never been. I didn't make any particular effort to learn words I didn't know, I just read each article through and tried to get the gist, then checked my understanding against the corresponding English page. Only when I started recognising the same unknown word over and over again did I bother looking it up and making myself learn it.

Of course, I got to the point where I could converse reasonably fluently on sport and current affairs but still couldn't buy the right number of eggs in a shop, but that was down to my own neglect of more traditional learning methods than anything else.

Reading books in Russian works the same way, but it takes a much bigger investement of time and so you need a much broader vocabulary to begin with in order for it to not be too frustrating.

I used to have the same problem, and now people compliment me for my vocabulary. I really don't know how I managed to remember all of them. I guess listening to music really did help. There is another technique, which is breaking down the word. I found that helpful in memorizing it. For example:

Подсознание means subconscience, which in turn comes from Latin sub (under) + con (prefix "with") + scientia (knowledge). So:

- Под - со - знание

-> Sub - con - scientia

= Subconscience.

Pretty neat, huh?

Originally Posted by Yazeed

Pretty neat, huh?

I don't know why, but I expected "eh" instead of "huh".