Advice for continuing my beginning of Russian
Well I've started learning Russian and I can say a few things so far (the course book I'm using is New Penguin Russian Course), and have taught myself the alphabet, but I have to say a word at least 2-3 times before I can say it "fluently." And I don't recognize a word until I say it a few times (until I can say it "fluently") (if I recognize it at all.. either it being a word close to the English equivalent or it being a Russian word I already know, though that's not that many words yet).
My question is, can anyone tell me from experience how long it took them to be able to read (not necessarily comprehend, just be able to read it about as fast as a second language in the Latin alphabet) it "fluently?" And any tips regarding this?
I'm going to Russia in June and obviously I won't be fluent in a few months, but I'd like to learn as much Russian as I can before then..
I do have somewhat of a headstart though, as I've been learning German for 8 months now, so I know about cases, adjective endings, etc.
Unless I can figure out how I can be able to read Russian words faster and figure it out relatively quickly, I think I'll just work on being able to speak it as opposed to being able to read/write/speak it, and then perhaps focus a bit more on reading/writing once I'm back from Russia when I have more time.
Edit: Also, when I was much younger, I learned Hebrew in school.. of course, I've forgotten that by now, but I have learned another alphabet. Too bad I can't remember anymore how long it took me, but I still feel that I can read Hebrew (when I do read it, which isn't regularly, just when I come across something, at a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, or on some tombstone perhaps, or wherever.. I haven't read Hebrew on a regular basis for probably about 6 years now) with a speed of somewhere in between my speed of reading Russian and my speed of reading German. From the FSI document linked to in the other thread, I feel this statement applies to me: "Without a significant degree of automaticity, reading is a painful decoding process, with little cognitive energy available for understanding and interpretation."
Re: Advice for continuing my beginning of Russian
Quote:
Originally Posted by awb
My question is, can anyone tell me from experience how long it took them to be able to read (not necessarily comprehend, just be able to read it about as fast as a second language in the Latin alphabet) it "fluently?" And any tips regarding this?
It won't take you longer than the time you spent learning how to read German fluently. There's no difference between remembering that German tsch is pronounced like English ch and Russian м is English m
It's all about some practice, no more than that.
There are strickt rules about pronunciation, it's not like English where a foreigner wants to thyme rough with dough and discovers it doesn't make a really good rhyme :D
So once you have learned these rules, which are about as simple as in German (=quite simple) you have no problem reading Russian.
As for tips...
Well, find 5-6 short easy texts for learners of Russian, practice reading them aloud, make sure you do it properly (you can do it here), try a couple of new ones, and - ....
If your learner's texts are interesting, not like "Masha and Sasha are pupils. They go to school everyday. They study there. There are teachers in the school. The teachers teach Masha and Sasha." it will be fine.
Re: Advice for continuing my beginning of Russian
Quote:
Originally Posted by awb
My question is, can anyone tell me from experience how long it took them to be able to read (not necessarily comprehend, just be able to read it about as fast as a second language in the Latin alphabet) it "fluently?" And any tips regarding this?
The only way you are going to get better at reading is:
practice, practice and pracitce!
