Thread: Brand new

I was in Eastern Europe for one month and stayed in Moscow on the way in and for a few days on the way back to New York. I think Moscow is fascinating. It was however, getting colder every day. Now I am trying to learn Russian. My main teacher is the basic Russian at this website. I know I am going to have to do more. When I was in Russia I was always trying to read words and was learning a little every day. I have heard about the Rosetta Stone but don't want to pay that kind of money at this time. I know eastern europeans who speak russian but are not russian. I may try to enlist their support. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate the input.
Mary

Well, this website is an exelent start. You're smart to the fact that you shouldn't have to pay money, like at rosetta stone, and learningrussian.com when you can make find progress on your own. If you want to teach yourself, 4 things are important (well 5).

1) a basic, introductory grammar gook. best to start from the top. you need to master cases, verb aspects, and getting sentences to "sound" russian
2) a good/decent dictionary, shouldn't be more than 5/ 10 dollars.
3)a book that has detailed info on verbs, like 501 russian verbs, has just about every verb you will use (in your begining years anyway) and shows how you use it, past tense, future, and from difrent aspects.

4) the internet, this website. where you can talk to native speakers and get help
5) Access to the internet allows you to listen to russian radio, and watch russian tv! there are plently of websites where u can get into live streams.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt to find a few people in real life, who speak russian and can help, but i find, most of the time... we end up speaking english.

Good luck.

I did the free trial of rosetta stone...it was HORRIBLE!!!
Their main thing is they want to teach you by sight etc. So they don't give you ANY english translations so I'm looking at the picture saying what they want me to say and I have no idea what I'm actually saying...is it a boy, man, male, teenager etc ? The worst is they try to teach you conjugations and declentions the same way, through pictures...oy it was a huge mistake. At least it was a free one!!!
I've found the free program Vocabulary Master to be helpful. I've been learning grammer and such from my book but my main setback it that I don't know enough words. This program sorts words by theme and is a flash card program (or you can veiw them in a list and print them out). Very helpful, you can search for it online all you have to do is give them your email address and it is all yours.

Thanks for your excellent suggestions. I know in general that you can get things off the net, but it didn't occur to me Russian Radio. Good idea, Unfortnately I'm not there yet. My main goal is to keep doing something everyday, but your breakdown of the grammar is helpfu.
Mary