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I may have read this here, not sure. Was thinking about labeling everything (well, most everything) in my house with it's Russian word. Hopefully by seeing these words and associating with the actual item I'll learn them?
My goal is to be able to simply speak simple, everyday sentences and be able to read. I don't think I'll ever be fluent, but that's ok! I'll be very pleased to get the basics.
As it was mentioned here before, every method is good only if you use it every day and... in combination with other methods. :wink:
If I may ask what you need Russian for?
Good luck!
:)
don't really need it for anything. But I try to always have a challenge (mental or otherwise) in my life. Plus, I'm fascinated by Russia and its culture. Fortunately I have a woman from Ukraine at work who can give me a little help. :)
Sounds a bit like the method of Loci. But I think that's used to remember the order things are arranged in, isn't it?
Well, I agree with Lampada who said that a combination of methods very useful if the methods are used on a regular basis. And that s what I do . I have tried on very many different methods to learn vocabulary - including labeling the everyday objects - but the most efficient of all is the one that I will explain here ( and that I use more ). First, you make up a sentence in your own language - if possible, a very simple sentence, some that you know by heart or some that is obvious, such like THE SKY IS BLUE - . Secondly, you write the sentence as usual in your language, but the word that you want to know you make it appear in Russian and then you try to find out the meaning of the word in your language. I guess this method is flawless. Sorry, but I can t type in Russian at this moment, so I will make below an example for a person who is learning Portuguese.
Brazil is the fifth largest PAIS in the world.
Could you deduce what the word PAIS means ?
Andy, this is exactly the method used in this short little unfinished story I wrote:
http://www.freewebs.com/pravit/akbar.htm
That is great man. I am going to print the example you `ve left there and use it to memorize the words I don`t know yet. I felt envy when I read it because I thought of giving an example -- of a Russian word, instead of a Portuguese word -- but I was afraid of commiting a grammar mistake.
The tagging method works pretty good.
Tag the tea cup that you drink out of with "чайная чашка" and every morning when you drink your чай, you will eventually have the words embedded into your head.
My method is to tape Russian sentences and vocab to my mirror so every morning when I brush my teeth I am forced to see the sentences. Eventually it sticks in my head.
Just my two cents...
I admire your earnest attempt to do something constructive to learn Russian. However, the amount of vocabulary you can learn compared with the effort to go about labeling everything in your house probably makes it a bit inefficient. I'm not entirely sure what everyone has against memorizing lists of vocabulary and then trying to practice them throughout the day or week. If you use associations and language comes semi-naturally to you, you can stick 50-100 words into your short term memory within an hour depending on what language you're learning and spend the rest of the week solidifying them. In a little of 6 months, that's 3000 words (100/week that is). If you spend that 6-7 months listening to the language, practicing speaking and writing, watching movies, talking to friends, etc. then you'll probably notice a much more rapid improvement than if you label everything and hope it will passively stick in your mind. It doesn't work that way (unfortunately). Only children can learn a language paying minimal attention.
That is not to insult your effort, as I'm sure you're more than willing to pay a lot of attention to your studies. I just think there are probably more efficient means of second language acquisition, that's all.
Drew