Introduction / Advice Requested
First, I'm learning Russian at the moment "because it's there", but more importantly because I know that it's fairly universal among Eastern Europeans in their mid-20s and older, because they were required to learn it in school under the Soviets (if this is incorrect, for the most part, insight would be nice). The family I stayed with when I was an exchange student in Eastern Germany only spoke German and Russian (except the student who stayed with my family as well), but while my German improved exponentially, I learned very little Russian and promptly forgot what I did learn. I plan on moving to Europe some time this year from Florida, but most likely to Spain (I have family there). I enjoy learning languages almost more than anything else, but unfortunately I have fairly little opportunity to speak anything but Spanish here in central Florida.
I picked up the "teach yourself" series "Beginner's Russian", which explained Cyrillic in an easy to understand manner, and I can read it now, but it takes me awhile to sound it out. ;) I also got the $20 Pimsleur "Russian Conversation" which is the first 10 lessons of their Russian 1 program. I've used their Spanish and German $20 models, too, and find them really useful.
Now, where should I go from there? I'm only about 30 pages into the book (it's chock-full of excercises, and is a great language book in my opinion...so far, at least) and have just recently completed Lesson 3 of the Pimsleur CDs. Should I just purchase the Pimsleur Russian 1 program, and perhaps grab an Intermediate Russian book?
Thanks in advance!
Re: Introduction / Advice Requested
Dear Honey-Hun-Hun,
I've got a lot of questions and I want them answered immediately...
Preliminary PAR Test A
---------------------------
First, are you male or female?
Second, how old are you?
Third, do you prefer eating "BLT" sandwiches with mayonaise or some sort of vinegar-based dressing?
Fourth, who is your daddy, and what does he do?
Fifth, do you prefer writing in pencil or pen? If so, what color ink?
Sixth, when eating, do you smack your mouth loudly?
Seventh, if you were given a birdcage, what would you do with it and why?
Now, as to your questions:
I would highly recommend you not to buy anything more from Pimsleur, for reasons which can be found scattered throughout the forum, but mainly because it doesn't work as well as simply sitting down with a book that has audio accompaniment. That, and it is terribly expensive.
I think you should continue using your Teach Yourself book, although I haven't gotten a chance to look at their Russian one yet. But it sounds good as you say it's "chock full" of exercises.
Current PAR:
Pnct +1 Grm +1 Spl +1 Pol +1 Pim-3 = 1 (Neutral)