Thread: Introduction and a couple questions

First off I must say that I'm really impressed by this website and forum. Both great resources. My name is Ryan and i'm a 22 year old student in Ottawa Canada. I took a short Russian course in high school and have just recently started to get back into it. I had an excellent instructor at the time and Russian friends and co-workers have told me "Your accent and hand-writing are excellent, if you only you had a few more things to say!" I've got Russian For Everybody (circa 1984, main text, reading book and exercise book) and although its a little obtuse, I think it will give me a good start. I've also got Katzner's russian english dictionary. I suppose my main question is for the whiz kids of the board (and I mean that with the utmost respect): how on earth did you gather such large vocabularies in such a short period of time? Obviously a lot of hard work, but I'm looking for a little insight into techniques or strategies. Thanks for any advice, and I look forward to getting to know some of the folks around here better.

Ryan

I have no strategery advice, but may I just say, you have the right dictionary. Kenneth Katzner is so my dictionary-writing boyfriend.

@Lindzi: Heh, that's a catch of a man you've got there

I don't claim to be any whiz kid, but I have been teaching myself Russian for the past couple years or so, on and off. I have an OK grip on grammar(that is, I understand most of the big rules fairly well, though I am pretty bad on the little exceptions and such) and an OK vocabulary. You could describe me as "intermediate/intermediate-advanced." I learned vocab mainly by reading lots of books and stuff, basicaly whatever I could get my hands on at the secondhand bookstore, and by having correspondence with Russians(they helped correct my earlier grammar problems which were much worse than the ones I have now).

Jasper on the other hand is a real whiz kid sort of guy. He learned vocabulary quite fast by rote memorization using a frequency dictionary(nicholas j brown). He also learned the main rules of grammar pretty quickly. Impressive and such. Maybe you could ask him for his secret memorizing techniques, though the rest of us will have to stay with the good ol' Method of Loci...

Basically, if you're not a Dutch superkid, your best bet is to stick around a couple years learning grammar, reading Russian books, practicing, practicing, practicing....

I never get tired of compliments. Before I tell you my ultra-secret method, I'd first like you to post again. We get a lot of people who stop by once and are never seen again...

Thanks everyone for your quick and kind responses. I'm sure you get a lot of fly-by-nighters so to speak who come looking for "the easy way" to learn russian, and obviously theres no such animal. I'm very interested in Jasper May's ultra secret method however! I know it will take several years to gain a decent level of proficiency. I do plan on sticking around though and involving myself. I'd say I know a couple hundred words, basic first and second conjugation (80% or so anyways, still a little rusty), and some nom.,acc. and prep. declensions. A tiny base I know, and lots of work to do!
Ryan

Jasper: There is no shame in humility

Для тех, кто в танке, Jasper's secret weapons are "Penguin Russian Course" and "Russian Learner's Dictionary", both by Nicholas J. Brown and easily attainable at Amazon.com and perhaps your local bookstore. They look very nice to me, I wish I had had them when I was starting out. I used old Russian college textbooks such as "Introductory Russian Grammar" by Leon and Galina Stilman(a great help, but I didn't get that until a year and a half into learning). The very first one I started out with is "Russian for Beginners" by Duff and Makaroff, which is good too, but I think it goes through things rather fast(they threw in the prepositional case as an afterthought at the end of one of the chapters and gave you about 5 exercises).

Jasper's ultra-secret method mainly involves sitting down with a frequency dictionary every day and memorizing 50 words. That and using the Penguin Russian Course(which is no miracle course, but it does teach stuff rather well, I'd think), going through a couple units a day, I'd suppose. It helps to have some experience with foreign language, too.

What is a frequency dictionary?

Good question. What is a frequency dictionary? Luckily I do have some foreign language experience, although its not so foreign here. I've been learning french both in school and on my own since i was 3 or 4. Not fully bilingual mind you, but i'm used to the concepts of gender, verb conjugations, making adjectives and adverbs match their subjects or objects as the case may be. thanks again folks. i've got even more enthusiasm (entoosiamom?) than before and posting little progress reports here from time to time should help keep me on track as well

Ryan

A frequency dictionary lists the most commonly used words of the language in order. That isn't necessarily the best order to learn them in, though, but it does make things more convenient.

I just found this forum, it looks interesting. I learned some tourist Russian many years ago for a visit, not having used it since I have lost most of it. I bought a Linguaphone Russian PDQ as my interest has been re-kindled. I also bought a satellite TV off E-Bay very cheap and can now watch some Russian TV. Hopefully having Russian around even just on TV will be of help. Do you think this is a good idea or is it the wrong path to take ?.

Regards

Frank

Ну, нечего больше сказать. Pravit's said everything. I have stopped learning new words for a while, because I'm too busy with school etc. But some day I shall return to my whizkidkindofguy-y self.

Originally Posted by FrankC

I just found this forum, it looks interesting. I learned some tourist Russian many years ago for a visit, not having used it since I have lost most of it. I bought a Linguaphone Russian PDQ as my interest has been re-kindled. I also bought a satellite TV off E-Bay very cheap and can now watch some Russian TV. Hopefully having Russian around even just on TV will be of help. Do you think this is a good idea or is it the wrong path to take ?.

Regards

Frank

Hey Frank(pardon the informal greeting, I have a friend named Frank),
I don't know what a Linguaphone Russian PDQ is, but a good dose of grammar combined with exposure to the spoken language(TV, like you have) never hurt anybody. Good luck!

Pravit

Linguaphone PDQ is 4 CD's and a book, I think PDQ is an American-ism meaning "Pretty Dam Quick". I hope it's enough to brush up and get me back to where I was a few years ago, I now wish I'd stuck at it but priorites change. I/m hoping the Sat TV will be a BIG help, we'll see

Regards ( пока)
Frank

A world band radio and a list of russian radio stations help also...most of the russian world band stations i pick up are news with lots of chat. You can also listen to russian radio online.

Originally Posted by Angel_of_Death-NZ

A world band radio and a list of russian radio stations help also...most of the russian world band stations i pick up are news with lots of chat. You can also listen to russian radio online.

Got any links?

Russian radio:
http://www.gwu.edu/~slavic/webcast/

Hi everyone. I'm new as well . Just saw this thread found some usefull stuff in hear. I didn't know of such a thing as a frequency Dictionary existed, but I will be looking for one now. As far as Russian radio.. i tried it and came to the sad conclusion that I do not yet understand enough for it to make any sense. lol Though i will admit it did give me some insight on pronuciations. I am finding alot of usefull stuff in this forum so thanx to everyone and please excuse my ocasoinal lurking.

Another good Russian radio site is http://www.mikesradioworld.com/eu_ru.html