Thread: Learning Russian from scratch

I know nothing about russian and have to start from scratch over the summer - what's the best resource (or resources) to do with this? Books, dvds, cds, russian bride, etc

Thanks

Hi! I'm also just starting to learn Russian. I have the "Russian in 10 minutes a day" book which I like very much. It has a very easy format as well as flashcards, stickers, and a laminated pull-out you can fold up to take with you either to use or to study. I also have a set of tapes which I haven't listened to yet and a book by Penguin which I'm not ready for!

I've been working on this very slowly and I take any improvement I see as a great accomplishment! I've found it to be getting easier the more I understand which sound goes with which Cyrillic symbol.

Do you have any classes or native Russian speakers near you? I don't.

Have fun with your learning!

Originally Posted by danimal82

I know nothing about russian and have to start from scratch over the summer - what's the best resource (or resources) to do with this? Books, dvds, cds, russian bride, etc

Thanks

Heh, yeah, I suppose you could say "russian bride" is a good resource for learning Russian. For those of us less inclined to spend the rest of our lives with someone we've seen an ad of on some mail-order bride site, there is always Russian classes and books. Welcome.

Plus, you don't have to feed your books. And, they don't drag you out shopping.

I also have "Russian in 10 minutes a day" and its good for beginners. I also have one of those potential RW brides and just came back from seeing her in Russia. Knowing how to speak some Russian and being there and speaking it can show one how little they can speak Russian, at least in my case.

Mark

the best resources i would say are children books.( you have to learn what the sounds the letters make first! you're on your own on that one..use the internet for that!).. get a children's russian book and look at it and get familiar with the words and stuff..try to pronounce the small words..thats what i did...i can read russian quite well now! (i just dont know what half of it means!)

Originally Posted by pookie123

the best resources i would say are children books.( you have to learn what the sounds the letters make first! you're on your own on that one..use the internet for that!).. get a children's russian book and look at it and get familiar with the words and stuff..try to pronounce the small words..thats what i did...i can read russian quite well now! (i just dont know what half of it means!)

I'd suggest getting some easy reading books published in Russia for foreigners.

In the Soviet Union, educational publishing houses published lots of easy reading stuff for non-Russian children (from Soviet republics other then Russia) studying Russian. Studying Russian was obligatory, and so lots of texts were published. I guess these books can still be found in secod-hand bookstores or something. They had detailed footnotes, stress marks in all words etc.

I guess that such books are still published, even if in lesser numbers.