Thread: Where should I start?

Hello! I started to learn russian and I learnt the alphabet and pronunciation currently, but now I wonder what I should try now. Should I just start with the grammar, verbs or getting to know the main words to talk (such as adjectives, conjunctions or particles)? Thank you to whoever will answer!

Here's my vision of process of learning a language. First of all you should always remember what you're learning a language for - to comunicate, to understand and be understood. And I suggest you start with taking twenty or so short dialouges with most freaquently used Russian words. You translate the first dialogue, listen a lot to how the speakers pronounce and than repeat exactly after them, until it' comes without effort. Then you proceed to the next one, not earlier. The next step is on the grammar basics. But I don't mean here learning by heart a grammar book. As for now, you just need to know the main things about Russain. Don't pay attention to all the nuances - you won't remember them anyway. Try to say more often "Oh, there's such a thing as ... in Russian" cases for example. On this stage you're preparing youself for reading anything you would like to read, although it's a bad idea to begin with a philosophical treatise. And than when you're reading, you'll be using a language as it's meant to be used, mastering your grammar knowledge at the same time. When you're reading don't waste your time looking any unfamiliar word in the dictionary. Just now you only need to understand what all this about. Remember you're enjoying reading not learning the language. If you want you may write down the key words and after each chapter or whatever try to retell it to somebody or to yourself as if to somebody. Read as much as possible, but don't force yourself - you just enjoying using of Russain. The next stage is listening to Russian speech a lot, probably moovies will be the best choice. There's only speaking and writing as optional left. And I think you'll know, what to do with this.

Originally Posted by kib

Here's my vision of process of learning a language. First of all you should always remember what you're learning a language for - to comunicate, to understand and be understood. And I suggest you start with taking twenty or so short dialouges with most freaquently used Russian words. You translate the first dialogue, listen a lot to how the speakers pronounce and than repeat exactly after them, until it' comes without effort. Then you proceed to the next one, not earlier. The next step is on the grammar basics. But I don't mean here learning by heart a grammar book. As for now, you just need to know the main things about Russain. Don't pay attention to all the nuances - you won't remember them anyway. Try to say more often "Oh, there's such a thing as ... in Russian" cases for example. On this stage you're preparing youself for reading anything you would like to read, although it's a bad idea to begin with a philosophical treatise. And than when you're reading, you'll be using a language as it's meant to be used, mastering your grammar knowledge at the same time. When you're reading don't waste your time looking any unfamiliar word in the dictionary. Just now you only need to understand what all this about. Remember you're enjoying reading not learning the language. If you want you may write down the key words and after each chapter or whatever try to retell it to somebody or to yourself as if to somebody. Read as much as possible, but don't force yourself - you just enjoying using of Russain. The next stage is listening to Russian speech a lot, probably moovies will be the best choice. There's only speaking and writing as optional left. And I think you'll know, what to do with this.

Thank you for this post, I'm pretty sure that this will become handy in all my journey. Right now I just started basic greetings such as "здраствуйте", "как поживаешь", "спасиба" and I'm writing on a piece of paper all the conjunctions that I've seen, like "но", "и" and so on, but I won't go "quickly", I want to understand. Thank you for the suggestions!