American here..

Hello I am a young and open minded American looking to broaden the horizons of my available perception. I live in NYC, but have always been interested and mesmerized by Russian imagery and culture. I have not begun yet, because I want to prepare myself first, but I plan on studying Russian very soon (self teaching) so I figured I should join a community that might be of help. I have peeked around a bit on the forums, and it seems to be an overall intellectual and diverse group of people, which I like :).

I am working in/ studying in the area of advertisement, marketing and branding. My interests include various art forms (video, film, images, multimedia), making music, fashion and clothing, and hanging out with my loved ones. From this forum I hope to find more people who I may both come to for guidance on language and culture, as well as practice with, and help maintain a level of fluency.

Right now I only fluently speak English and understand a great deal of Spanish. I would also like to connect with more Russian and Russian speaking individuals who are interested in the Art/Fashion spectrum.


If anyone has any recommendations to literature on the web or free self help articles/websites, please let me know. I am looking to learn Russian on little to no expenses, but I also don't want this to limit the quality/effectiveness of my study. I know that every language has some or other programs that are most useful. I was just wondering what most people find useful for Russian in particular. Right now I have only tried out the Byki Ni software, which is flash card based and focuses mainly on common phrases, but I know that this is obviously not the way I will come to learn and fully understand Russian.

Also I'd like tips on learning the Cyrillic alphabet.

How long have you fluent Russian speakers been studying, and how long do you think on average it takes to become comfortable in conversational speech/ writing in Russian?

I'm super excited. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Hey, Justin! We are always happy to see new users, especially those who are interested in Russia or Russian language.
I hope you'll enjoy your time here.
(Beware Politics threads, though, discussions there can get heated ;))

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Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Hey, Justin! We are always happy to see new users, especially those who are interested in Russia or Russian language.
I hope you'll enjoy your time here.
(Beware Politics threads, though, discussions there can get heated ;))

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Thanks for the welcome, I think I should be steering clear of that section until I'm fully prepared then hehe. Thanks for the heads up!

Hi Justin!
I would recommend going with a tutor for the beginning, so you can get the feel of the language. Especially true if you want to speak it. I suppose you might be able to get a reading knowledge, but you definitely need a human being to get the pronunciation.
As to how long -- I started learning Russian in high school about 50 years ago and I still have a long ways to go. I can read it really well, write with a clear foreign accent and grammatical errors, and speak fairly fluently but with a strong American accent.

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Originally Posted by chaika

Hi Justin!
I would recommend going with a tutor for the beginning, so you can get the feel of the language. Especially true if you want to speak it. I suppose you might be able to get a reading knowledge, but you definitely need a human being to get the pronunciation.
As to how long -- I started learning Russian in high school about 50 years ago and I still have a long ways to go. I can read it really well, write with a clear foreign accent and grammatical errors, and speak fairly fluently but with a strong American accent.

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Thank you for the information. As of now I've just begun to study the alphabet, which is coming very naturally and easily for me, which is a pleasant surprise. I've been chatting online with a good friend from Russia who speaks very good English. It is difficult to meet up because of the 8 hour time difference, but once a week I think we are going to do a skype session, and he sending me some keyboard stickers for X-Mas (very exciting). For my own studies though I have been watching videos and use that program 'Byki Ni' for basic pronunciation. It is coming along smoothly so far for my first day of study, and I am so excited to embark on my wonderful journey learning this beautiful language.

Hi Justin!

It's great to have someone from New York City!

I recall on the MasterRussian.com site there was something you could download to help you with learning the Cyrillic alphabet. Have you looked there and done the lessons?

To help you with getting into the spirit of things and as it is close to the New Year, if you have not already seen the Russian movie "Irony of Fate" you MUST watch it! You know how we in the States have "It's a Wonderful Life".... well they watch "Irony of Fate" every year on New Year's Eve. It really is a cute and heartfelt film.

Here are some links to it WITH English subtitles.


"Irony of Fate", (Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром) 1975
(Romantic Comedy)
The Irony of Fate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(This film is traditionally broadcast in Russia and some other former Soviet republics every New Year's Eve)

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
Part 1: Яндекс.Народ
Part 2: Яндекс.Народ
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. Part 1 file size 1.35 gb, Part 2 file size 1.14 gb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rg3OC6XJY0 Part 1/2 (1of 10)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRgLerlnjmo Part 2/2 (1 of 10)

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rg3OC6XJY0 Part 1/2 (1of 10)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRgLerlnjmo Part 2/2 (1 of 10)

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This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.
Sorry about that

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Originally Posted by sperk

This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.
Sorry about that

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Thanks.. I did a quick search and found another copy on YouTube that is working!

YouTube - The Irony Of Fate...(English subtitles). Part 1 of 2 (1/11) part 1 of 2 (1 of 11)
YouTube - The Irony Of Fate...(English subtitles). Part 2 of 2 (1/9) part 2 of 2 (1 of 9)

Learning Cyrillic is actually one of the easiest parts of learning Russian, I always say that and no-one believes me!

I learnt it almost "incidentally" myself, I started learning on livemocha, which doesn't even give lessons on Cyrillic, and simply picked it up from hearing the words pronounced, seeing them on the screen and gradually pairing up the sounds with the letters. I learnt most of the alphabet that way, but to polish up my knowledge I had to use a couple of other sites. Of course, initially you'll always have a few problems (mixing up «ч» with «у», or «б» with «в»), but these should iron out with practice.

I know this method works, because I started learning Greek on livemocha as well, and now I'm reasonably confident with the Greek alphabet too (although my knowledge of the Greek language remains very small).