Thread: How goes it!

I've spent the last few weeks lurking about aimlessly on the forums, and I've decided I'm ready to introduce myself! I've recently begun a new career, and I will be moving to Samara in six months time. I also decided it would be a wise investment of my time to begin immersing myself in the meantime, and getting myself acquainted with the language.

I've started with what I believe to be several highly recommended texts/audio (Teach Yourself, New Penguin, Pimsleur for when I jog and commute, along with miscellaneous audiobooks). My impression is that it is best to tackle any language with a solid foundation, especially Russian- thus, my focus is primarily based on listening comprehension, vocabulary, some shadowing on the side, all with minimal exposure to grammar for the time being. I think I can get away with this because I'm not in any kind of rush to force output.

Something else that I found to be highly effective is making use of Anki's shared decks along with MR's frequency list with examples (and Tatoeba). Copying an example sentence into my Anki deck so I can learn words in context, even if it's just memorization at first. I think memorizing words like 'и' and 'на' in isolation would be more destructive than anything. After the first 50 words or so, I can already identify small sentences like 'Вот мой дом.' and such. It is my belief that after the first 1,000 most frequently used words, I should be able to pick my way through a novel while understanding around 70%. It seemed logical to rely on novels for additional vocabulary since that is how most adults learn vocabulary in their native language.

What do you guys think so far of my method? Do you think I'm shooting myself in the foot my skipping over grammar for now? If anyone has any tips, tricks, or comments please feel free to share.

EDIT: I've been studying Russian for about a week now, and I can already pick my way through more 'advanced' sentences such as "В гoроде пострoили нoвый многоквартирный дом." Occasionally the keyword will trip me up, but I like my progress nonetheless.

Welcole!

Skipping grammar in Russian is a big no no, because you can end up learning the same word 10 times, simply because it was conjugated in a way unfamiliar to you. That still happens to me despite knowing the basics of the grammar, but a heck of a lot less.

So, yea, you should have fun and learn words, hear words, use words, try construct sentences, watch movies maybe, etc... but simoultaneously invest some time in understanding how the grammar works.

Hey Sketchyfish...yeah, I agree with Valda on that, it's by far better to go ahead and bite the bullet and learn the grammar. Take it from my experience...I spent years learning how to read and memorizing words without knowing the grammar. If I had only worked on the grammar from the start I would have learned much faster and not wasted all the time. It helps tremendously with speaking and translating, and you'll learn to read much faster that way - - Kevin

Agreed. It was on day #1 that I realized it was a fools errand to approach Russian with zero knowledge of the grammar. Based on my current understanding, the conjugations of regular verbs and nouns follow a relatively simple configuration, so memorizing these (three?) patterns is simple enough; irregularities on the other hand are a different matter entirely. By saying 'My primary focus isn't grammar', I meant just that, but I'm not going to be totally ignorant.

At this point (going on day #7) I don't see any real benefit of trying to differentiate between crafting original sentences and regurgitating common phrases- so long as they are grammatically correct (and coherent)- because my goal isn't to create original sentences, it's simply to be able to communicate, and my gut instincts tell me I don't need to trouble myself with the obscurities/complexities of Russian grammar to be able to communicate... at least not yet. The plan is to absorb as much input as possible, and hopefully build an intuition for grammatically correct sentences. This way when I do get around to really focusing on grammar (a couple of months from now), I won't be grappling with trying to gain basic vocabulary, learn to read, learn to comprehend spoken word, while simultaneously trying to compile different relationships within the language (aka gain general familiarity). I don't want my mind to have to endure something like that.

Simply put, learning a language by means of grammar seems a lot to me like learning art by means of science; it was never really a question of whether or not it could be done- of course it can be done. The question is why even bother?

I've never studied language, and I'm relying solely on logic here, so if anyone cares to slap some sense into me.. by all means.

Thanks for your comment. Gave me a lot to consider.