Thread: ohai

I want to learn russian because I play EVE online. I live in a part of the map where I have to deal with Russian gamers on a regular basis. The alliance I am in is mostly russian (though my corp is essentially the english-speaking arm of this alliance) and I am tired of getting yelled at by FCs who refuse to give orders in English.

I even bought a hat to mark the occasion!

Amazon.com: Hat Russian Soviet Army Black KGB * Fur Military Cossack Ushanka * Size L: Everything Else

Worst reason to start learning a language ever, but on the plus side, you get to learn a new language!

Добро пожаловать на форум! (Welcome to the forum)

Bear in mind that, based on your motivation for learning, you'll probably need to learn a load of game-specific words and geek slang (the latter of which this site can help you with).

Удачи! (Good luck)

Often the best way for me to learn something is just to plow through it and after spending a frustrating week with rosetta stone I've decided to try a different approach.

I'm going to find random texts to translate and post them here. I would appreciate spot checks whenever possible. I'm also going to record myself doing the translation in spoken word. I figure this will help me with both reading comprehension and pronunciation. I'll worry about writing later.

Originally Posted by Demonic_Duck

Worst reason to start learning a language ever, but on the plus side, you get to learn a new language!

Actually I don't think that's a bad reason. In fact, I think that learning a language because there is a context in which you need it is the best reason ever. Never mind that it's an online game. My wish to learn Russian is made up of many such trivial-seeming reasons, which individually don't seem enough to compel anyone into learning a language. But if you want to convince your brain that it should engrave the patterns for a new language into its synaptic structure, then having fun while doing so is the best way to persevere.

Ah, and on topic: Welcome, hohum!

Rosetta stone is a piece of s**t anyway. (So I've heard, never tried it myself.)

If you're looking for feedback on stuff you translate, you've come to the right place!

I'll admit I'm a total hypocrite for posting that actually, I've been teaching myself Russian for almost a year now for no other reason than that I "felt like it" one day. Ha!