Post: #76

(03-11-2015 12:22 PM)RandomGuy1 Wrote:  Fret how is your progress so far, any updates?

A lack of updates in his thread doesn't bode well for his progress although I hope I'm wrong to assume that.

I started hitting the Russian textbooks 14 months ago promising myself I'd do a minimum half an hour a day no matter what. I have pretty much managed to stick to that self-promise. Now it's finally starting to come together and the language is sticking. I went from being able to do simple things 14 months back such as very simple conversations to now being able to watch Russian films and communicate with Russians solely in their own language. I watched Putin do a press conference not long back and realised afterwards that not only were there no subs but I'd understood most of it. It was a good feeling. I'm certainly not fluent and likely never will be but I'm happy with my progress.

When you go on the language learning journey you learn a hell of a lot about yourself and what you're made of in terms of determination and iron will to keep going. You also learn quickly that there are zero shortcuts. Non of that 'Get fluent in 3 months' bullshit. It's all about consistency and persistence. Repetition. Clock up those hours at the coal face day after day, week after week, month after month. It comes eventually. Another thing is accept that your desire to learn will ebb and flow for whatever reason. Some weeks you can sit down and do 2 hours in one sitting and the time flies and you get a kick out of it. The next week just looking at the closed textbook fills you with something akin to revulsion and you think of a thousand excuses not to do the bare minimum. Your body cycles interest naturally just like you can't push your maximum in the gym every single session. Just doing the minimum half hour drags on for an age. Accept it will be like that and just stick to the half hour rule no matter what, the tough times pass and the good will come back in time. It's a feeling of satisfaction when you get through those tough times having stuck to your studies.

I learnt in large part to talk to women but although it has helped me in that department it has also cock blocked me numerous times. When local guys in a bar hear you speak Russian they insist on talking to you, buying you drinks and wanting to hang out. It's a pain in the ass. In Buddha bar 2 tough looking guys from Donetsk heard me speaking Russian. They were drunk. One of them invited me to drink vodka with them but I didn't want to. He turned aggressive and said 'are you trying to offend me?' I diffused it but who needs that? That's rare to face aggression mostly it's friendly. In a small town in Ukraine in a bar I met a bunch of guys from the local power lifting club. They were the nicest guys but insisted on buying me drinks and playing billiards with me all night. Nice gesture and it was a fun evening but the whole time I just wanted to leave and do my own thing. You need to be careful who hears you speak I find and am sure other non native speakers have found too.

Finally I was in Kiev a few months back and went to a bar. I was talking to a girl I was with and the barman overheard our conversation. He turned to me when the girl went to the bathroom and said 'Hey, your Russian is excellent'. I smiled and said thank you and in that moment all those hours and 6 am starts to get a study session in were worth it.

I hope Fret keeps at it.

Post: #77

Good stuff The Ligurian!

I'd say I envy you, but envy is for losers. In half a year I'll be on that level, too.

Keep improving. Nothing more badass than being fluent in Russian.

Post: #78

Yes, definately a good and solid post! +1 from me.

And you are damn right when you say that you go through a journey. I'm studying almost two semester Russian right now and I have so many moments where I just look 5 min at my text book or outside a windows because I'm out leisure and just don't have the drive in this moment to keep going. It's unbelievable. But this in general helped me a lot understanding life a bit more. Sure you can read every day articles on RoK about success @ life and so on. But in those moments I really realized that nobody can help me and take the investment for me. I'm alone in this fight - I want this and so I have to do something for it. This was and is a great experience for me aside reading articles at RoK.

But then as you stated are these periods when you can sit a whole afternoon and nearly absorb the vocabulary and grammar. But they are a rare appearance for me Most of the time I have to force myself and just keep going, every day. Because when I let things slide for about 1 to 2 days I will have to take the revenge of it. And thats often brutal and demotivates even more.

Apropos motivation - By now I can't even say why I started with learning Russian nor why I'm keep going forward. I definitely want to visit Russia and also live there for a year or so but really therefore I don't must learn this language. Maybe it's something deeper in me which drives me.

I'm also a little angry about myself. Why? Because I was of course curious and read the most threads on this forum about Russia/Ukraine but that was a mistake. They were (for me!) demotivating because the most posters haven't even been there and posted false doctrines. At the end of the day I was more confused about this culture in general as I could imagine as I thought "It's all to hard as they say, the life, the women, the situation regarding jobs, the language...".

@The Ligurian
Did you or do you take 1 on 1 lessons?

Post: #79

(03-13-2015 04:46 PM)micha Wrote:  Good stuff The Ligurian!

I'd say I envy you, but envy is for losers. In half a year I'll be on that level, too.

Keep improving. Nothing more badass than being fluent in Russian.

Agreed micha. Good luck.

(03-13-2015 06:28 PM)RandomGuy1 Wrote:  Yes, definately a good and solid post! +1 from me.

@The Ligurian
Did you or do you take 1 on 1 lessons?

Thank you.

No I have not and it was the mistake I made last summer. I enrolled in a university course in the FSU for a couple months but quickly realised with 15 other students in the class getting my own needs answered was difficult. This summer I'll go to Ukraine and find a private teacher. It's definitely the best way to progress fast.

I read your post and related to it a lot. I've been there too in those tough moments questioning my motivation for it all, there have been weeks where I did not open the books once so you're not alone in feeling like that in those tough times, we all go through it

I don't know exactly how you are studying whether on a course or alone but I would look at it like this: You are building a house. Now you are at the beginning of the project and you're putting in the foundations. Everything you learn now; how to read and write, pronunciation, essential vocabulary, how to form verbs correctly, basic grammar etc. is what you will eventually build the house on. Use this time to build solid foundations. This is the hardest phase when you question yourself the most about why or if you want to continue to do it. But once you've built a strong set of foundations it gets pleasurable and easier. That's the great thing, it does get easier and more enjoyable once you're past that initial tough phase and you can start really using what you learn. This initial foundation phase is vital to you though as everything you learn in the future will be based on it so get through it somehow.

People have asked me what the best method to study is and what my method is and I always answer the same; The best method for learning a language is the one that makes you come back for more day after day. So whether that is watching subtitled movies or learning vocabulary lists like I do then that's the best method for you. Some people get a kick out of grammar, I personally hate it. If I had to study grammar every day I'd have given up long ago. Do what you enjoy the most and encourages you to continue the next day.

@RandomGuy1

You mentioned at the end of your post about reading trip reports to the FSU and it de-motivating you because it seems so hard there. I don't know specifically what threads you read or what people said but if you speak conversational Russian it really is not difficult at all you just have to have realistic expectations. There are millions of women there who want to find a decent guy. If you can communicate with them you'll be dating 20-somethings well into your 50's if you desire that lifestyle. Don't let others failures get you down, the FSU is still a great place for women.

PS: Just remembered there is an awesome channel on Youtube called 'Star Media'. It has many Russian tv series and films with English subs. I highly recommend you check out the tv series 'шулер' on there. It's ten episodes about a hustler set in 1970's Odessa. Definitely worth a watch.

Post: #80

So I've learned basic Russian with the memrise app so I now have a decent vocabulary foundation of a little over 400 words, and some key phrases.. how do I advance my Russian without spending any money?
Specifically, I'm not great at conjugating new verbs, or knowing how or when to change the ending of adjectives and nouns and I'm totally in the dark when it comes to those damn cases.

Anyone know of any intermediate level resources that are solid for learning these grammar rules?

Post: #81

You have started the wrong way in my opinion. Take a look at this course: http://learnrussian.rt.com/lessons/ I suggest you start from the beginning otherwise you will miss grammar rules etc. Another link: http://www.russianlessons.net/

Good luck!

Post: #82

(03-19-2015 02:44 AM)Jneg Wrote:  So I've learned basic Russian with the memrise app so I now have a decent vocabulary foundation of a little over 400 words, and some key phrases.. how do I advance my Russian without spending any money?

Могу попиздеть с тобой на этом форуме. Абсолютно бесплатно. Реальный русский базар нахаляву.

Post: #83

(03-19-2015 02:44 AM)Jneg Wrote:  So I've learned basic Russian with the memrise app so I now have a decent vocabulary foundation of a little over 400 words, and some key phrases.. how do I advance my Russian without spending any money?
Specifically, I'm not great at conjugating new verbs, or knowing how or when to change the ending of adjectives and nouns and I'm totally in the dark when it comes to those damn cases.

Anyone know of any intermediate level resources that are solid for learning these grammar rules?

http://ilearnrussian.com/
http://www.fluentin3months.com/forum/res...ised-list/
http://www.let.rug.nl/~houtzage/alicerussengpart2.html
http://en.ria.ru/learning_russian/
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v37032047b3Xjs...anlanguage
http://practicerussian.com/
http://www.speakingruss-ru.1gb.ru/lesson1_4.html
http://russongs.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...C29E209394
http://masterrussian.com/aa073000a.shtml
http://blog.lingualift.com/best-russian-...resources/
http://www.russianforeveryone.com/Rufe/L...it13_1.htm
http://readlang.com/ru/library
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/LRC/RU_...index.htm#
http://learningrussian.net/russian-literature/
http://www.russiangram.com/
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ838386.pdf
http://www.russianmentor.net/RussianLibr..._list.html
http://school-litra.ru/view_class-cat-5.php
http://book-kniga.ru/anglijskij-yazyk/o-...-bilingua/
http://cytrussian.tuxfamily.org/
http://deti-online.com/skazki/sbornik-sk...kiy-princ/



This isn't just a wall of links I copied from some forum. I have used every single one from these at some point in my studies and currently they all work.

Self-study of any kind means that you need to spend some time on material acquisition as well as the study itself. So take your time and browse through the links and start working with whatever material suits you best.


Good luck.

Post: #84

(03-19-2015 02:44 AM)Jneg Wrote:  So I've learned basic Russian with the memrise app so I now have a decent vocabulary foundation of a little over 400 words, and some key phrases.. how do I advance my Russian without spending any money?
Specifically, I'm not great at conjugating new verbs, or knowing how or when to change the ending of adjectives and nouns and I'm totally in the dark when it comes to those damn cases.

What are you learning for? The answer to that question will decide how you should proceed.

I wouldn't sweat the cases too much. Unless you need them to pass a course at university there are much more important things to spend your time on. I have no idea how to form pretty much any of the cases logically, I just do it naturally from time spent reading and studying vocabulary etc. I don't even know what half the cases mean, what is the locative?!

Although you don't want to spend money I would say that buying just two books will take your Russian as far as you'd like to go and give you all the knowledge you'll need to speak very nice Russian if used with some of the free resources that micha posted.

First: 'The Big Silver Book Of Russian Verbs'

555 verbs and all their conjunctions along with thousands of conversation examples for each verb. Also hundreds of idioms in there. Can't recommend it enough.

Second: 'A Frequency Of Russian Usage: Core Vocabulary For Learners'

This Routledge dictionary gives you the most frequent 10,000 words used in Russian along with an example sentence for each word so that you can get context for each word which is vital. Every learner should own this book. Within 6 months of owning this and learning the words in order from easy to hard I could read Russian newspaper articles without too much of a struggle.

Somehow get the money together to buy these books and you'll never need to buy another book. Slowly work your way though them over the years until you know them inside out.

The best free resource for learning and cementing Russian is self-talk. I spend half an hour a day talking to myself out loud having imaginary conversations and using vocabulary I have just learnt. It gets you speaking very fluently ( fluent as in tempo and not struggling to remember words ). I imagine different scenarios such as:

I have just scored the winning goal for Russia in the World Cup final. I now have to give a press conference and field journalist's questions.

I see a beautiful women in a bar in Moscow, how do I open her and chat to her?

I've been accused of a crime and need to defend myself in a Russian court.

I'm a photographer and see a hot girl on the Kreschatik, how do I convince her to pose for me?

Doing that cements words in your mind so that you don't struggle to remember them when you are in a real situation. There is a huge difference between knowing a word and actually using it in a conversation. I've seduced Ani Lorak about 100 times in my self-talk conversations

Post: #85

@jneg

In my own experience, Russians will forgive mistakes if the intention of your words is clear. The same way you don't spend time correcting a girl who speaks broken english with you, Russians won't sit there correcting you if your grammar is a bit off. Vocabulary, intonation, the style of your speech and your body language are just as important. I've spent nights out in bars talking with Russians on a vocabulary of a few hundred words, and there's always an understanding.

I think Ligurian has a great point. How you want to speak won't change just because you're trying a new language. You have your own style and way of speaking. It's best to think about how you want to speak, find out how to convert that into Russian, and translate through conversations with yourself. Even Russians have set phrases and questions they use on an individual level, you can do the same. It'll probably add to your personality and character in a foreign language even if it sounds a bit different to what the natives are used to.

Post: #86

(03-19-2015 04:19 AM)RandomGuy1 Wrote:  You have started the wrong way in my opinion. Take a look at this course: http://learnrussian.rt.com/lessons/ I suggest you start from the beginning otherwise you will miss grammar rules etc. Another link: http://www.russianlessons.net/

Good luck!

Memrise might not be the best way to start, but I strongly recommend it because it gamifies the learning process. It's really like playing a game on your smartphone which results in knowledge of a new language or whatever subject you're interested in. I learned to read Cyrillic and gathered a small vocabulary in a very short time. Now that I'm firmly sold on the idea of becoming more fluent, I'll advance with some more practical learning.

(03-19-2015 05:33 AM)CaptainCrazy Wrote:  

(03-19-2015 02:44 AM)Jneg Wrote:  So I've learned basic Russian with the memrise app so I now have a decent vocabulary foundation of a little over 400 words, and some key phrases.. how do I advance my Russian without spending any money?

Могу попиздеть с тобой на этом форуме. Абсолютно бесплатно. Реальный русский базар нахаляву.

I can *something* (I assume practice) on this forum absolutely free. Real russian *something something* ?
Clearly I have some work to do. But yeah, I'm totally in favour of a thread to practice in especially with the experienced guys in this forum

(03-19-2015 05:34 AM)micha Wrote:  http://ilearnrussian.com/
http://www.fluentin3months.com/forum/res...ised-list/
http://www.let.rug.nl/~houtzage/alicerussengpart2.html
http://en.ria.ru/learning_russian/
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v37032047b3Xjs...anlanguage
http://practicerussian.com/
http://www.speakingruss-ru.1gb.ru/lesson1_4.html
http://russongs.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...C29E209394


Good luck.

You're the gift that keeps on giving micha, thanks again.

(03-19-2015 06:49 AM)The Ligurian Wrote:  

(03-19-2015 02:44 AM)Jneg Wrote:  So I've learned basic Russian with the memrise app so I now have a ...

What are you learning for? The answer to that question will decide how you should proceed.

I wouldn't sweat the cases too much. Unless you need them to pass a course at university there are much more important things to spend your time on. I have no idea how to form pretty much any of the cases logically, I just do it naturally from time spent reading and studying vocabulary etc. I don't even know what half the cases mean, what is the locative?!

Although you don't want to spend money I would say that buying just two books will take your Russian as far as you'd like to go and give you all the knowledge you'll need to speak very nice Russian if used with some of the free resources that micha posted.

First: 'The Big Silver Book Of Russian Verbs'

555 verbs and all their conjunctions along with thousands of conversation examples for each verb. Also hundreds of idioms in there. Can't recommend it enough.

Second: 'A Frequency Of Russian Usage: Core Vocabulary For Learners'

This Routledge dictionary gives you the most frequent 10,000 words used in Russian along with an example sentence for each word so that you can get context for each word which is vital. Every learner should own this book. Within 6 months of owning this and learning the words in order from easy to hard I could read Russian newspaper articles without too much of a struggle.

Somehow get the money together to buy these books and you'll never need to buy another book. Slowly work your way though them over the years until you know them inside out.

The best free resource for learning and cementing Russian is self-talk. I spend half an hour a day talking to myself out loud having imaginary conversations and using vocabulary I have just learnt. It gets you speaking very fluently ( fluent as in tempo and not struggling to remember words ). I imagine different scenarios such as:

I have just scored the winning goal for Russia in the World Cup final. I now have to give a press conference and field journalist's questions.

I see a beautiful women in a bar in Moscow, how do I open her and chat to her?

I've been accused of a crime and need to defend myself in a Russian court.

I'm a photographer and see a hot girl on the Kreschatik, how do I convince her to pose for me?

Doing that cements words in your mind so that you don't struggle to remember them when you are in a real situation. There is a huge difference between knowing a word and actually using it in a conversation. I've seduced Ani Lorak about 100 times in my self-talk conversations

(03-19-2015 08:45 AM)tattiemasher Wrote:  @jneg

In my own experience, Russians will forgive mistakes if the intention of your words is clear. The same way you don't spend time correcting a girl who speaks broken english with you, Russians won't sit there correcting you if your grammar is a bit off. Vocabulary, intonation, the style of your speech and your body language are just as important. I've spent nights out in bars talking with Russians on a vocabulary of a few hundred words, and there's always an understanding.

I think Ligurian has a great point. How you want to speak won't change just because you're trying a new language. You have your own style and way of speaking. It's best to think about how you want to speak, find out how to convert that into Russian, and translate through conversations with yourself. Even Russians have set phrases and questions they use on an individual level, you can do the same. It'll probably add to your personality and character in a foreign language even if it sounds a bit different to what the natives are used to.

Awesome post. I'm scoping the books on amazon as we speak. Also, the self talk thing is a solid idea. I've just been repeating phrases aloud memorizing and sometimes writing the words out manually which has been a huge help for memorization.

A little about why I'm learning Russian: after my trip to China I decided that my next destination would be Russia. The only thing that I felt held me back from being social at the level I want to be and gaming at the level I'm used to was the language, I really only had a shot with girls who could communicate in English. Plus cab drivers were horrible to deal with and I couldn't express myself to people. When I go to Russia I'd like to be able to use game, go out alone, tell cab drivers where I want to go... read the newspaper.. etc, etc. It would vastly enhance my experience. So yeah, I'm not learning for academic purposes. Its more about scoring a Russian qt3.14 at the coffee shop. I already have my Russian flag because Ottawa has so many immigrants, but I'd like to do it on Russian soil, in Russia.

Post: #87

...

Post: #88

I recommend watching free russian movies online with the english subtitles underneath. There is one called Olympus Inferno that is good, also I am still trying to locate the one about the people trapped on a metro train.

Post: #89

(03-19-2015 04:09 PM)Constitution45 Wrote:  I recommend watching free russian movies online with the english subtitles underneath. There is one called Olympus Inferno that is good, also I am still trying to locate the one about the people trapped on a metro train.

I watched a russian Gremlins last night with English subtitles... it was like
"blah blah blah nravitsa blah blah blah ochen horosho blah blah spaceba blah blah skazal blah blah". It was nice to pick out some words but it was a reminder that I have so much more to learn. Also: Gremlins was a pretty good movie for its time.

Post: #90

And I forward to you the recommendation from The Ligurian to watch for example with Russian subtitles. So you will become more used to expressions and your brain will construct the correct situations to them because you saw it with your eyes.

Give it a try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW3aSnSH_-M

@The Ligurian
Thanks for the hint with "Шулер" - I like it a lot till now.

Post: #91

Does anyone have any tips on how to memorize long Russian words ?

Post: #92

(03-19-2015 04:37 PM)RandomGuy1 Wrote:  And I forward to you the recommendation from The Ligurian to watch for example with Russian subtitles. So you will become more used to expressions and your brain will construct the correct situations to them because you saw it with your eyes.

Give it a try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW3aSnSH_-M

@The Ligurian
Thanks for the hint with "Шулер" - I like it a lot till now.

Me too.

In the title translation, don't they mean "cardshark" not "cardsharp"?

Or is there something I don't get?

Post: #93

If anyone wants the Russian 555 verb book for free
PDF available here http://www.lesjeunesrussisants.fr/conjug..._VERBS.pdf

Just download it to your smart phone and read it with a book reading app so you can use the search function for verbs you want to use. Friggin every tense is conjugated for you. Amazingly useful

Post: #94

(03-19-2015 05:38 PM)Agreddor Wrote:  Does anyone have any tips on how to memorize long Russian words ?

Mnemonics.

For words I have trouble getting to stick ( short or long ) I just associate them. So recently I could not remember скользкий meaning slippery. I then just associated the word to the England footballer Paul Scholes whose surname sounds almost the same. You could say Paul Scholes was a slippery player too so it all ties in. Now it has stuck I don't need the mnemonic. Азартный meaning adventuresome I associated with the Belgian player Eden Hazzard.

However the truth is that whatever the technique, repetition is the only true way of it sticking.

Post: #95

Я Русский Оккупант - "I'm a Russian Occupant"

Thought some of you guys might find this video interesting. It's a nationalist russian propaganda video, it has subtitles in English and other languages.

Post: #96

Has anyone successfully used Russian to pick up girls before ?

I did a few days ago.

Saw this Slavic looking girl and said "привет, ничего если разведу кастёр зидис. She looks at me blankly and I say это шутка. We banter for an hour and I dare her to sing the Russian national anthem. Got her digits and the next time she's visiting I'll be showing her around and hopefully showing her my bedroom

Post: #97

Agreddor turn on auto predict on your phone so that it automatically tidies up your spelling. What you wrote is understandable but it will stop you writing things wrong like 'Русси'. It also reinforces the correct way to spell things.

Well done though.

Post: #98

(04-02-2015 07:30 AM)Agreddor Wrote:  Has anyone successfully used Russian to pick up girls before ?

I did a few days ago.

Saw this Slavic looking girl and said "привет, ничего если разведу кастёр зидис. She looks at me blankly and I say это шутка. We banter for an hour and I dare her to sing the Russian national anthem. Got her digits and the next time she's visiting I'll be showing her around and hopefully showing her my bedroom

Where do you live? You just went up to a girl who looked like she might be Russian? That's ballsy.

Nice going.

Post: #99

(04-02-2015 06:58 AM)Luisaceo Wrote:  Я Русский Оккупант - "I'm a Russian Occupant"

Thought some of you guys might find this video interesting. It's a nationalist russian propaganda video, it has subtitles in English and other languages.

Holy shit, that's powerful stuff.

If I were Russian and a little younger I'd be all over that.

Post: #100

(04-02-2015 12:37 PM)micha Wrote:  

(04-02-2015 06:58 AM)Luisaceo Wrote:  Я Русский Оккупант - "I'm a Russian Occupant"

Thought some of you guys might find this video interesting. It's a nationalist russian propaganda video, it has subtitles in English and other languages.

Holy shit, that's powerful stuff.

If I were Russian and a little younger I'd be all over that.

I love the jab at the end about "western values" with the slooty looking woman and the kids book about having two dads.

Russians are so red pill, they see this filth for what it is...

Is it any wonder I'm learning the language and planning to go there?