Post: #376

A question about Flashcards.

Here in Wroclaw, I found a relatively cheap package of 600 flashcards in 12 different categories at a shop, presented by FiszkiPlus (Polish for Foreigners). It also includes the exact pronunciation of all the cards, as well as the sentence examples it uses for each of the words.

I've since downloaded Anki premium on my phone, and am adding the picture side of both sides as Front (English) and back (Polish), and it allows me to save my own pronunciation of the word AND the sentence as a whole to the back side. So when I answer it, not only it shows me the word and sentence, it replays how I myself pronounced them both (After carefully listening to the guide pronouncer first). Like shown below, I take photo of both sides and add them on the app, as well as my own pronunciation of the word and sentence example based on what I heard from the mentor on the included feature.




I'm finding it very good, and addictive. I guess hearing myself say the words and sentences, Every time I see them is great.

I was wondering if anyone knows such product for Russian? FiszkiPlus is solely Polish and doesn't offer English-Russian. I did a search on Ebay and Amazon and couldn't find a similar project that I'd have shipped.

Be great to hear advise on similar product for Russian.

Post: #377

(05-03-2016 12:09 PM)AManLikePutin Wrote:  A question about Flashcards.

Here in Wroclaw, I found a relatively cheap package of 600 flashcards in 12 different categories at a shop, presented by FiszkiPlus (Polish for Foreigners). It also includes the exact pronunciation of all the cards, as well as the sentence examples it uses for each of the words.

I've since downloaded Anki premium on my phone, and am adding the picture side of both sides as Front (English) and back (Polish), and it allows me to save my own pronunciation of the word AND the sentence as a whole to the back side.

I was wondering if anyone knows such product for Russian? FiszkiPlus is solely Polish and doesn't offer English-Russian. I did a search on Ebay and Amazon and couldn't find a similar project that I'd have shipped.

Be great to hear advise on similar product for Russian.

Why are you creating your own Anki decks instead of using the shared decks?

Polish shared Anki decks.
Russian shared Anki decks.

Post: #378

So I am focusing on reinforcing what I know and not trying to add a lot of words that I will forget because I don't use them regularly. But in reading something, I am reminded that there are sort of similar words between Russian and English. Has anyone come across a good list of those? These words, I think, would be easy to add to my vocab (hopefully they are useful ones). I came across a small list, just wondering if there was more. I don't necessary agree with the list below because some seem a little bit of a stretch. But it is an example of what I am trying to find. I searched for a few minutes. It wasn't like there a Top 1000 Russian words that sound like English words. Thanks.

Mother - Mat`
Brother - Brat
Sister - Sestra
Daughter - Doch`
Son - Syn
Papa - Papa
Mama - Mama

My - Moj
Me - Menja, mne
Guest - Gost`
Mead - Med
Wolf - Volk
Water - Voda
Cat - Kot
Mouse - Mysh`
Swine - Svin, svinja
Day - Den`
Night - Noch
No, not - Ne, net
Be - Byt`
Grab - Grabit`
Dream - Drema, dremat`
Cross - Krest
Bird Cherry Tree - Cherjomuha
Beard - Boroda
Talk - Tolkovat`
Nose - Nos
Nostril - Nozdrja
Brow - Brov`
Deal - Delo
Goose - Gus`
Crook - Krjuk
Beat - Bit`
Stream - Stremnina
One - Odin
Two - Dva
Three - Tri
Six - Shest`
Seven - Sem`
Dale - Dol
Stall - Stojlo
Pre - Pred
Domestic - Domashnij
Pastor - Pastuh
Stranger - Strannik
Stay - Stoyat`
Seat - Sidet`
Lay - Lezhat`
Luna - Luna (not directly borrowed)
Lava - Lava
Soup (food) - Sup
Snow - Sneg
Milk - Moloko
Pale (wooden) - Palka
Desk - Doska
Salt - Sol`
Hill - Holm
Plate (stone) - Plita
Plow,plough - Plug
String - Struna
Croup - Krupa
Crupper - Krup
Widow - Vdova
Eat - Est`
Love - Lubov
Clue - Kl`uch
Saddle - Sedlo
Volition - Volja
Cry - Krik
Scaur - Skala
Rib - Rebro


Edit: This set is more what I was thinking of. Meaning I clearly know the word in English, but didn't know they used the same word in Russian. Basically, just knowing these are the Russian words, your vocab increased by 30-40 words or so without much effort (are they everyday useful? Maybe not). 100+ if the above ones are easily digestible for you. Any more you guys know off hand?

Таргет = target
Паб = pub
Тренинг = training
Пассворд = password
Уикенд = weekend
Кул = cool
Сканер = scanner
Принтер = printer
Компьютер = computer
Блендер = blender
Интернет = Internet
Дилер = dealer
Маркетинг = marketing
Продюсер = producer
Менеджер = manager
Босс = boss
Реэлтор = realtor
Провайдер = provider
Вирус = virus
Диск = disc
Веб-сайт = web-site
Веб-мастер = web-master
Банер = banner
Браузер = browser
Ноутбук = notebook
Футбол = football
Баскетбол = basketball
Боулинг = bowling
Дайвинг = diving
Матч = match
Миксер = mixer
Тостер = toaster
Блендер = blender
Хот-дог = hot-dog
Кетчуп = ketchup
Чизбургер = cheeseburger
Чипсы = chips

Post: #379

(05-01-2016 09:23 AM)Beirut Wrote:  Michel thomas is better than pimsleur for russian. When i used my pimsleur phrases i was often corrected and told i was using wrong words and sentences. It seems a bit out of touch.

Its also very limited in terms of actually useful words, i found michel thomas to have given me both a better grasp of tenses and more useful words to use .

Although pimsleurs method makes the words stick more.

Russian podcast so far seems the most straightforward/useful and structured of the three, although its slow paced so not sure how much it will cover

Downloaded all of Michel Thomas, the whole lot of it, Foundation, Advanced, and Vocabulary. Pleasantly surprised (or maybe that's how basic the MT method is...) that my two semesters of intensive Russian meant I had already learned in detail the entire Foundation and Advanced Course. All of it. There are 4 vocab CDs which I am now going through. Every four lessons or so there might be one or two new words which I learn, but that's fine, I need to prevent attrition and keep thinking in the language.

Will check out Russian podcast once I conclude both pimsleur and MT to keep me going.

Should also mention that one thing I notice in MT is that they keep saying нельзя is impossible. That's not correct, and my professor killed me on this one. That means forbidden, while невозможно actually means not possible. Maybe the two are interchangeable in Russian cultural context?

@samsamsam

Some hilarious ones for me are
флeш-драйв- flash drive
and for the Timati fans out there:
блэк-стар-мофия

Post: #380

swuglyfe,

Didn't know there was vocab. Is it this cd? http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Vocabulary...1444197657

Thanks.

Post: #381

(05-04-2016 11:44 PM)samsamsam Wrote:  So I am focusing on reinforcing what I know and not trying to add a lot of words that I will forget because I don't use them regularly. But in reading something, I am reminded that there are sort of similar words between Russian and English. Has anyone come across a good list of those? These words, I think, would be easy to add to my vocab (hopefully they are useful ones). I came across a small list, just wondering if there was more. I don't necessary agree with the list below because some seem a little bit of a stretch. But it is an example of what I am trying to find. I searched for a few minutes. It wasn't like there a Top 1000 Russian words that sound like English words. Thanks.

Edit: This set is more what I was thinking of. Meaning I clearly know the word in English, but didn't know they used the same word in Russian. Basically, just knowing these are the Russian words, your vocab increased by 30-40 words or so without much effort (are they everyday useful? Maybe not). 100+ if the above ones are easily digestible for you. Any more you guys know off hand?

Таргет = target
Паб = pub
Тренинг = training
Пассворд = password
Уикенд = weekend
Кул = cool
Сканер = scanner
Принтер = printer
Компьютер = computer
Блендер = blender
Интернет = Internet
Дилер = dealer
Маркетинг = marketing
Продюсер = producer
Менеджер = manager
Босс = boss
Реэлтор = realtor
Провайдер = provider
Вирус = virus
Диск = disc
Веб-сайт = web-site
Веб-мастер = web-master
Банер = banner
Браузер = browser
Ноутбук = notebook
Футбол = football
Баскетбол = basketball
Боулинг = bowling
Дайвинг = diving
Матч = match
Миксер = mixer
Тостер = toaster
Блендер = blender
Хот-дог = hot-dog
Кетчуп = ketchup
Чизбургер = cheeseburger
Чипсы = chips

What you are referring to are cognates. There are way too many to list, and more Russian-English cognates are created every day. But here is a link for Quizlet to learn a few more:

https://quizlet.com/281607/russian-cogna...ash-cards/

Post: #382

(05-11-2016 11:25 PM)samsamsam Wrote:  swuglyfe,

Didn't know there was vocab. Is it this cd? http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Vocabulary...1444197657

Thanks.

Yes, that should be the version.

Post: #383

Can anyone recommend a website or app for translations of imperfective & perfective verb forms? Would love to find something that has a search feature.

Post: #384

(05-17-2016 03:06 AM)NomadofEU Wrote:  Can anyone recommend a website or app for translations of imperfective & perfective verb forms? Would love to find something that has a search feature.

If you mean that you come across a conjugated verb in a sentence (for example):

'Экономика Китая показала рекордно низкий рост за 25 лет'

and want to easily find out: (a) what it means (b) whether it is imperfective or perfective © its aspectual partner -- unfortunately I don't think that exists.

The Master Russian site is the most convenient way to look up the meanings and find aspect partners of the most frequent verbs (http://masterrussian.com/vocabulary/common_verbs.htm)

For me, when I find an unfamiliar verb, I try to figure out the infinitive and then use google or either english/ Russian wikipedia to find out what it means and its aspectual partner. They don't make this easy.

Post: #385

(05-17-2016 06:26 AM)Kissinger2014 Wrote:  

(05-17-2016 03:06 AM)NomadofEU Wrote:  Can anyone recommend a website or app for translations of imperfective & perfective verb forms? Would love to find something that has a search feature.

If you mean that you come across a conjugated verb in a sentence (for example):

'Экономика Китая показала рекордно низкий рост за 25 лет'

and want to easily find out: (a) what it means (b) whether it is imperfective or perfective © its aspectual partner -- unfortunately I don't think that exists.

The Master Russian site is the most convenient way to look up the meanings and find aspect partners of the most frequent verbs (http://masterrussian.com/vocabulary/common_verbs.htm)

For me, when I find an unfamiliar verb, I try to figure out the infinitive and then use google or either english/ Russian wikipedia to find out what it means and its aspectual partner. They don't make this easy.

Thanks for the info, specifically I'm looking for a list of both imperfective and perfective:

Examples:
Искать - Находить
Покупать - Купить
Делать - Сделать
Смотреть - Посмотреть

Not sure if this resource exists?

Post: #386

Nomad, try Wiktionary:

For example the verb Kissinger provided.

показать (Link)

Do you know The Big Silver Book Of Russian Verbs? I suggest you google it and put three characters at the end of your search text if you know what I mean.

Post: #387

About three years ago after a trip to Kharkov I decided to get serious about learning Russian. I knew the level I wanted to get to with it. Finally after hundreds of hours of self study, watching Russian films and visiting FSU countries I have reached the level I aspired to.

In Novosibirsk I am repeatedly having people think I am Russian after talking to me. Today my friend was on a date with a girl we met last night in the street. She asked him how come he was traveling with a Russian guy. He explained that I was English. The barman in a local pub asked me if I had spent time abroad since I spoke Russian with an accent. I had to explain that I was in no way Russian. I guess that means I am now as competent in Russian as I need to be, the rest of the journey will be finishing things off, adding some vocabulary, tidying grammar up. The last stumbling block I had was talking on the phone in Russian. I hated it and avoided it whenever possible out of a lack of confidence. This trip has gotten me over it and I now phone companies and people quite happily knowing it would take a lot for me to be out of my depth.

This thread also motivated me hugely when Roosh started it. I saw him write that he was going to hit the books hard and thought to myself that there is no way he or anyone else on this forum is going to speak better than me. I knew how much it would hurt if I saw a video of him speaking awesome Russian if I had not progressed out of my own laziness. It made me determined to succeed.

I did it by small amounts of study a day, just 30-60 minutes. I did zero grammar study knowing I'd pick it up by ear. I just studied vocabulary and watched tv. 30 mins vocab then 30 mins of Russian tv to cement words and to learn context. I bought a usage frequency dictionary and set out to learn the first 2000 words and every day went over about 25 words, writing out sentences. If you want a blueprint to success then there it is for you. Also I committed to visiting the FSU as much as possible even though it was to the detriment of my career and finances. I also committed to dating exclusively girls with zero English so that I would not have to concede to their better English in the relationship. I learnt so much from girls I dated about how to use the language correctly and how to express myself as I wanted.

Looking back now it's not about the end point of being competent. There is no certificate or medal to hang around my neck. It was the journey getting here that was epic. The months in Belarus, Ukraine, the Caucasus, the people I met, relationships I had, adventures and disappointments each adding another incremental increase in fluency until this point 3 years down the line where I can finally say 'my Russian is no longer bullshit'.

Well I have a date with a young Siberian half my age now who speaks zero English and loves wearing the highest heels and the shortest skirt around town. Thanks Roosh.

Good luck on your language journey.

Post: #388

(05-21-2016 11:23 AM)The Ligurian Wrote:  About three years ago after a trip to Kharkov I decided to get serious about learning Russian. I knew the level I wanted to get to with it. Finally after hundreds of hours of self study, watching Russian films and visiting FSU countries I have reached the level I aspired to.


Looking back now it's not about the end point of being competent. There is no certificate or medal to hang around my neck. It was the journey getting here that was epic. The months in Belarus, Ukraine, the Caucasus, the people I met, relationships I had, adventures and disappointments each adding another incremental increase in fluency until this point 3 years down the line where I can finally say 'my Russian is no longer bullshit'.

Well I have a date with a young Siberian half my age now who speaks zero English and loves wearing the highest heels and the shortest skirt around town. Thanks Roosh.

Good luck on your language journey.

That is awesome. That is dedication and consistency to your goals...
which makes it possible to do things you never imagined...great inspiration!

Post: #389

Quite inspiring, Ligurian.

I'll throw in my own story from a few days ago, after having spent about 30 minutes a day learning Polish since November.

So me and my buddies are waiting in the main train station in Wroclaw. We go into a coffee shop, and one of my buddies sees what looks like a Ukrainian girl - in other words, unusually fashionable for a Polish girl - and has us sit next to her. He opens her indirectly, but she responds somewhat indifferently, saying her English isn't good (which it clearly wasn't from the way she spoke).

I then ask her - in Polish - if she's Ukrainian.

Boom. Her eyes light up. We then proceed to have fun conversation with her, successfully passing the time until our wait ends - and I get to practice my Polish, to boot. My buddy exchanges numbers with her, and we get photos of them together (she had me retake it to improve the lighting, lol).

Just wanted to inspire some other guys to learn whatever language they want, in case The Ligurian hadn't done that yet.

Post: #390

Great stuff 262, I'm curious if you could provide a quick snapshot of your overall assessment on where your language skills are in Polish IIRC about one year after moving there?

What topics are you now fully versed in, and what ones are you kicking yourself for not knowing better?

In my thought process, common lexical items like articles, conjunctions, key verbs, are all essential, along with topics like food, directions, and basic biographical info.

What sort of things and topics have been most useful for you in developing "daygame Polish", so to speak? I ask as someone following close behind in terms of my Russian studies.

Post: #391

Nod to swuglyfe for letting me know about th and extra vocab supplement. I know people like pimsleur also but I have mainly been working with Michel thomas and used to the style.

Application of effort over time gentlemen. I should have started years ago when I had a random idea about seeing the FSU. Get cracking.

Or as was so well put in shawshank redemption. Get busy living or get busy dying.

Post: #392

(05-23-2016 07:01 PM)swuglyfe Wrote:  Great stuff 262, I'm curious if you could provide a quick snapshot of your overall assessment on where your language skills are in Polish IIRC about one year after moving there?

What topics are you now fully versed in, and what ones are you kicking yourself for not knowing better?

In my thought process, common lexical items like articles, conjunctions, key verbs, are all essential, along with topics like food, directions, and basic biographical info.

What sort of things and topics have been most useful for you in developing "daygame Polish", so to speak? I ask as someone following close behind in terms of my Russian studies.

My Polish is still pretty bad, roughly at the level of a child still learning to speak.

I finished Pimsleur Polish 1 a while back, just finished Duolingo Polish, and am about to finish Michel Thomas Polish 1, if that gives you an idea of where I'm at. I do two Michel Thomas lessons a day - I repeat the last one I did yesterday, and then do the next one.

I'll also add that Duolingo is geared more for reading, and to a much lesser extent, writing. Don't rely on it for listening and speaking.

So to answer your next question, I'm only versed in the usual topics. The episode I mentioned before was my first experience with "daygame Polish." But now, with my Michel Thomas lessons coming to an end, to take it to the next level, I'll have to get more real-life experience, which The Ligurian laid out.

(05-24-2016 12:01 AM)samsamsam Wrote:  Nod to swuglyfe for letting me know about th and extra vocab supplement. I know people like pimsleur also but I have mainly been working with Michel thomas and used to the style.

Application of effort over time gentlemen. I should have started years ago when I had a random idea about seeing the FSU. Get cracking.

Or as was so well put in shawshank redemption. Get busy living or get busy dying.

I agree with a lot of folks, including forum member unbowed, who prefer Michel Thomas over Pimsleur. Pimsleur might be easier for beginners, but Michel Thomas covers more material. One could do what I did, and do Pimsleur first, then Michel Thomas.

Also agree that it's about doing manageable chunks every day, much like Roosh's one-approach a day habit.

Post: #393

@262,

Good to know. I agree that Duolingo is far more for simply recognition of words. For Russian, I'm working my way up but remembering extremely little in what is new. Rather, it's more to help me prevent attrition. Tangentially related, my Spanish is much worse and Duolingo barely helps, because it doesn't drill in the words enough. The click to create sentences is not impressionable enough on the brain. I find the best parts are where it gives me the blank field to translate from one language to another, but those might be 2-3 times per lesson. The rest is all sentence clicking.

WRT Michel Thomas and Pimsleur, I'm simply going to finish both. It's clear to me now that Duolingo, MT, and Pimsleur combined is pretty much the exact same (maybe just a smidgen more) as the one year of intensive collegiate Russian classes I just finished.

Post: #394

I agree using all the materials help.

I was just saying I got used to MT first - maybe if I started with Pimseleur it would be reversed. But others seemed to recommend MT (random posts on this thread) - so I started there first.

As long as you apply effort, anything can be good.

Post: #395

@swuglyfe - The Duolingo website is better than the app, in that you actually have to type the sentences from memory, and it doesn't let you click-to-complete the sentences.

Post: #396

(05-25-2016 04:18 AM)262 Wrote:  @swuglyfe - The Duolingo website is better than the app, in that you actually have to type the sentences from memory, and it doesn't let you click-to-complete the sentences.

Major breakthrough achieved right there. Most likely the app is tap heavy to avoid excessive typing on touchscreens.

Post: #397

Pimsleur, Michael Thomas and Duolingo all suck IMO (actually I've never encountered anyone who has reached a decent level using these materials). They are okay to get your feet wet but you should make the transition into native materials as soon as possible, otherwise you'll never learn how natives speak the language you're learning. Once you've acquired a basic vocabulary (the most frequent 1000 words or so) you can start reading children's books, short stories, whatever and start watching series and movies preferably without subtitles but at least with subtitles in your target language. It doesn't matter if you don't understand much, the visual cues should provide enough context. Add unknown words that look useful to Anki, rinse and repeat.

The problem with Pimsleur and similar materials is that they are totally unnatural. You'll never hear language used that way and it makes you content that you're making progress, while you're only repeating phrases like "Hi. My name is Jack. I am an American. Where are you from? Where is the hotel XY?" etc. and can't even understand a word in a proper conversation. Duolingo isn't very useful either, it makes you translate words from English to your target language which you should avoid at all costs, it's not what you want to do. You should think in your target language and not translate from English. Native materials are the key and are much more fun than using the aforementioned materials.

Post: #398

This summer my goals were originally to stack cash, lose 15 lbs, and find some adventure in my spare time. Today I decided I'm also going to learn Russian. I've been thinking about it for a while, and I'm going to dive in head first.

My plan is as follows:
- learn cyrillic by the end of the weekend
- work through RT's 100 free Russian lessons within a month
- then start watching TV shows that are dubbed in Russian (Spongebob) and writing down a bunch of words per episode and putting them into Anki and going through them on a daily basis.
- start working through the 1000 most common Russian words at the same
- after a month of not really talking that much I will get a few partners on a free language exchange (cute girls obviously) and do a few hours per week of conversation

I will be practically ignoring grammar and reading comprehension at first. My goal is conversation. Writing and reading will come later.

I should be fluent by the end of the summer.

^^^definitely a joke

Post: #399

(05-26-2016 09:03 AM)marty Wrote:  Pimsleur, Michael Thomas and Duolingo all suck IMO (actually I've never encountered anyone who has reached a decent level using these materials). They are okay to get your feet wet but you should make the transition into native materials as soon as possible, otherwise you'll never learn how natives speak the language you're learning. Once you've acquired a basic vocabulary (the most frequent 1000 words or so) you can start reading children's books, short stories, whatever and start watching series and movies preferably without subtitles but at least with subtitles in your target language. It doesn't matter if you don't understand much, the visual cues should provide enough context. Add unknown words that look useful to Anki, rinse and repeat.

The problem with Pimsleur and similar materials is that they are totally unnatural. You'll never hear language used that way and it makes you content that you're making progress, while you're only repeating phrases like "Hi. My name is Jack. I am an American. Where are you from? Where is the hotel XY?" etc. and can't even understand a word in a proper conversation. Duolingo isn't very useful either, it makes you translate words from English to your target language which you should avoid at all costs, it's not what you want to do. You should think in your target language and not translate from English. Native materials are the key and are much more fun than using the aforementioned materials.

Having completed all three for Polish, I must agree. They're good for building a foundation, but it's going to take more work and different materials to complete the house.

Post: #400

(05-27-2016 02:30 AM)Switch Wrote:  - work through RT's 100 free Russian lessons within a month

This is doable but come on, don't kid youself. If you want to take this course seriously than you will maybe accomplish 2-4 lessons per week besides working or whatever you do the rest of your day.

In one month you have to pass ~3,3 lessons per day as per your receipt. I suggest you take the slow lane and try to really understand what each lesson is about. Here you will win in the long term.

Anyhow, all the best!