Post: #1

Looks like this is a required language for those of us going to countries in the former Soviet union.

Does anyone recommend any self-learning materials besides Pimsleur? Putting "learn russian" in google leads to quite a few resources. I'm listening a bit to Russian and its encouraging to notice that many words in Polish and Russian are the same.

Post: #2

From my experience and from talking to my Russian teacher about it, the English materials for learning Russian usually suck pretty bad. It makes sense, there's not a ton of demand from it.

I did Pimsleur for about a month before I went, and I can't say it helped a whole lot. Russian grammar is really dynamic and complicated, so memorizing short phrases really just teaches you to do that: say short phrases. In Russian you can say three words and it can mean like seven different things depending on which endings you use and how you conjugate it.

I also studied out of a small Berlitz travel language book before I went and it didn't do much either. In fact, my teacher said it probably did as much harm as good. It taught Russian words phonetically (i.e., it would have "kak te-bya za-vyoot?" instead of "как тебя завут?") which led to all sorts of bad pronunciation habits and grammar confusion.

It wasn't until I got there, learned to read and write the Cyrillic alphabet (not very hard), and started sounding everything out and working through a Russian textbook in Russian that everything started clicking and sticking...

I would maybe use some online materials and/or Pimsleur to just get some basic words and the alphabet down. Then, since you're in Eastern Europe already, I would find a textbook written in Russian and start working out of that. Obviously, if you can afford it, a teacher or tutor is ideal.

I'm advanced conversational in Spanish and know some basic Portuguese. But Russian's a different beast. Takes a long time to get conversational.

Post: #3

I learned the alphabet and a couple words here.

RussianLessons.net

Post: #4

Do you find this chart to be accurate, as least insofar as you can base it on other languages you've learned?

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:L...h_Speakers

Post: #5

Yes, my progress with Russian felt about half the speed of my progress with Spanish for the same amount of effort.

Post: #6

(10-22-2011 12:26 PM)Roosh Wrote:  Looks like this is a required language for those of us going to countries in the former Soviet union.
Does anyone recommend any self-learning materials besides Pimsleur?

In my opinion self-learning materials would only help if you are in the environment, and you communicate with Russians every day so they'd correct your pronunciation.

Just in case you learned Spanish/Portuguese yourself, those languages are quite easy; their index is 2, while the index for Russian is 4, same as Thai and Greek.

Your main issue would be speaking Russian which is grammatically correct. Russians in general are NOT used to accents or grammar mistakes, and pronouncing the word in the incorrect case may sometime change the meaning of the whole sentence. This is not a problem when you're asking for directions or discussing business, but when you play with emotions and try to use humor it can kill the playful vibe pretty quickly.

Quote:Putting "learn russian" in google leads to quite a few resources. I'm listening a bit to Russian and its encouraging to notice that many words in Polish and Russian are the same.

Each word in Russian has six cases which are used depending on how the word is used (for example, "dog" is "sobaka" when you say "this is a dog", but it becomes "sobaku" when you ask "what is your dog's breed"). Then the word changes depending on the count - i.e. it is "sobaka" when you say "here is one dog", but it is "sobaki" when you say "there are three dogs" and "sobak" when you say "there are five dogs". And so on. The generic words are easy to learn, it is the ending rules which make everything very complex.

Post: #7

(10-22-2011 12:26 PM)Roosh Wrote:  Looks like this is a required language for those of us going to countries in the former Soviet union.

Does anyone recommend any self-learning materials besides Pimsleur? Putting "learn russian" in google leads to quite a few resources. I'm listening a bit to Russian and its encouraging to notice that many words in Polish and Russian are the same.

Try the foreign service "tapes" if you can find them.

I've read that 60% of Polish vocab is similar to Russian

Post: #8

Polish is West Slavic. Russian is East Slavic. Don't expect them to be as similar as say Spanish and French are.

Post: #9

Does this mean it's the Ukraine next Roosh?

Post: #10

(10-23-2011 09:33 AM)Vicious Wrote:  Does this mean it's the Ukraine next Roosh?

My plans aren't solid yet, but i'm hedging my bets.

Post: #11

Too bad there's no tropical place where they speak Russian, eh Roosh? It's gonna be some cold times in Ridgemonski High.

Post: #12

(10-23-2011 11:52 AM)Menace Wrote:  Too bad there's no tropical place where they speak Russian, eh Roosh? It's gonna be some cold times in Ridgemonski High.

The Varna coast in Bulgaria is very warm and sunny in the summer and crawling with EE people on vacation. I've meant to write a data sheet on this places since I joined this board but haven't gotten aroudn to it.

Post: #13

Afraid not. Pimsleur is still your best bet. It will get enough to have a decent conversation and get laid

BTW- If you're considering Ukraine, avoid Lviv. The women aren't great (ethnic Ukrainians). Go for Kiev. Kharkiv has the best chicks, and they're no tourists. It's a second tier pussy mecca - you're kind of place I'd say. You will need Russian though, English is not nearly as prevalent as Poland.

Post: #14

(10-23-2011 12:51 AM)P Dog Wrote:  Polish is West Slavic. Russian is East Slavic. Don't expect them to be as similar as say Spanish and French are.

Right on dude. I speak fluent Russian and have several Polish friends. When they talk amongst themselves I can only understand the topic and an occasional word but rarely can undestand the full sentence. The languages are not as common as people think.

Post: #15

(10-23-2011 11:52 AM)Menace Wrote:  Too bad there's no tropical place where they speak Russian, eh Roosh? It's gonna be some cold times in Ridgemonski High.

There is. Try Sochi...used to be the most exclusive resort for Government figures back in the Communist days. The beach is nothing to speak of but the climate there is superb, similar to South Europe. Also, the Olympics will be happening there in 2014 so time to hit it now before it get's overdeveloped and too expensive

Post: #16

(10-22-2011 12:26 PM)Roosh Wrote:  its encouraging to notice that many words in Polish and Russian are the same.

Even more words are similar (and in many cases the same) between Bulgarian and Russian. But few Bulgarians speak good Russian. Older people speak it because they learned it in school (mandatory back in Comrade Brezhnev's time, same as in Poland).
Some young guys think they can speak it just because it sounds similar, and it just elicits laughs from the Russian tourists they try to pick up at the beach.

Here is what it took me to learn Russian:
- a few years of 3x week Russian classes in Junior High (mostly forgotten after a few years)
- one of my best friends in business school was a Russian guy with whom I made it a habit to speak in Russian (props to the guy who was patient with me)
- many years of practice over the summers picking up Russian tourists at the beach
- three months with a steady Ukranian girlfriend with whom I spoke in Russian half the time

And I am still not grammatically correct because of the crazy cases, conjugations, and other shit described above. If I tried to write in Russian I would probably come off as an ignoramus, but I manage to get my points across well when speaking, and I also understand everything when spoken to, including most of the nuances (or so I like to think).

Post: #17

I live in East Ukraine, past four years, it's in east Ukraine; therefore, everyone speaks Russian. A few years ago I enrolled at our local pedagogical university and took the Russian language course for foreign students, the class was very difficult, Russian langauge is very complex, for me Russian comes along gradually, kind of in a slow, methodical way. Try to learn the main phases, and for sure learn how to say words like you have beautiful eyes, beautiful hair, I like your skrit, you have good fashion style, and even something like you have a great body, this is Ukraine afterall, (girls melt when they here this) for me this is genuine and honest, I love deep blue eyes, dark black hair, and tall maybe 173 cm and higher, many girls in my city have this look. You may want to hire a private teacher when you arrive, but I think you'll get more out of a group setting, I ve done both and the class structure was way more benafical.

Post: #18

Timmy: you think you can start a new thread on your Ukrainian experiences, especially with the women? A lot of guys here are interested in the country.

Post: #19

Don't some older Polish people speak Russian, too?

I used to work in a kitchen with this Polish lady in her 50s (thin with tig ol' bitties, you could tell she was quite the piece when she was younger) and when she heard me speaking Russian with a waitress she mentioned that when she was in school a hundred years ago they were taught Polish and Russian. So when I didn't have Russian and Ukrainian waitresses to flirt with, I would practice my Russian with her.

Maybe you need to elderly chat up some elderly people?

Post: #20

http://www.russian.ucla.edu/vputi/

Listening exercises from a second year book that I used when I was taking Russian.

Post: #21

I've tried many different self-learning resources for Russian. I started with Pimsleur and made it about half way through before I got frustrated with my limited vocabulary. As you know it's great for speaking practice. I've gotten many complements on my pronunciation.

Then I moved on to Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone is good for building the basic vocabulary. Sitting on the computer clicking on pictures and listening to speakers is less tedious than flash cards. It is frustrating though that the path they have you follow takes a long time to get to some words that you will need quickly when you are in Russia. It is also extremely frustrating to the point of useless for Russian grammar. I would only really recommend it if was free.

Next I moved onto the New Penguin Beginner's Guide to Russian. This book has helped me immensely. It is very readable and fills in the holes that are left from Pimsleur and Rosetta, slowly increasing your vocabulary, and giving you a good grasp on the case system and aspects. It has taught me things that have increased my vocabulary retention. I am about halfway through.

Simultaneously I used a program called Anki flashcards, with a "deck" of cards made from the 1000 most frequent Russian words. This program is great because it uses a spaced repetition similar to Pimsleur based on the feedback you give on the particular word's difficulty. This lets you get the obvious words out of the way quickly. Also, you can download a plug-in called Google Text to Speech (TTS) that has a mass download feature, which will automatically and quickly annotate the whole deck of cards with a Russian and/or English pronunciation. Google uses native speakers, so it sounds decent (though sometimes buggy), and hearing the words as you go speeds up the learning process a lot.

As I flip through the cards I annotate the harder ones with an example sentence taken from either Lingvo (Abby Lingvo, a solid Ru/En software dictionary) or MasterRussian (a great website for resources). This helps you quickly memorize at least 1 useful phrase for the word. I wouldn't put too much info per card. The decks for 1000 most frequent words, 500 most frequent verbs, etc. are all available for free download when you get the program. You can even download a Pimsleur plug-in which copies their system.

I'm in Russia right now so obviously that helps. If I had to do it again though I would have studied a lot more before I came, and I would have skipped Rosetta and used Pimsleur and the Penguin guide from the get-go. Anki is crucial once you get the hang of it. Some of my Russian friends have a Slova (something like that) dictionary on their iPhones, I haven't really looked into it. Mind you, my speaking level is still weakish, I can understand a lot, and when I read I can understand even more. I've been here a couple of months and it definitely doesn't come quickly. I have a tutor for conversation practice, they are pretty cheap if you're not in a big city (300 rubles/hr..about $10).

Post: #22

(10-24-2011 03:21 AM)K-man Wrote:  

(10-22-2011 12:26 PM)Roosh Wrote:  its encouraging to notice that many words in Polish and Russian are the same.

Even more words are similar (and in many cases the same) between Bulgarian and Russian.

Post: #23

Thanks everyone for the recommendations so far. I'm going to start with Pimsleur and then go from there.

Blunt: Where do you get the Russian flashcards for Anki? Does it come with the program.

Post: #24

(10-27-2011 07:32 AM)Roosh Wrote:  Thanks everyone for the recommendations so far. I'm going to start with Pimsleur and then go from there.

Blunt: Where do you get the Russian flashcards for Anki? Does it come with the program.

There is an option to create and download shared decks. Once you install it, just go to File -> Download -> Shared Deck and then search Russian. Organize by downloads and the 1000 most common should be at the top. Same deal for the plug-in Google TTS.

I downloaded that one and I've just been improving it with examples and sound as I go. I'm going to put it up there soon and call it 1000 most common 2.0 if you want it.

Post: #25

Michel Thomas Learning Russian series is quite good, it is really easy to follow.