Remember: it may be Cyrillic, but it is still an alphabet. And alphabets are made up of letters, just like English. But what makes it even easier than English is that these letters have consistent pronunciation. Ever try to say this poem in English aloud? Then you'll know how welcome a consistently pronounced alphabet is! While Russian tends to have longer words than English, as well as some tricky sounds, at least it doesn't have this problem of sometimes needing to guess how a word is pronounced, like in English.
Can you imagine? You pronounce it like it's spelled and you spell it like it's pronounced. Honestly, you could learn Cyrillic in a day. You may make a few mistakes here and there with a few tricky letters that pose as English letters. But after a few weeks, you'll have it down pat and you'll never have to think about it again. And many of the other ones have the same pronunciation, they just look a little funny.
Additionally, I find the Cyrillic alphabet to be visually distinct. It still has that boxy look that English has where, at least to me, each letter looks relatively different from the other. I don't feel that as much with say, Arabic , which looks very curvy. Romance languages are not the only ones to have adopted words from the English language known as cognates. Russian has plenty as well. You just wouldn't know it because it looks different in Cyrillic.
Additionally, there is a whole class of verbs that pretty much have just been Russified from English:. In fact, more and more English words are finding their way into Russian because of Western media as well as technology-based words. These seem to be adopted almost with a general agreement across various languages. There's a right way to say something. For example, if you want to say that you are going to the park, you would probably say, I am going to the park.
You wouldn't say, to the park, I go. Did you notice how in the second variant I left out the subject? In English, we almost always include the pronoun, partly because we don't have a unique conjugation for each conjugation person. Because Russian has a defined conjugation for every pronoun, you don't need to include pronouns in sentences.
One of the aspects of Russian that appeals to me the most is that it's a very rule-based language. I was a Math major, so I cling to repeatable procedures and a set of defined rules that I can wrap my head around. For example, in French, you have to memorize the gender for each individual word. Sure, there are tendencies for things to be masculine or feminine, but in general, it's not scalable.
This creates additional annoyances when you add adjectives and possessive pronouns. They also require agreement, stemming from the noun. There is a set rule for what is masculine, feminine, and neuter neutral third case , with almost no exceptions. There are very few exceptions to these rules, but there are five notable ones that occur mainly because of physical gender. Then a pause, then the Russian sentence two times followed by a pause. After first hearing the English sentence, try reading the Russian version out loud.
Do your best to mimic the Russian speaker as precisely as you can. Speak clearly, in the same speed and with the same melody and intonation as the Russian speaker. At first, this is very difficult! Even if it feels like a relatively easy task to keep doing more and more sentences, you need to be aware that these sentences will all be scheduled for review. Several times! After hours, your first sentences will be scheduled for review. Review these before adding any new sentences.
Glossika reschedules these sentences by using an algorithm based on the forgetting curve. The forgetting curve is a way of estimating how long you will remember a new piece of information before forgetting it.
The milestones are They listen to input for several years before they begin blabbering. There are no drills, exercises or grammar explanations.
Like children do. Not randomly , which is the case for children, who might not hear an unknown word again for a long time. And each new sentence will use vocabulary and grammar closely related to what you just learned.
Or you might simply go to the Glossika Russian website. There, finally the link I promised! Reading is one of the most effective ways of getting better at Russian. Most people would naturally assume that they need to get a dictionary, start reading a book, and look up unknown words as they show up. Reading a text in Russian while constantly having to rely on a dictionary is extremely tiring and frustrating.
And for each unknown word, you need to 1. Get the dictionary, 2. Find the right word, 3. Match the right definition to the version of the word in your Russian text, 4.
Get back into reading. If you started reading with a lot of motivation, you can be sure that the motivation you have left will be spread thin at this point. But if reading with a dictionary is so bad, then how is it even possible to use Reading as a study method for learning Russian? A great tool that I like for reading articles online in a foreign language is Google Dictionary.
Google Dictionary is a free browser extension that you can download and install for the Chrome browser. Alternatives exist for other browsers too. It allows you to click any word, anywhere on the internet in order to get an instant translation. You can search for anything that you might be interested in and be pretty sure to find something interesting to read in Russian.
Reading online articles with Google Dictionary is much easier than having to look up all unknown words in a paper dictionary. Instead of being interrupted in your reading for several minutes, you can continue reading immediately.
You can read most things using Google Dictionary, but it still takes a little extra effort to read texts in a foreign language like Russian than it would in your native language. You might be interested in philosophy, and not all philosophy texts use difficult language. They do, however, speak of difficult concepts. With LingQ, you import Russian texts into their online reader or app and study the text in their interface.
LingQ then analyzes the text and compares it to your known vocabulary. The blue word will now turn into ordinary text. If the word is new to you, click the translation you feel fits best. The word will now turn yellow.
As you see the word again and again in different texts, you can change its category from a word that you slightly recognize to a word you almost know. LingQ then provides different tools that you can use to review and learn these yellow words. You can do flashcards or get daily reminders in an email among other things. Can you come up with something better? If you can think of a synonym in Russian. If you want to learn more about LingQ, you might want to read my article about it.
Or you could go directly to the LingQ website and have a look. When re-reading the words cross reference the alphabet when you have trouble. Once you have enough words written down in your Russian journal, you must make flashcards. This will give you a second phase of writing the same word, while also providing priceless personalized learning material.
Bring the flashcards along with you on bus or planes rides, for downtime at the office, or to fill whatever couple minutes you have free during your busy day. Russian words have very little indication of where the stress is. After every word learned, especially if the stressed syllable surprised you, you should write a stress mark over the proper portion of the word.
Beginner's Russian books usually mark the stressed syllable even though this is never indicated in the actual language. Russian has a couple tricky sounds for English speakers as well as consonant clusters that can really be a mouthful, for example:.
To help you pronounce it is essential to hear native speakers speak, which outside of a trip to Russia is best done with the aforementioned programs, Pimsleur and Speechling. It is really amazing the advantage I have over classroom learners with regard to pronunciation! Russian grammar will not come naturally to an English speaker.
Because the grammar rules in Russian are very difficult! So, to help with verb conjugation, adjective agreement, and the next step of tackling the cases, observe how words function and change in set sentences. This is a funny expression to say that the vodka is high quality, the feminine adjective refers to vodka.
At first, don't try to memorize all the tendencies of each of the 6 Russian cases. Instead choose a masculine, feminine, and neuter noun to serve as examples. Make a table for your words like this:. Pay attention to the end of each word and how that ending changes. Make sample sentences for each declination of the word so you become accustomed to the specific uses of each case.
This will not happen overnight, but if you master your first three words it will give you the confidence to master thousands more. Also, check out the app YazhFree. Consider this app as flash cards for cases and use it frequently.
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