11–20 of 24 posts
It may seem radical but as far as I know it’s by far the fastest way to learn. 3 months seem like a lot, but I believe you can reach the level that would take several years of learning with usual methods.
Languages I speak: Russian(Mother tongue level), English(Beyond C2), French(C2/Beyond C2), German(C1). My advice would be as follows: 1. Duolingo and Anki are horrible for beginners, see point 2 below. Should not be more than 10% of learning time. 2. Beyond the basic 1000-2000 words(for European languages), vocabulary expansion for mastering language is not only overrated but detrimental. It is much more important to…
As a beginner you absolutely do not need to learn the subjunctive. Even as an advanced French speaker, you can get away with just a few 'set phrases' in the subjunctive rather than learning the rules for the mood overall. Many French people do not use it correctly, and in a large portion of the cases, there's no difference between the indicative and the subjunctive. I cannot think of any case where not using the subjunctive would cause a problem in understanding, rather than just sounding a bit wrong.
Russian declension absolutely correct though, incorrect declensions will make you completely incomprehensible. Something more fundamental, word stress, is even more important. I spent MONTHS struggling to get anyone to understand me asking for a пепельни́ца. They would just stare at me gone out until I learned it was пе́пельница, after which I was understood immediately.
Languages I speak: Russian(Mother tongue level), English(Beyond C2), French(C2/Beyond C2), German(C1). My advice would be as follows: 1. Duolingo and Anki are horrible for beginners, see point 2 below. Should not be more than 10% of learning time. 2. Beyond the basic 1000-2000 words(for European languages), vocabulary expansion for mastering language is not only overrated but detrimental. It is much more important to…
I decided to skip Duolingo in my third attempt. I found that the New Penguin Russian Course book for grammar is a good start. Could you please be kind and suggest if this is a good learning path? Many thanks.
Languages I speak: Russian(Mother tongue level), English(Beyond C2), French(C2/Beyond C2), German(C1). My advice would be as follows: 1. Duolingo and Anki are horrible for beginners, see point 2 below. Should not be more than 10% of learning time. 2. Beyond the basic 1000-2000 words(for European languages), vocabulary expansion for mastering language is not only overrated but detrimental. It is much more important to…
I am about 510 words of Russian in my 2rd attempt and I am finding it frustrating to not know why and when to use мамы маму etc even after completing nearly two checkpoints. I decided to skip Duolingo in my third attempt. I found that the New Penguin Russian Course book for grammar is a good start. Could you please be kind and suggest if this is a good learning path? Many thanks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am about 510 words of Russian in my 2rd attempt and I am finding it frustrating to not know why and when to use мамы маму etc even after completing nearly two checkpoints. I decided to skip Duolingo in my third attempt. I found that the New Penguin Russian Course book for grammar is a good start. Could you please be kind and suggest if this is a good learning path? Many thanks.
Unfortunately I cannot make real recommendations for Russian learning for non-native speakers, as for me it is simply the native language and stuff just magically makes sense. I quickly looked over the book you listed, it looks to me to be a million times better than whatever you would get out of Duolingo. It is actually the perfect way to do grammar imo, you get grammar lessons along with small injections of vocabul…
Immersion seems much more involved. I will plan for this. Thank you for your insight.
- buy a textbook with exercises (usually extra thin book)
- buy flashcards with basic vocabulary
- buy a more than decent grammar reference for the language
- Randomly flip between doing exercises and flashcards and checking the grammar book when something comes up.
- Subscribe to news in that language and browse them on my ipad.
Still, before covid I used to take classes (of Polish, in German) at the Volkshochschule (community college). IMO in person classes give some good motivation to do the exercises and not want to be ridiculed.
Languages I speak: Russian(Mother tongue level), English(Beyond C2), French(C2/Beyond C2), German(C1). My advice would be as follows: 1. Duolingo and Anki are horrible for beginners, see point 2 below. Should not be more than 10% of learning time. 2. Beyond the basic 1000-2000 words(for European languages), vocabulary expansion for mastering language is not only overrated but detrimental. It is much more important to…
One final thing: The weirdest part I've personally experienced is that the more languages you know, the bigger your issues with spelling and sentence structure in ALL languages. Many European languages have a large overlap of words with differences in spelling, and depending on how much you used a word in one language vs the other when writing something quickly your brain will default to the more used one, even if it…
Languages I speak: Russian(Mother tongue level), English(Beyond C2), French(C2/Beyond C2), German(C1). My advice would be as follows: 1. Duolingo and Anki are horrible for beginners, see point 2 below. Should not be more than 10% of learning time. 2. Beyond the basic 1000-2000 words(for European languages), vocabulary expansion for mastering language is not only overrated but detrimental. It is much more important to…
I am about 510 words of Russian in my 2rd attempt and I am finding it frustrating to not know why and when to use мамы маму etc even after completing nearly two checkpoints. I decided to skip Duolingo in my third attempt. I found that the New Penguin Russian Course book for grammar is a good start. Could you please be kind and suggest if this is a good learning path? Many thanks.
I can only tell you, if you don't deeply understand what cases do, when they are used, and what other languages do without them, you will always struggle. So maybe worth reading up on english-language articles, books, wikipedia (not necessarily about Russian, maybe even German), to understand more about them.