Russian or Welsh langugage resources?

[saw]

DD 10 has decided that she would like to learn Russian and/or Welsh. She's had no exposure to these languages, so I would like to find some sort of (inexpensive) introduction to these languages that she can play around with this summer. She and I would appreciate any suggestions you might have. She is already bilingual in Dutch/English and has had Latin and French, so she's quite language-y. Thanks very much!

 

S and R

[Friederike in Persia]

We got one of those cheap £20 Eurotalk CD-Roms for learning Russian for tourists types, when my girls started Russian. They did the whole CD-Rom, picked up some vocab and got the beginnings of a feel for the language. I'm not sure if that sort of thing is available for Welsh, but that should be easy to find out. She could try both languages and see which she likes better.

[Storm Bay]

Rosetta Stone has Russian, but I'm not sure about Welsh. I had a hard time with Icelandic, another language spoken by a small populace, but found somthing with Eurotalk, the same one Fredericke mentioned. We haven't done it yet as my dd's are doing German and Latin, but at some point we will.

[Hillary in KS]

Oh! Oh! I can help with Welsh! I'm learning welsh through a BBC Welsh language site. There's a large push to teach the language.

 

OK, linkapalooza:

 

 

This is the best instructional link. It's to the "Welsh Challenge" homepage. This is the video course. Each level has a video drama using vocabulary words, a video tutorial, vocabulary, pronunciation helps, and printables. This is the site I use the most, and the one your daughter will likely spend the most time with at first:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/'>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/'>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/'>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/

 

 

Here is a link to the BBC's "Learn Welsh" page. Lots of resources here, but it's mostly for adults. Lots of vocabulary helps and ways for you to add to your daughter's vocabulary:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/

 

 

Here's a game page for kids learning Welsh:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/snapdragon/yesflash/menu.shtml

 

The BBC Educational page for secondary students has some Welsh materials, but those are for those who are learning welsh as a first language.

[Guest judy schaefer]

There is an on-line vendor of Rosetta Stone version 2 and 3 that sells level 1 and 2 for about $59.00 . Google LEARNING PARTNERS , their menu consists of many languages and a lot cheaper. It doesn't come in a box, but it is the real thing. We bought Portuguese level 1 and 2 for $59.00( it doesn't include the books). I think I remember seeing Welsh and Russian for about the same price. Good luck,

[iwka]

http://www.hello-world.com/Russian/EN_Russian.php

 

The icon with the feet is LESSONS

[Sebastian (a lady)]

There is an on-line vendor of Rosetta Stone version 2 and 3 that sells level 1 and 2 for about $59.00 . Google LEARNING PARTNERS , their menu consists of many languages and a lot cheaper. It doesn't come in a box, but it is the real thing. We bought Portuguese level 1 and 2 for $59.00( it doesn't include the books). I think I remember seeing Welsh and Russian for about the same price. Good luck,

 

Rosetta Stone versions before version 3 won't work on computers running Vista.

[Olga]

Rosetta Stone versions before version 3 won't work on computers running Vista.

 

It does. I have Latin version 2 and it works just fine

[Olga]

Rosetta Stone (Russian) is really good, but I would not recomend that you buy the on-line version, because it takes more time, then you can imagine, and it's always better to have CDs and not worry about time limits.

 

Collins dictionaries can help vocabulary work.

Unfortunately, for Russian you can not buy book+CD for beginners, so if you don't know the language it can be a challenge.

[dieuog]

Welsh is a lovely language and I think it would be great fun for a child to learn some. (I learnt it as an adult.)

 

As far as diffculty it is probably not as hard as Russian (no case ending to have to remember on the fly!) but rather harder than the Romance and Germanic languages, because of various distinctively Celtic language features (words' initial consonants change in different rule-governed ways in various contexts, verbs come first in the sentence, prepositions are inflected for person and number,...). I think it would be an interesting language for a child to learn for this reason: while its grammar is quite logical it works on principles altogether different from those of (for example) English and Latin. Potentially an eye- and mind-opening language, then. And it sounds lovely and has a wonderful literature!

 

The very best printed courses available are the "Teach Yourself" course (buy the most recent edition - it's been through many in its long lifetime) and the Routledge "Colloquial Welsh" book. Each course has accompanying grammar workbooks and dictionaries, and audio CDs.

 

The Rosetta Stone Welsh course I have not heard very good things about, though I forget the details right now. Apart from anything else, i don't think it takes you very far.

 

And as a previous poster said, the BBC course is also very highly regarded.

 

Pob llwyddiant i chi'ch dwy - heb os cewch chi lot o hwyl yn dysgu Cymraeg os taw dyna fydd dewis y groten! (Good luck both of you - I just know you'll have a lot of fun if she chooses Welsh!)

Edited July 23, 2009 by dieuog