WinsomeCreek Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 My 9 yo would like to learn Russian. I have not heard great things about Rosetta Stone. Any suggestions for online classes, video courses? I prefer something with a slow pace or self-paced because he has an awful lot of interests and activities already. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2bee Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Well, what kind of approach are you looking for? Computer Based? Book Based, Audio based? Do you have any experience with the language? Are you willing to help him or do you want him to be virtually independent from Mom? Is it possible for him to begin learning to read and write Russian? (How is his English literacy? What about his Grammar?) DinoLingo has a Russian course, but I don't know if it is appealing to a 9yo or too "babyish" for him. If you want to take it easy without a steep investment at the outset, I say start out with a series of YouTube videos. There are many basic but well done video lessons on YouTube that span several lessons and 'levels'. I would find something to learn to read/write Russian while working my way through YouTube videos (Don't forget to watch a healthy dose of kids shows in Russian too, meaning cartoons, nature shows etc.). Just ease into it, doing videos 3x a week and reading/writing exercises daily for the first 2 or 3 months. Spend sometime on Amazon and find something that is high quality and accessible to adult beginners with good reviews. You describe your kids as "intense" in your signature, I don't know how you mean it, but I take that to mean intensely interested and driven by their interests. I taught and exposed myself to a good deal of Spanish as a kid from various books and programs for adults because I was driven to learn it. I could have had a lot more success as a child if I'd had the resources of the internet back then, I think that if you help him find the resources and just give him some sort of accountability to you, your son may learn a good deal of Russian. If you want recommendations for specific brands, I don't have any experience with Russian products so comb through Amazon for 4 and 5 star products and look through the samples, previews and reviews to try and get a feel for the items. Anyway, to sum up everything: 1) Begin learning to read and write Russian (I hear that reading in Russian is EASY) via free videos and lessons online 2) Read in Russian every single day. Start with reading 3 new words everyday, then a sentence then 3 sentences and then 5 sentences and later a min of 1 paragraph in Russian everyday. ***This is just to build reading fluency, not for understanding.*** 3) Once you are reading 3 sentences daily, begin learning the words in your 1000 Words in Russian Book4) Find a Russian lessons channel on YouTube that you like and watch the videos 3x a week, 5) Do a 15 minute review of the YouTube videos every Sat. and Sun. 6) Get a Russian Reader (Something like the I Learn Russian series for kids, which has a 5 star rating seems suitable.) ReEvaluate every so often and see how he's coming and what he's upto. Look in your Church, Youth Center, Community Rec Center and Library for Russian resources--books, videos, lessons, speakers, children, etc... Anyway, I don't know if any of that is helpful to you. I recommend that before you buy anything see if your library can request it through Inter-Library-Loan so you and he can have a look at it to see if it is accessible for you and something he's interested in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WinsomeCreek Posted January 3, 2014 Author Share Posted January 3, 2014 This is very helpful mom2bee. We have not done any foreign languages. There are abundant resources, but I had no idea where or how to start. This is my driven kid. He's a quick study and unstoppable once he decides to do something. I'm hoping to help him find a way of learning that is satisfying, but paced out. The old Russian YouTube cartoons are beautiful. Watching cartoons is a great way to do the day's homework. He already made a mango acct through our library and did the first two lessons. Gah. I was hoping to plan this for next year, but too late. Our library has some formal programs. I'll check out what they offer. Thank you for outlining ideas. It would be great to get into a stride of videos 3x/wk, mixed with a couple of sentences each day. I think, since he's already decided to start, I will find and print out some Cyrillic writing worksheets to do. It would be nice to make this a family effort. Maybe by fall we can start with more formal work. Thanks so much for your detailed reply! If anyone has specific program or website suggestions, I am all ears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etomaria Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Hello! The first thing he'll have to do is learn the alphabet for sure, as without it he won't get anywhere (unless of course you're planning on going for conversational Russian only, but I'm assuming that's not the case..) Next, they have books specifically for learning to read, if you want I can send links for them, but in Russian they're called "букварь" (though they're geared toward 4-5-6-year olds, so he might feel a little old for them, but they'll still be incremental like he might need..) Beyond that, there are a whole plethora of early reading books.. If you want to try it immersion-style (I would!), you could go for any number of good cartoons out there.. their content is good (NOT Nickelodeon, NOT Cartoon Network ridiculousness), their language is somewhat simple, they're amusing, and what you see on the screen helps you understand what's being said word-wise.. (examples are Лунтик, Смешарики, Маша и медведь and all can be found on youtube.. Russians aren't concerned with copyrights ;] -- the first is for the youngest crowd and very just good, nice and stuff; the second is for older kids, the humor appeals to adults even, and is also full of various lessons; the third is "Masha(Maria) and the bear" and just a series of stories/adventures/what have you about them) If you like, you might try contacting the Russian Immersion school we have here in Anchorage (Alaska), its name is Turnagain Elementary, and the woman in charge of the program is Elena Farkas. I personally wasn't successful trying to obtain materials from her, but she was skeptical of my Russian ability (we hadn't actually conversed, but that's a story for a different day, I won't bias you with my experiences! ;] ). The actual teachers (our son went their for most of first grade, up until we decided to switch to homeschooling in the spring) are quite helpful. They do have quite a few students who come from Russian-speaking families (there's a good number of them/us up here), but there are plenty from English-speaking families and those kids, whereas they don't get quite the assistance with the assigned homework at home, do end up speaking pretty good Russian, so apparently their system's a good one! If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to help, although our situation teaching our sons Russian has been different than yours would be.. either way, we have lots of books and materials and such, could give you good recommentations if you decide to go the authentic materials route. Maria :] (Incidentally, our oldest is nine as well!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plmzk Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 At that age, I would suggest the букварь or азбука for learning to read. My kids speak Russian as their first language and I teach them reading using an азбука. Even though they are geared for 4-5-6 years old like pp said, the way they work is by introducing a few letters and then form words with those letters. The words get more and more complex as the child learns more letters. They don't make you learn the whole alphabet at once and try to read all the words. They won't have the child read a word with a letter they haven't learned yet. Also, these aren't "baby words". By the end of the book, the child should be able to read a story that is a page and a half long. For learning how to write, I have found this: http://www.nekin.info/e24.htm If you scroll a little, you will see several pdf downloads. I use the pages provided everyday for writing, and my 5 year old is learning the letters now. I will say that if you are not going to do grammar lessons, you will need to find people that will speak to your son in Russian. Russian is very different to speak than English, as in forming correct sentences. I hope I was able to help a little. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plmzk Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 This is the azbuka (азбука) that I used with two kids already and am very happy: http://www.vasha-kniga.com/productdetail.asp?productid=555900 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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