Tracy Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Last week, a friend offered quite a few children's Russian language materials to me. I had no plans to do any foreign language this year, much less Russian. But I do have a personal interest in learning some Russian since my g-grandparents were from the Russian partition of Poland, and I would like to be able to read those records. So here we are starting the Russian alphabet tomorrow. I am very :hurray: but also a little :svengo: . Well, we will do it as long as it is fun and interesting. I have no illusion that anyone here will actually learn to speak it. But reading and writing names would be cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Kudos to you for trying something new! :hurray: I'm a little jealous that you got some free kids materials for Russian. Dd7 said she wanted to learn Russian this summer, so we did a cursory beginning. I totally felt out of my depth, but by continuing to work on it, it makes more sense. How did the alphabet go? Below is a resource that helped me to make sense of the Russian Alphabet: Read the Cyrillic Alphabet in 5 MinutesIf you can, PM me in a few months when you have figured out which resources are worthwhile. I'd appreciate the input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 We're starting Russian this year. We dabbled in it a few years ago, and ds kept asking to start back again. We have no illusions about becoming proficient during his last two years of school, but he's considering continuing his studies in college, either that or German, not sure yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Russian is a great language. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiMi 4under3 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 You can do it! What a great opportunity. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted September 4, 2014 Author Share Posted September 4, 2014 Kudos to you for trying something new! :hurray: I'm a little jealous that you got some free kids materials for Russian. Dd7 said she wanted to learn Russian this summer, so we did a cursory beginning. I totally felt out of my depth, but by continuing to work on it, it makes more sense. How did the alphabet go? Below is a resource that helped me to make sense of the Russian Alphabet: Read the Cyrillic Alphabet in 5 Minutes If you can, PM me in a few months when you have figured out which resources are worthwhile. I'd appreciate the input. Thanks for the link. I guess I need to brush up on my Greek alphabet to take full advantage, though. ;) I'll let you know how it goes. I suspect that interest will fizzle once we get through the alphabet. Our materials are actual Russian picture books (as in printed in Russia). I am expecting another box, so we will see what else is in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mnemosyne Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 If you are looking for more than picture books, my favorite book on learning Russian is The New Penguin Russian Course. Loved that book when I was starting out. I have a bunch of Russian kids books PDFs and such, as well as courses online, but I would love more print stuff. I have a romance novel that my mom found I don't know where, as well as The Hunger Games in Russian. And textbooks. I have a big long wish list on Amazon with all the kids books I'd like, but at this point they wouldn't help me too much anymore. A lot of them are beautifully illustrated, though. I may buy them anyways, and with the hope that my kids end up being 'linguaholics' like myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 We're using Russian Step by Step this year. We have the Penguin book and liked it, but there is no audio. The Step by Step books are set up for self-study with audio and 3 levels, plus an introductory book and handwriting books. We haven't used it enough for a real review, but the layout it nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Russian is not something I'd attempt to teach/learn without an expert. I studied Ukrainian at university with a native speaker for a full year, everyday for an hour. It's very, very challenging. Sure you can all learn the Cyrillic alphabet together and perhaps learn a few words and expressions, but don't have any fantasies about learning much more than that on your own. Your motivation isn't going to be enough to carry you very far without outside help. Give it a go and see what happens. Someone may get the interest to pursue it further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Flower Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Wow! I wish someone would give me a box of Russian materials! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Take it from a native speaker - if you know the rules, you should be able to learn to read and write and there is no such thing as "spelling" That being said, what makes it very difficult is all the expressions that completely loose their meaning in the translation, and thus make it very hard to understand and explain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Take it from a native speaker - if you know the rules, you should be able to learn to read and write and there is no such thing as "spelling" That being said, what makes it very difficult is all the expressions that completely loose their meaning in the translation, and thus make it very hard to understand and explain Yes, but learning all the rules for using multiple cases takes time and careful study, and not many English speakers have a lot of experience with this. The vocabulary is also very different to Germanic and Romantic languages, which are closer to English and Spanish/French. I also found it challenging to block out the English alphabet letter sounds and "plug in" the same letters with completely different sounds. Then there are the Cyrillic letters that we don't have a direct single-letter equivalent to in English, to add to the fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 If you can learn Latin, you can learn Russian. I know many Americans who speak excellent Russian. You can do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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