Russian for a formerly fluent student...any ideas?

[CyndiLJ]

Our daughters were adopted from Kazakhstan 4 1/2 years ago, and have recently decided they would like to retain their Russian.  One has largely forgotten it, and one has largely retained the ability to speak and understand it, but never was very good at written Russian due to a poor education, so we are starting over there, practically speaking.

 

Typical programs are not suitable for their stage of fluency.  We live in a rural area and have little access to a well educated native speaker. We'd prefer native, as there are nuances to the language that our more fluent daughter easily recognizes are not always spoken correctly by non-natives.  Also, she is considering becoming a translator for a career in the future, so we really want someone who can help her elevate her language level and provide more than travel/conversational Russian.

 

We have little money at the moment to be able to put towards this.  I am wondering if anyone else has faced this situation or has some creative, solid ideas for me.

 

Appreciate any help!

[EmseB]

Is there any way that maybe your local library has some videos or materials in Russian?  If not, would they order them?  I'm thinking fiction books, videos, etc.

 

If writing is difficult, probably some simple YouTube videos on cyrillic would be a good place to start.

 

I think I would dig to find native educational materials, maybe put an ad on CL or something (although who knows what that would turn up), and try to find maybe a Russian version of starfall (I know your kids aren't that young, but to start with simple stories, grammar, etc) online.  That way it's for native kids learning the language, but it's not for English speakers learning Russian.

[Miss Tick]

Do you have a university nearby? We do, and a lit if naive Russian speakers live near to one another and share common activities like piano and ballet classes. There are even a couple families who share homeschooling duties, which was interesting to me.

 

Sorry, I'm wandering. My thought was if you are lucky you could find a student interested in a side tutoring job. Perhaps you could work out a barter set-up.

[Amira]

Could you look for an online Russian teacher? I'm even thinking that you might be able to arrange something through the university in Tokmok through the missionaries there and hire a student to tutor your daughter online every day. The university could provide the Internet access on that end.

 

This could be a totally crazy idea, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

[Tanaqui]

I believe you can find a language tutor over Skype, that's certainly our plan regarding French.

[Xahm]

I would go the route of finding a Russian tutor online.  It may take some effort to work out a way to pay, but if you find someone who has done this before, he or she will likely have a preferred method. It should be far less expensive than a tutor from here in the states since wages are lower there. I'd recommend looking for someone with experience tutoring/teaching, perhaps an English teacher or translator. If you know any missionaries there, they will likely know a number of translators.  

If I were doing this, I would work with the teacher to select a textbook that you could order and that she would have a copy of, too.  That way it will be easier to work independently between sessions. Alternately, she may be willing to e-mail worksheets or the like.

[PeterPan]

I agree with the others.  Get a Skype tutor.  Then, when their language starts to come back (which it will, I would think), THEN go into the written.  Russian is easy to read, but the grammar is complex enough that people often make their kids do exercises.  So the grammar correctness may take a while, but the speech and even reading should come relatively easily.  

 

Good for you for doing this!  There's nothing like retaining your language to keep that attachment to your culture and heritage.  You might also look for russian church services or others she could hang with.  

[katilac]

Verbal Planet is one site for obtaining Skype tutors. You can check out their profile (native speaker or not, etc), and pay by the lesson (so easy to switch or try out different tutors). 

 

 

[plmzk]

When you say you want a native speaker,  do you mean from Kazakhstan or Russia in general?

 

I have a link to virtual Russian lessons for everything: math, reading, grammar, science, chemistry, literature and more. The only drawback is it is all in Russian and you need to be able to read in Russian to select which lessons you want.

 

This could be awesome though just to listen to a teacher speak in Russian. In the "learn to read" section, they even read books and short stories. Let me know if this could help you in any way. 

 

We don't have skype, or I would have my girls talk to yours.

 

If one of the girls has the ability to speak it, does she read at all? If she does, maybe she can help navigate the site?