Learning Russian

[2ltben]

One of my goals in life is to speak as many languages fluently as I possibly can. Right now I can speak "reenactor" German(just enough for WWII reenacting and ingame novelty), am trying to get my head around Middle Egyptian(since there are no written vowels, it's rather hard to break into even if you can read hieroglyphics), and am actively learning Russian(I know Cyrillic, my pronounciation is coming along rather...well, it's coming along, and my vocabulary is rudimentary at best). However, I'm trying to find a method that's worthwhile.

I'm against classes that teach specific languages because they're often very inefficient(they take far too long for far too little), and it's not like anyone is offering Russian language classes in my area anyway.

Rosetta Stone and other language software doesn't work worth a damn. All they consist of is a databank of English language phrases that are translated, often poorly and with no cultural context, into as many foreign languages as they can to offer as wide a range of copy and paste phrases as possible. They're basically gimmicks.

After searching around quite a bit, I've found that one of the best self-learning methods is with book/tape sets, namely FSI(the US Department of State's Foreign Service Institute, one of the best sources there is for learning a language relatively quickly and very effectively) and Pimsleur(a private company that is hailed as one of the best). The downside is that these are ridiculously expensive. One course can often amount to $200-400 US. They're basically those lessons where they recite a small conversation in the given language and then go through it piece by piece, making the listener repeat it, until the end of the lesson when the listener can, with luck, understand the conversation from the beginning in it's entirety. Lessons usually amount to about a half hour, the widely recommended daily learning time for languages.

I'm considering saving a few paychecks(I'm still in high school and only make ~$100 every two weeks) and getting one, but this will have to wait until after Christmas, and I'm not 100% positive that this method will work for me. Can anyone recommend any effective ways of learning Russian, or languages as a whole?

[Pyrolistical]

Just play RO

I picked up all those German phrases used in DoD

[Rossa]

I tried Pimsleur's audio-course when I wanted to learn japanese. It works pretty well, but sadly I have the attention span of a 2-year-old

[ZENiTH_ADiN]

This is one book ive been using, id highly recommend it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014...lance&n=283155

id say if you want so save money get that and something to listen to for pronounciation. thats what im doing, exept these tapes i got are crappy and im looking for something else.

[Troels]

I picked up a lot of english when I was younger by watching tons of english TV-shows(Subtitled, of course). Don't know if it will work with russian, but it is worth a try.

[Tomcat_ha]

If i were you id rather learn arabic and chinese. Both quite important languages.

[Troels]

Originally Posted by Tomcat_ha

If i were you id rather learn arabic and chinese. Both quite important languages.

Only if you actually want to know how to contact the company that made your imported food. <_<

[2ltben]

Originally Posted by Tomcat_ha

If i were you id rather learn arabic and chinese. Both quite important languages.

Actually, my girlfriend is learning Arabic and one of my best friends used to live in China. I'm not just going to learn Russian. From Russian, I'm going on to German and Polish, and then I was thinking about Arabic, and then Middle Egyptian and Mandarin. From there, who knows, that date is years away.

[[TW]Wilsonam]

Originally Posted by 2ltben

Actually, my girlfriend is learning Arabic and one of my best friends used to live in China. I'm not just going to learn Russian. From Russian, I'm going on to German and Polish, and then I was thinking about Arabic, and then Middle Egyptian and Mandarin. From there, who knows, that date is years away.

Smart-arse

[Tomcat_ha]

German isnt close at all to russian.

[[-project.rattus-]]

Originally Posted by vonRas

it's easier to learn German if you know Russian/English or both of them
But not vise versa

I highly doubt that. German is similar to english, but it has really nothing to do with russian. The grammar, the vocab and the alphabet are totally different...
The only slavic language that comes to my mind which could at least be somewhat useful when ou wan't to learn german is slovenian, as they use the latin alphabet and even shares some words, allthough they are written in slovenian, like "Schnaps" is "šnops" (which actally resembles how an austrian would pronounce Schnaps)...

EDIT: Also, it is "vice versa", and, if we are already talking about latin phrases, it's "per se" (and not "per say" :P)... man, am I the only one who enjoyed latin at school?

[Wolfsglen]

Learning russian is easy...

Just slap Pycckuu about and annoy him till he translates it for you, like everyone does on IRC when they want russian swearwords

[2ltben]

Originally Posted by [-project.rattus-]

I highly doubt that. German is similar to english, but it has really nothing to do with russian. The grammar, the vocab and the alphabet are totally different...
The only slavic language that comes to my mind which could at least be somewhat useful when ou wan't to learn german is slovenian, as they use the latin alphabet and even shares some words, allthough they are written in slovenian, like "Schnaps" is "šnops" (which actally resembles how an austrian would pronounce Schnaps)...

EDIT: Also, it is "vice versa", and, if we are already talking about latin phrases, it's "per se" (and not "per say" :P)... man, am I the only one who enjoyed latin at school?

Germanic isn't that far from Slavic. Russian is close to Polish, which is, in turn, close to German. The cultural border between eastern and western Europe has also lead to similarities in German and Russian vernacular.

[Jarlabanke]

Geograhically close perhaps, but the languages are very different. It's like finish and swedish, we live right across the baltic from eachother, but languages have very little incommon.

As for the best way to learn it, go to Russia and study it there.

[BicycleRepairMan]

Originally Posted by 2ltben

The downside is that these are ridiculously expensive. One course can often amount to $200-400 US.

*Cough*torrent*cough*

[[-project.rattus-]]

Originally Posted by 2ltben

Germanic isn't that far from Slavic. Russian is close to Polish, which is, in turn, close to German. The cultural border between eastern and western Europe has also lead to similarities in German and Russian vernacular.

Where do you have that info from? I speak german as a native speaker and I can assure you that polish is not at all like german.

And concerning finnish: IIRC it originates from mongolian, just like hungarian, and is therefor not related to any european language ('cept hungarian...)

[radix]

Yea, when I heard first time finnish I was thinking they speak hungarian and only after my wife (wich is hungarian) assured me that is *not* hungarian i realized that that could be finnish.

[2ltben]

                  Singular                                
Nominative        -0-           -ь           -й           -ий             
Genitive          -а            -я           -я           -ия             
Dative            -у            -ю           -ю           -ию  
Accusative        -0- / -а      -ь  / -я     -й  / -я     -ий / ия   
Instrumental      -ом           -ем (3)      -ем (3)      -ием
Prepositional     -е            -е           -е           -ии  
 
                 Plural
Nominative        -ы  (1)       -и           -и           -ии
Genitive          -ов (2)       -ей          -ев (3)      -иев
Dative            -ам           -ям          -ям          -иям
Accusative        -ы (1)/ ов    -и / ей      -и / ев (3)  -ии / иев 
Instrumental      -ами          -ями         -ями         -иями
Prepositional     -ах           -ях          -ях          -иях
 
Notes:
The accusative case for animate nouns is identical to the genitive case; for inanimate nouns, it is identical to the nominative.
(1) After a sibilant or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written.
(2) After a sibilant, ей is written.
(3) After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.

I stole this table from Wikipedia, but I'm rather confused as to the context of the different declensions. Which is used where?

[FlashPanHunter]

Originally Posted by 2ltben

I stole this table from Wikipedia, but I'm rather confused as to the context of the different declensions. Which is used where?

I recomend that you get a book or find a better site for languages than Wikipedia, their foreign language sections are excessively technical, there's no reason to try to learn off of them.

[2ltben]

I've gathered a few websites and am about to go scour my local Borders to see if they have any of a list of Russian grammars I have.

*edit*
Just found a better table that explains this rather better.