Fastest ways to re-learn a language that worked for you?

[Sonesheka]

Hi there! I have decided I want to re-learn Russian but have not figured out what the best way to do so is. I took a test online and it stated i'm intermediate ( I was born there) so I got a bit lucky because I have elementary proficiency. What are the best techniques that worked for you when it came to trying to re-learn and become fluent in a language? 

[宇崎ちゃん]

To learn and improve I have some very basic tactics that I've explained quite a lot over the past few months.

To re-learn is a little bit different.
Technically you don't re-learn a language, you remember it.

One example is when I had German in middle school, I forgot right about everything about it after I left.
But since one of my native languages is very closely related to German and I grew up in the Netherlands, it took me 1 month of practising German over Skype for 3 times a week to remember it all (and forget again due to not using it at all after that).

Do you know how to read the cyrillic script?
In that case I recommend you to read some Russian novel.
Considering it's your native language and you used to be able to speak it, you'll be amazed by how much you'll be able to understand it really fast.

[Sonesheka]

3 hours ago, 宇崎ちゃん said:

To learn and improve I have some very basic tactics that I've explained quite a lot over the past few months.

To re-learn is a little bit different.
Technically you don't re-learn a language, you remember it.

One example is when I had German in middle school, I forgot right about everything about it after I left.
But since one of my native languages is very closely related to German and I grew up in the Netherlands, it took me 1 month of practising German over Skype for 3 times a week to remember it all (and forget again due to not using it at all after that).

Do you know how to read the cyrillic script?
In that case I recommend you to read some Russian novel.
Considering it's your native language and you used to be able to speak it, you'll be amazed by how much you'll be able to understand it really fast.

Thank you so much for the insight! I still thankfully have the ability to read, just very slowly and some words I can't read so I skip over them. I think the only thing I cannot do is write. My grammar is so terrible I've basically given up on it when I was about ten. I'll make sure to try your tips. Thank you so much

 

[宇崎ちゃん]

Reading a language you're no longer used to will be slow.
The only way to speed up your reading ability is by reading as much as you can.

Maybe you should put your PC or phone interface to Russian to speed it up.
Even if you don't need to read the buttons, you eventually will.
And if you do, it adds up to your exposure to the language.

As for grammar, no need to worry about it.
The more you're exposed to Russian whether in reading or listening, the sooner your brain will start to understand the grammar by itself.

[Sonesheka]

12 minutes ago, 宇崎ちゃん said:

Reading a language you're no longer used to will be slow.
The only way to speed up your reading ability is by reading as much as you can.

Maybe you should put your PC or phone interface to Russian to speed it up.
Even if you don't need to read the buttons, you eventually will.
And if you do, it adds up to your exposure to the language.

As for grammar, no need to worry about it.
The more you're exposed to Russian whether in reading or listening, the sooner your brain will start to understand the grammar by itself.

Yeah I finally got a Russian keyboard on my laptop. I’ve had it on my own for years as I do write occasionally (with the help of autocorrect). I found a great pc website called LingQ which I think will be one of the most helpful websites I can use for learning how to read and write  thankfully I still have relatives that either are fluent or live in Russia. I just need to stop being afraid of messing up 

[RiciaB]

When I forget a language, its the writing (which affects reading too) that I forgot, not the communication. So, I spend time looking at the alphabet series and writing them in order and reading aloud. The process refreshes my memory of writing and reading.