Learning Russian...

[yellowbird]

Are there any non-native Russian speakers out there who have any recommendations for where the best place would be to start teaching myself? I'm guessing the alphabet (lol), but what would be the best method of learning? Native speakers are welcome to comment too if you have any ideas!

[Ivanable]

My sister learns Russian and she uses this page: http://www.russianforfree.com/

[caparica007]

I have studied Russian and I think I bought all my stuff at Amazon, I really can't recall, it was some years ago. I can advise you to print the alphabet in transparent stickers and glue them to your keyboard, it's a great help!

[Trellum]

That's actually a very nice tip capa  :grin:  I never thought of that!  I might try that with hebrew one day! I guess this tip can be used with other languages as well

OP, you can try this web site: http://www.russianforeveryone.com/

In my opinion this web site is excellent if you're starting from zero.

[rgaz83]

I dabbled in Russian for a little bit (about a week) before I went back to trying to learn a more relevant (to me) language. Here are some of the links I collected in the meantime:

http://listen2russian.com/ - Free audio lessons, very nice recordings.

http://learnrussianlanguage.net/dictionary/ - A basic English to Russian dictionary. Also has some Russian lessons and, perhaps quite helpfully, a dictionary of obscenities.

http://masterrussian.com/ - Includes a list of the 1000 most common Russian words as well as a few podcasts to listen to.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/index.html The pink drives me NUTS, but if you can get over that, I remember finding the lessons there to be quite helpful.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/directory/Languages/Slavic/Russian/ - A list of Russian dictionaries that you can access online.

http://russian.speak7.com/ - Basic lessons, but can be useful.

http://www.word2word.com/course.html#russian - A collection of other sites that you can learn Russian with (also, a lot of other languages listed).

[ashwinr1]

How different is Russian from English? Would it be an extremely difficult language for a non-native speaker to learn?

[rgaz83]

How different is Russian from English? Would it be an extremely difficult language for a non-native speaker to learn?

Aside from the different alphabet, it has many similarities to Romance languages and you'll find many familiar words. For example, "restaurant" is "ресторан" in Russian, but it's pronounced more like "ristoran".

[ashwinr1]

Aside from the different alphabet, it has many similarities to Romance languages and you'll find many familiar words. For example, "restaurant" is "ресторан" in Russian, but it's pronounced more like "ristoran".

Thanks for that information! Sounds interesting Maybe I should try learning Russian soon 

[yellowbird]

I dabbled in Russian for a little bit (about a week) before I went back to trying to learn a more relevant (to me) language. Here are some of the links I collected in the meantime:

http://listen2russian.com/ - Free audio lessons, very nice recordings.

http://learnrussianlanguage.net/dictionary/ - A basic English to Russian dictionary. Also has some Russian lessons and, perhaps quite helpfully, a dictionary of obscenities.

http://masterrussian.com/ - Includes a list of the 1000 most common Russian words as well as a few podcasts to listen to.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/index.html The pink drives me NUTS, but if you can get over that, I remember finding the lessons there to be quite helpful.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/directory/Languages/Slavic/Russian/ - A list of Russian dictionaries that you can access online.

http://russian.speak7.com/ - Basic lessons, but can be useful.

http://www.word2word.com/course.html#russian - A collection of other sites that you can learn Russian with (also, a lot of other languages listed).

What a wealth of information! I will absolutely be bookmarking all or most of these to be using in the near future, thank you! Was the language just no relevant because you don't have many Russian speakers near you, or for another reason?

[yellowbird]

You know what, thank you all very much for the websites and information on this--this is exactly what I was looking for!

[rgaz83]

What a wealth of information! I will absolutely be bookmarking all or most of these to be using in the near future, thank you! Was the language just no relevant because you don't have many Russian speakers near you, or for another reason?

I don't really have anybody to speak Russian with, or even a good reason to be learning it. I can inflict Spanish, Dutch, German, French, Esperanto, Japanese & Italian on other people I already know, but I only know one or two Russians from the internet and I don't have much contact with them. It's an interesting language to be sure, but Spanish is probably the most important/relevant to me.

[yellowbird]

I don't really have anybody to speak Russian with, or even a good reason to be learning it. I can inflict Spanish, Dutch, German, French, Esperanto, Japanese & Italian on other people I already know, but I only know one or two Russians from the internet and I don't have much contact with them. It's an interesting language to be sure, but Spanish is probably the most important/relevant to me.

Same here, so I'm struggling with whether or not I'd like to learn Russian or a different language in addition to Spanish.

[caparica007]

If you learn Russian, but have no one to talk to it will be harder. What's your motivation to learn it?  :pirate:

[yellowbird]

If you learn Russian, but have no one to talk to it will be harder. What's your motivation to learn it?  :pirate:

Right..

Hm, I'm not even sure why I want to learn it. I think it just sounds lovely, and in the summertime where I live there are a lot of people from Russia and other Slavic-speaking countries. I'm not even sure if I would talk to them, but I think it would be beneficial to know a language that could facilitate learning other similar tongues, you know?

[caparica007]

I think that learning languages it's a great hobby, why not, possibly you'll need the language in the future and there you go. I've studied a lot of languages and I have forgotten about most of them. Russian I studied for about 2 years possibly that is why I still have some basics. Reading is a great way to keep the language alive in your head.

[Qamra]

I just bought myself few random books, so far my favourite is Russian for Dummies lol it's actually pretty funny and came with a CD. It quite frustrating because as a Polish speaker, I understand 40% of what is being said but can't make a proper sentence by myself! This book helped me sort out my grammar a bit. As to websites, I still need to do some research.

[russianrocket]

If you learn Russian, but have no one to talk to it will be harder. What's your motivation to learn it?  :pirate:

I think some 300+ million speak Russian in the world right now, so there's a good chance you may find someone

[russianrocket]

I just bought myself few random books, so far my favourite is Russian for Dummies lol it's actually pretty funny and came with a CD. It quite frustrating because as a Polish speaker, I understand 40% of what is being said but can't make a proper sentence by myself! This book helped me sort out my grammar a bit. As to websites, I still need to do some research.

The most fun aspect is that some words have quite the opposing meanings in Russian, for example uroda means an ugly person (beautiful in Polish). To be honest being Russian I don't understand your language at all, not 40% and not even 10%. I tried to watch the most well know Polish film there, "Vabank" in Polish but didn't understand anything!

[rgaz83]

I think some 300+ million speak Russian in the world right now, so there's a good chance you may find someone

There may be 300+ million Russian speakers in the world, but that doesn't matter if there aren't any that you can actually talk to. Personally, I would still like to learn Russian, but it's simply not as important to me as other languages.

[thomas pendrake]

I was a Physics student in the late 60's and learning Russian made a lot of sense. I was familiar with Russian Literature and that was an added incentive. There are three great Literatures, Greco-Roman. English, and Russian.