   Learning Russian
  It looks like I may be participating in the Math in Moscow study abroad program next semester. The program is in English, but a Russian course is offered there, and I'd like to use this as an opportunity to learn a foreign language to some degree.I've been told, however, that the Russian language coursed offered there is pretty intense, and the last time I studied a foreign language was as a sophomore in high school--and that was Spanish, a language whose vocabulary overlaps a good deal with that of English and is hence less memorization intensive.I'm going to have most of May and June free, and I'd like to use this time to get a head start on Russian to make this easier on myself, especially since I'll be taking some intense math courses simultaneously there.I was thinking of just taking a summer course in Russian, but this is unfortunately tricky. (1) My school does not appear to be offering Russian over the summer, so I'd have to take it somewhere else. (2) My school is ridiculously picky about transfer credit; they wouldn't accept any credit from anything less than a decent university (i.e., no community colleges). These two issues together make it pretty implausible for me to take a Russian course this semester.So I'm thinking of just trying to self-study Russian for those two months. Since I won't have a teacher, I'm content learning the alphabet, the grammar, and as much vocabulary as I can pack in--without worrying about pronunciation, which I could wait to practice on until I'm actually in Russia.So... long story short: has anybody undertaken a similar self-study of Russian vocabulary, grammar, etc.? I'm just looking for general advice and recommendations on any good resources I should use. Since I've never self-studied a foreign language, it's a little hard for me to wade through all the incessant marketing to pinpoint the books, etc. that are actually good for self-study. Ideally, I would spend an hour or two a day on this, and I would enter the program with a good knowledge of basic vocabulary and grammar. This would really reduce the stress of the course for me and would let me focus on pronunciation, which will probably be the hardest thing of all for me.Thanks very much!   
  Learning Russian is like learning any other Language. Watching movies is the best way of Learning any Language. Being familiar with the Sounds and matching the Sounds to the way the Lips move and to the Situations in Life is more important than trying to memorize Grammar.Don't get scared with the Cyrilic Alphabet. It is easier than it looks.1) Download and watch as many Russian movies as you can. Alternatively watch Russian TV.2) Buy a book in Russian, ideally a book that you have already read in the English version. For example "War and Peace". Buy a Russian-English Dictionary and a Grammar to help you Decipher what's in the Book. This Exercise is very hard, and is good enough to Decifer 1 Sentence per day.Spend most of your time with 1).2) enables you to build Vocabulary and Grammar slowly without spending too much time with it. I only had an intro Course in Russian. But I successfully applied this method to learn Spanish and French.;  Being a native speaker, I unfortunately can't give you recommendations on study material, but I thought I'd chime in since I find it great that someone is interested in learning my language :-)First, you should probably not expect to be proficient after just one semester of study. I've met with local students who have been studying Russian for years and even went on multiple trips to Russia, and their grammar and pronunciation is generally barely comprehensible. The problem is that Russian is grammatically more complex than German (not to mention English). For instance, while English has something like three cases, German has four, but Russian has a whopping seven :) Pronunciation is different in Russian, and it seems to give people many problems, but it's actually much simpler than in English, because it's (almost) always the same - you generally don't really need to hear a word in order to know how to pronounce it (but you might need to hear it or see an accent mark in order to know how to accent it). I think the idea to watch movies is a good one. At least I initially learned German that way. Some movies you might enjoy (that are famous masterpieces but not very dialogue-heavy, so you could follow the plot): Solaris, Stalker, White Sun of the Desert. This will also give you some idea about accent and pronunciation. If you are into TV series, I can highly recommend Seventeen Moments of Spring as well as The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed. The latter one is a good place to pick up a bit of (perhaps outmoded) gangster slang :)Trying to read a classic novel at this point is probably an exercise in frustration and futility. You won't make yourself happy if you translate a line a day. Reading is of course a necessity for internalizing grammar and alphabet, but I suggest you practice on something less worthy, such as vesti.ru. Just be aware that the standard for journalism these days is not as high as it used to be.You probably won't manage to pick up the finer points of grammar before going there, but try to get a bigger picture of how the grammar works, and try to pick up conjugations for some of the more basic verbs. And you should definitely have the alphabet down pat - it's not so complicated, but there are a couple of gotchas because some letters look like Latin equivalents but are actually pronounced completely differently, like x(h) and p(r).;  I wanted to learn Russian in highschool, but there was only two of us, so the course didn't start. Then I wanted to start again now, but learning Finnish and Russian in the same time is a bit much.You can learn the alphabet, basic grammar from any book. Being able the read and write fluently (you know what I mean) is a good start.I learned Finnish from a book, and I progress quite well (have been learning for about 6 months (not so intensively), and I can express myself fairly good, but having problems with understanding). Learning the words is the hardest work in most languages. Get some books, whats watch movies, listen to radio, pick random words from a dictionary to learn etc.EDITED: obviously I have problems with English too...[Edited by - szecs on April 1, 2010 2:17:20 AM];Quote:Original post by lightbringerThe problem is that Russian is grammatically more complex than German (not to mention English). For instance, while English has something like three cases, German has four, but Russian has a whopping seven :)I was always taught that English doesn't have any cases. :P  At least not in the sense that for each noun you'd have six different forms -- one for each case and one for each number.Anyway, what are the Russian cases?  This page mentions only six.  I suppose the seventh might be vocative, but I thought in modern-day Russian the vocative doesn't exist anymore?   ;Quote:but I thought in modern-day Russian the vocative doesn't exist anymore?The vocative case doesn't exist in grammar books, but it is used by some russians in speech and informal writing.   ;  I haven't taken Russian as a foreign language, but I can tell you that it is best usually to try what hiigara said. Watch some movies, read some books, try to decipher them, and eventually you'll learn. Remember though, gaining proficiency in another language isn't easy, and it takes time. Just be diligent in your studies of it, and give it some time...   ;Quote:anything less than a decent university (i.e., no community colleges).  I didn't go to a community college (but my university would probably not be considered decent), but I feel that you are insulting people who might have attended one.   ;Quote:Original post by ibebrettQuote:anything less than a decent university (i.e., no community colleges).  I didn't go to a community college, but fuck you.?   ;  I was referring to the comment regarding a community college as a less than decent university. I will edit my profanity out, but the sentiment remains.   