Should I stop Russian lessons and learn at home instead?

[Crispychillifriedbeef]

Living overseas with my husband’s job and struggling with Russian lessons. I’ve been learning for two months, individual lessons and I’m not getting anywhere. My brain isn’t retaining the information and even the alphabet just isn’t sinking in.

I DREAD going to lessons and I actually cried in my last lesson. I’m also autistic with a lot of other stuff going on. With autism, I can’t push past things or just get in with it. This leads to meltdowns / total withdrawal.

I think a lot of it is being perceived in the lesson and the pressure. I learned French at school and whilst I’m not fluent, I feel confident with it. Russian is just completely different.

I want to quit lessons and learn at home alone, quietly with zero pressure. I have a couple of apps. Or should I plough on with lessons? 😩

You could try Duolingo (if they do Russian).

I’d quit these lessons anyway because they’re not suiting you.

Try from home for a while and see how it goes? If that’s not working out, find a different teacher.

I found language lessons hard because they build upwards, in discrete stages and my brain doesn’t work like that - I often need to understand the big picture before the small details click. I often understand something logically for quite a while before I can produce an output.

My process for tackling translation is unusual because of the way I identify patterns - I don’t go word by word. In school I was the completely stupid student but I could get the gist of the nuanced and idiomatic pieces faster than the clever students. Unfortunately that only pissed off my teachers.

Try and put yourself into lots of passive learning situations - quietly looking for patterns in public signage, sitting close to the counter and listening to people ordering drinks in cafes. Let interesting sounds and phrases roll over in your mind. Don’t put pressure on yourself to learn or speak, just explore. Use any autistic impulses to your advantage - echolalia (maybe in private), synesthesia, etc.

In short, don’t let the format of lessons hold you back - you need to learn in sync with your brain processes, not try and fit your learning to a lesson plan.