gof blinkign Russian is getting so hard

[FluffyMummy123]

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Codskaya, Stick with it, Russian is great but you have to really learn all those endings and the spellings off by heart. In fact there is so much to learn off by heart, you could spend hours a day on it for years! Seriously though you have to buckle down and learn all those grammar ending tables off by heart and practice them with a workbook otherwise Russian has this sneaky habit of overtaking you when you're not expecting it and leaving you adrift in a bleak Siberian landscape of total bewilderment.

I know, been there, twice.

Even if they're calling it Russian conversation, you have to swot the grammar yourself. I have a book from S. Chawronina and I went through the whole bloody thing at home alone with a grammar book. You have to do it alongside your course. Russian you simply cannot just "pick up" along the way. No way.

Find Russians look not so much miserable as a bit grim but then they don't approve of too much smiling. They think it makes you look stupid. Perhaps though they're just concentrating so hard on getting all the case endings and verb tenses right?

... reading Chekhow in the original...

How about Russian jokes?
A man comes home and finds his wife in bed with another man. " You good for nothing" he shouts. "Look how you waste your time when all this time they're selling eggs at the corner of the street and just two crates left!"

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my Russian teacher (the first that is!) said Sssandy, you have to be a fanatic to learn Russian, A FANATIC!" Obviously I didn't have what it takes, I sort of let the grammar slide and fumbled along for a while till I realised I was totally lost. Second time round I was mega wary of the grammar. It's a hard slog though.

Mind you when you've successfully mastered Russian, your brain will be a great state to tackle Japanese!

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When I did Russian at evening classes many years ago, the big split between those struggling and those not seemed to be over who'd done Latin. So don't worry that you have a fundamental mental block - keep plugging away and you'll get there.

birthdayBeetroot, I'm afraid Cyrillic doesn't work on here (unless you've found a way...)

Russians look miserable but when you get to know them they are bloody lovely.
(Although the Turks and partic. Turkish Kurds are without a doubt the nicest people in the world)
My students could never understood why I smiled at people I didn't know.I asked them if they only had a finite amount of smiles and empathy stored up and if they were afrais to waste it on strangers.
They pretty much admitted to feeling like this (but then again,I probably would too,given the hardships they have had to endure. Siege of Leningrad anyone??)

hi icod

Yes, go for it!

I did Russian at Cambridge, have lived in Kazakhstan for 3 years and still can't speak very well, basically still constantly flummoxed by the grammar. The grammar is a total sod. The only way is to literally learn all the tables, and then just learn one sentence you can remember for each ending, however silly.

Like 'with the red umbrella' to practise the instrumental: 's krasnim zontikom' or whatever..

BUT it is v rewarding. Russians are great.

the worst thing is the verbs of motion. check out the little films from this link under 'verbs of motion' section, which cleared it up for me once and for all..

www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/language/

as for the numbers declining, this is enough to get you very depressed, so just avoid using numbers and above all never try to say what happened in a particular year.

it's a warm, wacky and tragic culture, you get into it and can't get out again!

this didn't make sense, sorry..

best of luck!

Privet
I am a Russian teacher so could send you some stuff if you like. Moondog I studied Turkish too and thought that it was really hard. In fact can remember little these days.
Russians can look miserable and over made up but I spent my happiest times in Russia and still ove it now.
Poka

Was cod speaking Russian when she said "beofre bal bal abkla"?

dw speaks Russian, so now I can say ljublju tibia (but I have no idea how it is spelled). We have LPs of Lenin's speeches in loft, for improving accent.

I loved my years of Russian at Uni
I was a girly swot
But can I recall much of it now
Can I buggery.
I had a child instead of going to work for the UN...
Regrets
Nah
Well not often