8 year old wants to learn Russian

[deplorabelle]

DS2 is quite dedicated to the idea of learning Russian. He's only 8 so he doesn't have a vast amount of follow through but he has learnt the alphabet and done a few sessions of Duo Lingo (with my help). We have no connection with Russia or Russian friends though I had a similar obsession with the language as a teenager and made several half baked attempts to learn the language. (I know a bit)

We live near a university city so there are people who offer Russian tuition though probably not for a non Russian 8yo!!

Would I be mad to investigate Russian tutors? And does anyone else have a similar child who can relate or advise?

Oo thank you all. I've been away and come back to loads of replies. I had a bit of a chat with ds about the commitment a tutor would need and he's decided to stick with at home resources for the time being but I really want to nurture this enthusiasm if I can.

We are in Oxfordshire and one of our local schools did used to offer Russian years ago apparently from year 8 but that is long gone 😔

Regarding learning the thing I find hardest is understanding how stress affects the vowel sounds - the difference between stressed and unstressed o for example. Which makes me quite slow to read Russian even though I can in theory. A lot of speaking and listening would be really essential for ds to really fly with the language I'm sure (and it would help me massively). I didn't find the cases too bad but I'd already done German and Ancient Greek which really helped. DS2 doesn't have that experience of learning other languages.

Hi deplora - could clarify on the vowel sounds?

We also have stress in English - i.e. WEDnesday - similar theory in Russian but with a more severe stress.

It's really only the o sound in russian that has a really different sound stressed vs. unstressed.

Thanks Alyosha. Yes it's that o that defeats me every time. I think I haven't ever got to grips with where the stress normally lies in a Russian word. It seems to be quite variable. But might just be me having a tin ear

There's no shortcut really op to knowing where the stress will go (with a few exceptions like when it's a 'yo' stressed 'e') etc. Simply have to learnt it when you learn the word and then you can nail the pronunciation from the beginning.

As others have said, Russian grammar, although extensive, is pretty regular. Despite have a good degree in it, and having spent a considerable amount of time there, I have always struggled with the seemingly infinite number of words.
At least in German, you put two words together, new word means '1st word, 2nd word'; in Russian, you put them together and the new word means something completely different.
Fabulous language.

Try this deplorabelle

www.livinglanguage.com/community/discussion/434/stress-vowel-reduction-in-russian-4-major-pronunciation-rules

Take it one rule at a time and listen to native speakers say the words. Mastering vowel reduction is a major step to sounding like a native IMO!

Brilliant thank you

Exactly Fraggleface, you have to memorise them.

I do find I can fairly accurately guess the stress now, I think there is a pattern in there somewhere but I don't think anyone could articulate it!

I find putting on a really strong Russian accent helps to get the stress right...it sort of falls into place.

In fact I'd love a Russian language thread where we could all practice our grammar - is there one in the language learning section?

We're the Russian family living in London. Probably I could help with explaining of some difficulties of our language. In my case, I really love the English language, and could clear some my questions in return.

Some Polish children I know do Russian classes at weekends.