Way to Russia Talk Lounge

norge95 · Lounge Lizard Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 99

I was wondering if any students of the Russian language here in this forum, might have some suggestions for learning the Russian alphabet. I have had a number of Russian friends and clients tell me that it shouldn't be that difficult for me to learn the Russian alphabet. However, since Russian is their first language, no one has been able to suggest a good approach for me to take in order to accomplish this goal.

There are currently a lot of demands on my time with work for at least the next several months, so I probably won't be able to spend more than a few hours a week studying Russian. I would however still like to get started as soon as possible so my preference right now would be to find some sort of a self-paced course.

Blagodarju zaranee!
(Thanks in advance!)

Daria · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:22 am Post subject:

Some people start with five letters at the time, some start with vowels. It depends on what type of learner you are: visual, auditory or kinesthetic.

I always have Russian papers at home ( I'm Russian). So every time I go through my papers, my husband ( English speaker) asks me about letters. We started with "funny looking " letters first. For example, letter Я, backward R; English Р is Russian R; English H is Russian N...etc.

jo jo 7 · Last edited by jo jo 7 on Sun Oct 21, 2007 2:24 pm; edited 2 times in total

nikir · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:53 am Post subject:

By all means learn the alphabet, but be aware that there is only one letter (IMHO) that directly translates between the two languages. It's the letter K. Everything else either looks or is pronounced differently. It may be only slightly different but enough.

What jojo is doing is good but she needs to keep up the dialogue with her friend whenever possible. Otherwise she will give up in frustration.

Do not think you can listen to radio or TV on the net and pick up the language, they speak far too fast and use a myriad of words that won't be familiar. That comes later.

acastro · Just Starting Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Spain

Since I'm spanish, I had to learn the russian alphabet, like you. I printed the alphabet and copied vowels and the letters thar were different from my native alphabet. It was about 12 different items, so isn't very difficult.

Once I did that, I got a course of russian called "Eurotalk, Beginner level". It is like an picture dictionary, but it's like a contest: the more questions you get right, the more points you get. It's quite funny kind of learning.

norge95 · Lounge Lizard Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 99

Spasibo everyone for your good suggestions. Smile

TheWongs · Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:29 am Post subject:

I made myself flash cards to learn it. They are simply pieces of card, with the letter on one side and the pronounciation on the other.

I have a very bad memory and language is difficult for me, so I would sit with the cards face up and try to pronounce the letters. If I got it right, it went into a pile on the right side of me. If I was wrong, or didn't know, it went into a pile on the left. Then I would pick up the left pile and do the same again with this pile. I kept this up until I could go through them all without any mistakes.

It worked very well for me and it was very useful when I was in Ukraine. Now... I can read everything, but don't know what most of it means! Laughing

JustMarv · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:57 pm Post subject: How To Type In Russian!

For those people want to learn the Russian alphabet there is a very easy way. Just activate the Russian Language on your computer and then you can TYPE using the Russian Alphabet.

I found a set of inexpensive stickers for my keyboard and always have the entire alphabet in front of me.

Now all I have to do is learn the alphabet and how to sound out words.

From what my Russian Girlfriend has told me, the Russian Language is phonetic so once I have the alphabet down pat I can start learning how to speak in Russian.

Oh, if you want a set of stickers, I bought mine on eBay. To find out how be able to type on your computer in Russian, just Google, "Russian Keyboard" that's where I found how to to it.

allyson988 · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:08 pm Post subject:

Anybody any tips for someone who is having problems with pronouning Russian words. I have learned the alphabet and letter sounds but I am still having problems. The problem, you see, is that I am dyslexic and even in English (my native language) I encounter some problems with sounding words.

Some of my Russian language problems are that I cannot pronoun the Russian word shto without adding an extra s between the sh and the to. this is problematic as this is a very common Russian word.

Has anyone came across any material print or web based that has been aimed for dyslexic adults?

Thank You

Allyson

Stanislav · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:07 pm Post subject:

Many find it very easy to learn Russian (or, in fact, Cyrillic) letters with the system used in my "Poekhali!" (Let's go!) book. With a good teacher it makes one able to read Cyrillic in just a couple of hours. The principle is grouping the latters in a few categories (e.g., those similar to Latin ones; those similar but with different pronunciation, etc.) and extensive use of international words and brand names, which are easy to understand even in Russian spelling (like момент or тойота), adding one new letter at each step.
Actually, I'm planning to make a film "How to read Russian letters" based on this method to help everyone to learn the letters faster, hopefully it'll be at my website in a couple of weeks. I'll post a message as soon as it is online and welcome everyone's comments.

nikir · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:52 am Post subject:

Nice website Stanislav.

norge95 · Lounge Lizard Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 99

Spasibo snova for all of the good feedback everyone.

RThomas · Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:41 am Post subject:

For those wanting to learn the alphabet and pronunciation, this site is a good resource: http://listen2russian.com/
They have audio for every letter as well as many words and sentences. Great beginner site.

vox16 · WayToRussified Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 324

Bat · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:03 pm Post subject:

This trick works with some of my tourists: look at international words and the words you already can pronounce written in Russian. You just get used.
Examples I show to my tourists in the streets:
КАФЕ (cafe)
РЕСТОРАН (restaurant)
СТОП (stop)
САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГ (St Petersburg - different pronunciation but gives a hint)
ВОДКА (vodka)
АЭРОПОРТ (aeroport)
ОТЕЛЬ (hotel)
КОКА-КОЛА (Coca-Cola)
ТЕЛЕФОН (telephone)
МЕТРО (metro)