How Hard Is It To Learn Russian?
Have you ever asked yourself whether you can or cannot learn Russian language or any other language? Basically, I mean any other language which is not your native language. I think you’ve asked, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article!
So, let’s determine what the word “language” means for learners. Language is a tool which allows you to transform information from one source to another. What methods do you know for information transformation? Is it a picture? Is it a gesticulation (animated gesture)? Yes, exactly! You can show something without vocal explanations. In other words, you can avoid using speaking skills. But this is not convenient for us in some situations. Taking it from this point, we have agreed upon 3 main methods for communicating with each other: pictures, gesticulation, and language (speaking skills). We will then follow these points with 5 excellent tips for achieving the goal of fluent spoken Russian. Or how to learn Russian language.
When a baby is born and is only a couple of months old, all languages are unknown for the kid. People are speaking the language that is strange to the baby’s mind. If you were a baby today, you would be able to hear something like this: Wow, bub u bu, boo boo booooo…. Meanwhile if someone says, “What a cute baby; how small and funny you are”, you would not understand it at all, because your brain would not be ready for that. The kid starts to speak within a year or so when enough information has passed through his ears and brain. Then from passive perception activity, the kid’s brain can perform actively and speak his first words and then sentences.
Usually in Russian, we say «мама» (mama) or «папа» (papa), which means mother and father. And it was with a lot of repetition!!! For the brain, repetition and duration is very important. The brain will get used to the new information and remember it as something very close to the heart.
First Method of Learning Russian Language
The first method is repetition! You have to repeat materials over and over again until your brain understands it as a native language. You have to listen to it many times, write it many times, and say it many, many times. Don’t limit yourself to only words. Very common teaching techniques are through the use of pictures. Children are taught to match pictures with words; people who have lost their memory in an accident often have to retrain their brains and the same method is used. Matching pictures with words and colors with objects (red square, green circle, blue chair, etc.) has been the most popular starting point for learning new material.
Second Method of Learning Russian Language
The second method, gesticulation, builds upon the first method. When people want to get a point across, they often use hand signals (referred to as “speaking with their hands”) to emphasize their thoughts. For example, if someone says, “Hello”, they’ll most likely wave to you at the same time. Or you may notice someone nodding his or her head up and down, which signals “Yes, I agree with you” or from side-to-side, which implies disagreement.
Third Method of Learning Russian Language
The third method (and secret for studying any language) is: If you want to be a good listener, you have to listen more and more. If you want to be a good writer and not make spelling mistakes, you have to write a lot. If you want to speak fluent Russian, you have to force yourself to SPEAK RUSSIAN! Yes. Speak Russian. You can speak Russian even if you think you can’t. What makes me think so? If you speak English, then you have the ability to pronounce words and make sounds, which means you can do the same in Russian. You just need to know what to say. For this, you will need to know grammar rules and some Russian vocabulary. You can easily find it on the internet, but make sure the information you find is in the right order. It will save you time and make the studying process efficient and intriguing. It should be interesting for you because your brain will ignore it if it’s not interesting. You have “to love the Russian language” if you want to achieve success in studying it.
What Do You Need to do to Achieve the Goal of Fluent Spoken Russian?
#1 Tip to Learn Russian Language – Pronunciation
First, you need to know how to read Russian and be able to pronounce sounds very close to the original. This will allow you to see words and create visual memories of them.
#2 Tip to Learn Russian Language – Grammar
The second is to study grammar along with easy texts supporting each rule and explain how it is conjugated. It’s very important because if you study grammar and read materials that don’t match with what you just studied, it can greatly distract you. Your task is to find the course that is built in the proper order and dosage. Success will come when two elements are mastered: how to use the rule, and when to use the rule.
Don’t believe people who tell you to study Russian without knowing the basic rules, or that you can avoid rules because they are boring and distract you. That’s not true at all. In the first stage of your studies, you will need to know rules and how to operate with them, otherwise you will see the text and you won’t know how to change it to the way you need. It’s waste of time, trust me.
I took this journey of studying English. My mother tongue language is Russian. And I started to study English without using any rules, and after a year of bad experiences, I came up with the idea of study rules along with texts supporting those rules. So now you see my article which I personally wrote. Therefore, by making my mistakes, I found the way to study a foreign language and speak that language in quite a short period of time.
Dimytrii Tupikin – Founder of RussianLessonOnline.com
#3 Tip to Learn Russian Language – Conjugation
The third piece of advice for you is to learn conjugation! Yes. Learn conjugation as you learn verses by heart. I am suggesting this to you because studying each word separately will not bring you success or improve your vocabulary. You will keep forgetting crucial parts of learned words and it will start to be annoying. Russian is the language in which you cannot simply remember words from a dictionary, and you have to know how to conjugate and transform the endings of words depending on specific sentences. In English, you can simply memorize some words and put them into a sentence, but Russian doesn’t work this way. When you study Russian conjugation, you make your brain remember patterns of the speech. And in some situations, you will simply recall some sentences and use them in the right moments. In this case, you will know when and how to use each word and easily memorize the meanings. Never study the words separately from the sentence. There’s an 85% surety that you’ll forget some words within a day or two.
#4 Tip to Learn Russian Language – Listening
The fourth tip for you is to listen to Russian audio often. You need to create an environment of Russian language and emerge yourself into it. You will do the same thing that a small baby does to study its mother’s language (by listening to what his mother says). Even if you don’t pay attention to what is said, or you don’t understand what is being said…your brain pays attention 24/7. You will experience situations when you don’t remember the meaning of the words, but you definitely hear those words. It will make your memorization smooth and the study process will be more natural. By listening to Russian audio, you will get used to pronunciation and variations of voices. You will have experience with it, so when the time comes to speak with Russians, you will be ready to understand what they say to you more clearly. It’s so important!
Changing the language on your phone and computer is also good advice for you as part of emerging into the Russian environment. If you have an intermediate level of Russian understanding, you could work with these devices with no problems.
#5 Tip to Learn Russian Language – Speaking
The fifth suggestion is the most important and powerful – SPEAK RUSSIAN! Even if you are a total beginner and just know some basic phrases, you can speak using those phrases and repeat them over and over again. Speaking is the best form of the learning process and it’s the hardest! When you listen or read, you can passively learn Russian and help yourself advance very quickly, gaining the ability to speak Russian. Nothing can ever compare to the speaking method. When you speak, you activate another part of your brain and shift your passive knowledge to active knowledge. From that point, you understand the sound when you can actually say it – when you can speak and use everything you studied.
There are moments when you know some words in your native language and you understand their meanings. When you speak with somebody, you may use those words. It never crosses your mind when it’s so needed because those words are saved in your passive memory. To transform unknown words into active memories, you just have to say the words out loud many times over a few days. After that, the words become part of your daily speech. I think you already experienced this feeling. The same goes for the Russian language. You study Russian sentences and then repeat them actively at least 20 times during 2 or 3 days and you realize that you don’t forget those words! You can use proper sentences when you need them. Amazing! This works for everybody! I have verified this with my past students that I taught. These students can speak Russian well now. But students who didn’t apply this advice into their daily lives are still struggling with their fluency of spoken Russian.
I hope you find this advice helpful and I urge you to apply these methods as part of your studying process. You will find the great learning materials on our website. And check out our video courses for more information. It can help you to improve your Russian skills very fast. And remember, we are not about creating thousands of videos and writing millions of articles to waste your time and show you numbers as other websites may do! However, we do make each video worthy of your attention. Each video consists of 100% correct and important content that you should know to be able to speak Russian. You can watch 10 or 15 teaching videos from the beginning section and study plenty of useful information to improve your skills. Or, if you prefer, you can watch 150 videos and get more confused with the Russian language completely! You can always make your own decision, of course, but we’re here to help guide you so that doesn’t happen – we want you to be able to master the Russian language so you have the best instruction when you need it most! Learning Russian language should be almost like hobby,then Russian language will becomes more friendly and easy to learn and absorb.
