Anyone Speak Яussiaи?

[Yar]

Здравствуйте!

I've decided to pick up Russian as a hobby. I'm using the Rosetta Stone. (I have mixed feelings about it. Absolutely no grammar explanation.)

Anyway, these vowels are screwing me up. Like, why is "е" pronounced like "э" in some words?

Also, how the hell is "ы" pronounced? What is the difference between a soft vowel and a hard vowel? Are there soft and hard consonants?

Thanks for help, I bet I'll have more questions later.

До свидания!

[Nominus Experse]

The only Russian I know is the lyrics to the Main Title of The Hunt for Red October...

However, here are a few ideas that may help:

Check the podcast network. There is likely a linguistic-oriented channel, and if there is not, be sure to check iTunesU, which is a freely available podcast network designed and fueled by Universities around the world. More likely than not, there is one detailing Russian.

Check your local library. You would be surprised what one can find. Books are often times better than the internet in this case.

Is there anyone that you know that speaks Russian? Experience outside of a program or book is best, of course.

Perhaps traveling to a Russian saturated area, or even Russia itself? Complete or partial immersion is the fastest way to learn.

Are you in college? If so, ask if you can audit a Russian course (language or history or culture or etc).

Check local and government programs. There is a linguistic program called Starspeach or something along those lines that is almost completely subsidized by the government (of America).

Lastly, ask Mr. Google.


Hope that miniature brainstorm helps.

[Selena_Akariko]

Приветик! Тебе повезло, на этом форуме есть настоящая русская

And if your knowledge still isn't enough to understand that sentence:

Hello! You're lucky, there's a real Russian on this forum

There are lots of hard things in pronouncing words, but wait until you get to writing them. I tell you, almost all the words are written differently from how they are pronounced.

'ы' is the sound that exists only in Russian. Can't be explained, you have to hear it.

Grammar is very hard. We, Russians, learn about Russian grammar throughout the whole school, and it's still very hard, especially when it comes to punctuation in some situations.

Selena

[Vyk]

Sounds a lot like English. Mostly memorization, I take it?

I have Rozetta stone for almost all the offered languages and have yet to touch any of them haha :(

[Selena_Akariko]

Sounds a lot like English. Mostly memorization, I take it?

Well, some words do require memorization, but not all of them. There are lots of rules about what letter to write in the word in this or that situation or form or whatever. There are such letters in every part of the word, and most of them are explained by rules.

English is way easier than Russian. But what's good about Russian, is it's richness in synonyms and shades of meaning. As one of our humorists said, in English there's only one meaning in the phrase 'I love you' and only one way to say it (i.e. we can't say, for example, 'you love I'). I Russian, the 3 words that make 'I love you' ('Я люблю тебя') can be put in any way, and in every way they make a different shade of meaning.

Selena

[Nominus Experse]

This thread is making me want to learn Russian.

[Yamaneko]

Я говорю на русском языке? Очень плохо.

I'm currently taking Russian2 at my local community college. It's a very difficult language to learn. I have hard and soft stems down pretty well and can read childrens' books with ease. The 7-letter and 5-letter rules confuse me and verb conjugation pretty much comes down to memorization from what I can tell.

I'm sticking with it.

[Rye]

This thread is making me want to learn Russian.

Seriously. It sounds so fascinating.

[Selena_Akariko]

Я говорю на русском языке? Очень плохо.

The correct way to ask the question would be: "Говорю ли я на русском языке?" or "Говорю ли я по-русски?"

Just wanted to correct it a bit, if you don't mind... If you do mind, please tell me.

The 7-letter and 5-letter rules confuse me and verb conjugation pretty much comes down to memorization from what I can tell.

What exactly do you mean? Give me an example, I'll try to explain.

Selena

[Yamaneko]

AFTER Г, К, Х, Ш, Щ, Ж, Ч, WRITE И NOT Ы -- 7-lettter

AFTER Ш, Щ, Ж, Ч, Ц, DO NOT WRITE UNSTRESSED O, WRITE Е INSTEAD -- 5-letter

Isn't по-русски used only for non-action verbs like "to know" rather than "to speak"? I might be confusing the two, but I know our teacher said that по-русски is used in conjuntion with some verbs while русском языке / Русский язык is used with another set of verbs.

Thank you, though, for the correction. It makes more sense, I think.

[Selena_Akariko]

AFTER Г, К, Х, Ш, Щ, Ж, Ч, WRITE И NOT Ы -- 7-lettter

AFTER Ш, Щ, Ж, Ч, Ц, DO NOT WRITE UNSTRESSED O, WRITE Е INSTEAD -- 5-letter

Isn't по-русски used only for non-action verbs like "to know" rather than "to speak"? I might be confusing the two, but I know our teacher said that по-русски is used in conjuntion with some verbs while русском языке / Русский язык is used with another set of verbs.

Thank you, though, for the correction. It makes more sense, I think.

Well, there isn't a rule for Г, К, Х, but I think that makes sense, I can't think of any word where they'll be written with Ы

The second rule is not full - those are written differently in different parts of the word and different uh... How are they called in English... Well, nouns, verbs etc. I don't have my copybook near now, but later I'll post you an example.

And about the verbs, you're confusing them. Because it's usually "Говорю по-русски (по-английски, по-немецки)" "Веду себя по-дурацки" (XD) Well, actually, I don't quite know how to explain that :rolleyes2

Selena