Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

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EthanH
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Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby EthanH » Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:10 am

Hello everyone!

My name is Ethan and I am very interested in learning Russian; however, I have no idea where to start. I figured I would come on to a website, where people could guide me in the right direction. I do not have a lot of money at my disposal and was wondering where I could begin my journey to learn Russian, without breaking my bank account. Does anyone have any good recommendations for books and courses that would develop my speaking, writing, reading and listening skills?

(I have no experience with Russian, I am a native English speaker if this helps)

Thank you, anything helps!
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby drmweaver2 » Tue Oct 30, 2018 1:17 pm

First, good luck.
Now... to me, the obvious place to start would be to look at the Russian Study Group's Resources list. See post #2 here: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =26&t=5204

Then, after probably 2-5 days of following and reading the links (and reading reviews both on this board and from around the Net) of the places you can download free materials, pick one. It's pretty much that simple. (Don't we all wish?) :lol:

Here, I'll start you off:
Cortina Russian course materials (download): http://celt.indiana.edu/portal/language ... chive.html
Forum post/thread relating to that: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... na+russian
Off-site review: Amazon purchase page: https://www.amazon.com/Cortinas-Russian ... B00ZBK6WJM
......scroll down to read the reviews...
YouTube video review Cortina courses in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP0S15g6K-Q

Of course, you can also go to YouTube and peruse (get lost looking at) the various YT videos and "courses" there which range from college level quality to someone stuck something up and left it there. The quality ones should stand out even to people totally new to Russian.

My point is, you don't have to pay a penny to learn Russian if you don't want to.
Oh, I forgot - check your local public library for materials.
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby Xmmm » Tue Oct 30, 2018 1:46 pm

I would avoid Duolingo completely. It's very random and doesn't really give you a mental framework of what's going on with the language. It's actually worse than a waste of time. I think it has negative value (for Russian at least).

I didn't use Cortina Russian, but I did flip through it at one point and it looked solid, so that's probably a good suggestion.

Assimil Russian is very good but will cost you $100.
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby Kamlari » Tue Oct 30, 2018 2:06 pm

There are plenty of free resources.
Here's one of them:
https://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/EN/ENRU/ENRU002.HTM
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby EthanH » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:53 pm

Thank you very much!
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby reineke » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:55 pm

Gosh. Book2 is an excellent resource. Penton's Learn in your Car and Vocabulearn series are available for free on Spotify. You can check other free resources in the Resources subforum. Also check out the university links and the free Princeton course.
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby drmweaver2 » Tue Oct 30, 2018 5:45 pm

FWIW, I wasn't actually recommending Cortina Russian... I was using it as an example of what's available and how to research/what to consider as far as whether to use it...
Ex.,
Here''s Russian Study Group list of resources.
Here's 1 particular, downloadable, free resource that's been talked about here and elsewhere.
Here's some not-from-here-comments about it.
Here's a forum thread about it...
and on and on...

If you look at half the resources in the RSG sub-forum list, it'll be worth your time.

And of course, you can always read through people's language logs to see what they use, like/didn't like, how they're using or not using particular resources/courses.

Take your time. It's an investment.
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I'm going to read Lord of the Rings in Russian - Me (some time ago)
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby dgc1970 » Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:17 pm

And don't forget about libraries! Expensive courses like Pimsleur and Michel Thomas are free at the library. You'll be surprised at how many language learning books are at the library. Ask your librarian about inter-library loans.
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby Arnaud » Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:33 pm

Welcome on board ;)
Russian ressources, Russian study group
Take a few hours to sift through all the material proposed, ask questions if you want, try to read a few logs of people who have or are currently learning russian.
For Russian, I always recommand an approach based on a lot of listening + repeating: if you want to learn the cyrillic alphabet first, please examine immediatly after it the reading rules (videos #5 and #6 are very important to understand the effect of the stress on the pronounciation) to use it correctly. Russian is not phonetic (at least, at the beginning)

Assimil Russian, Ruslan, The new penguin russian course and Russian in exercises are the books I would recommand to reach B1, then forget these books and use native material and find a language partner, knowing that going from B1 to B2 to C1 will take a few years of persistant work.
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Re: Learning Russian as a high schooler in the U.S?

Postby MamaPata » Tue Oct 30, 2018 8:58 pm

Great to hear about your plans! Depending on how you like to learn, there's a ton of videos for beginners on YouTube. I think EasyLanguages has a special series for complete beginners.

Do come over and introduce yourself in the Study Group! We're all here to support each other.
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