Russian Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
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MamaPata
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby MamaPata » Sat Aug 18, 2018 12:43 pm

brilliantyears wrote:Does anyone perhaps have good tips for Russian podcasts? Either very very simple podcasts, or something aimed at learners. I've got RussianPod101 on my radar but just wondering if anyone has other/additional recommendations.


I've never really gotten into podcasts in any language, so I don't have any suggestions, sorry!
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brilliantyears
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby brilliantyears » Sat Aug 18, 2018 3:23 pm

No worries! I started listening to Slow Russian and I'm really enjoying it :) Not necessarily catching as much as I'd like yet, but at least the content is interesting!
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rookan
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby rookan » Wed Aug 29, 2018 3:49 pm

Hi guys, my mother is a professional Russian teacher and a few days ago she created a Youtube channel, where she teaches Russian. We would really appreciate your feedback about her video: https://youtu.be/yu63BO4e6Ns
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Arnaud
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby Arnaud » Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:15 am

rookan wrote:Hi guys, my mother is a professional Russian teacher and a few days ago she created a Youtube channel, where she teaches Russian. We would really appreciate your feedback about her video: https://youtu.be/yu63BO4e6Ns

Все просто, очень просто :mrgreen:

I've hesitated to publish that because I know doing that kind of videos is time-consuming and all, but I prefer to be honest...
Question: Who the videos are made for ? Who can understand them ?

Your mum is probably a teacher for russian speaking people (like children) who need to write and speak грамотно. They already speak Russian.
It's a completly different activity to teach Russian to foreigners who don't know a word of Russian: how can they understand what she says ? There are subtitles but they are also in russian. Russian is not easy and all the difficulties need to be explained one by one, slowly.
The videos can only be understood by good intermediate and advanced learners who already know what she's talking about.

That being said, I like the videos: we see how a native brain is working spontaneously while explaining the language, and how what takes years for us to master seems so evident for her. Is she from a region near Ukraine or the west of Russia ?
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rookan
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby rookan » Thu Aug 30, 2018 8:48 am

Thanks for reply, Arnaud. She lives in Ukraine, but speak Russian all her life (hello from USSR). Your guess is correct - she is a teacher of Russian language in Russian school for Russian children :) Nevertheless, she wants to teach foreigners a Russian language using only Russian language itself. Maybe we just need to target not beginners level students as you noticed, but pre-intermediate/intermediate and higher. Those students can learn basics of Russian language somewhere else and then use her videos to improve their skills further. Me personally prefer to study English using English sources - watching English movies, listening to native speakers, reading and writing on the internet in English without using intermediate translation tools. I believe that "Learn Russian" video lessons are much more effective when they are 100% in Russian and not 90% in English with accidental russian words - I just get tired of such videos and propose my mom to experiment with native learning approach for foreigners. She may need to adapt her approach to become more accessible and easy to understand - and that's why we asked for feedback :)
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MamaPata
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby MamaPata » Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:12 pm

rookan wrote:Thanks for reply, Arnaud. She lives in Ukraine, but speak Russian all her life (hello from USSR). Your guess is correct - she is a teacher of Russian language in Russian school for Russian children :) Nevertheless, she wants to teach foreigners a Russian language using only Russian language itself. Maybe we just need to target not beginners level students as you noticed, but pre-intermediate/intermediate and higher. Those students can learn basics of Russian language somewhere else and then use her videos to improve their skills further. Me personally prefer to study English using English sources - watching English movies, listening to native speakers, reading and writing on the internet in English without using intermediate translation tools. I believe that "Learn Russian" video lessons are much more effective when they are 100% in Russian and not 90% in English with accidental russian words - I just get tired of such videos and propose my mom to experiment with native learning approach for foreigners. She may need to adapt her approach to become more accessible and easy to understand - and that's why we asked for feedback :)


I haven't had a chance to look at your mum's videos yet, sorry. But I will say that there aren't as many intermediate level resources for Russian learners than there are beginner ones. So it might work out well to aim for intermediate students. I'll report back when I've watched it.
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leosmith
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby leosmith » Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:17 pm

rookan wrote:Hi guys, my mother is a professional Russian teacher and a few days ago she created a Youtube channel, where she teaches Russian. We would really appreciate your feedback about her video: https://youtu.be/yu63BO4e6Ns

I only watched a few minutes of it, but I liked it. It seems she was embarking on an overview of Russian grammar, and I thought the explanations she gave were very clear.

I'd be curious to see how she handles aspect. So many teachers try to convince us that it's simple, when it's actually extremely complicated. When we find out that it's not simple, we get disappointed in our teachers. We think either they lied to us, or they truly don't understand why foreigners find it so hard.

I agree what others said - this is definitely not for beginners. It's interesting that several native Russian speaking Russian teachers I've met, even though they have excellent English, have expressed the strong desire to teach Russian using Russian only. For good English speakers, that comment is pretty rare in the other languages I study.
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Arnaud
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby Arnaud » Fri Aug 31, 2018 5:06 am

leosmith wrote:I'd be curious to see how she handles aspect. So many teachers try to convince us that it's simple, when it's actually extremely complicated..
Все просто, очень просто :mrgreen:
Like so many others, as you said...Watch the video until the end, if you have time.
I've even read on Italki the magical formula: to choose the aspect, ask yourself что делать or что сделать ? :o :shock: :lol:

About the aspect in particular and the russian verbal system in general, I've found the books of Караванов very useful: Виды русского глагола (pdf floating around): the book gives 75 rules illustrated by simple exercises (no keys, but you don't need them). They are all sold out unfortunately, the book about verbs of motion is also rather good, imho.

Once you've read Виды русского глагола, you see the great tendencies of the system (action completed or not, negation or not, general or particular case) throught a ton of exemples, but when it comes to choosing the aspect when you write or speak, it's still difficult especially at the infinitive and imperative moods (it's generally easier at the past tense).
In fact, when you hesitate, the best way to choose the aspect is often to ask yourself "did I already heard that said by a native speaker ?", you'll make less mistakes that way than trying to apply a particular rule learned in a book.
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leosmith
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby leosmith » Fri Aug 31, 2018 4:46 pm

Arnaud wrote:Like so many others, as you said...Watch the video until the end, if you have time.

Good point. I only study (maintain) Russian once every 2 weeks now, so next time I'll watch this whole video. Next time I do a spurt in Russian, I'll check out the materials you listed. I used english-medium textbooks/grammars for grammar study almost exclusively, so it's probably time to ramp it up.
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MamaPata
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Re: Russian Study Group

Postby MamaPata » Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:05 am

Okay, finally got around to watching a bit. Your mother seems very nice and I think she has real potential. Personally though, I won't watch 30 minute videos - my max is closer to 15mins. I suspect it would be better to take one small example and focus on that, rather than trying to cover as much as she did.
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