.Andrea. wrote:Hey! I'm actually struggling with Russian... I can perfectly understand its alphabet but vocabulary looks so hard for me, I mean, trying to memorize anything is impossible! I don't know why, for instance I can learn japanese vocabulary without problem, any advice?
I think that you might be interested in pulling the morphemes apart.
In many languages, words have a suffix, afixes and root words, each meaning things, and together they make up words.
There is a good list on github by oskarkv: Otherwise there are probably a lot of various sources.
Then you have to look up what the morphemes are.
Every word has several other words associated with it, so if you learn one word, if you pull it apart, you can no doubt get 5-6 words out of it: Like this example in English:
Root word circum from Latin, meaning: around
circumference, circumstance
both of these words have to do with going around something: You can add the words "circle, encircle, circus (for the round center ring), circuitous, circuit (electronics), and etc...See? All that changes are the little grammatical tags on the end.
In Russian you have similar small words that make bigger words:
круг; circle, sphere, round
круг; circle, sphere, ring, orbit, lap
круглый; round
кружить; to circle
кружка; cup, jug
окружать // окружить; to surround
The only difference is that круг is the word for circle.
What this is, is called Derivational Morphology. Some of these word parts make nouns, some create the case (at the end) singular, possessive, etc. You notice that there is the word жить (live) involved. Does this mean that someone live is doing this action (circling something)? In fact жить only shows up when it is the action of a living being doing the action.
Also look into cognitives to expand your vocabulary. For example Crown in Russian is корона. Well, a corona in English is a halo of light, as around the sun, which is a kind of a crown. Remembering that corona means something similar to crown, can help remembering words.
Интерне́т – Internet
кафе́ – cafe is the exact same word in Russian and English except for spelling and accent.
Remember also that the Russian language developed at various times. In Peter the Great's time, everyone wanted to speak French, and there are a lot of French words in Russian.
équipage - экипаж (crew)
écran - экран (screen)
étage - этаж (floor on a building)
garage - гара́ж (garage)
jalousie - жалюзи (jalousie, window blinds)
meuble - ме́бель (furniture)
There are also examples of words originating in Germany, Yiddish, Dutch and others. For this, look under Russian Loanwords.
Finally, there are loan words that are similar in many Indo-European languages. They just are.
son - сын
brother - брат
sister - сестр́а
cat - кот
So this form of study will give you a lot of new vocabulary words.
Have fun!
. It was just easy for me to read in Russian back then.
It would be a good way to get some feedback, especially in these early stages...
I think since the weight of a hundred assignments are not haunting me anymore, I have made a commitment to learn the languages in my life that I have abandoned. I also think that I have learned more about learning since getting my master's degree, and might (am thinking about it) try to see if I have any skill as a polyglot.