A language learners’ forum

Hey guys.

I'm new to the Russian language. Just wanted to say drop in and say hi o/

Any tips for a rookie? I'm currently just familiarising myself with the alphabet and using Michel Thomas. It's quite daunting lol

Jaleel10 wrote:Hey guys.

I'm new to the Russian language. Just wanted to say drop in and say hi o/

Any tips for a rookie? I'm currently just familiarising myself with the alphabet and using Michel Thomas. It's quite daunting lol

Welcome! My main tip would be not to worry. It all comes. The alphabet felt like a big step for me when I started but when you think about it, it’s just 33 bits. From English, you already know 5. So just 28 to go! At some points it’ll feel like they’re not sticking but they are.

MamaPata wrote: From English, you already know 5. So just 28 to go!.

Probably more than 5. If you remember your beloved math classes, you probably remember Π (pi=3.1416), Д (Δ: delta in the differential equations), Γ and Φ (gamma and phi), all these letters coming from the Greek that are used in maths and physics.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it

Arnaud wrote:

MamaPata wrote: From English, you already know 5. So just 28 to go!.

Probably more than 5. If you remember your beloved math classes, you probably remember Π (pi=3.1416), Д (Δ: delta in the differential equations), Γ and Φ (gamma and phi), all these letters coming from the Greek that are used in maths and physics.

There's also р which you may have encountered in physics or math, у if you ever learned to pronounce ancient Greek the way it is usually taught in the West and в, which is pronounced like the proper pronunciation of the Greek β.

Hi everyone! I'm Marina, I'm new here. I've been learning Russian for about six months now, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on interesting youtube channels (not Russian teachers). For now, I know and occasionally watch video by these channels: Dilya Nalune, Моя Планета, ВОЛЬНОМУ - ВОЛЯ!, but that's about it. I checked out other channels (the most popular ones, actually) but didn't really find anything interesting. Do you have any recommendation? In case it might help, I'm mainly into traveling, people, society, anthropology, psychology, art, lifestyle (but not really into fashion/beauty). Thank you!

Привіт! Мене звуть Пфифлтриґґ Пі.

I'm Pfifltrigg Pi, (as you could see were you to look slightly to the left) and I am in the process of introducing myself as per the first post here.

*Why on earth did you pick Russian? I didn't. I picked Ukraïnian.
*Why, then, did you pick Ukrainian? Because it's better than Russian. Also, because I go to a Ukrainian church, because I prefer the sound and because the flag looks nicer on the cover of my notebook. Also I can speak to the students learning Russian here at my university in Ukrainian and watching their reactions will be most entertaining.
*How long have you been studying? In general, since I was about 1 year old when I started being taught how to read English. Oh, you mean "How long have you been studying Russian Ukrainian?" In that case, since Tuesday.
*What are your goals? Learning Ukrainian. More specifically, learning enough to be able to fully understand the liturgy without written help, sing in the choir (although I'll have to learn to sing for that as well, though my telling the choir director that has not stopped them from trying to draft me.), to be able to comfortably read Ukrainian liturature and to learn to communicate with and understand Russian and Belarusian well enough to (in my dreams of when I'm not a broke uni student) travel to all three countries, interact with speakers of all three languages and read their literature.
*Anything else you would like to share According to the rules of heraldry, the two colours on the flag of Ukraine are not supposed to be placed next to eachother. The flag also used to be flown the other way around, with the gold on top and blue on the bottom, representing the gold domes of churches over the blue waters of the Dnieper river and, even though it was inverted during the second half of the XIXth century, it is still usually called the жовто-блакитний or "yellow and (light) blue". It seems that the modern "blue sky over golden fields of grain" explanation was actually invented after the switch was already made.

Here are two Ukrainian songs, incase anyone is interested:

"Гей Соколи" (Hey Falcons) a song about falcons and Kozaks.


"Хай живе вільна Укпаїна!" (May she live a free Ukraine) a song about Kozaks.


(I may or may not be becoming a Kozak-boo.)

Edit: apologies if this violates the no-politics rule. I'll take it down if it does.

Just a reminder that there is just under 24 hours left to vote in the poll to decide what the forum book group reads in April.

https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=10232

There is one book originally written in Russian but you can obviously vote for the others if you would rather!

insight wrote:Hi everyone! I'm Marina, I'm new here. I've been learning Russian for about six months now, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on interesting youtube channels (not Russian teachers). For now, I know and occasionally watch video by these channels: Dilya Nalune, Моя Планета, ВОЛЬНОМУ - ВОЛЯ!, but that's about it. I checked out other channels (the most popular ones, actually) but didn't really find anything interesting. Do you have any recommendation? In case it might help, I'm mainly into traveling, people, society, anthropology, psychology, art, lifestyle (but not really into fashion/beauty). Thank you!

Hi Marina, I've been using the Russian Progress youtube channel, but it's probably not what you're looking for, as it is teaching Russian (though through quite interesting content). I mention it because there was a recent vlog about Russian Youtube channels which the guy who runs the channel watches himself. It might be worth watching that one and seeing whether any of the recommendations interest you