Job Discussion Forums

[coledavis]

I just had a look at Amazon: the New Penguin Russian course also has great reviews (except for one person who found it too grammar-bound). The point that various commentators make is that it can't teach pronunciation. You need another source for this, as poor pronunciation does limit you a lot.

[joe-joe]

Here's my penneth worth, if it's any use. I used a Linguaphone course to get going, and to be fair it worked well for getting my pronunciation up to steam. But I do recommend the somewhat optimistically titled 'Russian in 3 Months', by Hugo. I found it good for clear grammar explanations and some good situational dialogues for vocabulary. Also a good phrase book is as good as anything for picking up very useful, day-to-day expressions and vocabulary.

It's taken 3 years to get to good intermediate, but I had breaks from places that spoke Russian for a year of that, and I was in the Caucasus which tends to speak Russian as a second language. So if you're 'in country' in Siberia you should pick it up quite quickly if you have the time and/or motivation.

Joe

[P-T]

We need to remember that Kaan is not coming here as an English language teacher, he's coming to work on the oilfields.

Kaan, you really should have some formal language lessons before arriving, even if for no other reason than Occupational Safety & Health, your life might depend on it! Hit your company up for lessons now & once you've arrived too; a legitimate & justifiable business expense I would have thought.

I bought an 8 CD 'Basic Russian Language' Pimsleur course. Nowhere near enough, but it gave me a nice little start. My Lonely Planet phrase book has got me through most shopping expeditions, not too practical on a pipeline though, I suspect. Listening intently to conversations around me has been great. Watching Shrek with the Russian soundtrack was fun!

Typing Russian text into Abby Lingvo, & Socrates Personal, then hitting the 'translate' button helped me to learn the alphabet & read, & gave good insight into grammar; attempting the same with a handwritten message was a naive exercise not to be repeated.

The single greatest impediment to my learning to speak Russian is the locals themselves. Whilst they want me to be able to speak their language, they want even more to practice their English.

[galactico]

To all,

I'm of to Norway for a couple of weeks but when I return i shall definetly invest on these grammer books, and by sounds of it I'll be doing more work on the language than the job!!

That is a shame we probably shall not meet but where ever you go, have a wonderful time P-T.

Take care
Kaan