Job Discussion Forums

dhalgren17 · Joined: 09 Feb 2009 Posts: 6

Hello All:
Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good method for studying Russian here in Moscow. I'm talking taking a course, not just self-study and language exchange.
Thanks,
dhalgren17

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

Marry a Russian. You will learn more than you bargained for. I did! Wink

(18 yrs and 4 kids later...)

vanillasky · Joined: 02 Nov 2009 Posts: 32

He's right, I've had only Russian boyfriends the past ten years, and learned A LOT of Russian that way Wink

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expatella_girl · Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 3:18 am Post subject:

I took formal Russian lessons in Moscow for a year. Outside of the original 'survival' Russian course which included a lot of canned phrases which were eternally useful for daily needs--the later levels of Russian were a bust for me.

Part of the problem is the way Russian teachers have been taught to teach. Very methodological. No matter what the needs or response of the students, Russians teach a certain subject a certain way and there is no variance possible. I think it is true of many things in Russia, the methodology is more important than the result.

I only moved beyond the survival Russian stage when I went to work with an entire shop full of Russians, I was the lone foreigner on board. Everything was conducted in Russian, all conversations were in Russian, and doing that 8 hours a day 5 days a week boosted my Russian like no amount of lessons ever could have.

However I will say that even though my conversational Russian and vocabulary improved exponentially working in a totally Russian environment, my grasp of formal grammar never crept up much. Dear god, Russian grammar is as big a mystery to me now as it was the day I got off the plane. Russian grammar is a brick wall.