How to Learn the Russian Language
The beautiful Russian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which contains 33 letters of 10 vowels, 21 consonants and two "silent" letters. As early as the sixth century, Slavic people were speaking dialects that later developed into Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian. Russian itself is spoken all over Russia, Moldova, and many of the Eastern bloc countries that were once part of the U.S.S.R. It is also one of the official languages of the United Nations.
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Things You'll Need
- Russian language recordings
- Blank index cards
- English-Russian dictionary
Instructions
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Gather the resources to begin your lessons in one place. Start by learning the alphabet and how to pronounce each letter by using the recordings. Practice writing the letters as well as saying them aloud until you can recite the whole alphabet from memory.
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Learn the numbers next and keep practicing the alphabet along with learning numbers. After you have these down, move to basic phrases such as "Hello," "My name is...," "where is the phone?" and "Good day." Continue with other common phrases for travel or daily conversation. You can learn these before you learn more about grammar. Practice both the Russian to English and English to Russian by using double-sided flash cards.
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Begin lessons on basic grammar in order to start constructing sentences yourself. Start by learning the personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, us, them) as you will need these for subjects and objects in sentences.
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Move to acquiring verbs and understanding which verb tenses Russian uses. This is one of the key differences between Russian and English. Give yourself extra time to practice by conjugating a list of verbs with each pronoun.
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Tackle nouns by adding words to your vocabulary and learning the gender associated with each noun. This leads into the lessons for learning the six cases in Russian that define what a noun does in a sentence. English does this with word order, but as in Greek, Latin and German, Russian employs noun cases for this understanding.
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Review each lesson after you finish, later in the day. Spend approximately a week on each lesson before moving forward. Take longer to nail down more difficult lessons. When you begin a new lesson, review the previous lesson at the start. This both aids your memory and focuses your attention for the new lesson.
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Tips & Warnings
The best way to learn a language is to study a little every day in order to immerse yourself in the language. Using audio and visual learning methods together improves your pronunciation and memory of lessons. Take flashcards of vocabulary and phrases with you when you run errands or have to wait at an appointment. Post them around your house on related objects as well. Russian has a different grammar structure than English and uses simpler sentences with fewer words, which can confuse learners at first. Don't shy away from speaking with others in order to practice the language when you're learning it.
