Category: Free Inquiry (Page 1 of 2)

For my final Free Inquiry post I would like to look forward. I would like to keep taking some time to work on my Russian. I will spend sometime practicing on Duolingo. Eventually, when COVID allows it, I would like to visit St. Petersburg. I also took a class on Soviet era film in my undergrad so perhaps I’ll revisit some of those films to get some authentic Russian experience. Overall I have found this free inquiry to be a very valuable experience.

In this post I will reflect on the learning process, and whether or not I achieved what I set out to do at the beginning of this term. Overall I think I did a pretty decent job keeping up with my free inquiry despite it being a very busy semester. I found learning a language online to be a little bit isolating. Given that conversation is one of the most important aspects of language learning it was a little awkward doing it all online. However, I did enjoy the freedom that learning online gave me. The Learn Russian Reddit thread was also useful as it allowed me to see the difficulties and successes of other language learners as well. If I were to do this again I would still primarily use online resources, but I would try to find a way to converse with someone. Perhaps on Zoom?

decided that here I would share some of the fun things I have learned about Russian just for interest’s sake

1. Russian has no articles. Russian unlike english does not have words like “the” or “a/an”
2. A number of English words have a Russian origin. For example, “Mammoth” or “Vodka”, which. comes from the old Slavic word for “water”
3. Russian middle names are patronymic, meaning they come from one’s father. They also change baed on the gender of the child. For example, a if your father was named Vladimir and you are a girl your last name would be Vladimirovna . If you were a boy it’s be Vladimirovitch.
4. Similar to Spanish or German nouns have gender. nouns can be Masculine, feminine, or neuter.
5. There are over 150 million native speakers of the language.

This video is fun and points out some of the cool aspects of Russian.

This week, despite being very busy with the end of term, I have carved out a bit of time to work on my basic sentences in Russian. I have found remembering them a little more difficult than remembering the individual words. Particularly because Memrise, which I found very useful for learning individual words has not been as strong for learning sentences. For this part of my inquiry I have been relying more heavily on youtube videos so I can get both the pronunciation and the sentences at the same time. Here is another video I found useful.

In leaning phrases I have also found this website that has broken down the phrases into a many topics which I have found useful below I have included a screenshot of the website

This week has been a very busy one. However I am still working towards my next goal of creating a few sentences by November 18th outlined in my first blog post. Creating sentences has been quite a challenge and I feel that this is a part of the leaning that would benefit from an in person experience as opposed to my self led online one.

Here’s a helpful video I found. She begins by explaining a number of common Russian words, then moves on to more complex sentences. I found her explanation of the pronunciation very useful.

This week I have been focusing on vocabulary. I am trying to branch out a bit from Duolingo, as I have relied heavily on it. In order to remember vocab I have turned to Memrise.

Memrise is particularly good for learning new words as it allows you to make your own flash cards, or go through theirs. The site uses repetition to help you remember and will automatically focus most of your time and effort on the words you’re struggling with.

This week I have tried to move on to learning some basic words in order to build a small vocabulary. Learning the alphabet has proven to be quite a challenge still. However, I am making some progress. Learning Russian has been a lot of fun and I am sad that I don’t have more time available to do it. Perhaps during the winter break. I find some of the letters that have a visual resemblance to the Latin script but are pronounced differently to be particularly difficult. I have continued to rely on Duolingo quite a lot. Спасибо за чтение!

This week I have continued to try to get the alphabet down. It has been a challenge for me to get used to as it is unlike any other language I have tried to learn as it doesn’t use the Latin script. However, I have continued to appreciate Duolingo as a source as it doesn’t even feel like studying to use it.

Here is a fun video I found to help

To begin my language learning I have begun with learning the Cyrillic alphabet. The two sources that I have relied on most is Duolingo and LearnRussian.

Here is a screen capture of me working through a Duolingo lesson on the Cyrillic alphabet:

I have found the straight forward list style resource found on LearRussian useful for learning the alphabet while the engaging games of Duolingo useful for committing the letters to memory. This highlights the importance of offering multiple modes of instruction to aide student and my own learning.

Goals:

In my first update I would like to set some goals for myself. My goal here is not to somehow be fluent in Russian by the end of the course; I doubt that would be possible, even if I had nothing else on my plate. My first goal is to have a decent understanding of the Cyrillic alphabet. That is I want to know the names of all the letters and how they are pronounced. I also want to have a small vocabulary of basic Russian words, things like greetings, family, food, school vocabulary, etc… Finally I want to be able to construct basic, but grammatically correct, sentences. This includes knowing a number of common verbs and how to conjugate them. With that I have set out my goals but I am willing to modify them if I find my progress is slower or faster than I expected.

Resources:

For resources I have decided to only use free ones some of the useful ones I have put below.

Duolingo: This is a language learner app that I have used extensively before in order to learn Spanish. I find it very useful for becoming familiar with a language but it doesn’t always lay out information in a way I can fully master

Russian Subreddit: This is a subreddit dedicated to Russian language learners. It is useful for seeing what issues other learners have encountered and how they solved them. It is also good for sharing resources with others.

Learn Russian: This website outlines a lot of basic aspects of the language. It will be especially useful for learning the Cyrillic alphabet, and phonetics.

Russian Lessons.net: This website is similar to the above but has a few more complicated grammar concepts.

Memrise: This is a memorization program that will help with vocabulary.

Timeline:

October 15: have a decent grasp of the letters of the alphabet

November 5: have a good base vocabulary

November 19: be able to create a number of simple sentences written and orally

December 3: have more complex sentences and grammar along with more vocabulary