Russian Language Materials

[GeorgiaMom]

My boys have expressed interest in studying Russian as a modern foreign language. They are both fascinated with it, and although I'm not ready to start yet, I would love to know if anyone has recommendations on good programs they've used. I need time to dust off my Russian from college and I'm not quite sure what's out there for the younger set.

Thanks for any guidance

[Mary]

Re: Russian Language Materials

My boys have expressed interest in studying Russian as a modern foreign language. They are both fascinated with it, and although I'm not ready to start yet, I would love to know if anyone has recommendations on good programs they've used. I need time to dust off my Russian from college and I'm not quite sure what's out there for the younger set.

Thanks for any guidance

I took a class online with a lovely instructor who is British but is fluent in Russian, having lived there for many years. Our class used the New Penguin Russian Course and she taught middle school through adult. On my own, I was using Sputnik, which may work well for an older elementary through adult learner - especially if the adult has some experience with Russian. It is easy to use and has an online listening component in addition to the text and workbooks. It's uncluttered, fairly easy to use and I liked it. The only caveat is that some of the words are a bit dated or not commonly used in everyday conversation. A Russian speaker will understand you, but you'll sound a bit...formal. *weary laugh*
We also go to church with several families from Russia, Ukraine and Serbia, so we get lots of practice! (Added bonus, our Bulgarian and older Romanian friends also speak Russian - we're surrounded by it.)

I have the Little Pim videos for my youngest one, but they're mostly vocabulary - you won't get sentence structure, verb formation and such. However, if all you're looking for is some words the boys can use for everyday items, that's a nice place to start. I also have a couple of children's Russian picture dictionaries that give the phonetic pronunciation as well as the word written in Cyrillic. I especially like the DK Russian - English Visual Dictionary for all ages and the "My First Book of Russian Words" for the younger set. Again, not the kind of in-depth language practice you'd get from the Forms or even LC, but a nice introduction and good, clear pictures.

**Be aware that there are a few picture dictionaries, like the "Russian Picture Word Book" that give words only in Cyrillic. Unless you're fluent, that won't be of much help.

[bean]

Re: Russian Language Materials

Is there a "Cyrillic Alphabet Book" like MP's Greek one? Not that dd needs another language, but Russian appeals to her.

I found this, but it is super basic: (pdf)https://crees.ku.edu/sites/crees.ku....bet%20Soup.pdf

[pickandgrin]

Re: Russian Language Materials

Tracy, Do you have access to any native speakers where you live? My husband learned to speak Russian pretty well in about half a year by living there post-college. His advantage was living with a Russian family 24/7 and studying it academically simultaneously. His "casual speech" (like chit chat, colloquial expressions, accent) is just like a native because that's what he had to learn from and imitate.

For spoken, living languages, it really seems like the best preparation is understanding language and grammar (thank you, Latin and Greek), and then having a immersion experience along with study. I think a Tanya mentioned this recently on another thread, maybe on Greek, about how HLS doesn't offer modern languages.

I'm trying to keep my expectations tempered for modern languages. I keep reminding myself that only a fraction of Americans speak a foreign language even though most high school graduates have studied one for two years.

I'd love to know what other MP high school families do: is the modern language a hobby or part of school? Perhaps that's a good question for the 9-12 board.

We love Russian around here though-the language, people, culture, lands. We have Rosetta Stone for Russian, but only four fun. No one's touched it in a few years. I hope your boys go for it Tracy!

[klwalukas]

Re: Russian Language Materials

We started a few years ago with this workbook to learn the alphabet:
https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Russi...n+step+by+step

They also have a workbook to learn Russian script.

My daughter now works with Julia Denne from bytheonionsea.com. Julia is a native speaker from St. Petersburg. She gives lessons in the Chicago area or online via Skype. She uses textbooks entirely in Russian and starts from a grammar approach to the language. This has worked for us because my husband speaks Russian and can help my daughter with her homework, but the instruction from a native speaker has been awesome. I highly recommend her!

[GeorgiaMom]

Re: Russian Language Materials

Wonderful information everyone! Thanks so much for taking the time. I studied Russian for 2 years in college, but that was a loooong time ago and I had no idea what was out there. I wish we had some native speakers near us, as the musicality (not sure it's the right word, but Russian sounds quite lyrical to me when spoken well) is hard to replicate without hearing it. I will definitely look into the online suggestions. We are a little way out from starting, but I wanted to research costs as well.

Also, for anyone with Amazon Prime, there is a great series called Ekaterina: The Rise of Catherine the Great. It is entirely in Russian and German with English subtitles. We've been enjoying it, and I've found it interesting to watch a Russian production about Russian history. Highly recommended!

Thanks again all you wonderful forum folk!

[pickandgrin]

Re: Russian Language Materials

Oooo! Great tip on Amazon Prime, thanks!

[KikaMarie]

Hello, I found this old thread and have an additional question. My almost-14-year-old is very interested in learning Russian. He has a few books from the library and access to the online language programs at our library, but he is looking for a Russian grammar book that is similar to the MP style workbooks for the Latin form series. Does anyone have suggestions for us?

Thank you! Monica

[KikaMarie]

Hi again, I'm bumping this up in case anyone knows of a Russian grammar program/workbooks similar to the MP books for the Latin forms.
Thank you! Monica

[tanya]

I asked around here, and no one knows of a good Russian program. Sorry we can't be of help at MP! All we would say is that it should be grammar-based, not immersion, unless you are just trying to learn to order coffee and find a restroom!

Tanya

[KikaMarie]

I asked around here, and no one knows of a good Russian program. Sorry we can't be of help at MP! All we would say is that it should be grammar-based, not immersion, unless you are just trying to learn to order coffee and find a restroom!

Tanya

Thank you, Tanya! There's no end to the errands you get asked about - I appreciate you checking for me. I agree, grammar-based - my son realizes how much MP's Latin program is helping his language skills. I'll take a few chances and see what I can come up with on Amazon. Thanks again!

[klwalukas]

Hi again, I'm bumping this up in case anyone knows of a Russian grammar program/workbooks similar to the MP books for the Latin forms.
Thank you! Monica

My daughter's Russian curriculum was grammar based, but the texts were chosen by her Russian tutor. They were all texts actually from Russia, meaning the kind of grammar instruction that the Russians use to teach their students grammar, like we teach English grammar to our students. For what it is worth, her Russian tutor was very happy to have a student who was well grounded in grammar from having studied Latin because she didn't have to teach her grammar concepts first before they could start applying it to Russian.

Kristin

[KikaMarie]

My daughter's Russian curriculum was grammar based, but the texts were chosen by her Russian tutor. They were all texts actually from Russia, meaning the kind of grammar instruction that the Russians use to teach their students grammar, like we teach English grammar to our students. For what it is worth, her Russian tutor was very happy to have a student who was well grounded in grammar from having studied Latin because she didn't have to teach her grammar concepts first before they could start applying it to Russian.

Kristin

Thank you, Kristin. I had been thinking that I may have to take the time to hunt down a good undergraduate program and ask about basic grammar resources that someone with no Russian background could follow on their own. I found something on Amazon that doesn't look great, but it seems to present some simple grammar concepts. That will have to do for now.
Monica

[Mom2mthj]

No help personally- my sister in law is a native speaker, but I haven’t been able to talk my kids into trying Russian. I did see that classical learning resource center offers Russian language classes. They are super nice so they might have some suggestions for you.

[bean]

My dd's teacher last year was a heritage speaker that works with the state department, so dd's vocabulary included things like "tank", which made her laugh, but since there are lots of language cognates with military vocabulary it made sense. Dorinda mentioned CLRC, and the book they use for first year Russian looks pretty straight forward: Beginner's Russian with Interactive Online Workbook: Kudyma, Anna, Miller, Frank, Kagan, Olga: 9780781812511: Amazon.com: Books

The website that goes with it seems to be up and running, but I didn't sign up for an account to look at it more closely.