Get your basics down solid right from the start. With Russian, this means learning the alphabet. Though any English speaker will recognize a number of characters in the Cyrillic alphabet, most of them will be assigned different sounds. Н, for example, represents the English n sound, while р denotes a rolling r. The rest will look, well, foreign. There are 33 letters in all, some of which will be difficult to distinguish at first.
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[h2]1. Find a good beginner program.[/h2]
Free Language Courses has free downloadable lessons, including the Princeton Russian Course, filled with .mp3 files and .pdf documents for listening and reading practice.
If you’re a Mac App person, try Innovative Language Learning’s Learn Russian – Beginner. The app’s interactive lessons are easy to follow and the grammar points are good for explaining the particularly confusing parts of the language.
However you do it, make a point to learn the alphabet as soon as you can, concentrating on phonetics and accent. This will make all the difference in communication.
While we’re talking about the basics, you really need to be able to conjugate verbs. If you can’t, your ability to converse with people will be greatly impeded. Write each form of the most common words out on pieces of paper, and post them on your apartment walls, above your desk, or on the refrigerator. Practice them all the time. |
