[chochemonger1]

Wanted to go to Poland this fall, but things didnt work out...,,, so I´m going back to Brazil in 2 weeks. I am a bit sad about it, but with these type of things new opportunities arise. So this Spring, I have decided to take the plunge and go to Russia for 3 months and 2 months to Ukraine. I will start studying Russian 2 or 3 hours per day very soon and by next year, increasing it to 4 hours. Im pretty good with languages. For example, I learned french fluently in 6 months. It took 3 months of inensive study and 3 months of working in Paris. But I know Russian is way harder and it is like starting from 0.
Now my question to the forum Russian speakers: Can I get conversationally fluent with 6 months of study and 1 or 2 months of practicing over there? From what I have read from Rooshs time in Ukraine, I will need as much Russian as possible to do well there. Also since I am Latino America I will undoubtedly be confused as a Turk or a dude from the Caucueses. So it is vital that I can communicate decently when i head over there.

[The Fantasist]

I don't know what conversationaly fluent means to you exactly but if you study Russian hard for six months you will get to a level where you can do simple things easily. Unless you are a natural linguist it's highly unlikely you would be having conversations that resemble the ones you have in your native language. After six months study you will still find targeting English speaking Russians your best bet because you won't have the vocabulary or experience to game girls purely in Russian. I speak from experience in this department. Despite being conversational its still a relief when a girl speaks good English and most of my bangs have been with girls who speak good English.

My advice to you is to concentrate on vocabunary over grammar. Learn to say the verbs properly because you will using them so often but beyond that ignore the cases and genders of words until you have a good overall vocab. That's what I did and it meant that whilst I had poor proficiency,I have excellent fluency because I don't have to stop to think about how to make sure each word has the correct ending. The chicks will understand what you mean and your conversations will flow better.

Study Russian,it will make things easier, but be realistic about what you can learn from a book with little conversation practice in six months. If you studied with a teacher in Russia for six months then that's another story. I know a guy who went to university in Minsk to study Russian and after 6 months he spoke beautiful Russian. After a year he had pretty much nailed it.

Udachi!

[chochemonger1]

(09-07-2012 11:04 AM)Vorkuta Wrote:  

I don't know what conversationaly fluent means to you exactly but if you study Russian hard for six months you will get to a level where you can do simple things easily. Unless you are a natural linguist it's highly unlikely you would be having conversations that resemble the ones you have in your native language. After six months study you will still find targeting English speaking Russians your best bet because you won't have the vocabulary or experience to game girls purely in Russian. I speak from experience in this department. Despite being conversational its still a relief when a girl speaks good English and most of my bangs have been with girls who speak good English.

My advice to you is to concentrate on vocabunary over grammar. Learn to say the verbs properly because you will using them so often but beyond that ignore the cases and genders of words until you have a good overall vocab. That's what I did and it meant that whilst I had poor proficiency,I have excellent fluency because I don't have to stop to think about how to make sure each word has the correct ending. The chicks will understand what you mean and your conversations will flow better.

Study Russian,it will make things easier, but be realistic about what you can learn from a book with little conversation practice in six months. If you studied with a teacher in Russia for six months then that's another story. I know a guy who went to university in Minsk to study Russian and after 6 months he spoke beautiful Russian. After a year he had pretty much nailed it.

Udachi!

Thanks Vorkuta for the advice. What I also did to learn Portuguese was to talk to a Brazilian girl online (i.e. badoo) every day for 2 months (killing two birds with one stone), once I had the basics down. Did not concentrate on grammar so much, but on being understood. Obviously, since I knew Spanish perfectly it was a lot easier. Tackling Russian will be a much harder challenge.

[chochemonger1]

What I meant by conversationally fluent is, for example, to chat on Mamba with girls and set up dates or to have the basics down enough, to be able to be direct and do caveman game at a club.

[durangotang]

Consider hiring a native speaking Russian tutor for a few hours per week.

[polish rumble]

It took me almost a year to learn how to speak and read/write in Russian, mind you that I'm Polish so my native language is similar and I lived in Moscow for 3 months to socialise with the locals, so I don't think that you will be able to speak fluent Russian after half a year, but I said so only to motivate you, ability of speaking just a basic Russian is a big game changer, you can trust me on this one. Just like Vorkuta advices focus on vocabulary and try to learn just a bit of Cyrillic alphabet - it will help a lot.

[Blunt]

No, but in a year you could be 'conversational'.

Proficient enough to get basic directions and to do the basic 'where you're from, what are you doing here, what's your phone number', yes. Only 1 or 2 months of immersive experience will still leave you having trouble understanding native speech, you need longer to get used to the colloquial speech.

Setting up dates and actually having a prolonged conversation are a world apart because you will quickly run out of vocabulary in a conversation and you won't know enough word roots to understand words she says that you aren't familiar with. Vorkuta is right about concentrating on the vocabulary instead of grammar. I suggest using Anki, there's a thread about it somewhere.

Fortunately Russian is pretty intelligible for natives even with lots of grammatical errors. My grammar is still weak but I've almost never had to clarify something due to poor grammar. If you start by trying to learn the case system you'll want to quit. Absolutely you must learn the Cyrillic alphabet, get that out of the way as soon as possible.

Best advice I can give you is to make sure you use it as much as possible, lots of girls will want to practice their English, make sure you get some Russian in too.

[Greek kamaki]

Depends how smart you are.Outside of Russia you need about two years to learn conversational Russian.In Russia I found myself learning fast because everyone spoke Russian and people helped you a lot to learn.(they usually doubted I am Greek without Russian roots).

[chochemonger1]

It seems French and Portuguese are the minor leagues and Russian is reaching the majors. And from all the good advice from the forum, Im not expecting to be able to game or have deep converstions over there. But I figure, by the end of the trip and the 6 months of previous study, I should have basic fluency. I just hope that I love the country and will want to return regularly, so that all the effort I would have put wont go to waste. With portuguese, I am happy i put the effort because, for the next couple of years, I will be heading regularly to my beloved Brazil.

[Greek kamaki]

The point is to learn about 2500 words.If you learn 2500 words you can carry out a conversation.So make a goal to learn 30 of the most common words everyday.

[Kitsune]

-Learn the cyrillic alphabet and get a russian-english dictionary.
-Download a torrent for pimsleur russian and practice that religiously.
-Go to wiktionary or somewhere which has the 2000 most frequently used words in russian. Make yourself a table using your dictionary, split it into terminology you're likely to have to use, (You don't need to know sport terminology if you don't like sport, etc.)

As soon as you've started learning the alphabet and basic words and done the first ten lessons of pimsleur, go first to russian news sites and read their newspapers to expand your vocab. Watch all films with russian overdubs and subtitles. Start going to lang-8 and writing sentences for people to critique.

Make sure to hammer these things into your brain otherwise you'll forget them.

[sportbilly]

Once I picked up the basics. I got a copy of a book which had in it the 10,000 most common words in Russian in it....but the best bit is is it is sorted in order of word usage. For example...the first words are "IN", "AND", "I" etc. I have now learnt by heart the first say 2,500 words...and it also builds your confidence...

[The Fantasist]

Yes I agree with others who say you need to learn cyrylic. It's a must! The good new is that it should only take you a couple of days to learn,it's very easy.

Some of the letters look and sound like Latin so you know them already: 'M' is like our 'M'
Some look like Latin but have different sounds like the Cyrilic 'C' which is their 'S'.
And then letters that look nothing like Latin letters.

Don't forget to roll your Russian 'R'(P) Chochemonger!

[chochemonger1]

(09-07-2012 12:21 PM)Kitsune Wrote:  

-Learn the cyrillic alphabet and get a russian-english dictionary.
-Download a torrent for pimsleur russian and practice that religiously.
-Go to wiktionary or somewhere which has the 2000 most frequently used words in russian. Make yourself a table using your dictionary, split it into terminology you're likely to have to use, (You don't need to know sport terminology if you don't like sport, etc.)

As soon as you've started learning the alphabet and basic words and done the first ten lessons of pimsleur, go first to russian news sites and read their newspapers to expand your vocab. Watch all films with russian overdubs and subtitles. Start going to lang-8 and writing sentences for people to critique.

Make sure to hammer these things into your brain otherwise you'll forget them.

Thanks, sounds like a good system. Ill be in Brazil and the Dominican Republic the next few months, so I will have a lot of free time. The only thing I will be doing is gaming girls hehe.
It seems like all you guys, who put the effort to learn russian feel good about it, more than just because you learned another language.
A few questions to all the forum members who learned Russian:
1) Did you already have positive contacts and experiences with Russian women, before you started to learn the language ?
2) Had you already visited Russia and felt this was a country you wanted to come back regularly to?
3) Do you think it might have been better to learn another language?
4) Is Russia one of your favourite countries to visit now that you have russian skills?

I have been once to St Petersburg for 5 days, do not have a Russian flag and have not had many contacts with FSU women. Just banged 1 Ukranian and 1 Poish here in Ecuador. So I would be going there without a clue. It seems most of those who decided to learn Russian or go there had, already some experiece with the people or the culture.

[Blunt]

1. Yes

2. No

3. No way. Beyond the girls, Russian is a skill that is declining among the workforce since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Since you also know Portuguese I imagine you could make a career out of doing some BRIC consulting, of course you would need to become professionally proficient though. Anyways I think its a fun language to speak.

4. Yes

[Fujiwara]

If you have a smartphone, you can d/l Russian keyboard (cyrillic), and flash card apps.

I use the cyrillic keyboard to type words in Google Translate so I can get the definition and pronunciation. Russian keyboard has helped me learn the alphabet a whole lot and I'm honestly not trying hard. I can even read and say words written in Russian... I just don't know what it means.

[JohnKreese]

I think that this has been posted before, but it breaks down the frequencies of the most common Russian words. Looks like you hit 2000, you're good in most cases.

http://languagegeek.net/2007/06/16/the-t...n-russian/

[pitt]

Chochemonger learning fluent french in 6 months is quiet impressive..how old are you?

[chochemonger1]

(09-07-2012 06:01 PM)pitt Wrote:  

Chochemonger learning fluent french in 6 months is quiet impressive..how old are you?

Pitt I am 36. I learned french the 2nd semester of my sophomore year in college. I then got a exchange student work permit for France and got a job for 3 months in Eurodisney during the summer. They sent me to work cooking and cleanining at a fast food joint inside the park, with 30 other french guys and girls. Horrible work but great for learning the language, since we had to talk all the time to make the day go by fast. When I returned to the USA I even thougt in French for 6 months. Knowing english and spanish made it easier, so I have no illusions about Russian.

[IVth_Element]

I'm trying to learn fast as well. Currently on lesson 26 Pimsleur.

I've found that complementary program/methods can work well together and keep you interested much better than one alone.

First step, bite the bullet and learn cryillic. There are many free resources online. I used the site below, because it has multiple pronunciations.

http://listen2russian.com/lesson01/a/index.html

Next try to get 2 lessons of Pimsleur in daily. Import the CD's to itunes or whatever you use, as having them on a portable device will increase usage. I listen on the road, while running, and often at least one lesson laying in bed at the end of the day. You will need to repeat sections as it's much heavier than Pimsleur Spanish or Portugeuse. I'm big on correct pronunciation so I pause lessons and use Google translate on my phone so I can see the exact spelling. Knowing the alphabet comes in big here.

Pimsleur can get boring so alternate something visual and worthwhile. A good Russian app on your phone can work. I like "Russian in a Month" from Learn Like Kids. It's basically visual Pimsleur. You need to speak it aloud with them, but you can realistically understand a 10 word sentence or small paragraph in a week using this. It's not a "end all be all" but it's a decent complement.

I'm going to start focusing mostly on vocabulary once I'm a little further down the road.

[jimukr104]

ok ,well t ostart i must admit i never became fluent and my Russian is worst now than it was 10 years ago. However as a Ukrainian expat at the time , most of the time i spoke with other expats who only spoke English so I actually got worst while living there.
I had 6 credits of Russian in college and barely learned a thing. In America n i had 6 years mandatory spanish and same thing.
What really is needed is to immerse into the language. First though you need basics. Pimsleur helped and worked. I teaches you how to make sentences .You will sound like someone talking the language broken. However, You will learn important sentences that later on when you expand your vocabulary, you can insert new words int othe sentences. Listen the each lesson 2 times a day .If yuo do not retain 90% of the lesson, listen 2 more times the next day. Its important to retain becasue the lessons later o nexpand on words you already should have learned. If you are a good retainer in 90 days you will know all 90 lessons. The first week or week before buy one of those simple "learn russian" books. This way you get the lettering down. Its needed t oget around and pick up more words later on. After you finish pimsleur, spend the next few months learning from Roseeta stone or similar software .i never used Rosetta stone, not even sure it works ,but the peace corp s use t ouse it in Ukraine so it can't hurt. Do as much of it as you can before your trip. Also learn pickup lines ,etc that you will want to use. Lets be honest, you will have learned how to ask a gir lout and invite her to coffee. if you know the words for other stuff , you ca n insert it. Now the last part is when you get there , do not talk English .I am serious. Pretend you are in the peace corps .For a few weeks go to some small city and only survive using the language. Rent a roo m with a host family even. You have learned the tools to make conversation. Now you need the get the ear to understand it. Listening t o it will also hel p you correct your sentences to the right grammar. At this point if you still don't get it you probably will not. Sadly alot of people are not gifted t o learn languages . Women tend t o do so better than guys.
Anove lidea is you can apply for a university there. its cheap and as a foreign student they teach you. I do not know how good it is but the Africans and middle eastern students learn.
The biggest obstacle is if you aren't fluent, the girls do not think its cute. ido not know why but I beleive its because they want to learn English and not have t otalk with you in broken English.

[Technics]

IVth,

Can you tell me how you got the pimsleur russian? Did you buy it or download? If download, how so? Im not really familiar with finding and downloading this stuff, at least not in a careful way (meaning not geting viruses, etc.)

(09-07-2012 07:21 PM)IVth_Element Wrote:  

I'm trying to learn fast as well. Currently on lesson 26 Pimsleur.

I've found that complementary program/methods can work well together and keep you interested much better than one alone.

First step, bite the bullet and learn cryillic. There are many free resources online. I used the site below, because it has multiple pronunciations.

http://listen2russian.com/lesson01/a/index.html

Next try to get 2 lessons of Pimsleur in daily. Import the CD's to itunes or whatever you use, as having them on a portable device will increase usage. I listen on the road, while running, and often at least one lesson laying in bed at the end of the day. You will need to repeat sections as it's much heavier than Pimsleur Spanish or Portugeuse. I'm big on correct pronunciation so I pause lessons and use Google translate on my phone so I can see the exact spelling. Knowing the alphabet comes in big here.

Pimsleur can get boring so alternate something visual and worthwhile. A good Russian app on your phone can work. I like "Russian in a Month" from Learn Like Kids. It's basically visual Pimsleur. You need to speak it aloud with them, but you can realistically understand a 10 word sentence or small paragraph in a week using this. It's not a "end all be all" but it's a decent complement.

I'm going to start focusing mostly on vocabulary once I'm a little further down the road.

[Architekt]

This thread kinda makes me want to seriously take up learning Russian again...

It is possible, but you will need to work very hard to get there. Immerse yourself to the greatest extent you can in the Russian language - Russian movies, music, radio, change the language settings on your devices to Russian, read Russian books and forums/blogs (learning the cyrillic alphabet will be crucial for this), write in Russian on sites like Lang-8 and Interpals so people can critique and correct your writing, and most importantly, try to find a real life conversational partner or 2. Nothing speeds up the learning process like actually speaking and listening in real time.

Some good courses/programs for learning Russian that I know of are:
Pimsleur
Michel Thomas
Rosetta Stone (if you can get it for free, not worth it otherwise)
Anki
Penguin new Rrussian course
Princeton Russian language course
RussianPod101 podcasts

All of those are either free, or can be obtained for free/cheaply. Good luck.

[IVth_Element]

(09-07-2012 10:58 PM)Technics Wrote:  

IVth,

Can you tell me how you got the pimsleur russian? Did you buy it or download? If download, how so? Im not really familiar with finding and downloading this stuff, at least not in a careful way (meaning not geting viruses, etc.)

I'm guilty of using utorrent for this one. I purchased Pimsleur Spanish 1 - 3 and Pimsleur Brazilian Portuguese 1-3 along with Russian 1 on tape. I've blown $1,000+ on Pimsleur so I rationalized using torrent for Russian.

I was the same as you, worried about downloading a crazy virus or some shit but I used cnet for the torrent software and searched Pimsleur Russian from there. Can't remember all the steps but this should get you started.

http://download.cnet.com/uTorrent/3000-2...28327.html

Check out the other learning Russian threads as I ended up going this route from what I read there. I think it's the one Roosh started so search by his name.

[avantgarde]

My friend who spoke Slovak fluently, learned to speak Russian really well like 2 months through skype, VK. It is possible if u try hard and talk online with alot of girls, try VK and Italki.

Go on isohunt, u will find plenty of great Russian books, there will be a huge file containing a dictionary with 10,000 most used Russian words, another book that teaches Russian slangs and swear words.
You should be surprise some of the most used Russian words are distantly related to English words(cuz they are all Indo-European languages). For example, семь(семена/seed, genitive singular) compared to semen(well, it's from Latin, but compared to samen in German), mat' to mother, zhena/жена(woman) to queen, снег to snow, kamen'(stone) to hammer.
I should be boosting up my Russian too, my Russian is mediocre, going to a FSU country is the best way to do it.