Words don’t exist by themselves. They are a part of a
sentence. You will memorize it better when you try to remember it with other
words, in a sentence.
First, as I wrote before, make your own sentence with the new words you study — at least three. If the word has many different meanings, make sentences with all the different meanings. The word соль can be salt or the musical note G (sol). The word ручка can be a pen, a small hand (of a child) or a handle (of an armchair or a drawer).
The good thing here is that you have your spellcheck on. But it might be tricky with Russian. Which word is correct: поедим or поедем? There is only a one-letter difference in spelling. Both words are correct. The first one means “we will eat something” and the second word means “we will go somewhere by a vehicle.” So check your spellcheck! It is very useful, but don’t rely on it blindly.
You are very disappointed, right? How can you keep these
words in your mind for long time? The answer is easy — use the words.
How? For example, you can make three sentences with each
word. You can write a little message using these words.
If you don’t want to write, you can make a voice recording by
using a voice recorder in your phone or any other voice recorder.
You can listen to yourself, or send the file to your teacher
or friend.
If you want to learn spelling, speaking and voice recording
will be useless.
When I want to learn how to spell a word, I usually take a
pen and a sheet of paper and write these words as many times as I need, till I
memorize the spelling. It helps the muscles of my hand to remember the
movements. When you type, a little bit different mechanism works.
If I want to memorize the word without writing it many, many
times but rather just by typing it, in this case I rely on my vision. I look at
the word carefully, then close my eyes and try to reproduce this word in my
mind with my eyes closed. Then I open my eyes and type the word several times.
OK, we have a list of words. Get some blank flashcards,
write them down, and put the translation on the other side.
Then read the word aloud. Make sure that you read it correctly.
Use talking dictionaries, like Google Translate: Type your word, press the
button with a speakerphone, and Google will read this word for you.
There are many other dictionaries that are similar to that.
Now that you know how to read the word correctly, go to the
next step: Memorize the meaning, the translation of the word.
Now it is time to flip the card and check your knowledge.
You will memorize a lot of words, but I want to tell you
something: Most of these words you will forget in a week or two.
There are a few tools that can help you to read the words
correctly. Most of the time the problem is not reading. It is actually much
easier to read Russian than English, for example, but what about the emphasis?
Where should it be in the word бабушка, for example? Is the first A stressed?
Or the letter У? Maybe the last A? The correct answer is that the first letter
A is stressed — бАбушка.
When you hear the word, it is easier to remember where to put the emphasis. You hear and you repeat.
Listening and repeating is an easier way to memorize the
words. It is very natural. We are born to be able to speak and to listen. To
tell the truth, reading and writing skills are less natural. A person must be
trained to read or write. One hundred years ago, most of the people were just
illiterate.
Because listening and repeating are more natural, if you
can, try to listen to the words first and then repeat them. You should only go
and read the word after that. I understand that most of time this method is not
possible. Most of the time we receive new words from the written sources: textbooks,
books, letters, articles, you name it.
Take a picture and start talking about things you can see in
the picture.
For example, your topic is Одежда. Take a picture from a
fashion magazine, or a fashion show, or an advertisement of a clothes store and
start talking about what you see in the picture. Don’t forget about little
details. Or you can take a picture of a street crowd. Look at the picture and
tell what people wear: what colors they have, are their clothes long or short,
small or big, are the heels high?
If your topic is Еда,
take a recipe, menu, or food ads and try to say what colors or sizes you can
see, or the names of vegetables, fruits and grains.
And of course, you can make a recording of your voice and
listen to your speech later. I am sure you will notice something that you need
to improve. It might be grammar, accents or word choice.
While watching a movie, imagine that you work in the film
industry and are going to give the sound of your voice to the actors. You need
to make some preparations. What I want you to do is:
Pick a very short segment, one or two minutes.
Listen to it very carefully.
You may write down a few words that you want to practice.
Watch the scene few times.
Then turn the sound off and try to reproduce the dialogue or
monologue from the video.
Can you do this? Good.
For beginners it is very good to repeat after the recording:
a movie, a tape, radio etc. Just repetition helps.
You can turn your grammar exercise into a speaking practice
by just recording everything with your voice recorder.
As I always say: Speaking requires speaking. You must open
your mouth and SPEAK. Though reading and other exercises can help improve your
language, it is speaking that helps you develop a vocabulary.
If you are a speaker at a conference or in a classroom, your language level is good enough to give a presentation like that. But I assume that you are a beginner. If you are a beginner, before you go speaking make sure that you understand what you listen to — practice listening and understanding first, don’t jump into speaking.
When you talk about speaking, you mean conversation, right? You say something, and another person says something. You listen to the person and you respond, and vice versa. To be able to understand, you need practice listening.
Listening corresponds to speaking, I already told you when
we were talking about speaking that you must listen first.
Speaking
Most of the time when I we set a goal with my students, they
say they want to be able to speak Russian.
You must speak and train your muscles to pronounce words of
the Russian language.
Please note that reading and writing are not speaking
exercise. To be able to speak, you must speak, you must open your mouth and
pronounce words and sentences. Again, it reminds me of swimming — go ahead and
swim. You can have a ton of good books about swimming, but they are not so
helpful unless you jump into a swimming pool. The same is true here — open your
mouth and speak!
What to speak? First I can recommend that you repeat what
someone is speaking. It might be a recording. Some courses require that you
listen to a lot of recordings; go with them!
Speaking is natural for a person. You listen, and you repeat
— this is the most natural way of learning language. The only bad thing about
it is that it is very slow. You need an incentive
to succeed; I will talk about it later in this blog.
You can find classes, private lessons in person, lessons online
(via Skype and other programs).
It is not so easy to find group lessons. Check your local
Orthodox churches and see if they offer something that you can attend. Also
check the local newspapers or website where people advertise their services. The
good thing about studying in a group is that you will not be alone. You will be
able to see other people, their progress, the mistakes they make. Sometimes you
can hide behind the group if you don’t understand something, or if it’s difficult
to remember.
Working with groups will help you to find good friends who have the same passion for languages.
Study online
Consider learning online if:
No Russian language groups exist in your area.
Your work schedule is very busy, and you cannot
attend the lessons.
You prefer individual work.
You can find a teacher online; a language school; or a
personal instructor. The most important thing
is to find someone that you really like. I have a student who had another
Russian instructor before we started to work together. This teacher never
smiled, and that was the reason why the student didn’t want to go on with her. She
liked my approach better because I always smile and always cheer up my
students. I know that it is very important for them to feel my support and
approval.
Yes, to my understanding you can have a perfectly educated
teacher with college degree, but if you don’t like the sound of her voice, you
will be aggravated all the time and won’t enjoy the process. Sometimes teachers
that have no degree but love the language are very friendly, and you understand
their explanations very well – you’d be better off to go to a teacher like
that.
Some people don’t understand how to pay if the teacher is in
a different city or even in a different country. Don’t worry, there are many
systems you can use to transfer money that are safe and secure.
Another concern people sometimes have is how they can see a
document if the person is so far from them. There are many ways a teacher can share
documents with you on your screen, or sometimes your instructor might suggest
that you buy the same book he or she has, so you can open it where needed.
