[superwolf]

(Original post by und)
Pesky, tiresome, troublesome, bothersome, irritating. That's just some words from a thesaurus, and I had to look up what the Russian word meant so I'm not exactly the best person to answer. I'm doing A2 Russian though which means I sort of have a feel for the word from the context. I think irritating would perhaps be closest, but a native Russian could probably find a closer translation.

Hmm, maybe. I think I might have been trying to over-complicate things... Thanks.

[Anatheme]

(Original post by und)
Pesky, tiresome, troublesome, bothersome, irritating. That's just some words from a thesaurus, and I had to look up what the Russian word meant so I'm not exactly the best person to answer. I'm doing A2 Russian though which means I sort of have a feel for the word from the context. I think irritating would perhaps be closest, but a native Russian could probably find a closer translation.

(She's a 4th year at uni and lived in Russia, I think she was hoping for a native/near-native to reply )

[und]

(Original post by Anatheme)
(She's a 4th year at uni and lived in Russia, I think she was hoping for a native/near-native to reply )

I thought it might have been worth listing a few words anyway, in case they hadn't occurred to her.

[superwolf]

(Original post by Anatheme)
(She's a 4th year at uni and lived in Russia, I think she was hoping for a native/near-native to reply )

How'd the exams go?


It's the grammar of it that I'm not sure how to treat - it looks like one of those scary participles, which would probably call for a whole massive sentence in English, but then again maybe just saying 'annoying' would do. You got any thoughts?

[medbh4805]

Does cyrillic handwriting get easier to read eventually?

[Anatheme]

(Original post by superwolf)
How'd the exams go?


It's the grammar of it that I'm not sure how to treat - it looks like one of those scary participles, which would probably call for a whole massive sentence in English, but then again maybe just saying 'annoying' would do. You got any thoughts?

I have all my grades, and I got the results I was hoping for (it's crap, don't get me wrong, haha, but it could have been worse). I'm so sick of waiting for the rest of the results to be published

(Original post by medbh4805)
Does cyrillic handwriting get easier to read eventually?

When foreigners write, yeah, when Russians do, it depends. Some write very neatly and it's lovely to read, some might as well be doctors, haha

[medbh4805]

(Original post by Anatheme)
When foreigners write, yeah, when Russians do, it depends. Some write very neatly and it's lovely to read, some might as well be doctors, haha

I've got quite comfortable with typed cyrillic but any time I see handwritten cyrillic i have to spend about half an hour deciphering it haha. Thinking about it rationally actually Russians probably have the same problem with the latin alphabet

[superwolf]

(Original post by medbh4805)
Does cyrillic handwriting get easier to read eventually?

If you do a google image search for 'examples of handwritten Russian' then plenty comes up, I was planning on practising reading a few cos I have the same difficulty (although at first I couldn't even read my own handwriting in Russian, so I have improved a bit over the years ).

(Original post by Anatheme)
I have all my grades, and I got the results I was hoping for (it's crap, don't get me wrong, haha, but it could have been worse). I'm so sick of waiting for the rest of the results to be published

Well done then. Even if your results weren't amazing, it's still an achievement. I haven't actually sat my translation exam yet... doing it in August.

Hope the job's going well if you've already started.

[Anatheme]

(Original post by superwolf)
Well done then. Even if your results weren't amazing, it's still an achievement. I haven't actually sat my translation exam yet... doing it in August.

Hope the job's going well if you've already started.

I was about to do that (1st sitting in August) but it would have probably had the opposite effect if I had! Job start on the 5th September, I can relax for a bit before!

[Zoedotdot]

(Original post by medbh4805)

I've got quite comfortable with typed cyrillic but any time I see handwritten cyrillic i have to spend about half an hour deciphering it haha. Thinking about it rationally actually Russians probably have the same problem with the latin alphabet

Yeah, it does get a lot easier. Writing in Russian cursive is really nice as well, it's all flowy and loopy. It's actually changed my English handwriting too because I've spent so much time over the past four years writing in Russian.

I miss studying it already

[superwolf]

(Original post by Zoedotdot)
Yeah, it does get a lot easier. Writing in Russian cursive is really nice as well, it's all flowy and loopy. It's actually changed my English handwriting too because I've spent so much time over the past four years writing in Russian.

I miss studying it already

If I've been doing too much Russian when I switch to writing English I keep putting little dashes above my m's, and get half my vowels mixed up too.

What are you doing/planning now that your degree's over? Once I'm finished (studying part-time, so I have another year yet) I want to do this work/study thing with Language Link, where half the time you study Russian, and the other half you teach English. I'd like to get my Russian to be really good some day.

[dg2009]

how should i start learning Russian? Should I start with gcse material?

EDIT: Im currently working at the olympics and have applied for the Russian Winter games in 2014. Now Im hearing the language more from athletes& official, its more and more interesting

[Pokrok]

(Original post by dg2009)
how should i start learning Russian? Should I start with gcse material?

EDIT: Im currently working at the olympics and have applied for the Russian Winter games in 2014. Now Im hearing the language more from athletes& official, its more and more interesting

Well, I have just started learning too! It's really hard so far but I am not going to give in.

I have bought a BBC phrasebook, so that I can collect basic phrases to begin with. I have also signed up for audio lessons on RussianPod101.com Hopefully they will help me improve my listening and reading skills.
Finally, I found this gem on the internet http://www.russianforfree.com/ it is free and is structured so you know what to learn and when.

Good luck!
P.S. I wouldn't suggest you dive straight into GCSE material, I did that for German and I wasted about two weeks trying to understand it and gave up. Until, I bought a beginners guide and signed up to a BBC course...now, I am A/A*grade GCSE German student studying AS Level!

[BigJuan]

Hopefully starting a joint honours degree which includes Russian from scratch in September (roll on results day) at Edinburgh and was wondering how much preparation in Russian language I should do. I have already learnt the cyrillic alphabet and the basics of its pronunciation and started practising cursive along with a few basic words (numbers, greetings etc. etc.). Could anyone who has studied this, starting at Uni, offer any suggestions?

[superwolf]

(Original post by BigJuan)
Hopefully starting a joint honours degree which includes Russian from scratch in September (roll on results day) at Edinburgh and was wondering how much preparation in Russian language I should do. I have already learnt the cyrillic alphabet and the basics of its pronunciation and started practising cursive along with a few basic words (numbers, greetings etc. etc.). Could anyone who has studied this, starting at Uni, offer any suggestions?

I'd have a go at learning about the basics of the case system - as someone who'd never come across one before Russian I did find it a little difficult to get my head around at first (although if you already know another language like German or Greek this will probably be easier), so taking a look at this probably wouldn't help. Try first with the easier ones like the nominative and accusative, plus the genitive and the other ones later.

You could also try learning a bit of vocab - try searching for an online frequency dictionary, which will list the most commonly used Russian words for you.

I wouldn't try learning anything overly complex yet - Russian can be pretty difficult, and I at least found it easiest to understand things when I had them explained to me by an experienced teacher. So to me it would seem best to get as good a grounding in the basics as you can first, and then save the more complex stuff for when you're ready for it.

[BigJuan]

(Original post by superwolf)
I'd have a go at learning about the basics of the case system - as someone who'd never come across one before Russian I did find it a little difficult to get my head around at first (although if you already know another language like German or Greek this will probably be easier), so taking a look at this probably wouldn't help. Try first with the easier ones like the nominative and accusative, plus the genitive and the other ones later.

You could also try learning a bit of vocab - try searching for an online frequency dictionary, which will list the most commonly used Russian words for you.

I wouldn't try learning anything overly complex yet - Russian can be pretty difficult, and I at least found it easiest to understand things when I had them explained to me by an experienced teacher. So to me it would seem best to get as good a grounding in the basics as you can first, and then save the more complex stuff for when you're ready for it.

Thank you! I'll be doing it with French so it may take some time to get my head around a case system as it has never been thoroughly explained to me.

[superwolf]

(Original post by BigJuan)
Thank you! I'll be doing it with French so it may take some time to get my head around a case system as it has never been thoroughly explained to me.

Yeah, I didn't know a thing about it til I got to uni. Still, you do get a feel for it after a while, especially when you've got good teachers. I'd attempt to give you a few case system examples, only I'm drunk as a skunk in true Russian style.

[ladymarshmallow]

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/ma...pagewanted=all

[asparkyn]

привет всем! очень приятно с вами познокомится) я говорю немного по-русский потому, что у меня многие русские друзья, и мы общаемся всегда всегда всегда на русском и айнглийском языках))

[asparkyn]

(Original post by ladymarshmallow)
I thought this was interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/ma...pagewanted=all

I thought this was beautiful It brought tears into my eyes actually, because it reminded me of the time when my parents threw me into an English school at the age of six/seven and I knew nothing. I had a lot of problems adjusting - I remember I used to cry and scream and yell that I had a stomach ache in my language and wonder why no one understood me. I used to kick up such a fuss, not wanting to go to school so much that my mother would literally pick my up by the collar, drop me off at the gate and drive off (yes, very supportive, I know ).

But then I started getting a massive boost of confidence when my essay was selected as the best composition in a class competition at the age of nine. I remember asking myself how that could be ... I mean, I spoke the language, but others spent nearly a decade speaking English and I only three ...

Well, it goes to show that immersion is an amazing way to learn languages. I'm seventeen now, but if you were to order me to go to high school in Russia right now I would go without a second thought. In many respects, I am far better equipped to learn a language now than I was when I was six. I know how to handle culture shock now - who says adults can't learn languages as well as children?

PS: That school wasn't that bad. It was very nice, actually - just the right balance of strictness and freedom. My elementary school used to have teachers holding rotan sticks (which are like canes, but thinner and more nimble, like a wooden rapier) that they would use to beat our hands if we got a question wrong. Naughty people got caned in the assembly hall in front of the whole school. Then at secondary school we all got cheekier and the teachers realised using the rotan wasn't of any use. I swear, if they had an electric chair they would've used it! Ah, it was like Roald Dahl all over again