Learning Russian language: The Russian Learners&#x27; Society

Fillette

hey, another Manchester Russianist :five:

But I thought that the Russian dept put quite an emphasis on the oral aspect of Russian in the first two years,..(.although of course nothing is as useful as living in Russia!) so is this not true, then?!

You kind of have to go to the oral classes to be good at it :p:

I would say it's something you just really have to practise - my trouble was I never built up any confidence in speaking Russian, so I remained bad, and so didn't want to put myself through the humiliation of oral class, so it just turned into a vicious cycle. But living in Russia and the amount you have to speak at language school gives your oral a kick up the backside even if you are **** at attendance.

:five:

yeah I'm going into final year :smile:

Manchester rules. Are you doing anything with Russian?

Reply 122

thatwhichiam

You kind of have to go to the oral classes to be good at it :p:

I would say it's something you just really have to practise - my trouble was I never built up any confidence in speaking Russian, so I remained bad, and so didn't want to put myself through the humiliation of oral class, so it just turned into a vicious cycle. But living in Russia and the amount you have to speak at language school gives your oral a kick up the backside even if you are **** at attendance.

:five:

yeah I'm going into final year :smile:

Manchester rules. Are you doing anything with Russian?

ah OK, makes sense :smile:

Manchester really do seem to put the emphasis on self-motivation to the extent they write all over their guides "if you put in effort you get results, if you don't then you won't.." but yes, the year abroad should be really useful.

I'm doing French and Russian at Manchester, which hopefully will be good. Oh, by the way- did you do much translation from Russian into German for your course or was it purely into English? (If not, perhaps it's a module/extra you can select)

Reply 123

Fillette

ah OK, makes sense :smile:

Manchester really do seem to put the emphasis on self-motivation to the extent they write all over their guides "if you put in effort you get results, if you don't then you won't.." but yes, the year abroad should be really useful.

I'm doing French and Russian at Manchester, which hopefully will be good. Oh, by the way- did you do much translation from Russian into German for your course or was it purely into English? (If not, perhaps it's a module/extra you can select)

Yeah, self motivation really is the way forward, but is quite hard to come by sometimes :p:

The academic departments are totally separate - there's no cross over (to the point where a German history unit about German communism clashed with my Russian compulsory modules in second year). It's only this (4th) year you start translation in Russian and it'll be into English, and in German translations are into English or English into German. It's mainly because you're taught by native speakers of the languages - I don't think Liza can speak German, and Sandra only did Russian at school, so it would be veryyy difficult for them to teach. You can take Translation as a module in 2nd year, but you select which one of your languages you do it about (if you do it, I'd go for French if I were you...) and it's only into English. I think it would be very very hard to go from one foreign language to the other, getting all the nuanes in. You'd have to be ace at both to do it.

Some people like the French dept, but my best friend hasn't been too complimentary about it in the past :s Having said that, I wouldn't worry, my friend does like complaining.

Reply 124

Anatheme

Russian into German? :lolwut:

Can you even do that?

Well, I assume so, how otherwise could Germans read Tolstoy and Russians read Thomas mann? But maybe not at undergrad level, possibly not even at post grad :p:

Reply 125

thatwhichiam

Yeah, self motivation really is the way forward, but is quite hard to come by sometimes :p:

The academic departments are totally separate - there's no cross over (to the point where a German history unit about German communism clashed with my Russian compulsory modules in second year). It's only this (4th) year you start translation in Russian and it'll be into English, and in German translations are into English or English into German. It's mainly because you're taught by native speakers of the languages - I don't think Liza can speak German, and Sandra only did Russian at school, so it would be veryyy difficult for them to teach. You can take Translation as a module in 2nd year, but you select which one of your languages you do it about (if you do it, I'd go for French if I were you...) and it's only into English. I think it would be very very hard to go from one foreign language to the other, getting all the nuanes in. You'd have to be ace at both to do it.

Some people like the French dept, but my best friend hasn't been too complimentary about it in the past :s Having said that, I wouldn't worry, my friend does like complaining.

Ah, OK thanks for clearing that up for me :smile:

It's a pity there's not that much of a cross over---but you are right, it would be extremely difficult!

Reply 126

Absurd

16

thatwhichiam

Sorry for butting in :o:

I like the Terence Wade book, but I would say it's not a simple book - it's all explained with all the official linguistic terms and things, which is fine if you know what it's talking about, but I wouldn't really use it to learn something for the first time.

Don't worry, I started out my year abroad unable to say very much at all - now at least I can actually speak, even if my vocab isn't very wide.

Don't worry about it. :p:

Thanks for that, I think I'll just use the library copy if I ever need it.

Where did you spend your year abroad and how was it, if you don't mind me asking? Sorry to be so nosy!

Anatheme

Terence Wade is excellent if you want to understand obscure points of grammar, I regularly use it (when I'm bored, I must admit), but it's not the easiest book you could get. A lot of students will tell you that Wade is good, but Offord is easier to understand, and I use the Schaum's Outline collection, and I find their grammar book is amazing, they have pleeeenty of exercises and the explanations are clear, simple and perfect. It's really cheap as well, whereas Wade and Offy are a bit more expensive.

Thanks Anatheme, the Schaum's Outline thingy sounds good.

Anatheme

Oh, and Absurd, sorry, I forgot to answer, but I'm pretty sure I'll spend the second semester of my year abroad in St Petersburg, and you?

Probably St Petersburg too.

Reply 127

Absurd

Don't worry about it. :p:

Thanks for that, I think I'll just use the library copy if I ever need it.

Where did you spend your year abroad and how was it, if you don't mind me asking? Sorry to be so nosy!

Haha it's quite alright :p:

My year abroad was in St Petersburg at a language school. It was definitely an experience - Russia is very very different from Britain and it took a little getting used to. Some people enjoyed it far more than I did, but I still had fun and learned how to drink vodka and much appreciated the cheapness of it :p:

Any specific questions? I really don't mind :biggrin:

Reply 128

Anatheme

Did you go to St Benedict School or the uni? The website they give is sooo obscure, do you have any info, by any chance?

The website is crap, or at least it was before I left. I went to the Benedict School. I can't help you at all about the uni, but I went to the school all year so...

Do you want to know about the city too?

The school is good - probably won't be what you expect at first, but it is. If they do it like they did with us, they'll do all the admin and the test on about the 1st or 2nd day in Peter, then by the next week they'll have split you into classes (the top class was full of amazing people, I was in the bottom class :p:

). It really doesn't matter which class you're in, you''ll do just about the same stuff, you just won't get terrified or left out by people miles better. We had lessons Mon-Thur, 3 lessons of 1 1/2 hours (I know, you get used to it) most days, 2 one day. We did 2 lessons a week of grammar and oral and media, (and depending on 1st half of year or second) one of kino, one of chitennie (analytical reading, which was boring as ****), one of translation, one of lexica, one of sounds/pronounciation, and I THINK that's it. They tried to organise some things outside class, but they weren't very well attended or particularly good. Do your own sightseeing; buying train tickets is a bitch though. Anything else you want to know, just ask :smile:

Fran was at the school as well, in the 2nd class if you want her side of the story, but she was only there 1st half.

Reply 129

Anatheme

Cheers, I was hoping you'd be at the school, haha, I don't really wanna go to the uni. Were you all only from Manchester of were there also students from other unis/countries? Also, given that I'll spend my first semester speaking Arabic, how long would you say it took you to get used to speaking Russian? I seriously doubt I'll be able to keep up with Russian regularly when I'll be in the Middle East, and I'm a bit worried about it, so I was thinking of going like a month before lessons start, just to make sure I haven't forgotten all of my Russian when I arrive, haha

There were people from other unis - I think the people who use RLUS are Edinburgh, Nottingham, UCL, Manchester and Sheffield. None from other countries though.

It took me a while to get used to the Russian - I couldn't speak it without thinking until the March - but don't let that put you off, that's probably due to my oral attending problems at uni :p:

If I compare it to my German, I was fine with speaking that again 2 weeks after arriving in Vienna. You probably won't be able to arrive that early as you won't be able to get a student visa until the day the course officially starts, which is like the week before the first day of lessons. I'd take the group flight there as you get taken to your accommodation with all your bags...

It's lunch now but I'll reply when I get back if you have more questions :smile:

Reply 130

Absurd

16

thatwhichiam

Haha it's quite alright :p:

My year abroad was in St Petersburg at a language school. It was definitely an experience - Russia is very very different from Britain and it took a little getting used to. Some people enjoyed it far more than I did, but I still had fun and learned how to drink vodka and much appreciated the cheapness of it :p:

Any specific questions? I really don't mind :biggrin:

You've already answered one of my questions! :smile:

Oh, how did you finance the year abroad? And did you have to do dissertation preparation or anything of the sort for Manchester?

Reply 131

Absurd

You've already answered one of my questions! :smile:

Oh, how did you finance the year abroad? And did you have to do dissertation preparation or anything of the sort for Manchester?

You get extra student loan for your year abroad, so mostly funded through that, and also Manchester pay the language school fees for Russia out of your half rate tuition fees. If you spend half the year in France doing work or Erasmus you will get a grant from Erasmus to help you. However if you do what I did, and spend the year abroad away in Russia and then the summer abroad in France (Vienna for me), Manc should give you a £600 bursary for the summer - not enough to cover much living expenses/language course/whatever, but it helps.

Manchester is actually quite weird about this dissertation business, I've found - you don't have to do very much prep at all, although they do warn you there's good source material in the countries, however, most people don't know what they're doing for their dissertation really (I sorted my title out in January) so not everyone finds stuff. Other unis make you do it on the year abroad, or a project of some kind. All Manchester make you do on the year abroad is the Learning Log which is some lame health and safety questionnaire and a 2000 word essay on what your year abroad was like. In English. And you only have to attend, passing is not required :p:

Reply 132

Anatheme

I'll probably be flying from France or the Middle East, though, so I don't know about the flights. How did you manage to get stuff there, I mean with the weight limit on bags and the fact you'd live there for a year, how was it?

Also, as Absurd asked, do they want us to do anything during the year or do we just have to pass tests and stuff there and it's fine? What would you do, during your free time, is there any sport club, anything to do? And finally, how is winter there? I've been to Moscow, but given that Peter is by the sea, it's probably a lot more windy than Moscow, is it really that cold?

I have tons of other questions, I can't think of them right now but be ready :p:

Well, I'm not the person to ask about weight limits on bags as I had to take special metabolic condition food, but it is possible to do it in under 20kg, although tricky. If you're going in the second half of the year it's probably harder, as you have winter til like April then suddenly it's sweltering. You can cram everything into one big bag, but you may not get in under the weight limit. One thing the year abroad does teach you, though, is how little stuff you actually need. If you're doing second half of the year, you'll probably already have some training from packing for the Middle East.

As I said to Absurd, you don't even need to pass :p:

although they pass you anyway however badly you do :p:

win.

They don't seem to go in for sports clubs, although I know there was a gym somewhere, I can point out the girl to ask about that, she went at the end of the year. There's a lot of sightseeing to be done, and I mean a lot. They have museums for just about everything, we went to the bread museum, there's a water museum (I kid you not). You'll want to go up St Isaac's in the snow and the sun, and some things need to be done multiple times eg the Hermitage. There's always bars and clubs to go to, sushi to eat, you can just walk around and see how different it is from Western Europe. And once you've exhausted Peter, if you ever do, there's always Moscow, or Volgograd if any of your friends are there, or in Petrazavodsk.

It is a lot more windy I think, and it's either rain or dull or snow in winter. The worst will be the fact winter lasts for ages, it snowed in April for the last time, and remained cold for time after that. You just get fed up with it being like that. Also, it can get depressing in December with the long nights with hardly any/no daylight. It's just constantly grey.

Reply 133

Absurd

16

thatwhichiam

You get extra student loan for your year abroad, so mostly funded through that, and also Manchester pay the language school fees for Russia out of your half rate tuition fees. If you spend half the year in France doing work or Erasmus you will get a grant from Erasmus to help you. However if you do what I did, and spend the year abroad away in Russia and then the summer abroad in France (Vienna for me), Manc should give you a £600 bursary for the summer - not enough to cover much living expenses/language course/whatever, but it helps.

Manchester is actually quite weird about this dissertation business, I've found - you don't have to do very much prep at all, although they do warn you there's good source material in the countries, however, most people don't know what they're doing for their dissertation really (I sorted my title out in January) so not everyone finds stuff. Other unis make you do it on the year abroad, or a project of some kind. All Manchester make you do on the year abroad is the Learning Log which is some lame health and safety questionnaire and a 2000 word essay on what your year abroad was like. In English. And you only have to attend, passing is not required :p:

Oh that's good! I've just seen some Student Finance thing about years abroad and that looks alright. I don't actually study at Manchester University, I'm at Edinburgh (sorry for the confusion!) so I guess I'll have to find out whether they sort out the tuition fees. I'm doing Russian Studies and Politics, so it'll just be Russia for me and probably no summer work. I'll have to start nagging the department for more information because I have a feeling they'll be rubbish at telling us things.

That's quite good! I think I have to do some sort of project for Politics and dissertation preparation or a project for Russian. :dong:

I suppose that's another thing I'll have to ask about.

As for St Petersburg weather, it sounds quite like Edinburgh but colder and with snow.

Did you visit other Russian cities at all? Oh, and did you live in student halls or with a host family? What was that like?

Reply 134

Absurd

Oh that's good! I've just seen some Student Finance thing about years abroad and that looks alright. I don't actually study at Manchester University, I'm at Edinburgh (sorry for the confusion!) so I guess I'll have to find out whether they sort out the tuition fees. I'm doing Russian Studies and Politics, so it'll just be Russia for me and probably no summer work. I'll have to start nagging the department for more information because I have a feeling they'll be rubbish at telling us things.

That's quite good! I think I have to do some sort of project for Politics and dissertation preparation or a project for Russian. :dong:

I suppose that's another thing I'll have to ask about.

As for St Petersburg weather, it sounds quite like Edinburgh but colder and with snow.

Did you visit other Russian cities at all? Oh, and did you live in student halls or with a host family? What was that like?

Ah, Edinburgh. Um, from what the guys at school at Edinburgh said, you have to pay your own course fees...It's ok, I did realise you were elsewhere, I think I got confused though :p:

I think I got confused between you and Filette actually :facepalm:

sorry.

I visited Moscow twice, which was good, but very very big and more westernised than Peter.

I lived with a host family, but we had a separate kitchen and flat bit to ourselves, which isn't remotely normal - the family was very nice, once you got used to them being Russian :p:

it is a lot different there, but you kind of get used to it.

Reply 135

Zoedotdot

18

Can't be bothered with quoting so forgive my random comments :p:

I'm off to the Benedict School for three weeks tomorrow :smile:

Can't wait! St Petersburg looks fantastic, and we've just booked to see Swan Lake the day after my birthday while we're out there so it's going to be fabulous!

I love Wade, he makes my life complete. Offord slightly less so, but he's still good.

My year abroad will probably be spent working with a law firm in Moscow, if it's ever finalised :smile:

Spent a whole summer trying to sort it out so fingers crossed I'll get it!

Reply 136

Hey people :smile:

I'm buying my laptop for uni this week & Just wanted to ask- when you bought your laptops for starting university/Russian learning, what kind did you get? Did you have to buy a certain type of software as an extra which enabled you to write with the Russian keyboard- or did it come with it? I spoke to one of the salespeople and they said that a new updated microsoft word gives the opportunity to write in the Russian alphabet- but what do you do about writing emails, etc. ? Cheers :smile:

Reply 137

Fillette

Hey people :smile:

I'm buying my laptop for uni this week & Just wanted to ask- when you bought your laptops for starting university/Russian learning, what kind did you get? Did you have to buy a certain type of software as an extra which enabled you to write with the Russian keyboard- or did it come with it? I spoke to one of the salespeople and they said that a new updated microsoft word gives the opportunity to write in the Russian alphabet- but what do you do about writing emails, etc. ? Cheers :smile:

There's a language pack for Office you have to download I think (ask them in the tech forum) which enables you to write and read Cyrillic on most programs - you can also buy little stickers from eBay to stick on your keyboard to show you which key is which.

I'm ninety percent sure the language pack is free. The techy types will know more about installing it than me, but no special laptop is required. This baby I'm on now is a Dell Inspiron 6400, but that's ancient now, this is nearing the end of its life. Russian won't be the deciding factor for your laptop purchase :smile:

get a laptop for its RAM or processing power.

Reply 138

commando

Fillette

Hey people :smile:

I'm buying my laptop for uni this week & Just wanted to ask- when you bought your laptops for starting university/Russian learning, what kind did you get? Did you have to buy a certain type of software as an extra which enabled you to write with the Russian keyboard- or did it come with it? I spoke to one of the salespeople and they said that a new updated microsoft word gives the opportunity to write in the Russian alphabet- but what do you do about writing emails, etc. ? Cheers :smile:

I think that your PC came with the language already installed on it, you go to control panel>clock, language and region>Change keyboard or other input methods>change keyboards>general> lower down on this box there should be an "Add..." option, click it and scroll down to Russian, then add keyboard.

To change languages, there's the language bar in your taskbar, or press left alt + shift

(Just for the record I just did this myself, I didn't memorise it :p:

)

Reply 139