How I Learned Russian

At 60 I decided to learn Russian. Had a big impact on my life. It opened me to the “Russian world”, to other Slavic languages & to all the languages I have learned since then. --- FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com/ LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ My Podcast ⇢ soundcloud.com/lingostevehttps://podcasts.apple.co… --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ www.instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ www.facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN

"Москва слезам whatever" - Ha ha ha ha! This is an absolutely new view on this story!

I learned Russian at university, studied the grammar formally and everything. However I really got decent at it when I did a year abroad in Russia and had to try to use it with people in conversation! Even though I graduated with distinction in spoken Russian I felt like it wasn't anywhere close to fluency. Conversationally it was quite fluent, but like you I got into Russian because I wanted to read Bulgakov, Dostoevsky etc but I was nowhere near being able to do that. I moved to Germany after university and I learned German without doing any lessons: I tried to read articles and books and listen to podcasts, look up words, and maybe occasionally looked up grammar but didn't worry about it too much, and gradually got more and more into speaking with people. I had no idea about comprehensible input at the time but it just ended up being what I did naturally and my German is pretty fluent these days (I passed the C1 without taking any classes). In 2019, having not used Russian for close to a decade, I traveled to Kiev. I was horrified at how my Russian had degraded - I even forgot the word for Monday! I had given up on it. Then during lockdown, out of boredom, I decided to see if I could listen to something in Russian and understand it. I listened to the Comprehensible Russian Podcast with Max. I was surprised by how much I could still understand and it gave me the desire to get back into it,. That was about three months ago, and with a little listening and reading every day, and some help from Anki, it's astonishing how quickly the language came back. In a short time I was able to upgrade from listening to comprehensible podcasts for students to real podcasts for Russians. It's incredibly refreshing to not have to worry about whether I'm using the correct verbal aspect, and just enjoy the process of getting a little better every day through repeated exposure. I wish at university they'd told me how important listening was - instead we would have a "listening class" about once a week! I love the Russian lanugage and I'm determined to get to the level where I can read Dostoevsky - even if it takes years, I'm now enjoying the process of just being exposed to the language a little every day, and I want Russian to be a language I will have with me for life.

Просто пришла послушать, как человек рассказывает про изучение русского языка 🌚

As a Russian person, I'd love to encourage you to learn Russian if you have a desire for that. Don't be afraid of having an accent or something, 'cause to be honest we adore when foreigners try to speak Russian. Also, I'd utterly recommend you some Russian writers like Pushkin, Esenin, Tolstoy, Lermontov and so on and so forth. These ones are one of the best writers in Russia and you can read them and gradually acquire your Russian language by reading them.

This is my target language. I’ve been infatuated with it for about a year now, ever since taking a Russian literature course in college. I don’t know why this language is so special to me. I look forward to being fluent someday. Thank you so much for uploading this video. I love your channel! 🥰

Your grammar light approach had a lot of influence on me as a Russian learner. A little over two years have passed and I have finally pulled out the grammar book. I can't tell you how many times I watched your other video talking about Russian. All the best.

Любопытно видеть свою культуру в такой оптике.

Привет из России! Стив, спасибо за ваши видео. Вы, один из тех настоящих полиглотов, которые вдохновляют меня и многих других людей учить иностранные языки.

Короче , я начал изучать русский язык потому что я любитель классической музыки, и по моему русский народные композиторы великий. После этого , начал я интересоваться русской эстетикой, например народная и церковная архитектура, иконы, и так далее. Мой уровень русского языка увеличал в начале прошлого года, когда я основал дюжирную практику смотреть документальные фильмы, слушать радио, читать новости и смотреть видео. Когда жил я в Европе, совершил мечту путешествовать в Россию.

Крутой дед, че еще добавить

I am Lithuanian, fluent in English, taught myself basic French and learned basic Russian from school. But I really want to get fluent in Russian for the precise same reason as you, sir - I would love to read Dostoevsky in original! Brothers Karamazov especially, one of my most favorite novels of all time.

You are a hero. My respect. (I'm russian and I've been teaching English and German for more than thirty years. I wish my students were so enthusiastic about learning languages.)

I'm Japanese learning 5th language and you always inspired me a lot! Next year, I would like to learn Russian language so it's really helpful! Thank you always!

Спасибо большое за это видео! Очень интересно послушать вашу историю. 🌻

I love the sound of Russian. it has a lot of consonants but never sounds harsh. Maybe I'll learn it someday.

Вы большой молодец! Такое терпение и усердие заслуживают искреннего уважения. Удачи Вам в изучении новых языков!

I am Russian, and I recall Russian language was one of the most difficult subjects in my school growing up in Russia, maybe after maths. I still can't say I consciously understand all the cases and and other rules of grammar, but, thankfully, my native brain automatically produces the correct language and I speak it - what a miracle. I can only imagine how it is for a student of the Russian language. Such deep respect.

Thank you for sharing your experience! I am a professional Russian teacher, and a couple of my very successful students told me that they like reading on lingq, and I personally like reading with audio, I think it's a great method and absolutely crucial when studying Russian. Input is very important. Делайте побольше видео о изучении русского языка))

I am Russian, but I am still learning it. How rich and powerful our Russian language is😁