Eastern Orthodox Christian Forum

Very interestingly to hear your experiences learning foreign languages.
My father, for example, in 40 years resumed study of German. This required his office. He wrote the words on small cards and сarried them in his pocket. Always took them and remembered the translation. He always listened CDs in German in his car. And constantly talking on the phone with the Germans.

Аnd my cousin came to Israel in 80 years, but never learned Hebrew. It was a sorry sight, he could not explain anything to people!
Unfortunately, Israel is not all speak Russian

He could easily speak in Russian. Anyway there is a big part of our emigrants.

where he lives few Russians

Then clearly.

Probably my experiences with learning foreign languages are different than most people’s experience here. I grew up in the US speaking English. My mother’s parents came from Switzerland, and my mother speaks some German, but when she was a little girl, people where they lived reacted negatively to German, because this was not very long after the war. So she didn’t really learn to speak German very fluently. When I was about 8 years old, I decided to learn German, because this was my heritage. I didn’t know anything about it though. I thought I could memorize a dictionary, and then I would speak German (in school they taught us a little French and Spanish, but we didn’t really learn anything about languages). My mother explained how you could not learn a language just by memorizing words, and taught me about German grammar. I used to speak German somewhat, and I still understand, but now it is hard for me to talk. I also studied Spanish in school, and could speak it, but now I mostly read it.

In university, I studied Russian language and literature, and I knew a lot of Russian people at church, so I learned to speak fairly well. I went to Russia for the summer when I was a student, and I became much better at Russian conversation while I was there. I went to a lot of holy places, and talked to people a lot, and got to know people in churches, all speaking in Russian. Since I have spent so much time speaking Russian in a church context, I can talk about spiritual things easily, but other specialized subjects are sometimes difficult!

For me, the best way to learn a language is first to understand the grammar, and then to have a lot of practice speaking and listening to it. It is easier if this is in a natural context in life—which I why I speak Russian best of the foreign languges I know.

Now I have written far too much!

Nastasia, in English we call these "flashcards". They are very helpful for learning new vocabulary, I think!

When i came to us i almost didn't speak any english. I studied it at school quiet seriously, but then at university i didn't have to study any english. So, by the time i came here i knew only "Hello, how are you?" My first job was at candy store. i do not know how i got that job... Anyway, i asked girls write down everything i have to tell costumers . i memorized it. Believe me, i had a lot of funny situations... it took me about 3 months to start talking a little bit.Watching TV was very, very helpful. Especially since i saw a lot of movies in russian before. Then i tried to read periodicals as much as i could. it proved to be helpful as well. Still my english is very far from perfect and i am still working on it.

Serafima, it sounds like that must have been very hard, to come here and work, and not be able to speak the language! Did anyone at the store also speak Russian, so they could explain things to you?

I don’t watch very many Russian movies, but probably this would be a good idea for me, to practice. I also read a lot online (matushki! And other things of course!) and this helps me to learn how people phrase things in normal conversation.

Liza, i actually had a lot of fun working at that store. There was one russian girl, so i tortured her a lot. But we were not allowed to speak any language but english at the store. This rule was very strict. I had the best manager ever, he was always there when i needed help. And other guys were very nice and nobody ever made fun of my english.
Your Russian is very good!