For anyone who has learned or tried learning Russian...?

Question

How long did it take you to get used to the alphabet and not have to translate every later into English to understand a word?
Right now I'm teaching myself Russian and it seems like so far the only way I can memorize a word is by seeing it in English. I try reading as much in the Russian alphabet as I can but I can't memorize any word because the letters and the words themselves are so new to me are so new to me.

Should I learn Russian using the English alphabet then move onto using the Russian alphabet so I at least know the words?

Answer 1

I am a native Russian speaker, but I have had to learn other alphabets including the English one. I would strongly recommend that you learn the alphabet before you get any further. You would be translating everything into English and that would be a crutch that you may not always have.

Remember that you probably knew your alphabet before you could read or write in English. It's the same way with another language; the alphabet comes first. It won't take too long to learn the alphabet. Just study it when you can before you move on to words. Besides, if you do find a way to speak it without knowing the alphabet, and a Russian asks you to recite the alphabet or something, you might be a bit embarrassed when you have to say that you don't know it!

Answer 2

Right now i am learning, russian. It took me a couple of weeks to get the alphabet down, and i occassionally mess up, but that is more on the handwriten alphabet. Also if you are not already, start with the typed alphabet, and then move to the handwritten. Also look at the alphabet, and practice the sound that each letter makes. If you do that, then after a couple weeks at the most you should have the alphabet down. Its been a while since I started learning the language, and i was not thinking about how i learned it. Anyway, I hope that this helps, and if not feel free to e-mail me any questions you have and i will try to help.

Answer 3

I would learn the alphabet first--like the back of your hand, and then move on to words. The key to learning a new language is thinking in that language and you can't do that if you have to translante everything to english first.

When I first started learning Thai, I had that same problem. I would look at the letter and not have a clue what it was. But I studied the alphabet really hard and memorized the sounds and after that it came through. Just keep on trying--you will succeed eventually.

Answer 4

I tried several ways to cope with this sammmmmmme problem!! ONE thing I did was make flash cards showing the Russian letter and then on the back of it the english equivilent. I would have a friend show me the cards and then I would say which on ei twas. She would show them to me either way- english or russian first. That helped alot. Another thing I know about studying foreign languages is that you can learn ALOT of the words just by recognizing them visually. To do this, I took more index cards, wrote down words for practically everything in my apartment and taped these up EVERYWHERE! My friends would come over and go " uh, okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.... " but it REALLY helped!! Even if , after you learn the domestic things, then take those down, tape up pics of other stuff ( busses and specific buildings and stuff) then label those, they are still right there in your face all of the time and you can learn to recognize the WORD as a SHAPE almost...... do you see what I mean?? It really helped me alot.
Of course, having totake my russian finals on the prof's floor in his office and having brain surgery that night because i was so sick didn't help me remember all that much of it later.... I can only speak a little of it now. " I speak Russian, only a little and very very poorly" Is my favorite sentence! LOL But, this method has helped me learn to say "I Love you" In over 30 languages! ( everybody collects something, right? I think this one is better than beer coasters or shot glasses, thimbles or cat figurines!! )

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Bluntly, without the Russian written words, you will be unable to read, hence to pronounced them correctly. As everything new, it'll take time until you get used to read and write in Russian without too many obstacles. If you have plenty of drive and patience nothing is impossible..My advice is not to turn the words into some "English" variation.
.Желаю тебе успех!! ( Wish you luck!)

Hope that helps!
Have a great day!

Answer 6

Try reading syllables (with a transcription). That may help.