Hi Mod Edi! If I Wanted To Learn Russian, What Would Be The Best Way To Go About It? I Want To Visit,

hi mod edi! If I wanted to learn Russian, what would be the best way to go about it? I want to visit, and it seems polite to speak a bit of the language of the place you're visiting! I was thinking Duolingo?

If your primary language doesn’t use the cyrillic alphabet and your goal is to know just enough Russian for a short trip, first you have to ask yourself if you really want to learn a whole new writing system just to be polite. No? You might want to pick up a phrasebook and call it a day.

If you’re really interested in the language, though, the best way to learn is to immerse yourself entirely. Use Duolingo for daily lessons, read short stories on websites, read news, listen to songs, watch TV shows and movies, use anything that lets you know how other people speak - because it’s not enough to know a lot of words, you have to know how to combine them.

For a beginner, it helps to write things down with your own hands. Don’t just type the word, take a notepad and write it down as you say it out loud, repeat it several times. That way, you use several memorizing mechanisms at once, and you remember the word better.

Another good way to learn is to construct and answer questions. You’ve read a short story? Come up with five questions and answer them. You’ve listened to a song? Try summarizing its contents. Don’t just repeat what you’ve heard, try constructing your own sentences. Don’t know the right word? Google Translate is your best friend, it’s right there and it knows a lot.

Grammar is also your best friend. Conjugations, tenses, declensions, grammatic genders, suffixes and prefixes - learn them and use them well. Кот, кошка, котик, кисонька, котяра, кошак, кошкет, котейшество, котец, котюня, so many ways to say “cat” (and more)! Don’t be afraid, it’s fun to make new words! As long as you get the root of the word right, other people will probably understand what you mean.

As you advance, try thinking in the new language on a daily basis. Planning a meal? Try saying what you’re going to have in the foreign language. Planning an outfit? Put on a combo of чёрная рубашка and джинсы. Simple day-to-day tasks? Вымыть посуду, вынести мусор. Bam! Before you know it, you’re bilingual and have a tiny Russian in your head nagging about washing the dishes and taking out the trash.

Basically, set a goal for yourself, how much you want to learn. If it’s only for a trip, look up some videos on YouTube or use a phrasebook - you really don’t need to learn all the nuances. If you want to be able to read and write properly, Duolingo is a good start, but it’s not enough. You’ll need books, songs, and movies.

Fanfiction is another way to learn some language tricks! Look up translated fics on AO3, a lot of them translate sentence for sentence. And, of course, having a converstaion partner who helps you when you struggle is a very good way to learn. Practice with a friend!

Most importantly, remember: language is a communication tool. Russian has a reputation for being difficult, so a lot of Russian people will be impressed if you learn a simple “привет” и “всего доброго”. And it’s okay to get things wrong! We’re people, not robots, and we’ll be trying to understand you as much as you’ll be trying to make yoruself understood.

Удачи!!!

-edi

Caption This!!

Haifa - Israel (by Michael Wong) 

[x] 

File this under things I didn’t notice when I was playing on a console: Cullen has a chair in his office but he never uses it. It’s always covered in books and reports.

Also there’s some ambient dialogue in the Arbor Wilds that suggests he leads the charge toward the temple and then fights for TWO STRAIGHT DAYS on ONE HOUR OF SLEEP, like oh my god, dude.

The devil works hard but Cullen Rutherford works harder, TBH

CONFESSION:

           I wonder if Dorian had ever seen snow before leaving Tevinter. Sure, he hates the cold, but he’s also such a softie deep down. I bet at least part of him loved watching some of the more gentle snowfalls from his tent, all bundled up with his Inquisitor keeping him warm.