OT: Russian Language Lessons

[Fuzzified 0]

Oh...and just wanted to add that the further I get into this, the more I realize what a load of ####### Rosetta Stone is. It's not just overpriced, I'm seeing that it actually has disadvantaged me to an extent. I'm constantly "un-learning" things.

Rosetta stone is definitely overpriced, but it is working pretty well for me so far. It can be tough to figure out what exactly the picture might be asking at times, but through much toil and a possible aneurysm in my future, I figure the stuff out.

[Thomas-n-Elena 0]

Not off-topic at all. At least not here, where a thread about wedding rings can turn into a thread about the best recipe for free-range armadillos.

Hot dog we are finally going to talk about free range armadillo's thems are good eatin!!!!

[mox 298]

Oh...and just wanted to add that the further I get into this, the more I realize what a load of ####### Rosetta Stone is. It's not just overpriced, I'm seeing that it actually has disadvantaged me to an extent. I'm constantly "un-learning" things.

Rosetta stone is definitely overpriced, but it is working pretty well for me so far. It can be tough to figure out what exactly the picture might be asking at times, but through much toil and a possible aneurysm in my future, I figure the stuff out.

I showed my Russian tutor (a native Russian) Rosetta Stone about 6 months ago, and she spent over an hour with it. She said there are *MANY* errors in the translations, most of which are fundamental. The one that sticks out in my mind is that Rosetta's translation for "I eat rice" literally comes out as "I am rice." And how would you know if your only exposure is Rosetta?

Not off-topic at all. At least not here, where a thread about wedding rings can turn into a thread about the best recipe for free-range armadillos.

Hot dog we are finally going to talk about free range armadillo's thems are good eatin!!!!

I hate those damn corn fed armadillos you get at the supermarket.

[slim 1,514]

And how would you know if your only exposure is Rosetta?

Like most other things in life, to be truly successful, diversification is required. Sure, each progam is going to help you in some way or another, but if you use only one program you're bound to miss something.

Once you run through a couple different programs you'll be able to spot the mistakes in each and simply disregard them and focus on what you need.

One other thing to keep in mind is you can always do the hand to mouth motion of eating so if you know the words for I and rice, you should be able to be understood. If you foul up a few words here and there, you may even get a funny story out of it. And while it's important for you to learn some Russian, it's MUCH MORE important for you to help your S/O learn English. Part of doing that is finding a common language to communicate in and knowing a few words will help. But, the focus should be on them learning English, not on you learning Russian, and the more they're "helping you" by speaking Russian, the more it's "hurting them" by not speaking English.

[mox 298]

Ahhhhh...this conversation again. Slim, I agree that if you are learning Russian in order to be able to speak with your SO, then the emphasis might want to be more on her learning English. However, if like me you want to learn Russian in order to make trips back to the motherland more convenient and fun, and/or to speak with the in-laws, or just to make fun of people at parties in your own secret code, then nothing beats a tutor or at least the classroom. Also it just makes sense to me that even if she speaks 100% fluent English, you should strive to speak your wife's native language to some minimum level of competency. But that's just me.

The "I am rice" example was just one of many errors she caught, and her final opinion was that if you learned Russian from Rosetta, you would spend a long time un-learning it in order to speak properly. These weren't just errors that could be written off as regional or opinion, but basic low-level grammar that shows Rosetta should not be considered a serious Russian language tutor.

[Mags 112]

Okay, this thread is absolutely NOTHING to do with the Russia forum. I'm going to move it to...

*does eeny meeny miney mo*

...how about, I dunno, erm, K-1 Case Progress Reports? How does that sound?

[mox 298]

Okay, this thread is absolutely NOTHING to do with the Russia forum. I'm going to move it to...

*does eeny meeny miney mo*

...how about, I dunno, erm, K-1 Case Progress Reports? How does that sound?

General Polls. Definitely General Polls.

(And you are a bigger trouble-maker than I am justsoyano!)

[Mags 112]

Okay, this thread is absolutely NOTHING to do with the Russia forum. I'm going to move it to...

*does eeny meeny miney mo*

...how about, I dunno, erm, K-1 Case Progress Reports? How does that sound?

General Polls. Definitely General Polls.

(And you are a bigger trouble-maker than I am justsoyano!)

Not a troublemaker - just playful.

[mox 298]

Not a troublemaker - just playful.

Okay, I feel better then because that makes me a bigger troublemaker.

[slim 1,514]

It seems even the mods need translation of our pie-filled conversations. And not the Rosetta Stone translation, a real translation done by a tutor.

Does your tutor make pie?

[Fuzzified 0]

I'd like a tutor, but I'm not going to find one anywhere around here, so aside for my Ira, Rosetta stone is the best thing I've got.

Though Ira is bent on teaching me actual "Ukrainian" which I want to learn but even Rosetta stone doesn't have that. So I'm learning a mixture of the two, Ukrussian, or Rushkrainian if you will.

They're similar, but just enough difference to make me even more confused.

[mox 298]

I'd like a tutor, but I'm not going to find one anywhere around here, so aside for my Ira, Rosetta stone is the best thing I've got.

Post an ad on Craigslist for a tutor, you may be surprised. The area I lived in is about as non-Rus as you can get, and I got 5 answers over about 2 weeks.

Though Ira is bent on teaching me actual "Ukrainian" which I want to learn but even Rosetta stone doesn't have that. So I'm learning a mixture of the two, Ukrussian, or Rushkrainian if you will.

They're similar, but just enough difference to make me even more confused.

If she's from West Ukraine, you'll definitely want to learn Ukrainian, possibly even to the exclusion of Russian. They don't have a lot of use for Russians in WU.

[Fuzzified 0]

Yea Mox, she's from L'viv. So pretty much everyone speaks Ukrainian, but I'm told MOST can speak Russian too. I'll look into a tutor. Craigslist is God's gift to the world!

[slim 1,514]

Craigslist is God's gift to the world!

If God's intention was to ease finding an NSA same-sex partner and make it extremely difficult to legally sell firearms. Yep, I'm sure He woud've went the Craigslist route.

While we're at it, is God a PC? (Or is he a Mac?)

[mox 298]

Craigslist is God's gift to the world!

If God's intention was to ease finding an NSA same-sex partner and make it extremely difficult to legally sell firearms. Yep, I'm sure He woud've went the Craigslist route.

While we're at it, is God a PC? (Or is he a Mac?)

Let's see...God puts you through hell on earth, and if you don't do EXACTLY what he wants you to do then he torments you for eternity. And what he wants you to do exactly isn't very clear because the instructions are either non-existent, or have been written by more than one source and in many cases they are all conflicting. So obviously God is a PC running Windows.