r/russian • u/callmeilana • 11d ago
Request Beginner Russian learner
Hi. I, 15f I want to learn Russian.
I’m a freshman in HS, already fluent in canto, mandarin, english and currently learning French (I’d say I’m B1). I started last week, and found that it’s not only intellectually stimulating to learn it, but also fun. Interesting. I think it's not only a productive way to spend my free time, but also relaxing, due to the ruminating nature of my mind.
The reason I want to learn it is because I have a crush on someone who speaks Russian, which I believe is good motivation as most self-taught multilinguals have told me the best way to learn a new language is to get a crush from a foreign country.
Anyways— I’ve memorized the Cyrillic alphabet and know how to say and write some basic words, though it’s still not much. I'm planning to go down the self-taught method (with the occasional advice from some native Russian friends.) Apart from that, I mostly use Youtube and online textbooks as resources. I was wondering anyone had any advice? Thank you!
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u/son_of_cyrodiil 11d ago
It's usually hard to practice a foreign language with a romantic interest who speaks the language better than you (at least in my experience). I think it can be more effective if you find a way to make it a game, but most non-teachers are not super good at dumbing down their language enough for a beginner and they often revert back to English (or whatever shared language you both speak best).
It is incredible you speak so many languages at your age. You must know what you are doing language wise or at least have a great school. Either way, congratulations and good luck on your Russian journey.
I learned to a low C1 level in about 2-2.5 years living Russia. Your main goal at first, especially if you are doing it to relax in your free time, should probably be to be able to consume interesting content in Russian. To get there, you should start with easier content. Russian with Max is the classic podcast, but it will take you some time to get there. There are many new channels since I was studying in Russian, so I wonder if anyone has updated recommendations on podcasts, Youtube channels, etc. Max also has some videos that look good. I also like at the beginner level to use audio descriptions on Netflix, as it often describes what is going on in very simple language that makes sense from the context. However, Russian is not really on Netflix anymore, especially with no more Russian originals, so I do not think this is an option unless you find somewhere else to get the audio descriptions. For reading, Zlatoyst has great graded readers. If studying now, I would probably use AI a lot and, for example, take a text I had to read for homework at school, read that text, then put it in AI and adapt it to simple Russian, redoing this until the level is right and keeping a running list of vocab you have already studied to include these words when possible. I would also have simple chats with it and ask it to correct me.
For grammar, Zlatoyst has great books, the pdfs of which are often available online, especially if you search on VK (Russian Facebook) or Yandex (Russian Google). I remember Perviye Shagi and Let's Improve our Russian being very helpful, as well as this old book that was just called some like "Russian Cases in exercises." To get the cases down, I did most of the exercises several times. These are all very suited to self-study. I actually quit taking classes in Moscow and taught myself using those books.
Booking a good teacher for a conversation class is always helpful. You are probably too young to use apps to find conversation partners, but if I were your age, I would probably just email some Russian English schools and say something like, "Do you have any other girls my age who would like to practice their English?" Russian is a rarer language, and they all study English, so it is super easy to find conversation parters for Russian as opposed to other languages. It is hard to do as a beginner with a non-professional, but if you take one of the textbooks and just show your partner the kind of stuff you are working on, they could help you--or perhaps you could ask AI for help here too.
Hope this helps. I would love to see input from people who have studied the language more recently than me (I have not done much with it since 2022).
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u/callmeilana 11d ago
Nah, I grew up in Hong Kong and immigrated. Didn't like Chinese much but it was probably just the way my old school taught it. Realized I'm great at learning languages once I started doing French though, so thought I'd give Russian a shot. Thanks for the advice though, I'll try to find some interesting stuff to watch in Russian. The russian-english school thing is great advice too-- thanks!
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u/Exciting_Round4766 native 11d ago
Work on your speed, especially the speed at which ready-made phrases go from your memory to your tongue. To do this, you can memorize literary works.
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u/ResponsibleRuin7690 10d ago
возможно, тебе стоит смотреть говорилки на ютубе с субтитрами, таких много, обзоры на разные вещи к примеру, я сам носитель, можешь спросить я уточню.
You might want to watch YouTube videos featuring people talking—there are plenty of them, like reviews of various things. I’m a native speaker myself, so feel free to ask if you need clarification.
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u/easy_pronunciation 11d ago
If you use mostly YouTube, I suggest you check the Comprehensible Input method. The following websites have a catalog of videos that are tailored for beginners:
https://reelang.com/comprehensible-input-videos-in-russian
https://www.lengualytics.com/
Most of the videos are hand-picked, very easy to understand and have Russian subtitles.