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In Reply to: Man, you sound just like Pushkin! posted by Victor Khomenko on September 25, 2003 at 15:26:54:
Victor,Yes, I just can not keep everything in order. Early on, I thought that Russian had a wonderful casualness and the rules were actually lax, and with a different approach to indefinite articles (compared to German), Russian was more free-form, but as I learned a little more, it was obvious that I was just unaware of all the modifying rules that were being invisibly applied all the time.
As for pronunciation, that fooled me at first too. I am reasonably good at imitating sounds, but there is a subtlety in Russian when there are combinations of sounds that I just can not do. Individually, there is less mystery, but like French in which there are constant contractions of articles into verbs, spoken Russian has a sensation of long, convoluted strings of sounds. I also thought that this would be like the long combination words in German- but it is not. I have to repeat things several times to train myself for each sentence!
I would love to be able to read Pushkin and Gogol in the original. O.K., Checkhov and Nabakov too.
When do I get my second lifetime?
Cheers,
Bambi B
Follow Ups:
You are right that the sentence building rules are basically non-existent in Russian, but that simply means that you can build many different constuctions where English would only allow one, and each one would have different flavor.You can take a simple 3 or 4 word sentence and move those few words into all possible configurations, and each one will have its appropriate use - with some overlap, of course, but still, many more verieties than in English or German.
All languages have something unique about them, but even more importantly, people think differently in different languages - making good translation of stream of thoughts so much more challenging.
Maybe we all should become cats with their nine lives...
Victor,I wanted to mention too that you're writing on English is quite amazing for a second language- idiomatic, large vocabulary, better speling than mine, clear technical writing, and complex constructions. How did you learn?
If you don't mind my asking, how would you describe your speaking?
The Russians I know are all enthusiastic conversationalists and take it seriously. And murderous as chess players..
Bam
Thank you Bam for your kind words - I hope at least some of them are deserved. I taught myself. When I decided to leave the USSR I began my study, and after about nine months I could read newspapers and maintain a conversation.One tool I found completely indispensible in learning new language is the existance of adapted books. In Russia the foreign language studies were conducted at very high level. They had created the whole slew of books with texts appropriate for all grades - all the way to the university language department level. Those books were small, and each one would have the dictionary in the back - the one tailored for that particular book. That is much more quick and convenient than using a large dictionary, in effect promoting such reading - on a bus, subway, etc. By going through such a book you would pick up perhaps a 100 new words and some new structures. I started with the very simplest ones, and just kept reading them non-stop. In addition I bought a very good English grammar book.
My spoken English varies depending upon the situation, mood, level of nervousness, etc. When I am relaxed and in friendly surrounding it can get pretty natural and fluent, but at other times it can be stiff and lacking any eloquency. I do have a pretty heavy accent.
If you can find a group of culturally oriented Russian immigrants, then that could be very interesting and stimulating environment. We are fortunate to have many such friends. I consider Dmitry a member of that group, BTW - we meet sometimes. But as any other group, the Russians come in many shapes, and some can be outright ugly.
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