How to Learn Russian Successfully - A Roadmap

RoadMap to Successfully Learning Russian From Zero to Fluency My website - http://russianfromanenglishpov.com/ Video Corrections: I didn't always pick the best examples, because I chose them "in the moment," without planning them in advance. The verb for "procrastinate," is better stated as "откладывать (на потом)," rather than "откладываться." Also, I used the construction, "с трудностью," which I believe is technically okay; however, it's more commonly said as "с трудом..." it just sounds a little strange. A better example would be something like, "Я помогу тебе с радостью." ("I will gladly help you.") *из магазинА is the correct way to say "from the store," but here I just wanted to emphasize that из is the other side of the в/из pair. 1) Define your goal. What level of Russian do you want to acquire? What do you want to use it for? Do you want to read Russian Classics, watch modern Russian news and movies, talk to Russian friends or loved ones, or possibly even use Russian in a professional setting? Pace yourself accordingly. 2) Learn Cyrillic Alphabet (few hours/days). Familiarize yourself with Russian cursive and decide whether you want to just learn to read Russian cursive, or whether you also want to be able to write in Russian cursive. (Writing can help you remember vocabulary.) 3) Listen to and learn basic greetings and very basic dialogues. 4) Practice basic phrases and pronunciation via attentive listening, repetition, and shadowing. 5) Set realistic goals and expectations. Communicating in Russian is a “mountain to climb,” not a sprint. Do NOT buy non-adaptive books in Russian thinking you will learn Russian that way. Even children's books in Russian are not advisable in the early stages of learning. There are good books available for beginners, so it’s a good idea to limit yourself to these at this point. Do NOT expect to be able to form very many new sentences at this point. You will not be able to form many new sentences without learning at least the basics of grammar, so allow yourself some time. 6) Learn the Russian 7-letter spelling rule. (very important) 7) Begin learning about noun genders and basic pluralization in the nominative case. 8) Learn how adjectives match the genders and plurality of nouns in the nominative case. 9) Continue to familiarize yourself with vocabulary, how various words sound and are pronounced from basic dialogues, or stories written for beginners. It’s best to rely on audio as much as possible. Don’t assume you know how a word “should” be pronounced until you’ve listened to it. Your visual memory and understanding of rules will often lead you astray, while your auditory memory will put you on the right path. 10) Learn about cognates shared by English and Russian… (интернет, телефон, телевизор, etc.), along with “циа” words like, ситуация (situation), традиция (tradition), медитация (meditation), and so on. 11) Learn the basics about verb conjugation and the concept of verbal aspects (imperfective / imperfective). 12) Time to start studying cases. Start with the prepositional and accusative cases. Learn the usages of на/в. Give yourself time to absorb the various nuances related to how these cases are used. 13) When you feel like you know the prepositional and accusative cases pretty well, you can now start by learning the basic forms of the dative, genitive, and instrumental cases. By “basic,” I’m referring to how these are used in basic constructions, with certain prepositions, or situations… NOT how various verbs trigger their usage, or how they are used less frequently, save that for later. Notice the patterns present in all cases declinations, both between adjectives and nouns, as well as the patterns present in word families with similar endings. 14) Learn how на/в/к relate to с/из/от and when to use them. 15) Learn about the concept of reflexive verbs and how they work. 16) Learn personal pronouns and how they decline, including the various forms of себя. 17) Learn “connective phrases” in Russian, such as… «не смотря на то, что,» «до сих пор,» «расскажу о том,» «перед тем как,» «до того как,» «после того как,» and so on. 18) Learn the basics about verbs of motion. What are the basic concepts of direction? Use идти/ходить and ехать/ездить and your main verbs of motion. These pop up in many various contexts. Save the other verbs of motion until later, or until you need them. 19) Learn ALL of the prefixes used with verbs of motion… these will be used constantly and they are very intuitive and pretty easy to learn. 20) Learn just the basics about participles, but don’t worry about most of them… just the few you hear in everyday speech. 21) Listen to podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. on a daily basis. (Try to only use Russian subtitles.) 22) Speaking practice (talk to yourself, a language partner, or a teacher).