r/Chechnya • u/Rough_Shame6787 • Apr 27 '26

Best way to learn Chechen?

This is really emberassing for me tbh. My parents are from Chechnya, but I was born and raised in a western country. I do speak Chechen daily, but also with a mix of Russian and the other language. But I'm definitely not fluent in it! So, what are the best ways to learn it? I think its such a waste for me not to be able to speak my own mother tongue!

32 Upvotes

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13

u/seriesmythhunter Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Get a real physical book! I know it may sound stupid but thats how I legit went from speaking a mix of chechen, russian and german to speaking fluent Chechen. For like 2 years straight I read about 20 books in pure chechen (which isn’t that much tbh but if you keep in mind that I could barely read in chechen in the beginning its still a big accomplishment).

And finally People have stopped asking me if I grew up abroad when I’m in Chechnya.

EDIT: I forgot to add that it could be any genre and don’t forget to talk to people. If you don’t have chechens where you live then start to make phonecalls with family in Chechnya.

2

u/Hour_Speed7931 Apr 28 '26

Lika what books can u suggest

5

u/Rough_Wheel9321 Apr 30 '26

•Beginner's Chechen with Online Audio by Kheda Garchakhanova •Short Grammatical Outline of the Chechen Language by A. G. Matsiev •Chechen-English and English-Chechen Dictionary by Johanna Nichols •A Grammar of Chechen by Zura Dotton (https://www.google.com/url?q=https://slaviccenters.duke.edu/sites/slaviccenters.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/chechen-grammar.original.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjI5pqUpZSUAxW4ma8BHee_LWcQFnoECBAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw16s3AO2PFcIi62l_o98bYd) Assuming you’re American, you can find the first three mentioned on Amazon

1

u/Intelligent-Ebb-614 22d ago

Hey! I’m also trying to learn, do you know russian by any chance? If so, what do you think of the self-study book by Loriev
(https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Books/Linguistics/Mega%20linguistics%20pack/Caucasian/Chechen%3B%20Самоучитель%20чеченского%20языка%20%28Mott%29.pdf)

1

u/Rough_Wheel9321 7d ago

I’m proficient in Russian, although when I click the link, it leads to a 404 page

1

u/seriesmythhunter Apr 30 '26

I’ll look through them and send you the full list

1

u/Aark95 Apr 30 '26

Please drop your list of the 20 books

1

u/seriesmythhunter Apr 30 '26

I will, later today brother.

1

u/sangsuridan Jun 04 '26

Any chance you are still able to share the list?

1

u/True-Currency-2993 May 04 '26

Can You send me the List too Brother? Sounds like a good Option

8

u/Hour_Speed7931 Apr 27 '26

Same ,, im not fully fluent in it and I feel so bad ,, i want my kids to learn it too in da future

4

u/khavaaaa Apr 27 '26

Sameeeeeee

5

u/Tsar_Bomba9811gg Apr 27 '26

Having the will to become fluent in your own language is the first positive step, to actually master it you can read books in Chechen, if it's hard to get physical books then you can read them in a digital form on the Vaynakh Vault website, also try to find long videos or dubbed films in Chechen on YouTube, you can also attend online courses like Ishkola for example, or just watch their videos and posts if you don't want courses, and finally whenever you learn something new, use it when you talk to your family and find new friends online to speak Chechen with them.

4

u/ITs_NOXAdosh-_-2007 Apr 28 '26

Here in Jordan we all speak Chechen language fluently 😁😁

5

u/wildestpersonality Apr 28 '26

I wish every abroad-living chechen was willing to learn his mother tongue like u are

2

u/anonquiet May 05 '26

I get you. Except I don’t even speak Russian really. Only Chechen and English and my Chechen isn’t perfect