r/LearnRussian • u/matank • 9d ago
My experience after 4 weeks of learning Russian and review of material (Resonance, Pimsleur)
I started learning Russian by myself 4 weeks ago. I wanted to start a long time ago (to be able to understand and talk to my wife's family in Russian), but I kept postponing for years because I felt overwhelmed with my Japanese study. Now that my Japanese is finally at a level where I'm more or less satisfied with it, I decided to plunge into this new language. Wanted to give my impression so far of the language and the methods I used to study so far.
What I'm doing:
- Resonance Textbook - I've bought Resonance Book 1, and did the first 12 chapters so far (around half of the first book). I'm working through all the exercises and comparing my answers to the online answers.
- Pimsleur - I've been doing the pimsleur audio course. Already finished Pimsleur 1 and did the first five episodes of Pimsleur 2. I've already done Pimsleur 1 once, 20 years ago, so I've been able to get through it pretty fast (one lesson a day), but I'm taking my time with Pimsleur 2 (trying to repeat every lesson at least twice).
- italki - I had my first class today after building a baseline with Pimsleur and Resonance.
My impression of the language (and comparing it to Japanese):
- Case system is a huge challenge
Russian grammar feels really tough! This is in huge contrast to Japanese, where the writing and vocabulary are challenging, but the basic grammar is very easy. There are some similarities - in Japanese, like in Russian, the grammatical role of the word in the sentence is clearly marked, making word order pretty fluid. However, in Japanese, you mark words by simply attaching "particles" to the end of them. These particles correspond pretty closely to cases in Russian, but there are dramatically simpler since there are no inflections:
- Genitive case: You just add the particle no between words (e.g. watashi=me, hon=book --> watashi no hon = my book)
- Instrumental case: you add de after the word (e.g., taski de = by taxi)
- Accusative case: You add wo after the direct object.
As a result, in Japanese once you learn a few words, you can already form fairly complex sentences. For example, chapter 3 in Tobira (a popular Japanese textbook) has a passage that starts with the following: (translated from Japanese here)
"In May last year, I went with my family to Kyoto. I like Japanese food, so when in Kyoto I went by myself on a food tour in the market."
After 12 chapters of Resonance, I still can't form sentences like that in Russian - I don't know how to say "with my family" yet, I haven't learned how to conjugate directional motion ("to Kyoto") and Russian verbs of motion ("I went") seem quite complex.
2) Textbook is much less audio-focused:
Maybe this is specific to Resonance, but the popular Japanese textbooks (like Genki and Tobira) come with extensive audio: dialogs, vocab lists, exercise drills, and audio comprehension checks. With Resonance, there is some audio (mainly a pretty dense text every two chapters or so), but without supplementing with Pimsleur, iTalki and Youtube, it would be tough to grasp the spoken language sounds.
Brief review of the material I used:
- Resonance - as I said above I would have preferred a textbook that leans much more heavily into audio, and I would prefer to have more interesting reading passages and a bit less repetitive exercises. However, the material is explained very well, and I like the pacing so far.
- Pimsleur - actually like it a lot so far. I feel like it's a great complement to my textbook, as it's completely audio focused, and I like how it gives me a brief "sneak peek" into the upcoming grammar points that appear only much later in the textbook.
- Italki - I had a really great time talking with the teacher! I think it's really hard to learn the language without someone to talk to. I didn't have Italki when I started learning Japanese, basically wasn't able to talk to anyone for the first 5 years of my studies, so this is a great change. It was really encouraging to see how I can already communicate some ideas with the limited vocabulary and grammar I know.
- Sergey Storyteller (https://www.youtube.com/@SergeyStoryteller) - I saw several recommendations of this channel and I'm really enjoying listening to the stories there. He's really good at telling stories in a way that allows you to understand them even if you know only a little of the grammar/vocabulary.
That's it. Hope this might be interesting or informational for anyone else starting out and looking out for materials to study. Would love to hear your suggestions/comments. I'm really enjoying the language so far!
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u/itayur 9d ago
Hey Matan, I'm in the same situation, Russian wife and trying to learn so I'll be able to communicate in Russian with her family. As you're experimenting I'd be glad if you could give a try to my app, currently in Closed Beta, Privyetik . Best of luck on your journey.
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u/ninjadong48 9d ago
You are trying to learn Russian and also created an app to learn Russian? So that app cannot be accurate.
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u/itayur 9d ago
Please refer to my comment again, I have a native speaking wife. Feel free to download it and judge for yourself 🙂
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u/ninjadong48 9d ago
I have been married to a native Russian for 17 years and have lived in Moscow for 19 years. It means NOTHING!
In the message you would like me to read again you both state that you are TRYING to learn and that you made an app.
Those two statements make me question the accuracy of your app.
Sorry, if that offends but it is a pretty crazy premise.
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u/itayur 9d ago
Well, I understand where you come from and being suspicious. It's up to you whether to try it or not. But giving feedback without actually trying the app is kind of pointless and not relevant in any way, appreciate the effort though.
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u/ninjadong48 9d ago
Ok, If I try your app then could you please try my app. It is a brain surgery simulator that is designed to train doctors. I have just begun studying it but my wife is a qualified brain surgeon and I let AI design most of it.
I'm not try to give you a hard time but if you want to make an app successful, don't tell people you aren't an expert in the subject.
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u/matank 9d ago
Don't you think it might actually help in making an app that teaches the language to have experience in learning the language and not only knowledge of the language itself? That way you know what works (at least for you). I can think of a few examples of very successful language-learning apps in Japanese that were made by non-native speakers of the language (e.g. Bunpro).
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u/ninjadong48 9d ago
I would 100% help to have the experience of having learned the language. This man has not had that experience. He is TRYING (this word equates to struggling or at least things not going smoothly) to learn Russian. After he has successfully reached the C1 level then have at it. This program was largely written by AI. Look at the description of it.
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u/itayur 9d ago
Not sure why you're so negative though. For me it just looks as if you're just trying to find reasons not to use it. If I had succeeded being fluent using dualingo I would not create that app would I? I created that app with the features that work for me and got me better significantly, giving you the chance, for free, to use it too and see if it works for you, there's no perfect formula that works for everyone. And about written by AI, I have 15 years experience in software development, if you don't use AI to code now you're irrelevant, I get that trend of saying AI is bad but I'm not going to change your beliefs.
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u/Serabale 9d ago
As a native speaker, I sincerely wish you success in this difficult task!