History of Russian

By the end of the tenth century, Western, Eastern, and Southern Slavic language families had formed. Russian is part of the East Slavic language family; Belarusian and Ukrainian are the other two languages in the East Slavic family. Two missionaries named Constantine, who later changed to Cyril on his deathbed, and Methodius decided to preach Christianity to the inhabitants of Moravia. However, before they set out for Moravia, Cyril invented the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet is based on the characters of the Greek alphabet and about a dozen letters were invented to represent the sounds not in the Greek alphabet.

Under Peter the Great in the early 18th century the letters and forms were simplified and regularized to make the language easier. In the middle of the 18th century there was a need for a written Russian resembling the educated spoken form. M.S. Lomonosov distinguished three styles of Russian. The first style was High Style (Church Slavonic), used mainly in poetics and religion. The second style was Middle Style, used mainly in lyric poetry, prose, and science. The last style was Low Style, used mainly in impersonal correspondence and low comedy. The Middle Style is the basis of the modern Russian language today. Then in 1918 the alphabet was simplified even further to what it is today.

				Modern Russian Alphabet

Why Learn Russian?

Why Russian? Most people do not think of Russian as an important language, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Russia is a land of abundant natural resources and where there are natural resources there is money to be made. Plus as the economy opens up into a more capitalistic model there will be invest opportunities for those willing to take a risk. In addition, due to the lack of people learning Russian that means those who do learn it will have better marketability for employment in Russia or for companies that need Russian linguists to translate or interpret.

There are more than 250 million (roughly 142 million native speakers in Russia) people that can speak and understand Russian, which makes Russian the 5th largest language in the world. Russian is the official language of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and is also used in other former Soviet Republics. Not to mention that Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

Learning Russian will also help you understand the culture and people better than some media report on the news. Also think of learning Russian as expanding your social circle not only can you talk to your fellow native speakers you can also make friends in Russian speaking territories too. Learning Russian will also allow you to watch Russian movies, listen to Russian music, read Russian books, Russian magazines, etc. Not to mention that Russian will also be useful when visiting Russia, whether for business or pleasure!

"The possession of another language, is the possession of another soul" - Charlemagne

"Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

How Long to Learn Russian?

This is a very individual based question and there are a couple factors that will influence learning time. For instance if you have already learned other foreign languages, chances are that you have developed a learning method that is geared towards your needs and desires and will cut down on time. If it is your first time learning a foreign language you will probably experiment a little to find the right way to learn. Also if you know any other Slavic language that will also cut down on the amount of time it takes to learn Russian.

However, if you are completely new to learning Russian and are an English monolingual speaker, then according to FSI (Foreign Service Institute), it will take roughly 1,100 hours to reach an intermediate level in Russian. Of course, this is a rough estimate and may take longer or shorter hours depending on your aptitude. So if someone was to devote an hour a day to learning Russian in three years (1095 hrs) they would be around the intermediate level and if they devote more daily time to learning Russian this would obviously decrease the time it takes to reach an intermediate level.

This will probably now bring up the question of how difficult is it to learn Russian? Well Russian is definitely harder than learning French or Spanish, however it's not as hard as non Indo-European languages like Arabic, Japanese, Korean, etc. Some people may think the Cyrillic alphabet is very hard, but it's one of the easier aspects of the language. The pronunciation can be difficult, there are no marks to indicate stress, but Russian is mostly phonetic and you'll pick up on and memorize patterns in the language. The grammar can also be difficult at times too. However, this is what separates the boys from the men and the girls from the women. People who are serious and motivated to learn Russian will learn to overcome these obstacles and continue on with their progress.

How to Learn Russian

The best way to learn Russian is through a multiple resource way. What this means is to use a number of learning resources to help reach your ultimate goal of learning Russian. Think of a child learning a language not only do they have input from parents, but they also have input from school, TV, songs, books, etc.

Similar to the topic in Language Tips, everybody has the goal of being fluent in a language but this can be an overwhelming ideal when it takes many hours to become fluent in a language. Instead it is beneficial to have big goals, like fluency, and smaller goals, like being able to read a newspaper article with minimal use of a dictionary in a year. Setting smaller goals will help feed your ego that you are making progress and will not overwhelm you with a feeling of helplessness when you compare yourself to the goal of fluency.

Of course, essential materials for learning Russian in a multiple resource way are usually a Dictionary, Grammar Book, Audio Program/All Around Program. In the Russian Learning Programs section you'll find reviews of some selected products from the previously mentioned categories. Also when visiting a book store or looking at learning programs online it's important to remember that just because a computer software program looks really fancy and nice doesn't mean it's a quality program and the same idea also applies to other learning materials too.

The First Step
One of the first steps in learning Russian is to become familiar with the Russian Alphabet. You should become familiar with the 33 Cyrillic letters in both block and hand written form and also the sounds associated with them. There are other little rules like vowel reduction and voiced and voiceless consonants, but these are not important to learn right away.

Grammar
When it comes to learning Russian grammar, unless you already are familiar with grammatical terms, it is best to go by the example than the rule method. However, having a very basic understanding of the general rules of grammar will also help you learn Russian and any other language. What "basic grammar" means is you should know how to identify the gender of words, identify indefinite and definite articles and know if the language uses them, and know if the syntax is more flexible or strict or goes in a different order than your native language. By doing this you will help yourself with learning grammar in the future.

Now, the example than rule method is the best method available because most people that go to learn a second language are not familiar with grammatical concepts. Most people would be lost if you just told them, "Well in X it's Y." This is why in schools people have problems learning languages. Schools like the in case X it's Y method and most students end up saying, "What? I don't understand." If schools focus more on putting forth plenty of examples and then explaining the rule it would be much easier for students. So when studying Russian grammar you should try to focus more on material that gives plenty of examples along with the rules and not just the rule.

The Second Step
The second step is quite easy. After you have compiled all the learning materials you need to learn Russian it is simply up to you to start learning. Work through the material daily and consistently and you will notice progress in your Russian. You can even keep a log in a program like Excel and record how much time you spend daily learning Russian and what lesson you are working on in a program. Then once your vocabulary and grammar knowledge has reached a certain point you can add in Multimedia sources, which is discussed below.

Multimedia
Multimedia is also an excellent to increase your knowledge of a language. Multimedia resources are things like books, magazines, movies, newspapers, songs, TV, etc. Even though some of the resources might be beyond your comprehension initially, what it does is expose you to the language being used in an every day context, meaning how people really talk in the language, not just textbook conversations. For instance you can read magazines and newspapers and highlight words you do not understand and then look them up in the dictionary and it will help expand your vocabulary. Songs are also an excellent resource because the content is being repeated within the song (chorus and verses), not to mention you can always listen to the song again, but songs will also allow you to hear and learn how to pronounce some words.

As for when to implement multimedia resources it is really up to you the learner. Some people like to begin multimedia resources with learning programs and others like to wait until they get closer to an intermediate stage. Some people will also only start off with songs because they can look up the lyrics and learn some of the language from that. Others like to incorporate both songs and movies. There is really no wrong answer; instead it is finding what's best for you.

Again remember to daily and consistently work on your Russian and you too will be able to speak Russian.

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