Learning Russian language

Gosh, I am so lost. I would have to translate most of these posts just to keep up with the conversation. Clearly, i'm a novice.

Originally Posted by greyatlas.

Gosh, I am so lost. I would have to translate most of these posts just to keep up with the conversation. Clearly, i'm a novice.

You don't need to
Just start your conversation!
добро пожаловать!

Thank you boubou,
I was a little late on responding because I was reading the previous
pages.
I initially wanted to learn this language because my fiance is Russian and we are going to be getting married in his country. So far I would say i'm a beginner, I know basic words and phrases, but tenses are my main problem right now. I have a few books and CD's as references but I think they're mass-produced to cater to tourist knowledge. I would like to get to a level of proficiency where I can speak to his parents, who know limited English, and my friends who are just learning English as well.
Don't want to give a mouthful, and hopefully that hasn't been one
First question: Besides immersion, what to you all are the best resources/methods to learn Russian?
[God I hope I didn't just ask a stupid question!]

First of all, let's clear that as long as one doesn't understand something, or has a question, no question is stupid!

Little by little, if you try, you will eventually learn the language! People here are very willing to help us learn or understand russian language!
So all you have to do, is start asking questions about anything!

I can tell that you have a good command of english, so I think you will find many helpful comments about russian language

The rest via pm

Originally Posted by greyatlas.

First question: Besides immersion, what to you all are the best resources/methods to learn Russian?

I hope you don't mind me stepping in. I've been learning Russian for about six months now, and I'm using the Penguin Russian Course by Nicholas J. Brown. I like to learn from books so I can have the details of the language explained to me, and this book surpassed any others I looked at. Even if you are not looking to learn every nuance of Russian, the book is easily laid out and all rules for tenses, cases, gender are explained very well.

Then, it's just a matter of committing it to memory!

The only problem is that it doesn't come with any audio... but there are plenty of ways to hear how Russian is pronounced. (Like listening to Russian music, for instance. Ха-ха-ха! )

Originally Posted by boubou

First of all, let's clear that as long as one doesn't understand something, or has a question, no question is stupid!
...

I agree 1000% boubou, because all of my questions seem stupid to me! But if we don't ask, we don't learn

Greyatlas, several months ago I found a website that includes several lessons, and it's as complete as any free site that I've found. It also includes a list of conjugated verbs (and more). That list is only about 35 verbs, but it's really helpful.

There is also an audio (mp3) button to the left, so you can hear the alphabet, phrases, etc. The audio is slow to respond, so give it 2 or 3 seconds

Another thing I really like about this site: When a new word is first introduced, it indicates stress, like сестра and спокойной ночи.

A вот и ссылка

http://www.russianlessons.net/

Много большое спасибо всем!!

Greyatlas, and of course try to speak Russian. If ur bf is Russian it won't be a problem If u need any help we r here to answer ur questions. Good luck!

I must first apologize for responding so late. I just cleared a virus from my computer that had disabled internet access and spread throughout the network.

Regardless, thank you all for responding. Dreams~, I as well like to read from books but then again, when it comes to tenses, I think a person explains them better [this could just be my uninformed opinion]. I don't think aspects of Russian are a nuance. How much better will you feel when you've mastered them? Fire, my fiance at first was going to help teach me, but I don't think he has the patience, and he doesn't think he's a suitable teacher. Either way, when we talk I try to integrate the words/phrases I learn in between the English i'm certain of. So far, it seems to be a good thing. Now only to be able to create functional sentences that are not all in the nominative case!
Jandros, thanks for the website, i'm trotting there as we speak. Hehe. Tenses just throw off my progression right now because when I see a word/sentence, i'm not sure how it got that way [why it's been formatted and how do I make mine that way]. I'm pretty good at memorizing words [so far], but then I get all confused at how to make them work. Direct and indirect objects confuse me because I am elaborate in my speech, but can't find a way to translate that. Yet.

whats the difference between Тебе и Тебя

тебе is form of dative case... answers the question to whom, to what? (кому чему?)
for example сколько тебе лет? (how old are you?)
and тебя is form of genitive and accusative case meaning is ''you''
for example я люблю тебя (in accusative)
I don't know how to explain good.

Да "тебе" s a form which answers on questions (кому?,о ком?)
Ex: "он дал тебе книгу"(he gave book to u)

in this case "тебе" is a "притяжательное местоимение" and after it(after this pronoun ll use the subject !!!)"он дал тебе (что?)---->книгу

or"тебе"can use like a "они говорили о тебе",---->they talked about u

and "тебя" is a "объектное местоимение" that pronoun ll be use after verb
"я вижу(кого?)--->тебя

its like it can be in grammar but in life its easier

Originally Posted by greyatlas.

I don't think aspects of Russian are a nuance.

lol, every language has nuances - the little things that don't conform to the rules. I didn't say "nuisance".

Originally Posted by macorules94

whats the difference between Тебе и Тебя

Maybe I could help with an explanation?

Тебе is used in the dative and prepositional cases... like D&M said, you use it with certain meanings (like "to"), or with the prepositions к, по, в, на, о, при... I don't know how often you will hear тебе with a couple of those.

Тебя is used in the accusative and genitive cases. The accusative case draws attention to the object of the action, and I always think of it where I would say "him/her" instead of "he/she". (I love him, look at her, etc). Genitive is used with quantity/numbers, possession, negated transitive verbs, and many, many prepositions.

It would be a good idea to learn the difference between the declensions, then you'll remember where to use each pronoun. We could go on for a while with all the rules here.

I know what you meant, but I guess i'll apologize anyway because we have both misunderstood each other.
I don't know if anyone learning Russian has tried Livemocha.com, but so far I am learning the basics from it. We'll see how far it goes The best thing about it is being able to present speaking exercises for people to grade. And the fact that I get to help people learn the languages I know.

Originally Posted by macorules94

whats the difference between Тебе и Тебя

Αnd here's my extremely simplified explanation

Тебе = to you, as far as you are concerned
Тебя = you (simply)

That is, if you want to express how something seems to you (тебе) (i.e. "to me" (=in my opinion) it is hot today), or if someone wants to gift/give/say/explain/bring something to you, or if he want to call you etc. you always use тебе.

But if someone makes an action, the recipient (directly or indirectly) of which is you, then you use Тебя.
I love you, I see you, I will examine you, I heard you.

Be careful though, because there are other cases where you is differentiated from its english equivalent translation.

Thank you for explaining that! I use this word often with my penpal, but she never says whether i'm wrong or not. lol.

I have a question that is a little random:
I got russian candy:
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7238/487385075.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8900/487385076c.jpg
and I was wondering if the name had a meaning, and also what does exactly "Ситро" mean.. is it like lemon flavored soft drink?

thanks for the help

Шипучка - it's noun from the verb шипеть (to fizz, to hiss). But this word doesn't exist in the dictionary, just the name of candy here. As for ситро, u r right

omg why is Russian so hard ahha can't it be basic like Bulgarian and Macedonian lol

Originally Posted by macorules94

omg why is Russian so hard ahha can't it be basic like Bulgarian and Macedonian lol

hahah come to Russia we ll teach u it so quickly,u even dont notice it

I was wondering, what words can you not use 'по' in front of? I see it in front of words and it adds a meaning to it, but if you add it in front of other words, will that be relevant?