Every Monday and Friday we have language from 1:30 to 4:30. We go to our tutor's apartment (her name is Tatiana), and we sit at a table and have tea and learn Russian. She begins by giving us the days's lesson (a 1-3 page handout), which is followed by questions such as: What's today's date? What day of week is it? What's the last month of the year? What was the previous month? What's the weather like today? What was it like yesterday? What news do you have? What did you do on Sunday...Saturday...Thursday....etc.? What are you going to do tomorrow? These are some typical questions, and we know the answers to most of them (if we don't know the answer, we can make up one)! That's exciting news, right?
After opening questions, our tutor will usually teach us a new concept. This can include a new topic such as adjectives, a new verb, or just something as simple as learning the words "because," "in order to," and "therefore." We'll practice that for a bit, then by that point it's break time! We get a 15 minute break where we crash, eat snacks, take ibeprofin, and attempt to "recover."
After break we might check homework or review some older material. Our homework includes exercises from an old Soviet textbook, a short text (about two paragraphs or so), and maybe another exercise from our previous lesson. After we check our exercises, we do the text, which means that we have to retell it from a different perspective. This trains our knowledge of reported speech.
Then we generally read a new text and go over the words that we don't know. She might ask us a few questions about the text, and then that will become our homework for the next lesson (to retell it).
Apart from little texts, we have bigger ones that we have been memorizing. We've done 2 thus far, and now we're learning the Lord's prayer. They're really good because we learn Christian vocabulary through them. The first one we learned was basically a statement of faith--what we know about God, Jesus, and the Bible. The second text was just an expansion of the first, but we have found it to be very helpful, especially at church.
Speaking of texts, of course we have to say the text from memory at the very end of our lesson! At that point our brains are usually fried, and so we bumble our way through! It's good practice for us, though, especially since we're tired.
Learning Russian is a challenge, but we're making progress. I think verbs are the hardest, or the fact that all Russian words have endings that change. Here's some examples!
Lesson 1-verbs
Russian verbs have 6 conjugations; that means that the ending changes depending on the subject (I, you, he, we, etc.)
я "Ya" (I)
ты "Tee" (you)
он,она "Ohn, Ohna" (he, she)
мы "Mwe" (we)
вы "Vwe" (you-plural or formal way of speech)
они Ohnie" (they)
Take the verb "to read." In the infinitive form, its читать "chi-tot." These are the six conjugations for this particular verb. There are many different conjucation groups; this is the simplest one.
я читаю "Ya chi-tai-you" (I read)
ты читаешь "Tee chi-tie-yesh" (you read)
он-она читает "Ohn, Ohna chi-tie-yet" (he, she reads)
мы читаем "Mwe chi-tie-yem" (we read)
вы читаете "Vwe chi-tie-yetay" (you read-plural "you" or formal speech)
они читают "Ohni chi-tie-yute" (they read)
Then you have past tense:
он читал "Ohn chital" (he read)
она читала "Ohna chitala"(she read)
они читали "Ohni chitalie" (they read)
Plus the imperative form (to command).
читаи! "Chi-tie!" Read! (informal)
читаите! "Chi-tie-yetay! Read! (formal)
Almost all verbs have a perfective aspect (to say it simply, a verb that's action has been completed). "To read" in the perfective aspect is прочитать "pro-chitat." To make a verb perfective, a prefix is usually added, such as "na," "pro," or "pre," though sometimes the verb itself will change. So, add 6 more conjugations for the perfective form of "to read," plus 3 more in past tense, and 2 more for imperative forms!
Now you know that when I say I learned a new verb, it means learning 12 conjugations, plus 6 forms for past tense, plus 4 more for the imperative! Isn't this fun?
Lesson 2: endings
Russian has 6 different cases: nominative, accusative, prepositional, instrumental, dative, and genetive. For each case, there are rules about the endings of each word and how they change. We have learned 4 of the 6 cases, and so I will not be using the genetive and instrumental cases in my examples. The only thing I know about the genetive case is that the devil invented it.
But, moving on, the nominative case is the original case, or the "base." If you looked up a noun in the dictionary, it will be in nominative.
Take the word "рыба." It means fish, and is pronouced like "reeba." When the word becomes an object of the sentence, the ending changes to "oo," so the word sounds like "reeboo." Don't forget to roll your "r!"
That's just one example how endings of words change. Endings will change for the different cases, for plurals, for prepositions, adjectives, and of course gender. All nouns in Russian have gender, and so the endings of the word must reflect that. Endings will change for adverbs and possessives as well. It's a lot to remember!
Fun fact: Even personal names will have different endings! Daniel can be Danieleh, or Daniela, etc!
In conclusion, when you come visit us in Ukraine, you will be fluent because you have read this blog. The end.
A mug at our lesson...don't you love it?
After opening questions, our tutor will usually teach us a new concept. This can include a new topic such as adjectives, a new verb, or just something as simple as learning the words "because," "in order to," and "therefore." We'll practice that for a bit, then by that point it's break time! We get a 15 minute break where we crash, eat snacks, take ibeprofin, and attempt to "recover."
After break we might check homework or review some older material. Our homework includes exercises from an old Soviet textbook, a short text (about two paragraphs or so), and maybe another exercise from our previous lesson. After we check our exercises, we do the text, which means that we have to retell it from a different perspective. This trains our knowledge of reported speech.
Then we generally read a new text and go over the words that we don't know. She might ask us a few questions about the text, and then that will become our homework for the next lesson (to retell it).
Apart from little texts, we have bigger ones that we have been memorizing. We've done 2 thus far, and now we're learning the Lord's prayer. They're really good because we learn Christian vocabulary through them. The first one we learned was basically a statement of faith--what we know about God, Jesus, and the Bible. The second text was just an expansion of the first, but we have found it to be very helpful, especially at church.
Speaking of texts, of course we have to say the text from memory at the very end of our lesson! At that point our brains are usually fried, and so we bumble our way through! It's good practice for us, though, especially since we're tired.
Learning Russian is a challenge, but we're making progress. I think verbs are the hardest, or the fact that all Russian words have endings that change. Here's some examples!
Lesson 1-verbs
Russian verbs have 6 conjugations; that means that the ending changes depending on the subject (I, you, he, we, etc.)
я "Ya" (I)
ты "Tee" (you)
он,она "Ohn, Ohna" (he, she)
мы "Mwe" (we)
вы "Vwe" (you-plural or formal way of speech)
они Ohnie" (they)
Take the verb "to read." In the infinitive form, its читать "chi-tot." These are the six conjugations for this particular verb. There are many different conjucation groups; this is the simplest one.
я читаю "Ya chi-tai-you" (I read)
ты читаешь "Tee chi-tie-yesh" (you read)
он-она читает "Ohn, Ohna chi-tie-yet" (he, she reads)
мы читаем "Mwe chi-tie-yem" (we read)
вы читаете "Vwe chi-tie-yetay" (you read-plural "you" or formal speech)
они читают "Ohni chi-tie-yute" (they read)
Then you have past tense:
он читал "Ohn chital" (he read)
она читала "Ohna chitala"(she read)
они читали "Ohni chitalie" (they read)
Plus the imperative form (to command).
читаи! "Chi-tie!" Read! (informal)
читаите! "Chi-tie-yetay! Read! (formal)
Almost all verbs have a perfective aspect (to say it simply, a verb that's action has been completed). "To read" in the perfective aspect is прочитать "pro-chitat." To make a verb perfective, a prefix is usually added, such as "na," "pro," or "pre," though sometimes the verb itself will change. So, add 6 more conjugations for the perfective form of "to read," plus 3 more in past tense, and 2 more for imperative forms!
Now you know that when I say I learned a new verb, it means learning 12 conjugations, plus 6 forms for past tense, plus 4 more for the imperative! Isn't this fun?
Lesson 2: endings
Russian has 6 different cases: nominative, accusative, prepositional, instrumental, dative, and genetive. For each case, there are rules about the endings of each word and how they change. We have learned 4 of the 6 cases, and so I will not be using the genetive and instrumental cases in my examples. The only thing I know about the genetive case is that the devil invented it.
But, moving on, the nominative case is the original case, or the "base." If you looked up a noun in the dictionary, it will be in nominative.
Take the word "рыба." It means fish, and is pronouced like "reeba." When the word becomes an object of the sentence, the ending changes to "oo," so the word sounds like "reeboo." Don't forget to roll your "r!"
That's just one example how endings of words change. Endings will change for the different cases, for plurals, for prepositions, adjectives, and of course gender. All nouns in Russian have gender, and so the endings of the word must reflect that. Endings will change for adverbs and possessives as well. It's a lot to remember!
Fun fact: Even personal names will have different endings! Daniel can be Danieleh, or Daniela, etc!
In conclusion, when you come visit us in Ukraine, you will be fluent because you have read this blog. The end.
Oh goody! I think I am ready now :)
ReplyDeleteAnd it took me a minute to catch the mug but I definitely like it.
Through Christ