Russian Hello

There’s a cool new video series available on the Russian Accelerator site called “The Seven Secrets to Learning Russian Fast.” I won’t spoil what they are, but I will encourage you to go check them out if you have even the slightest inkling that you want to learn some Russian. These seven secrets will save you countless hours that might be wasted by going about things the wrong way. And believe me, when it comes to learning Russian, there absolutely is a right way and a wrong way. Or at the very least, an inefficient way.

What are some of these inefficient ways of learning Russian? Well, people will try to memorize lists of words. Seems like a decent idea, right? What is language if not a bunch of words? You won’t get far. At best, you’ll end up capable of what’s known as Tarzan speak…You’ll be able to point to an object and name it, and perhaps say, “Want.” By memorizing lists of words, you could have deep conversations, like: “Apple. Want. Please.” Or, “Toilet. Where?” Not the stuff of memorable conversations. Really a better approach to learning Russian is with contextual learning.

Another mistake beginners make is obsessing over pronunciation. Sure, you need to speak clearly enough so that native speakers understand you, but there’s no reason to aspire to sounding like a native speaker. It’s highly unlikely your pronunciation will ever reach that — you’ll never fool a Russian person that you’re an actual native speaker. Instead, the goal should be to speak well enough for them to understand you.

But really, the glaring problem that beginners make — the one that really holds them back — is simply their overall approach to learning and studying. This is what the Seven Secrets to Learning Russian Fast series explains in detail. Again, without divulging the information in the videos, I can certainly explain where people fail: They have no system. They buy a few courses, they learn a few phrases, they listen to some tapes or mp3s….but there’s no solid game plan. Just a little here, a little there. That’s not the approach needed to tackle something as big and complex as the Russian language. Instead, you need a proven method. And that’s why I really recommend you check out those videos. They available for free at the moment, and all you need to do is register.