I want to learn Russian

[Calum]

Hey guys

I want to learn Russian somehow over the internet, because I don't know any good places in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, except that I heard you can learn it in conjunction with a science degree at the University of Queensland. I don't want to wait another 5 or 6 years though If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know,

Thanks ;D

[Solar]

Well, there's learningrussian.com, masterrussian.com, russnet.org... you did google for "learning russian" first, did you?

[Eero Ränik]

Keep in mind that it's probably very hard to learn Russian yourself, seeing as most students I know here can't manage to do that with teachers. (Same goes with Russians, who can't manage to learn Estonian here, but this is totally off-topic. ) May I ask why do you want to study Russian? Good luck on your goal, anyway, you'll need it.

[Calum]

Yeah, I have googled (google is verb now, but you probably know that I thought it was funny) for learning russian, but most of the results didn't work too well I always thought that it would be a challenge, but I'm up for it Eero, for an Estonian you speak very good english

I am thinking about maybe teaching English in Russia, I hear there are good employment prospects... Even if that's not the path that I ultimately take, it'd be good to have 2 LOTE's up my sleeve.

Thanks for the suggestions though

[Solar]

Eero, for an Estonian you speak very good english

Are you aware of how many people on this board aren't native speakers?

But I agree, for the East Europeans it's a bit harder as English isn't exactly first choice as foreign language there, and Eero is quite good at it.

[Eero Ränik]

Thank you, both of you. Though English is actually preferred by many here as a language to study, and most of the difficulties rather arise from the fact Estonian is nowhere close to any of the Indo-European languages.

[Crazed123]

Other than the fact that you don't employ idioms or slang too natively, I at least couldn't tell your writing from a native's, ie: you seem to write formally.

Calum, you want to learn Russian, eh? Sorry, but I really don't know anything about learning Russian, since the only Russian-speaker I know is native.

[TheUnbeliever]

(google is verb now [...])

In Collins, and possibly others - but not in the good old OED to the best of my knowledge?

I assume then that Russian isn't a language offered at your school? You can take it from Higher up, or as an interest course here I believe.

[NotTheCHEAT]

In Collins, and possibly others - but not in the good old OED to the best of my knowledge?

Yes, but in the common vernacular (asp. online) it is indeed a verb, a shortening of the phrase "to seach for something at the website http://google.com/" which noone would want to memorize or repeat. To google is a verb that is recognized by most people, and besides, who says it's up to the dictionary people? They've been wrong before...

[Calum]

No, at my school only German and Japanese are offered. I am learning German but Russian is cool in my opinion...

About the dictionary definition, I think it's a sign of the times when a common Internet practice is recognized to be part of normal speech...

[distantvoices]

@Calum: Und, wie findest Du Deutsch?

In german (in the Duden-dictionary) it's called "googeln" *rofl*. That's quite funny I say.

Ha - good english. My english is deteriorated due to too much reading of Stephen King, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien and consorts. *gg* How's the saying? 'iffun 'ay 'ay 'ih (O-Tone Duddits)

Anyways, I think reading english books is the best training.

[Solar]

Apart from English newsgroups, mailing lists, and forums.

[distantvoices]

Of course, that's true

[Eero Ränik]

Reminds me I should finish reading Harry Potter 6 before Estonian version gets published. Read almost half the book the first day I got it, didn't read any further later, though. It just wasn't as exciting as the previous books.

[distantvoices]

You might want to give Stephen King:Dreamcatcher a try. That's one thrilling read I say, and one learns quite a load of nifty new words. *gg*