My Russian after four months | Success stories and anecdotes | Forum

So I've been teaching myself Russian for about four months now, and I just made a video of myself speaking it. I know my Russian still needs a lot of work, but I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made so far! Maybe it will be inspiring to someone, so I thought I'd post it here. I'd also love to get feedback from anyone who knows Russian.

The description of the methods I've used is here (though I have to warn you it's rather long!):

http://www.janafadness.com/blog/4months-russian-video/

Thanks! I did think about what I was going to say, and I looked up a couple of words before making the video. But other than that it was out of my head.

Wow, thanks blueslant! I'm surprised to get such a compliment because I actually think I say "um" too much! @@; But maybe it's just me after all. And thanks for following my blog! =D

Wow frapy, that's quite a compliment and I'm really flattered. You've totally made my day (and I've actually been having kind of a stressful day so far), so thank you!

I did make several mistakes in my Russian video though. Some natives on the HTLAL forum were kind enough to point them out to me, so I'll go ahead and quote them here since they might be helpful to those of you learning Russian.

Corrections from Марк:

На крыше, not в крыше. Когда я была маленькая, я часто приходила сюда not пришла
(multiple action). Там – моя комната. Сейчас август.(это is an extra word in these two
sentences) Много деревьев. С людьми. Во Францию.
Your ч, дж sound like ть, дь. Your ш, ж are not velarized, Some of your consonants (с
and м) are not palatalized enough, ы resembles и sometimes, but these minor points which
do not impact comprehension. Too many оченьs.
In general, it is very good, I liked it.

Corrections from s0fist:

1/ там через окно, should be там за окном
2) сейчас это август should be сейчас -- август
3] очень зелен#$^ your ending is unclear, probably should be очень зеленых. Look up the word зелень btw.
4} десять месяцев but четыре месяца

Most of these below aren't mistakes more of usage suggestions:
1] у меня такие одежды (it's like saying "these vestments" in English) should be на мне такая одежда
2) что мне сказать should be что сказать or что бы мне сказать.
3} очень скоро мне пора should be очень скоро мне будет пора (unless you're leaving presently)
4/ спасибо, что вы смотрели это видео, should be спасибо, что вы посмотрели это видео.

A few sounds observations. They probably fall under the broad categories that Mark mentioned above, but it's easier for me to be specific here.
сижю, покажю should be сижу, покажу (harder жу instead of жжю)
чтоби, виучить should be чтобы, выучить (ы not и)
маЛЭНкая should be softer маленькая
изык should be язык (phonetically you're missing the 'j'-й sound -- it should sound like йизык)

nataliya.h, Liface, and misslanguagelearning: Thanks for your comments, and I'm sorry for not replying sooner! I just arrived in France a couple days ago, and I've been really busy for the past week or so.

nataliya.h: Большое спасибо за исправления и за добрые слова!

Liface: Yes, Benny's advice actually did influence me quite a bit in my decision to film my video on the roof. =P

misslanguagelearning: I'm glad you liked the video! I'm sorry to hear that you hate Japanese though, because it's my favorite language. =( But it seems that different people are naturally drawn to different languages. I have a hard time getting myself to really appreciate the sound of Mandarin personally, so I can kind of understand where you're coming from! And it is kind of flattering that someone who doesn't like Japanese likes the sound of my Japanese… So thanks. =D

Correll28, please see the blog post linked to below the video to see an explanation of what I did for those four months. And it doesn't matter if you are slower-- this isn't a race. =) I don't learn languages as quickly as Benny does, for instance, but that's because I'm busy with a lot of other things and don't dedicate myself to language learning full time.