Language Progress Thus Far

So, several of you have asked me how the language learning is progressing.  So I thought I would dedicate a blog update to how the whole process has gone up to this point…

Before arriving in Russia, I had completed Level 1 of Rosetta Stone for Russian and had started Level 2.  Through this, I gained a fair amount of vocabulary knowledge, but I had almost no grammar background. 

Something I completely did not expect began happening when we first arrived.  Shannon and I both were constantly remembering Spanish words while trying to understand or speak Russian…. I guess our brains were in foreign language mode so we just skipped to the only other language we know more of than English.  I was quite surprised at how much Spanish I could remember seeing as it has been 5 and a half years since I’ve studied Spanish. 

We have been learning so much in our classes at the university as well as while hanging out with our new friends.  It has been so much easier to learn here, being immersed in the language, than it was to try to learn in the States.  Our teachers only speak to us in Russian (a couple of them know a tiny bit of English, so they will throw in an English word every once in a while, but not very often.)  Before starting classes, I was rather worried about this, but it has been surprisingly easy to pick up. (Thanks SO SO much to everyone who was praying about this!!!!)  Side note: We absolutely love our teachers and classmates!  

Now, even when I try, I usually can’t think of the Spanish words, because the Russian words are so fresh on my mind.

Russian is creeping into my mind bit by bit.  There are some words/phrases that now sound weird in English.  A lot of the examples and stories in our textbook are related to some of the famous sights in Moscow, so now that I’ve spent so much time studying about them in Russian, I can’t bring myself to talk about them using the English words.  (This also makes me so much more excited to visit Moscow in 1 week!! J)  Also, when I get back to the States, you will probably hear me call a “scarf” a “sharf” all the time.  This is how it is pronounced in Russian.  Because it is so close to the same sound, I had to focus really hard at first to say “sharf” instead of “scarf” in class so, now it has become natural to me. 

At this point, I know a lot of vocabulary and individual words.  Now I need to practice making sentences and learn more grammar rules!  We are learning more and more grammar in our classes.  Right now, I understand the rules we have learned and I can conjugate the verbs we’ve learned, and change the endings for adjectives correctly, but I have to think through each word for a while before speaking.  I can formulate a sentence correctly, it just takes me some time to think through it first.  

I am now able to understand a lot of what is said in everyday conversations.  I can usually understand the general idea of a normal conversation.  Shannon and I are also trying to integrate what little we do know into our daily conversations.

I am loving this language SO much!  I so very badly want to be fluent!  (Side note: if you would like to make me Incredibly happy, you should learn how to say a few simple phrases (hello, how are you?, thank you, please/you’re welcome, bye… etc) in Russian!  I know I am going to miss hearing Russian all the time when I get back to the States.  Just sayin’…I already know it will make my heart happy to hear it again.)