{"id":1757,"date":"2011-01-14T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T08:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=1757"},"modified":"2014-07-17T14:27:03","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T14:27:03","slug":"how-to-learn-russian-while-enjoying-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/how-to-learn-russian-while-enjoying-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Learn Russian While Enjoying Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">They say you need to practice something for 10,000 hours or so to get really good at it. This means that if you spend 2 hours a day studying and practicing Russian language and you do it every single day of the year, it\u2019ll take you almost 14 years to get functionally fluent.<\/p>\n<p>It is <strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u043e\u0431\u0435\u0441\u043a\u0443\u0440<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u0436\u0438\u0432\u0430\u044e\u0449\u0438\u0439 <\/strong><strong>\u0440\u0435\u0437\u0443\u043b\u044c\u0442<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u00bb<\/strong> [a discouraging result]. And that\u2019s in the ideal <strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0441\u0438\u0442\u0443<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u0446\u0438\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [situation]. Honestly, how many of us can devote <strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u043a<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u0436\u0434\u044b\u0439 <\/strong><strong>\u0431<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u043e<\/span>\u0436\u0438\u0439 <\/strong><strong>\u0434\u0435\u043d\u044c\u00bb<\/strong> [every single day] to studying a subject, any subject?<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0415\u0434<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0439 <\/strong><strong>\u0441\u043f<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u043e<\/span>\u0441\u043e\u0431 <\/strong><strong>\u0440\u0435\u0448<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0438\u044f <\/strong><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u044d<\/span><\/strong><strong>\u0442\u043e\u0439 <\/strong><strong>\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0431\u043b<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043c\u044b\u00bb<\/strong> [the only way to solve this problem], the way I see it, is to increase the number of daily hours spent learning Russian. Last year I wrote a post outlining some possibilities for the budget-friendly <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/diy-russian-language-immersion\/\">Russian immersion<\/a> experience. All these measures, however small, do add up.<\/p>\n<p>Some more ideas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0412\u0438\u043a\u0438\u043f<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u0434\u0438\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [Wikipedia] &#8211; how many times a day do you look something up in a Wikipedia? Do you know that many of its entries, close to 700,000 of them, are available in <a href=\"http:\/\/ru.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0\">Russian<\/a> as well? So next time you read through the English version, check out the corresponding Russian entry as well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TED<\/strong> &#8211; yep, also available in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/translate\/languages\/rus\">Russian<\/a> through captioning. TED Translations is a volunteer project that\u2019s open to everyone, by the way.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0411\u0430\u043d\u043a\u043e\u043c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u00bb<\/strong> [ATM] &#8211; Recently I was pleasantly surprised to see that you can switch to Russian at Wachovia ATMs around town. Maybe your bank doesn\u2019t offer this option yet, but the point is opportunities for language learning arise in unexpected places.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0412 <\/strong><strong>\u0441\u0435\u0442<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0438<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [Online] &#8211; check if any of the websites or online networks you frequent offer localized Russian versions. For example, you can switch your Facebook language settings to Russian.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But that\u2019s all small measures. Here comes the biggie &#8211; <strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0440\u0443\u0441\u0438\u0444\u0438\u0446<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0438<\/span>\u0440\u0443\u0439\u0442\u0435 <\/strong><strong>\u0441\u0432\u043e<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0451<\/span> <\/strong><strong>\u0445<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u043e<\/span>\u0431\u0431\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [Russify your hobby]. Instead of trying to find extra time in your day to learn the language, you will learn while enjoying your hobbies and pursuing your interests. And you get to converse with Russian native speakers who are also <strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0435\u0434\u0438\u043d\u043e\u043c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u044b<\/span>\u0448\u043b\u0435\u043d\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [like-minded people].<\/p>\n<p>You might also find out that you\u2019re sharing interests with some <strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0437\u043d\u0430\u043c\u0435\u043d<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044b\u0435 <\/strong><strong>\u0440\u043e\u0441\u0441\u0438<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u044f<\/span>\u043d\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [famous Russians], including<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0430\u0441\u0442\u0440\u043e\u043b<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u043e<\/span>\u0433\u0438\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [astrology] &#8211; a serious interest of Ivan the Terrible.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u043f\u043b<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u043e<\/span>\u0442\u043d\u0438\u0446\u043a\u043e\u0435 <\/strong><strong>\u0434<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u043e\u00bb<\/strong> [carpentry] &#8211; Peter the Great was quite a carpenter. He was also a shipbuilder, a city planner, a boot-maker and an art collector.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0438\u0433\u0440<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span> <\/strong><strong>\u043d\u0430 <\/strong><strong>\u0441\u043a\u0440<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0438<\/span>\u043f\u043a\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [playing violin] &#8211; this was one of the favorite pastimes of Russia\u2019s last Emperor, Nicholas II.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0435\u0437\u0434<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span> <\/strong><strong>\u043d\u0430 <\/strong><strong>\u0432\u0435\u043b\u043e\u0441\u0438\u043f<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u0434\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [biking] &#8211; Vladimir Lenin got totally into it while in Europe.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u0430\u0432\u0442\u043e\u0433<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u043e<\/span>\u043d\u043a\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [car races] or anything else car-related &#8211; turns out, Leonid Brezhnev was a car enthusiast (kind of scary \u2018cause he also was a big drinker).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u043f<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0438\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [singing] &#8211; Mikhail Gorbachev recorded an album \u201cSongs for Raisa\u201d in his wife\u2019s memory.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab\u0440\u044b\u0431<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u043a\u0430\u00bb<\/strong>\u00a0[fishing] &#8211; that\u2019s just one of the many hobbies of Vladimir Putin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of course, it helps when you have a bit of <strong>\u00ab<\/strong><strong>\u043f\u043e\u0434\u0434<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0435<\/span>\u0440\u0436\u043a\u0430 \u043d\u0430 \u0440<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u043d\u0435\u0439 \u0441\u0442<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u0430<\/span>\u0434\u0438\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [support at an early stage]. So here\u2019s what I have in mind:<\/p>\n<p>Let us know what your hobbies are and we\u2019ll put together short vocabulary and resource primers to get you started. You can either comment here or on our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/learn.russian\">fanpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And if you already used this method successfully (or otherwise), we&#8217;d love to hear from you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"273\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/01\/Hobby-350x273.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/01\/Hobby-350x273.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/01\/Hobby-768x598.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2011\/01\/Hobby.jpg 994w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>They say you need to practice something for 10,000 hours or so to get really good at it. This means that if you spend 2 hours a day studying and practicing Russian language and you do it every single day of the year, it\u2019ll take you almost 14 years to get functionally fluent. It is&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/how-to-learn-russian-while-enjoying-yourself\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":1758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3560,13334,13332,11743,1248,13333],"class_list":["post-1757","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-hobbies","tag-learning-russian-is-fun","tag-learning-russian-language","tag-russian-immersion","tag-russian-language","tag-russian-leaders"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6266,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions\/6266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}