Russian - by myself

0000879k

anybody ever do russian outside of school for leaving cert?

(a)How hard is russian
(b)Is the exam predictable
(c)How much work is needed
(d)Is it possible to achieve a decent grade (B, or A) on your own...taking into account I'm ambitious and fairly intelligent

EDIT :: What books or revision books do ye recommend? and what way do you think would be best to go about it?

Canard

Only thing I can say is that while 70%+ people get A1s, it's mostly Russians doing it, so you probably wont get one to be honest. I'd just do Japanese.

0000879k

Patchy~ wrote: »

Only thing I can say is that while 70%+ people get A1s, it's mostly Russians doing it, so you probably wont get one to be honest. I'd just do Japanese.

Not what I heard, I thought languages like lithuanian and hungarian are for native speakers as there is no syllabus for it, there is for Russian, a two year one, like Japanese.
Oh and my school doesn't offer Japanese, I have no intention of ever visiting Japan and I have no intention to learn it :L

Bears and Vodka

0000879k wrote: »

anybody ever do russian outside of school for leaving cert?

(a)How hard is russian
(b)Is the exam predictable
(c)How much work is needed
(d)Is it possible to achieve a decent grade (B, or A) on your own...taking into account I'm ambitious and fairly intelligent

EDIT :: What books or revision books do ye recommend? and what way do you think would be best to go about it?

You looked at the stats and saw the 70% A1 rate, haven't you? Don't be fooled.

I'm a native speaker and I've done Russian for my LC.

(a) Very hard if you have no background and starting it from scratch. Although it has a lot of loan words from English, French and German it's not based on Anglo-Saxon or Romanic languages. For example it doesn't have a Roman alphabet, it's based on a Greek alphabet.

(b) Very predictable. Same stuff comes up all the time.

(c) A lot of work is needed if you want the A in Honours. There are better subjects you could take for the Leaving.

(d) No. I doubt it. Unless you are very linguistic. There are free LC Russian classes in Dublin on Saturday mornings. If you're interested I'll give you contact details.

Overall, even if you put in tons of work with all the help you can get, you will still be lucky to get an A1 in Ordinary Level.

Canard

0000879k wrote: »

Not what I heard, I thought languages like lithuanian and hungarian are for native speakers as there is no syllabus for it, there is for Russian, a two year one, like Japanese.
Oh and my school doesn't offer Japanese, I have no intention of ever visiting Japan and I have no intention to learn it :L

Oh yeah there is a syllabus of course, but not a lot of non-natives do it so there's a pretty high standard as a result. I thought you were just doing Russian for points, but fair enough. :P

0000879k

Patchy~ wrote: »

Oh yeah there is a syllabus of course, but not a lot of non-natives do it so there's a pretty high standard as a result. I thought you were just doing Russian for points, but fair enough. :P

Russian for points? God no! I have my 7 honours subjects as is :P

fricatus

0000879k wrote: »

anybody ever do russian outside of school for leaving cert?

Not for LC, but I studied it in my spare time.

0000879k wrote: »

(a)How hard is russian

How hard is any language? No language is easy, but with regular work every day you will gain familiarity and it will become second nature.

0000879k wrote: »

EDIT :: What books or revision books do ye recommend? and what way do you think would be best to go about it?

Linguaphone is expensive and a bit old-fashioned, but you can't beat listening, reading, understanding the text, having it all explained to you. Also you're using real usable language from the first full lesson (there is usually an Introduction - often split into two or three parts and anywhere between 25 and 50 lessons).

I haven't used the Russian one, but I learned German with Linguaphone and was able to participate reasonably well in straightforward conversations in Germany afterwards, and even follow some conversations where colleagues were talking to one another in German.

Patchy~ wrote: »

Only thing I can say is that while 70%+ people get A1s, it's mostly Russians doing it, so you probably wont get one to be honest. I'd just do Japanese.

:eek:

I don't see how Japanese would involve less work than Russian. I have a fair level of Japanese (JLPT N3) and I can honestly say it's the hardest major language out there. Very rewarding to learn, but I wouldn't see it as a way to get easy points in the LC, unless the exam is baby-simple (which I doubt).

subz3r0 wrote: »

(a) Very hard if you have no background and starting it from scratch. Although it has a lot of loan words from English, French and German it's not based on Anglo-Saxon or Romanic languages.

True, but as a Slavic language, it's still Indo-European like the Germanic or Romance languages, so it has a distant relationship to English. It has a Subject-Verb-Object word order, conjugated verbs and tenses, like French, and a case system like Irish or German.

Russian at least conforms to European ideas of how a language is constructed, whereas with Japanese for example, you have to learn totally new concepts (polite vs familiar verbs, particles, no plurals, no personal pronouns, etc.). And that's before you even tackle the writing system!

subz3r0 wrote: »

For example it doesn't have a Roman alphabet, it's based on a Greek alphabet.

Alphabet schmalfabet. There are 33 letters and pretty much every word is pronounced as written. The stress accent is not indicated, and you have to remember that the genitive ending -его is be pronounced as -ево, but that's about it as regards complications. Learning the alphabet will slow you up at the beginning, but once you're used to it, you won't even notice it!