Duolingo is fine for vocabulary, what changed my Russian and sentence formation were the following 3 - Pimsleur (30 mins a day), Assimil, Cortina Method (now in public domain, so free online).

@ChrisHorneVL

2 жыл бұрын

+1 for pimsleur while driving, and Memrise for when I want to play on my phone.

@ayasluna

Жыл бұрын

What's funny is I have the exact opposite problem. Like, if I am given a sentence in english to convey, I tend to organize and pronouce the words in a way that sounds much closer to native speech than most of my friends if given the same english sentence to convey in russian. (as judged by native speakers) And that's only true because I spent countless hours learning speech patterns, slang, idioms, and untranslatable exclamations. But my vocabulary is significantly lacking so I often use google translate when in a pinch to remember certain words, and a small russian dictionary I made out of an old notebook to practice like flash cards in my free time. I try to add at least 3 new words / phrases per day to my dictionary.

@amorselofrussian9356

Жыл бұрын

It's a well known fact that duolingo is superb but far from sufficient on its own. It's good to talk to native speakers, but what is the most helpful is learning using other sources simultaneously. Those learning Russian are welcome to just such a source - my channel;) kzread.info/dash/bejne/dqZ6tMl9eMi0YNo.html

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

@Ayasluna flash cards are a great idea! I need to start memorizing conjugation.

@ericbwertz

Жыл бұрын

@@scottstephenson1 I still have my very well-worn VisEd Russian flashcards from the late 1980s, which appear to have been out-of-production for decades. There's got to be a decent phone app nowadays, although I'm still strongly partial to "real" flashcards even now. They're a little awkward to carry around everywhere, but they're hardly kettlebells.

Wonderful watching you both. Very well done Scott. Seems like you are doing a great job on this learning journey. Congratulations!!!

@scottstephenson1

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Marie! It's been a fun challenge, and well worth it! Hope you're doing well in BC.

I tried russian myself, it is a really complex language in terms of grammar. Unfortunatly duolingo isn't appropriate to learn grammar since it is more like a tool to use at the beginning, and also pretty good to learn some vocab

@CatherineAaBb

10 ай бұрын

I'm learning German on Duolingo now and grammar explanation don't even exist here, I have to check old comments to understand why some words is used in the sentence and how it's works It's like a: "you don't have to know grammar, just repeat one sentence for 100000 times and you'll get it" style

@mariaeugeniaarenasvelasco4123

10 ай бұрын

@@CatherineAaBb Yeah, but if you are learning German for English speakers there used to be a button that lets you see the grammar and key structures in every lesson (idk if it is still there), including the cases and conjugations of the verbs, unfortunately this gadget is only available for the English speakers' course, and it doesn't exist in any other courses apart from German, French, Spanish, English and a few more.

@Visionery1

7 ай бұрын

I recently added Super Duolingo (paid version) to Busuu, where I was already on B1. While Duolingo might not provide detailed grammar exercises, their constant repetition allows one to 'learn' what is right and what is wrong, similar to how a child would learn. I'm fluent in three languages, and know when something is wrong or right in those languages, without knowing the specific grammatical explanation. So, while grammar is important, with repetition one tends to pick up the correct sentence structure without knowing the grammar behind it.

Good job mate, honestly I feel like if you just force yourself to speak in Russian with your wife constantly given your environment you will improve exponentially in a very short time, keep it up!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the encouragement! Now we live in Turkey, so I'm juggling two languages now!

Nice progress. Russian is quite a difficult language to learn. I've got a few friends who currently study it and I try to help them when I can, but I see that it takes a lot of effort for them. You are doing well. Keep up the good work!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the encouragement! Спасибо большое

@GigaChad_99977

Жыл бұрын

Does anyone know how to write ñ when translating in English in Duolingo

Thanks for sharing and creating this for your fellow language learners! 😃

Hi, Scott! You're doing great! Keep it up! Actually, I speak both Russian and English, and there are lots of russian people in my country, just as in your case) And I can tell by my experience that, you will learn Russian very well if you will train it at least 2 or 3 years with native speakers. So, don't worry, you can do this! Good luck)

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your support!

Good job ! I am very impressed with your skills to learn this difficult language. In comparisson with English it's like the earth and the sky. Keep up learning and good luck to you and your helpful wife!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your encouragement!

@GigaChad_99977

Жыл бұрын

Does anyone know how to write ñ when translating in English in Duolingo

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

@alien gamer on my android phone I had to download the Cyrillic keyboard. You can toggle between languages by sliding the space bar

as a russian speaker it is funny seeing him struggle comprehending words and sentences i know

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

It's still a bit of a struggle for me. Learning languages is difficult for me it seems. But think I'm definitely better now than I was then. 😁

@sockettgirl

Жыл бұрын

as a brazillian, im totally on board with him right there

@douglaspage2398

Ай бұрын

I started using languages as memory therapy after suffering a stroke. It not only gave me a 60% recovery from where I was, but also got rid of a very bad stutter that the stroke left me with. I have always felt like I was very slow. But now I think maybe I have been very hard on myself. But, I have made good progress in Spanish, Russian, and French, enough to get by traveling, shopping, eating out,etc. and have also made about half that progress in Italian, Dutch, and German. It has been great therapy for the damage left by the stroke.

I used Duolingo at the very beginning for Portuguese and was useful...for the first 1/5 or 1/4 of the journey. Once you can start to read/listen basic graded readings for the A1-A2-B1 levels it starts to be a poorer version compared with that readings and listening plus a small amount of grammar explanations (10-20% of the study time). But, as said, it's good for beginners who want to start motivated. I presented it to my mother and she's doing quite well in Italian, now starting to get into real human content. And most probably I will use it again for the beginning period with German.

@sockettgirl

Жыл бұрын

muito bom, como tá seu português atualmente? um abraço de Maceió !

this is so cute!!

Russian is a very hard language to learn! I've been going at it for 13 months now, n every day I fall more n more in love with the Russian language. Я никогда не был в России, и также не знаю никого из России, и... конечно я знаю мой русский ещё очень плохо! но каждый день я стараюсь посмотреть youtube видео, послушать русский музыку и так далее... но русский язык не легко. conjugation, the 🔤 alfabet, reading, wasn't too hard for me.! it's the cases that still kick my behind, some of 'em I still get 'em all mixed up. Good luck to you and to me too! and everyone up for the challenge.!

Impressive. I'm still learning French, Didn't seriously start until I was 43. Missed lots of opportunities when I lived in Quebec. Living with Russian speakers must have helped big time!

@scottstephenson1

5 ай бұрын

You're too kind. By this point I should be able to have a conversation... but I'm still not there yet. I need to take actual lessons. Which I will soon.

I also live in kyiv as a foreigner, and I understood everything she said, and I didn't do any lessons or use any apps.

Go through it slowly and write things down. Don't rush. I am a beginner. I refer to Hugo's Russian in 3 Months. The cassettes are all on KZread. He's far better than me.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Thank you. We enjoyed making it!

Thank you for the Pro tip at the beginning. I really thought i could get away with it using the latin alphabet to learn Russian.

@alkaliwreck2474

Жыл бұрын

Prevyet! Some people learn better just by listening and speaking, so they speak a language but are illiterate. Не мне, а некоторые люди.

Perfect project, perfect video..now we see that it's not possible with a single tool, we should use additional tools..greetings from Canada..all the best!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Hi! Thanks for the compliment! I'm missing Canada these days as World Junior Hockey starts at 2am over here!

@findukkafali

Жыл бұрын

@@scottstephenson1 ❤

Have you complete full Duolingo course tho? Living with native speaker should be so easy to learn foreign language. Just try TPRS method.

@scottstephenson1

3 жыл бұрын

I have not finished the full course. I'm about 40% of the way through. I haven't heard of the TPRS method, but I'll definitely look into it! Thanks for the advice.

Very nice video :) You've made a pretty good progress in Russian. I've been learning Russian since 2020, and I recommend two KZread channels: RealRussianClub (especially the From Zero to Fluency series), and Be Fluent in Russian. Good luck!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I like the Be Fluent channel , I'll check out the other one. Thanks for the tip!

"This is a caffe and not my house"

Nothing beats having an actual tutor/teacher. Also, the use of it as often as possible. Duolingo to me is a waste of time. Pimsleur is a good on....but again tutor is the way to go.

living in Kiev, with a Russian wife...how are you not further along? So confused...

@jmarlow2153

Жыл бұрын

I have never tried to learn Russian online but after a year of duolingo his vocabulary seems rather limited.

@InternationalScoop

Жыл бұрын

He probably lives in an expat community

Начинка наверное довольно сложное слово для запоминания 😂

So basically it is a vocabulary tester. I want to *speak* not pass a vocab test.

@nGUNNARp

2 жыл бұрын

....u gotta have vocabulary to speak

@pneron2032

2 жыл бұрын

@@nGUNNARp ...A vocabulary isn't something you acquire *before* learning to speak. You pick up words WHILE learning to speak. .. After a year of studying, he can't string a sentence together. Clearly something is off with this method.

@jamesleyshon1530

2 жыл бұрын

@@pneron2032 I'm a languages teacher, if there is one thing that the most successful do is force themselves to speak despite any grammatical errors, it's great having it in your brain, but it's only half the battle, you must be continuously forcing yourself to get it from your brain to your mouth on a frequent basis, due to the fact that I am a freak of nature I am quite happy to walk about in my daily life just making up sentences in another language about what I am doing, upon learning 2 languages and currently on my 3rd, it starts of rough and slow for about 2 months of daily being a weirdo and talking to yourself, but then you get faster!

@mpforeverunlimited

Жыл бұрын

You need more than one source to learn a language

@estrafalario5612

Жыл бұрын

I'm not a great fan of Duolingo, but let's put this video into context: - He states in de video description that he was using Duolingo for 1/2h a day, 365 days. So 180h. - Conventional estimates (FSI) say that it should take him 1100h to go from 0 to "advanced". So he's still just 1/6 of the journey. From my experience, if you focus into understanding only (reading and listening) you can get an intermediate/advance level after 1/2 of the time estimated by the FSI. Taking that into account, I don't think he's doing bad. The real problem, in my view, is that he's doing 30 min with a language that will take over 1.000 h, so no matter the system used, it will take maybe 6-7 years. Many give up before finishing such a long journey, or just get happy with "getting by with my current level" and stop improving.

9:00 its funny because in portuguese, the false friend for casserole: "caçarola" also means pan!

Цитата из "12 стульев" - это пять :))) Удачи, Скотт ✌

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Спасибо большое!

I am in your shoes. Eventhough I do not live in Ukraine or Russia which is a terrible shame because these are beautiful people and I love to be there. I was in Ukraine a couple of times myself. I used to have a Ukrainian / Russian girlfriend but that ended a few months ago because of the war and the sanctions. Still I keep learning Russian (In between following the news) It is a beautiful language and hopefully I can use it some day. спасибо for making this video.

I initially learned Russian using Busuu. After having finished A1 I did one of those 'test your Russian level' tests online. On the A1 level I understood very little, leading me to believe Bussu was missing the mark. However, one chap understood everything, and he had studied using Duolingo. This prompted me to add Super Duolingo (paid subscription) when I was already on Busuu B1. I must say, Duolingo lessons are more enjoyable, and I'm learning aspects I had not learned using Busuu. Duolingo also provides many opportunities to talk Russian, something which ceased in Busuu after A1. Of course we also watch a lot of Russian TV series and movies, sometimes 1-2 hours per night, which also helps.

@scottstephenson1

7 ай бұрын

I've never heard of Busuu. Would you say it's worth checking out? As of now my vocabulary us pretty good, but I feel I need much more work with conjugation.

Прикольное милое видео получилось!)

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Спасибо!

For anyone who lives with a person who speaks the language they are looking to learn, this is a big help! My tip though is to have them bring in as many friends or family to the home who only speak that language so you are forced to speak to communicate. I think a lot of people think that if their partner speaks a different language, it’s a fast pass to fluency. But when it’s your partner, the two of you often find it very hard to keep communicating in the less mutually communicable language. The more you’re plunged into the deep end necessarily, the more you’ll be incentivized to learn. That being said, it’s good to have a platform to practice on everyday, and it’s good that Duolingo is free to use. Best of luck to everyone on a language learning journey!

Duolingo is great for memory, but not so good for learning a language, it will take a long yime and a lot of repitition. There is a set of courses here on KZread that are taught by native Russian, professional teachers. It was posted by the Dallas Independent School District, and they are Russian World, Russian world 2, and Russian World 3. They cover 3 school years of Russian classes. You get everything, vocabulary, the cases and their uses, pretty much the complete course including all the correct grammar. The courses are based on the Textbook "Russian for Everyone, and both the textbook and workbook ere easy to get online. But evrn without the books, these videos were way more helpful than my courses at the Dallas County Community Collegees. Ваша жена - терпеливыи женщина, и ангел. Сделай её счастливой! BTW, while there are no articles in Russian, there are cases that take their place. That is the reason that you see fifferent endings and prefixes in your duolingo lessons.

@scottstephenson1

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the tip about the Russian World KZread lessons, I've just checked them out and they seem very useful. Thanks for the nice words about my lovely wife too.😊

like my home: she's in charge. what a lovely couple. i've done Duo for awhile, it's good for word knowledge, but you need to speak it with someone.

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Thanx for your compliment. Yes, I agree that duolingo is pretty much only good for vocabulary and not much else.

Странно что последний коммент был год назад. Я вообще искала видео где duolingo учит русских английскому.

would be interesting to hear casual conversation between you. picked phrases are so hard and short, it's difficult to understand level

You are so kind people 🤍🫶

sup, great vid, would also like to see Anna taking an english test, dunno why but I just wanna see it hahah

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

She would certainly do waaaaaaaay better than me. 😄

Lucky guy!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

I sure am!🙂

Honestly, it's cool that you actually stuck with it long enough to get a 365 day streak, but did you record this video with the same camera they used to fake the moon landing?

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Clearly it was the camera that took the picture of the Loch Ness Monster. 😜

О, я закончил русский курс, это не год, он заканчивается примерно на сто двадцать тысяч, и я закончил его за пять месяцев.

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Молодец!

So 1 year and u don't know jack living in Kiev?

@Cathoholicism

2 жыл бұрын

I been learning a month and feel like I knew more

@dacioana1851

Жыл бұрын

@@Cathoholicism same i feel like i know as much as him yet can pronounce it better

@wallstsurfer

Жыл бұрын

Harsh but true

Какая красавица!

I hope you are fine in Kyiv.

@scottstephenson1

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your concern. Yes, we are safe outside of Ukraine. But many of our friends are in danger in Kyiv. We hope this invasion ends soon.

@mythicalswiggy7408

2 жыл бұрын

@@scottstephenson1 Good for you! I agree! Slava Ukrainia!

@masondanerd2042

2 жыл бұрын

@@scottstephenson1 Stay safe! Hope you're doing well.

@christianelbk7550

2 жыл бұрын

@@scottstephenson1 I just found your channel, and I became really scared when I heard you was living in Kyiv

Have you improved in the past year?

@scottstephenson1

2 жыл бұрын

I would say that I have. I'm back in Canada, so I'm not hearing Russian as often as I did when I lived in Kyiv. I definitely understand more of what my wife says these days. I'm on a 773 day duolingo streak at this point.

Now it's her turn to learn English!

Папа, это не мой мотор! lol. I'm over 3 months in and it is recycling all the same content even in different categories.. It doesn't teach any of the actual rules.. It taught me the alphabet in 2 days and many basic words but feels like it is far from being an ideal way to learn. Now, after seeing this video, I'm very glad to have been looking at some other resources.. I enjoyed your video more than I'm enjoying duo.. Thanks!

@chesscoachgerry4140

Жыл бұрын

What other resources could you recommend? I'm having a lot of time to learn atm and I'm spending it mostly on Duolingo and part of the time also writing down vocabulary and example sentences. I'm trying to improve as quickly as possible. Any advice would be appreciated! :)

@buffalothunder3479

Жыл бұрын

@@chesscoachgerry4140 'Russian with Nastya'! She just started a 365 day daily course on January 1st, free on KZread. She's great!

Maybe it is time to switch to a different learning app. It doesn't seem like you learned much in one year, but I'm sure you know more russian than I do.

I sort disagree tus at Duolingo is bad for grammar. It doesn’t go as in depth into it, but you still learn it intuitively through forming sentences. Duolingo Polish and Spanish have been a great start.

I can fluently read Russian I need to learn more for conversation

Russian sentences was in very hight level. But He does the job done with easy examples.

You motivate me, bro, great content! You speak Russian better than your wife speaks English, без обид (no offense) xD

So, an update video soon?

@scottstephenson1

Ай бұрын

🤔 that might be a good idea

The way she’s phrases sentences make it so hard

@disdonc6012

Жыл бұрын

That's true. I understand Russian already quite well if someone is speaking slowly and accurately. I finished the Duolingo tree, read easy books and watch KZread videos. But these sentences were very strangely built from my understanding. But maybe it's just real-life speech.

@chesscoachgerry4140

Жыл бұрын

@@disdonc6012 Can you please tell me how much XP points the whold Duolingo course is? And what is the level if you finish it? (I mean like B1 for example)

@disdonc6012

Жыл бұрын

@@chesscoachgerry4140 I don't know how the XP points relate to a course actually. They also changed the entire website twice since I started there. When I started I had to do a lot more rounds of exercices to finish one topic. As of my experience I would say that your level depends on each course and the area like speaking, writing, reading, listening. Overall I'd say the Russian course covers quite a lot of grammar but not very very deeply. But you have a lot of different grammar topics. So I'd say grammar wise you'll be at a good A2 or more. Vocabulary-wise you'll also be at a good A2 or a bit more. But generally in writing and speaking it's only barely an A2 while the passive understanding and overall language understanding is a bit over A2. The course covers a lot of different vocabulary topics and a total of around 1500-1700 words.

@chesscoachgerry4140

Жыл бұрын

@@disdonc6012 Thanks for the detailed answer! I think there are 51 units, I'm at 16 now and i can do i think about 2 in 3 days (I'm doing 500 points everyday) - so I should be finished in less than 2 month Also gonna get a proper teacher ...

@chesscoachgerry4140

Жыл бұрын

@@disdonc6012 And one more question: is there a way to see which words you have learned on Duolingo? Like a list or something ... And also are these 1500-1700 actually different words or do they count multiple times when there is the same word in different forms? That were to questions i guess haha but anyway would be happy if you could tell me...

Casserole is actually Pan in french lol

What a cold ass relationship... I LOVE IT! i want one named Natashka

not bad. Russian ain't simple for native english speakers. keep it up

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot. Yes it's a tricky language for sure. I hope we can do a follow up video soon!

How far in the Duolingo course did you get?

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Hi there. At the moment I've finished the course. Now I'm just getting my legendary status on every level.

@datbubby

Жыл бұрын

Oh nice :) After one year, how much do you think you’ve improved? Have you used any programs besides Duo ? Thanks :D

@datbubby

Жыл бұрын

Oh nice :) After one year, how much do you think you’ve improved? Have you used any programs besides Duo ? Thanks :D

@datbubby

Жыл бұрын

Oh nice :) After one year, how much do you think you’ve improved? Have you used any programs besides Duo ? Thanks :D

@datbubby

Жыл бұрын

Oh nice :) After one year, how much do you think you’ve improved? Have you used any programs besides Duo ? Thanks :D

еще раз доказано, что русские женщины самые красивые в мире... отличная работа, Скотт

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

это правда, моя жена красивая. Спасибо.

Russian is the 4th most difficult language of the world

How are you doing nowadays? Tape the video!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

I'm doing ok. A bit better. But now we're living in Türkiye so, I'm working on Turkish too! But an update video will be forthcoming!

Round 2

I’m Luthuanian (live in ireland) and I know my Russians not perfect but a year… и он незнаешь как сказать или как перевод гулять… и его произношения это так плохо- ( извини я 15 лет и я не хочу быть грубый или неприличий ) хорошего дня оба

@claida339

2 жыл бұрын

I've been on Duolingo Russian for 8 days and I understood/guessed the gist of your comment :D feel free to ignore me, I'm just happy.

@flicktwist3744

2 жыл бұрын

@@claida339 same i've been on duolingo since a month and i was able to translate 90% of the sentence! It took 2-5 mintues to understand but i translated 90% of it!

@ThatBoiLake

Жыл бұрын

I just started today and I couldn’t understand this comment. 😭 I will keep learning though!

@liambyrne5285

Жыл бұрын

Go home

Damn

3:30 im 48 days in and i got 3 right

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

Молодец!

Considering that you live with a native Russian Speaker, I am surprised that you are not far better than this! You have the greatest opportunity to speak the language but have to resort to Duolingo and other online lessons!

Maybe other methods are better for you.

Как я есть красива жена как тебя?

@scottstephenson1

2 жыл бұрын

Lots of charisma.😉

Now hearing about speaking and learning russian in Kyiv is really cringe. That's natural thing that people there spoke russian and that ethnically russian people live in Ukraine. But shit that sounds very wrong right now.

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

I agree with you. But when this video was recorded it was a much different time. I've begun learning Ukrainian since. 🇺🇦

Русский сложный язык , даже я как носитель , делаю ошибки , ох уж эти запятые

@scottstephenson1

Ай бұрын

All languages have their easy points and difficult points. I do struggle with russian conjugation still though.

Ох щас Анне все русские девки обзавидуются

She should have started basic.. and moved up to see your ability

I cannot stand Duolingo. It does nothing to try to get you fluency. It merely hooks you emotionally by telling you how well you are doing, when it is probably not true. Anything said in Russian and a lot of other languages could end up being translated five different ways, based on context, the level of English that you prefer to speak: low brow, colloquial, every day or erudite. And then there is the old-fashioned speech commonly spoken back in the 1800s, which is useless for tourists, but vitally important for someone trying to read the Russian classics. Does Duolingo care? No, it just gives you a precious metal: diamond, pearl, gold, silver etc.

@scottstephenson1

4 ай бұрын

Yeah after another year or so, I can say duolingo is only good for vocabulary. I haven't learned any grammar. My wife says the Russian grammar is not realistic at all.

Your 'pro tip' is learn Cyrillic alphabet..? I would call learning the alphabet 'non-negotiable tip'..

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

I guess I need more work on my ironic humour.😁

@MirrorMountain

Жыл бұрын

@@scottstephenson1 hehe. And I might need some work on my cynical humor. Извини, чувак 🤙

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

@@MirrorMountain без проблем, мой друг

@MirrorMountain

Жыл бұрын

@@scottstephenson1 хахах

Лучше бы прогресс показал. Похоже ты дальше алфавита не пошел)

Boring !!

What we have learned here. ... You can fail Russian, but still smash Russian birds. ... reassuring.

I finished the Russian Duolingo course to legendary crowns level in just over 2 years. In terms of XP that is >100,000 xp each year. Living with a native speaker you should be far more advanced.

This is exactly how it goes. It's not fake or scripted and you are speaking fluent Russian in 5 mins. Even when she says "c'mon you know this" . For some reason Russian girlfriends think you are playing dumb when in truth you have no idea what the answer is...🤦‍♂️ The most powerful advantage is that you are hearing the language in the native country everyday!

@scottstephenson1

Жыл бұрын

At least I'll never forget what a подушка is.😆

Seriously, Duolingo os ok for some support, but really not a good instructional tool for understanding the mechanics of the language.