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Learning Russian
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I want my 4 yr old (adopted from Russia) to learn Russian. I brought him home at 13 mths so he doesn’t know the language. I have Rosetta Stone but he really doesn’t like doing it. Any other thoughts? I know that immersion is the best option and having other people speak it to him is the best option, but right now I want him to hear it and at least get used to hearing it.
Thanks as always for the many helpful responses.
Does your library have any picture books recorded in Russian? He could listen to the recordings and look at the book as he follows along.
Are there children’s shows in Russian that you could order? My MIL, who is Korean, swears that she learned a large part of her English by watching Sesame Street.
Yes TV shows are actually good for language. A psuedo-immersion if you will. DS, 10 at adoption from China, watched a lot of TV those first 6 months home, but we were careful with selection and it was a motivator and it did help.
I would second the library and many libraries (ours used to; budget cuts) have language learning programs you can use for free (on-line with library log-in info.). Some even have Rosetta Stone type of lessons.
I did find a Berlitz CD-Rom at our Sam’s Club for $30 for Chinese and it is actually quite helpful. It is divided by lessons and has flashcards and quizzes and such. DS, 9, is using it to learn Mandarin in spare time. DS, 12, says it is fairly accurate. He is fluent in Mandarin. I know they had other languages, maybe Russian at Sam’s, but I know Berlitz has Russian on their webpage. Might be worth looking into, though I’m not sure it is that much different from Rosetta Stone.
Quite honestly, I think 4yo is much too young for any of the formal programs like Rosetta Stone. My 6.5yo dd is using The Learnables for French, which is also available in Russian if you wanted to look into it, but my ds4 is not that interested. (In the program that is, he is interested in learning French.) It has a similar premise to Rosetta Stone, but is simpler…at the same time it’s not that exciting either. Like I said, I don’t know that a formal program is the way to go for a 4yo.
Other things we are using to help expose our young children (6.5, 4, 2) to French (we are Americans living in France right now, learning French in preparation to live in French speaking Africa):
– Read aloud French books (I have a conversational level of French already, maybe not the best choice if you don’t really speak Russian yourself)
– Listen to audio books/songs/nursery rhymes. The kids especially like doing the nursery rhymes/songs that have fingerplay motions with them.
– Watch French cartoons – you might want to check and see what you can find in Russian on YouTube, there were a lot of French ones.
– And obviously exposure to other French speakers when possible (trickier than you’d think given that we live in France…) – but they definetely get it at church and I am in the process of working out a French-English exchange with a French friend and her children.
My kids aren’t to the point that they speak much more than phrases here and there, but we do act out stories and such after we read them to gage how much they are understanding, and jump off of words and phrases we’ve picked up in the stories for vocabulary practice.
Another resource that you might want to check out is this website, particularly their “language 180 challenge” – there is a new post each week listing simple ideas for language learning together with your children, and you may be able to find some links to more specific Russian resources for your son. http://www.multilingualliving.com/
HTH some,
Jen
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