Do you need 1100 hours to learn Russian? (My experience)
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- Опубліковано 20 лис 2023
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Recently I was speaking to a student who was comparing his own progress to the "1100 hour rule" from FSI. In this video I want to share some of the conclusions we got from that chat.
This was great advice and definitely relit my motivation, I’m only 450 hours in, and I need to be proud of the progress I’ve made in that time. I’m conversing far better than I was at 150 hours in
Glad to hear that! Keep it up!
I lived in Ukraine for 7 years. I did 6 months of 6 hours per day with a teacher who just spoke Russian only. I went to a marriage agency and had dates with 2-3 girls per week for a long time, and from those girls, I had many 2nd, 3rd and even several relationships at the same time. Around 4 girlfriends on a weekday/weekend rotational basis. I then had a wife who only spoke Russian to me and my Russian was super fluent B2 after 2-3 years. To get to C1, it took 3 more years of daily exposure but I didn't really study. I just watched russian lesson videos of advanced nature on a daily basis. 1 hour per day and just used the language as a normal person would living in the country. I reckon I have done 5000 hours already of input. I can watch the news and whatever TV and understand basically everything. Maybe some cultural stuff I can't understand or history stuff, but speaking to people, I can talk about most things without restrictions. I really boosted my fluency by dating women. But I boosted my vocab by watching Russian with Max etc. I think B2 Russian is 100% enough for everything needed unless you are working in a professional environment. I would say I speak a very fluent and minimal accented B2-C1, but can understand C1/C2/Natives easily.
Thanks for sharing your story. I like how you started with classes, and then gradually evolved to only immersion!
I have gotten pushback for saying certain things like a piece or language certificate says you know a specific amount of a language. At the end of the day it just means you meet minimum requirements for being hired at some job but doesn’t mean anyone is this or that level. It’s what one retains and you continue learning outside the classroom.
Yes, I think certificates can be useful in some occasions, but don't say everything. If someone needs a certificate, they're probably not fluent. Outside of situations like when my sister needed an English certificate to apply for a foreign university.
You actually right about the numbers of hours and how it is not affective to focus on the numbers but just to spend as long as you can on the language, maybe I didn't states things well but thanks
Yes exactly. I think numbers are helpful for those who need to speak at a decent level in a certain amount of time. Like the diplomats from the FSI. But for most learners, just enjoy the process and don't forget to practice speaking.
Interesting, I agree entirely, and I've been thinking about this a lot recently, so it was nice to see this video. I'm about 500 hours in, doing 3 hours a day, 5 days a week of comprehensive input with a teacher over Skype. Right now, I can comfortably have conversations about most things, and I play video games with my Russian Girlfriend speaking together entirely in Russian. In my mind, I suspect 1100 hours will put me at a spot where I can easily navigate conversation without pausing to think of words or phrasing, but struggle with advanced topics, niche vocabulary, etc. Also, I've found my usage of grammar isn't so great unsurprisingly, although I begin to use more cases and conjugations intuitively over time. At some point I stopped using Anki, and I'm operating in what I call "complete lazy sloth mode". I never really study, I just read, watch tv shows, and talk. No grammar study, no vocab study. tl;dr, 1100 hours is probably not result in fluency doing what I'm doing, and I think you could go faster if you supplemented what I'm doing with intense vocab and grammar studies. For me, 1100 hours will not be complete but definitely be a place where you can continue to develop fluency without stressing much. I will probably stop using a teacher and just progress further hanging out with friends and locals more after 1500 hours or so. I think the lazy mode method works for me though, because it's much easier for me to maintain a habit this way while working a fulltime job than to "grind" anki or drill conjugation, casing, etc.
I've spent atleast 700+ hours on grammar; Yet I can't speak it. 😭
I can understand though ☺
Perhaps I need to learn far more vocabulary (verbs) in general.
Or maybe I need a Russian girlfriend too. 🙄
I can relate to the "complete lazy sloth mode" thing haha. At a certain point you know enough to just immerse yourself into fun things like reading, movies, video games, and conversations. Working on your weak points is recommended though!
Try recording yourself for 1-2 minutes a day trying to say something. Speak about your work, hobbies, studies, or just something random you saw that day. Simple exercise, but helped me a lot :)
Getting a Russian girlfriend is what made me start learning it too
Though I understand it takes a lot of hours, really I just made Russian part of my life. I never really worried about the time because I have always watched content that I enjoy. I “worked” to improve skills 7-8 years ago. But I really did reach fluency watching enjoyable videos.
Yes, integrating it into your life is the key!
Can you recomend some of that content? :) I'd like to do the same, but I don't know where to start...
@@ArianRedMusic I have always enjoyed travel shows, so I watched pretty much every Орёл и решка episode here in YT with subtitles so I could easily learn new words. I have watched and rewatched so many hours of that show that I don’t need the subtitles anymore. They’re not active now, but they have their old videos online.
If you search a topic you like and choose the CC option in search you will likely find some vloggers that add accurate subtitles.
@@ArianRedMusic The Amazing Russian channel has some travel vlogs along with her instructional videos. I watch all of her instructional videos too.
Russian with Max is another channel that adds a lot vlogs… though he has some instructional style videos. I have watched almost every video he ever did. After years I can basically understand him at 100% but I keep watching because I enjoy watching what he and his family are up to.
@@ArianRedMusic There are lots of good channels that I am only leaving them out for time. The last I will mention is a series about Moscow by Alphabet on the Time to Speak Russian channel is one I watched over and over. Москва по алфавиту. She has a coordinating website with wordlists. Anyone that will travel to Moscow and wants to know more about the city will enjoy her videos.
All very true. I've had a similar experience with Spanish.
Nice!
“Check out samples of the audio lessons below.”
Where is the link please?
So... I'm now working at a warehouse 10+ hours a day for 5 days a week. I believe I told you this... Nevertheless, do you think it's a good idea to keep listening to Russian for 10 hours straight or should I reduce that time since it kinda of gives me a headache and I don't remember the words. I just kinda get a feeling of the Russian sentence structure since I've emerged myself in grammar immensely. Thanks!
I remember you telling me! I would do as much as you find comfortable. And think about what level you're listening. Extreme example: it wouldn't make sense for a beginner to listen to Russian podcasts, as it's just "noise". See if you can find some audio lessons at your level.
What resources did you use as a beginner in Russian?
I watched series on UA-cam, listened to audio courses like Russianpod101, and used Anki for vocab.
Howzit!
If you know the definition of the words exactly you will be confident and then fluent automatically.
Zdrasti :)
Poka
Привет! What do you mean?)
Ukrainian with eastern accent 😂
To put things into perspective, there's a rather large percentage of Americans who get their asses kicked daily by the English language. They're technically not the highest level of fluent even though they're native speakers.
True but for some reason English teachers in the U.S. make English seem more complicated than it really is. Giving us quizzes, flashcards, tests, endless amounts of paragraphs required to answer a single one to two sentence answer statement 😂
True! I often watch Russian comedy shows, and sometimes feel sad that I'm not speaking at their level. Then I realize that comedians are probably in the top 1% of native speakers in terms of "fluency".
@@LearntheRussianLanguage there are only 5 comedians who are considered good in whole Russian speaking world . So not ven 0.0000001% population are at that level. There is only one Shakespeare, one Tolstoy .
Man, it is really nice that you make the effort to talk with a proper American accent, considering that most foreigners are just so lazy about it when it comes to improve it. No doubt you are hyper talented with languages, but man, if you exaggerate the accent so so so much, it is hard to understand even for us. Plus some Americans, especially from the South, would feel you are mocking them because of that heavy twangy sound. Take it easy! it's even better if you simply talk with your native accent in a natural way, and just catch the proper accent slowly and naturally when talking with American people. Now a lot of people try to catch the accent quickly, with methods from bloggers and so on, and they all sound like a forced mock.
Thanks! My English accent gradually came to be. I've been learning it since I was 8 or so. All movies in the Netherlands are subtitled, so we hear American English from a young age. So I've had massive immersion for 20+ years now.
I'm from the south and I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. In fact, I was just thinking that he has an excellent accent that's perfectly understandable. btw you have grammatical errors all over your writing and your last sentence makes 0 sense whatsoever.
@@LearntheRussianLanguage like WTF. Dutch are the Best Non-Native English Speakers 😅😅
Thsi is a stupid comment your accent is nice godbless you
@@PeytonHeron-hb2ng You can try to insult from your real account instead of using something anonymous 😂😂😂
there is no such language as "russian"
Explain yourself!
@@angie.666 more over, russians have borrowed so much of fancy language from European literature that if without it it's just a village language. Which doesn't stop Russians from brainwashing their people with the idea of "great and mighty russian language" ))
Isn't every language importing words from other cultures?
😁😁😂😂🤣🤣
BTW Open the list of UN languages. 😅😅