Skip to main content

Russian Recall and Power Sentences: Part I


Let’s be honest, learning Russian is crazy hard, ESPECIALLY at the beginning. Most give up when they have to learn words like безопасность, and other new learners switch to something a little simpler when they hear Russian has perfective and imperfective verbs, six cases and literally an exception to every grammatical “rule”(: That acceptance of every “rule” as such (quotation marks included) is an especially tricky speedbump to get over…
One of my friends here in Riga was expressing his frustration to me about all said things. It came out as something along the lines of: “I have all this stuff I need to learn, like vocab, grammar, cases, but as soon as I move onto something else, I forget what I’ve studied. I feel like I’m going in circles.”
I think every speaker of Russian struggles with this idea. From the very beginner to the most experienced, sometimes you just can’t remember that word you were studying for 20 minutes.  Now if your eventual goal is to speak Russian naturally and fluidly, where the sweet, molten honey of impeccable soft consonants and rolled R’s streams from you like the Neva through St. Petersburg, this trick might seem a little strange. It might seem a little against the grain, or unorthodox, or exactly what you think would be the WORST idea, but actually…

Memorization is one of the best ways to learn a language.

Now you’ve been with me this long, don’t give up now. Know that this does NOT mean you need to sit studying Russian with your feet in a bucket of ice water to stay awake, endlessly repeating the same things over and over. If that was true I would have given up a looooong time ago(: What I’m looking to do with these series of posts is to redefine memorization, so it’s not such a scary thing. It’s pretty simple, there are actually only two pieces to this effective memorizing puzzle:
  1. Make the memorization process as stimulating as possible. Engage multiple senses. Change up the routine often and frequently to keep it interesting.
  2. Build POWER SENTENCES to make your memorization efficient and organized.
Two super easy principles, tons of creativity and interpretation you can use. Unfortunately, the necessary space isn’t available to elaborate on those right now, SO details will follow in Part II. Check it out.
Written by Mark Kennedy, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz, Riga

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Like Dominos....

It all began with glare.  Simple, obnoxious, I-can't-stand-it-anymore glare. Our 60" rear projection TV in the family room was basically unviewable except after 10 o'clock at night.  The glare from the windows was making it impossible to see anything during my 10 minute lunch break each day, and something had to change. Too, the TV didn't fit in the entertainment center from Germany.  John, wanting bigger and better, hadn't considered that the space is only 40" wide.  For the past five years, I have been nagged by 6" of overhang on both sides of the TV stand. I went to Lowe's to price blinds.  $1,043 for five blinds, and that was at 20% off. I figured a new TV would be cheaper than that.  I was right, even with the state-of-the-art receiver and new HDMI cables that sly salesman told us we needed to have. But where to put the old TV?  It just needed a quiet, dark place to retire. Glo's bedroom.  Her TV was a relic from the paleoneoneand...

The Quest for Birkenstocks

One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...

Thinking Beyond Ourselves

In our church, most adults hold a “calling”.  What this really means is they have a job, or a specific way to serve within the local congregation.  We believe that this calling is inspired from God—it’s a specific way that he wants us to serve, so that we can either learn and grow ourselves, or so that we can help someone else. I have had more callings in the church than I can count, and with few exceptions, I have loved every one of them.  I have come to love people (adults, teens and kids) who I might never have met.  I have learned much--from how to organize a Christmas music program, to how to make a Sunday School lesson meaningful to apathetic teenagers.  I have served as president of the children’s organization, and I have been the leader of 30 young, single adults. With every calling comes a lot of work.  Of course, the amount of work one puts into a calling is up to an individual.  I choose to put everything into a calling.  I give up ho...