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I found Russian speaking couple in my area
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Posted by: mistermopar

I am so excited right now,I have found a Russian speaking couple only 8 miles from my place.Now you's might be thinking ,so what,but when you live in Northern Ontario in a city that has about 45 000 people,it is exciting.

The big deal about it is that I was speaking to the lady (Oxsana),I asked if her or her husband would be interested in teaching me Russian and she said that there should be no problem and she would have her husband (Maxim) call me when he gets home.

This will help me greatly,because learning from books and tapes is fine,but there is nothing like having someone tell you when you are prononcing words wrong.

I will let yous know how it gos and if they will help me out.

Randy

Posted by: mistermopar

YES,he has agreed to help me.He dose not think he wants any money for the help because he dose not want to have any kind of comitment on a regular basis.
He is very busy teaching music and has a new baby so he said he would try for once a week.
Good enough for me.

Randy

Posted by: SexyChelavyek

Honestly, I would moreso look into your local city college or university and take a Russian class. I find classroom instruction from an accredited professor to be far more useful than native speaker tutoring. Not to say natives can't teach their own tongue, but I'm just relaying my own experiences.

Posted by: mistermopar

Quote:

I would moreso look into your local city college or university and take a Russian class.

In northren Ontario you take what you can get.The local college only offers french as we are close to the Quebec boarder and many jobs here require you to be bilingual in English and French.

If there were Russian coarses here I would be going.The closes school that provides Russian language is about 8 hours away.

Randy

Posted by: J60

Hi Randy,

I have the same problem here in the north of the UK, Russian i could probably find but i need Ukrainian, so no chance,

John

Posted by: mistermopar

J60,there are a lot of Ukrain people where I live,I'll trade you.LOL

Randy

Posted by: Chrismc

Quote:

Originally Posted by J60

Hi Randy,

I have the same problem here in the north of the UK, Russian i could probably find but i need Ukrainian, so no chance,

John

John

Does Natty not speak Russian??

Chris

Posted by: mistermopar

Ok,I met with Maxim.He is a very nice person.He started teaching me Russian.I think he will be good for what I need to learn.
He started me with the basics for to day.

Randy

Posted by: J60

Thanks for the offer randy LOL, but my tutors will be here in january, i was thinking back to last year when i first started writing and made enquiries about lessons

good luck with yours i hope they go well,

Chris, Natty can speak russian , BUT says i am Ukrainian we are independant now, i only use russian when i need to,

Posted by: Chrismc

Quote:

Originally Posted by J60

Thanks for the offer randy LOL, but my tutors will be here in january, i was thinking back to last year when i first started writing and made enquiries about lessons

good luck with yours i hope they go well,

Chris, Natty can speak russian , BUT says i am Ukrainian we are independant now, i only use russian when i need to,

I understand her wish to be Ukrainian but for you learning Russian is hard enough to change and learn Ukrainian must be a nightmare. But at least you will have two good tutors to rely on very soon. The Western Ukrainians certainly seem more inclined to use their own language rather than Russian.

In Kharkov (Eastern Ukraine) where Iryna comes from a lot do speak Ukrainian but their first language is still Russian.

Posted by: clever1

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrismc

In Kharkov (Eastern Ukraine) where Iryna comes from a lot do speak Ukrainian but their first language is still Russian.

Here's an excerpt from a letter from Olga, it was in responce to me saying that I would have to learn Ukrainian to talk to her.

I do not speak Ukrainian in my life, although Ukrainian is considered to be the national language, but half of the population speaks Russian and so do I. Actually the rights of the Russian speaking population are abused here and more and more schools do not teach Russian anymore and Ukrainian is introduce into life very roughly and all the officials are supposed to speak only Ukrainian. It is so funny and sad. I live in the Eastern Ukraine and here 90 percent of population speaks only Russian and people react negatively to the Ukrainian language dominated on TV and even ads are published in Ukrainian. : (
Actually both languages have very much in common and they do not differ too much and we understand each other very well, but it is not pleasant when a language is introduced this way and historically these parts of Ukraine were always Russian speaking territories and it is a shame that they abuse our language now.

It would be interesting to get more views on this from other wives/girlfriends from the Ukraine.

John

Posted by: J60

Hi Chris,
No i did'nt bother with the russian after our conversations, so there was nothing to forget,!!! the intention was to learn ukrainian (or at least try !)when they get here,
but just like a woman the day after i had posted natty sent me this, attached to some photos,

my dear John! Maybe you will want to sturt to study Russian language

I can help you

YOUR Natty XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hi John,
whilst olga is basicly correct in what she says it has to be looked at in a broader context, and with an historical aspect thrown in,
from my own reading and what natty has told me it would appear that about 60% speak ukrainian, 40% speak russian as a first language, give or take a few% most of the russian speakers don't speak ukrainian, but most of the ukrainian's do speak russian, a deliberate policy enacted under russian and communist rule in fact ukrainian was banned untill quite recently (in historical terms),

most perhaps 80% or more of the russians in the east are decended from russians who came in during the stalin era,
uncle joe moved them in large numbers to take over and work in and expand the heavy industry coal mines etc,
and also thin out the natives in the event of an uprising if a large number in the country were russian the native ukrainian was less likely to have another try for independance,

because english is now being taught in schools a recent study reported that if nothing was done about the ukrainian language it would almost die out within the next 20 to 30 years and become the third language after russian and english, some gov't departments are going over the top on this and there have been complaints from russian speakers, and yes schools have been told to teach ukrainian as a first language,
also the bit about all the adds in ukrainian is wrong most of the films are russian or western films dubbed into russian,as are the tv programs, most of the adds on tv are in russian as are the mags on any news stand, in the last year or so the tv companies have been told that the program mix has to be 50 50 language wise,
so it may appear to a russian speaker that everything is changing to ukrainian, a lot of russian programs on tv are now voiced over in ukrainian with the russian original voices heard in the background,
also the gov't are considering changing the law to let schools teach russian as the second language

so you can understand the attitude of the gov't, when 60% of the population can see their native language being practicly wiped out, there is a lot more to it than what i have put but it would take a book to cover it,

John

Posted by: clever1

Quote:

Originally Posted by J60

so you can understand the attitude of the gov't, when 60% of the population can see their native language being practicly wiped out, there is a lot more to it than what i have put but it would take a book to cover it,

John

I do understand that part John, should have done the same in Wales and a few other places.
It really is a shame that we, supposedly, civilised and rational thinking allow anything to die out.

John

Posted by: Chrismc

Iryna tells me the Government are pushing it's people to learn Ukrainian as the first language and as stated above TV programmes etc can be in both Russian and Ukrainian.

For her job, her first language is suppose to Ukrainian, but she speaks mostly English as she deals with foreign businesses and after that Russian.

She was telling me recently that she went to a conference in the Czech Republic a few years ago and the speaker was from Dublin and speaking in English, the speach was being translated into Czech and she found it easier to understand Czech than she did English spoken by a Dubliner!!

She can also get by in Czech, Hungarian and Polish also if needs be. They put us to shame really we struggle with one language never mind 3 or 4!!

But there again, I can speak dozens, Geordie, Lancastrian, Yorkshire, Black Country, Cumbrian, Scottish, Somerset etc etc etc

Posted by: clever1

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrismc

She can also get by in Czech, Hungarian and Polish also if needs be. They put us to shame really we struggle with one language never mind 3 or 4!!

But there again, I can speak dozens, Geordie, Lancastrian, Yorkshire, Black Country, Cumbrian, Scottish, Somerset etc etc etc

The thing is Chris were lazy when it comes to languages, but Czech, Hungarian and Polish are very similar, and probably easier for Russians to learn than English.

I personally think English is probably in a class of its own, because we don't have all these word ending changes, like the other european languages, we just stick on an s or es, and unlike most we only have The, not 3 different versions, as in German, Der, Die, Das.

John