OSDev.org

Hey guys

I want to learn Russian somehow over the internet, because I don't know any good places in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, except that I heard you can learn it in conjunction with a science degree at the University of Queensland. I don't want to wait another 5 or 6 years though If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know,

Thanks ;D

Well, there's learningrussian.com, masterrussian.com, russnet.org... you did google for "learning russian" first, did you?

Keep in mind that it's probably very hard to learn Russian yourself, seeing as most students I know here can't manage to do that with teachers. (Same goes with Russians, who can't manage to learn Estonian here, but this is totally off-topic. ) May I ask why do you want to study Russian? Good luck on your goal, anyway, you'll need it.

Yeah, I have googled (google is verb now, but you probably know that I thought it was funny) for learning russian, but most of the results didn't work too well I always thought that it would be a challenge, but I'm up for it Eero, for an Estonian you speak very good english

I am thinking about maybe teaching English in Russia, I hear there are good employment prospects... Even if that's not the path that I ultimately take, it'd be good to have 2 LOTE's up my sleeve.

Thanks for the suggestions though

Calum wrote: Eero, for an Estonian you speak very good english

Are you aware of how many people on this board aren't native speakers?

But I agree, for the East Europeans it's a bit harder as English isn't exactly first choice as foreign language there, and Eero is quite good at it.

Thank you, both of you. Though English is actually preferred by many here as a language to study, and most of the difficulties rather arise from the fact Estonian is nowhere close to any of the Indo-European languages.

Other than the fact that you don't employ idioms or slang too natively, I at least couldn't tell your writing from a native's, ie: you seem to write formally.

Calum, you want to learn Russian, eh? Sorry, but I really don't know anything about learning Russian, since the only Russian-speaker I know is native.

Calum wrote:(google is verb now [...])

In Collins, and possibly others - but not in the good old OED to the best of my knowledge?

I assume then that Russian isn't a language offered at your school? You can take it from Higher up, or as an interest course here I believe.

In Collins, and possibly others - but not in the good old OED to the best of my knowledge?

Yes, but in the common vernacular (asp. online) it is indeed a verb, a shortening of the phrase "to seach for something at the website http://google.com/" which noone would want to memorize or repeat. To google is a verb that is recognized by most people, and besides, who says it's up to the dictionary people? They've been wrong before...

No, at my school only German and Japanese are offered. I am learning German but Russian is cool in my opinion...

About the dictionary definition, I think it's a sign of the times when a common Internet practice is recognized to be part of normal speech...

@Calum: Und, wie findest Du Deutsch?

In german (in the Duden-dictionary) it's called "googeln" *rofl*. That's quite funny I say.

Ha - good english. My english is deteriorated due to too much reading of Stephen King, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien and consorts. *gg* How's the saying? 'iffun 'ay 'ay 'ih (O-Tone Duddits)

Anyways, I think reading english books is the best training.

Apart from English newsgroups, mailing lists, and forums.

Of course, that's true

Reminds me I should finish reading Harry Potter 6 before Estonian version gets published. Read almost half the book the first day I got it, didn't read any further later, though. It just wasn't as exciting as the previous books.

You might want to give Stephen King:Dreamcatcher a try. That's one thrilling read I say, and one learns quite a load of nifty new words. *gg*