How to read Russian literature fluently

[@maximilianmaier515]

Superb video, as always. You should also mention the Folio Bilingue Editions in French and Russian. The translations can be a little spotty but they have a nice offering of titles from the great authors. I also recently began reading the original Russian while listening to the audiobooks of the classics in the original. Basically this simulates having the book read to us, the way many of us learned how to read in our native language. Another key advantage of this method is that it helps with Russian intonation, which is of course a real challenge for any learner.

[@jhansen123]

Approached this video with a lot of skepticism, but came away pretty impressed. A slight modification to the "bilingual texts" method was suggested to me by a Russian professor whose opinion I value very highly: she suggested reading a paragraph (or whatever might feel like a "manageable" chunk of text) in the original without looking up any words, then reading a translation of the same paragraph, and then finally going back and re-reading the original paragraph once more. You can have a dictionary at hand to settle any "burning questions" you have about the occasional word. I personally haven't tried this method, but she claimed that using it she very quickly gained reading competency in French. Plus, you can use this method to immediately start reading interesting, classic texts, instead of having to slowly work up to it. Anyways, thanks for the video!

[@dekaglossai]

Thank you for your kind words! I believe that bilingual texts are one of the most powerful tools in language learning, regardless of how you use them. I have found that during the learning phase it is most efficient to read the translation first. Once you have a decent level in the language (i.e., you can read a page or paragraph and only miss a handful of words), then it becomes more efficient to read the original first and look at the translation only when you need a word or phrase.

[@binnachtsaktiv9065]

Отличная тактика) я пользовался таким методом, когда учил немецкий

[@519djw6]

Thank you for this! I have another suggestion, though: buying both the paper book and an *unabridged* audio-book, so that you can get listening practice in addition to enjoying the book for its content and style.

[@alexpianoplayer15]

Привет, Дека! Я рад, что ты вернулся после очень длительного отсутствия. Надеюсь, ты будешь продолжать снимать и выкладывать полиглотские видео!

[@dekaglossai]

Спасибо большое! Думаю, что вернулся надолго!

[@Paljk299]

Some good tips thanks, good to see you making videos again.

[@williamreidboyd2944]

Thanks for this. Reverse listening is new to me. I'll have a go.

[@andymounthood]

Welcome back! I was just trying to describe the reverse listening method to someone recently, but I couldn't remember whether to listen in the target language and read in your native language or vice-versa, and I couldn't find Prof. Arguelles' video that explains it. The method sounds very intense.

[@dekaglossai]

Thank you! It is definitely an intense method, but with some practice it becomes much easier.

[@iktunutki]

Great video, I didn't remember of the reversed listening method. It would be nice if you could add in the description a reference to the books you suggest (also for Greek/Latin/Sanskrit videos). They're really useful recommendations.

[@dekaglossai]

Thank you! I always forget to add links...

[@soweli3033]

what a Gigachad

[@JulieStudies]

Woohoo! Another video! 😁

[@dekaglossai]

Thanks!

[@alexerhard9705]

Good intro to Russian literature.

[@Trevie3]

The dictionary works well for me on the Kindle.

[@N0madSou1]

Nice to hear from you. It should be LibriVox.org on the second-to-last slide.

[@dekaglossai]

Thank you for catching that!

[@hai-mel6815]

Dear Deka Glossai, do you know any courses for Russian that use the same approach of Lingua latina or the italian Athenaze? I have tried the Assimil, but the amount of texts is pretty minimal in comparison with those books. Also, the Fsi for Russian is not that great (compared to, say, the one for Hungarian, which is amazing).

[@hai-mel6815]

I'm coming back to this comment, in case anyone reads it and is looking for the same type of material. What I found so far: - Ilya Frank's material - 1973 french Assimil (one of the best language books I've ever come across)

[@meusisto]

@@hai-mel6815 I remember having all Ilya Frank's books years ago, but lost them. Not sure if we can find them again.

[@jeanenviedapprendre]

У меня 2 двуязычные книге на русском с переводом на французском языке. Несколько раз начал первую. Мне надо продолжить до конца! Обычно читал в оригинальном языке впервые. Теперь верю что это был плохая идеа.

[@dekaglossai]

я нахожу, что гораздо быстрее и полезнее читать перевод сначала. Когда я уже достиг достаточно высокого уровня в языке, я читаю оригинал сначала и пользуюсь переводом в качестве словаря.

[@jeanenviedapprendre]

Буду это делать следующий раз. Спасибо за полезные видео и комментарии.

[@astridallenmand917]

envie d'apprendre У меня две двуязычные книги с переводом на французский язык. Несколько раз начинал с первой. Мне надо начать сначала! (Дальше не совсем понятно, что ты имел ввиду из-за слова обычно, которое мы никогда не используем по отношению к прошлому) Раньше читал начиная с оригинала. Теперь мне кажется, это была плохая идея. Извини. Этой мой аутизм - помогать изучать мой язык, когда меня об этом не просят

[@marcustulliuscicero9512]

Yes! I love your videos so much. What are your thoughts on Steve Kaufmans Lingq?

[@dekaglossai]

Thank you! I think Lingq is a great resource and tool, and Steve is an amazing polyglot. I don't use lingq mainly because I prefer to read paper books.

[@marcustulliuscicero9512]

deka glossai Could you, perhaps, make a similar video for German?

[@dekaglossai]

I am definitely planning on it.

[@alexpianoplayer15]

What kind of microphone do you use? The sound is pretty good. Do you process the sound after recording it?

[@dekaglossai]

I recorded this on my phone, and then I edited it a bit with audacity.

[@victorbjorklund]

Great!

[@dekaglossai]

Thank you!

[@mynameismunka3]

Link to lecture mentioned at 0:25 ?

[@dekaglossai]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hobUfnhjh7mnf9U

[@mynameismunka3]

Thanks

[@NotAnotherDude]

I remember you used to be stoked when talking about the Ilya Frank method.

[@dekaglossai]

I still like it and use it, and I'm planning to put up a new video about it sometime soon.

[@languageservices8723]

In this video you have completely ignored the scholarly research on how best to learn to read a foreign language. You might start with Marva Barnett's More than Meets the Eye: Foreign Language Reading, Theory and Practice. It is a goldmine of information about how to go about the task of reading in a foreign language, including pre-reading and post-reading exercises, learning to recognize cognates, and studying word formation. More seriously, though, you are ignoring the excellent materials that already exist for learning to read Russian. For example, Slavica publishes an annotated version of Viktoria Tokareva's book A Day Without Lying. The professor who prepared that addition (William Comer) has also published several scholarly articles on learning to read Russian (see his article "The Role of Grammatical Knowledge in Reading for Meaning in Russian" which was published in the Slavic and East European Journal). Finally, there is an excellent book called The Golden Age: Readings in Russian Literature of the Nineteenth Century, complied by Professor Sandra F. Rosengrant. That book, and the one annotated by Professor Comer that I mentioned above, are much better suggestions than the ones you make here. You should also consider Charles Townsend's book Word Formation in Russian (published by Slavica) because there is no way to learn to read Russian fluently without studying the way Russian words are formed. Learning families of words will speed up your reading 100%.

[@dekaglossai]

Thank you so much for your comment and suggestions. I used these methods with great success to build reading ability in many languages. Three things: 1. I'm not too interested in scholarly research, I just want results. It is very rare indeed that scholarly research in the humanities and especially in the field of foreign language acquisition has any relevance to real human beings. 2. The books you recommend for reading Russian seem fine, but cheap bilingual texts do the job just as well. 3. You can absolutely read Russian (or any other language) without ever studying word formation specifically.