Post: #1

I want to game in Russia and Belarus. Would something like 300-400 hours be sufficient or am I underestimating difficulty of picking up Russian? Assume above average cognitive ability.

Post: #2

(05-29-2018 02:14 PM)ComebackKid Wrote:  I want to game in Russia and Belarus. Would something like 300-400 hours be sufficient or am I underestimating difficulty of picking up Russian? Assume above average cognitive ability.

No amount of hours is enough if you are not dealing with the language in your everyday life. Just learning in a school in the west will not be enough no matter how hard you study and dedicate yourself.

Post: #3

Based on some cursory searches, it takes ~310 hours to reach a B1 level of fluency in Russian. B1 is more than conversational--it's where I am with Russian, even after studying for many years. It is more than enough for pickup.

150-200 hours in fact should suffice and will take you to about the A2 level, which is a basic level of conversation. However, what is your plan of study. You could spend 2000 hours and still get nowhere if you're doing it completely wrong.

I recommend starting with DuoLingo. Do that all the way through, then get on italki and do at least one hour per week.

Post: #4

https://www.atlasandboots.com/foreign-se...ifficulty/

According to the US State Department classification, Russian is a Category IV language which equates to 44 weeks (1100 hours) of learning to reach fluency. That's if you want to be seriously competent. You can't reach that level without full immersion. Learning the Cyrillic alphabet alone is going to take some time for a native English speaker...maybe not as bad as going China or SEA, but it is definitely a new language.

Post: #5

I started learning the alphabet and listening to Pimsleur about 6 years ago, then started doing Anki practice daily in the mornings, and went to some language exchange meetups.

In 2015 I did a month in Russia on the transiberian and then moved to Kiev for 6 months the following year.

By that point I could get by and was forcing myself to do dates mostly in Russian and my Anki practice moved from vocabulary more to sentences.

That winter I dated a girl who didn't speak English and that's when I made the most progress and also got familiar with classic movies and TV shows.

I still spend several months a year in EE and still do daily Anki practice, although I let it slide if I'm in EE and already speaking Russian every day.

I don't know how many hours that works out to, or what level I'm at, but I'm ok speaking only Russian in any situation, although I still fuck up.

Rocha's on the ball when he says spend some time dealing with Russian speakers in everyday life. That's when you'll make real progress.

Post: #6

I think I read somewhere from the state department it takes 1100 hours of study for English speakers to get Russian down really well.

So if you’re doing at least an hour a day maybe 3 years and if you’re doing 2 hours a day probably in the range of 2 years.

Again depends on how far you push it took me about 1.5 years to get to a2-b1ish level.

Post: #7

I have to join all the other posters here. 300-400 hours of Russian classes/work on your own may get you some basic level, perhaps even a low A2 level if you're good at languages, but I don't think it will cut it to be conversational.
So yes, I'd say you're underestimating the level of difficulty of Russian.

Like Rocha, I would say that you will never get conversational without some immersion.

My advice is: do some Primsleur or Anki for a while, but rather use your time to work some more and save up cash for whatever your plans are. Then go and stay in the FSU for at least 6 months. If you're serious about learning the language and avoid the obvious pitfalls (hanging out with english speakers, etc.), that will go a long way and you may get conversational in a few months.

Spending endless hours back home trying to study a language will get you nowhere.

Post: #8

My experience with language learning is that it's less about the number of hours involved and more about the productivity of the time spent. You can spend 10,000 hours studying a language and still be completely unable to communicate.

Post: #9

I think it really depends on the person, I've met people who have studied it for years that still struggle and people that put in a solid year and have decent conversational skills. I've heard 10,000 hours minimum as an estimate to gain fluency I also agree with suits comment on 10,000 hours and not being compentent. I would estimate between the ages of 12 - 18 I had over 10,000 hours dedicated but I don't think I was truly fluent until after age 25. I had to take courses in STEM subjects in Russian that required a lot of work to nail down terms and additional vocabulary plus ability to pick up slang and dialects requires some ongoing learning. Also there is a saying that many Russians don't even speak good Russian.

I've also met certified translators in Russian that worked at embassies and for the military and their vocabulary I would estimate would be comparable to that of a native Russian child under the age of 12 but the state department deemed them fluent. One state department FSO I hung out with that was working in Russia for 2 years plus had a degree in EE Studies and gone through a ton of language training struggled to keep up and stay engaged in basic table talk. We would have to repeat ourselves a lot and explain words and phrases.

Just think about how much your native tongue develops over the time from when you say your first words until after you graduate from a university.

I personally consider fluency as having the ability to speak at your current age and education level in a foreign language. Plus the ability to express your feelings or emotions in a developed manner a long with the ability to read another persons. Based on my personal criteria I'm going to say at least 50,000+ hours to become fluent in Russian and I feel like I'm being a bit conservative.

That said I don't think really anyone on the forum needs to become fully fluent in Russian just to socialize and chat it up with girls comfortably. I think those skills could be ample enough with just a few thousand hours of intensive study and speaking. After that they'll get better and better through the years.

A good example is I entered the Foreign Legion with zero French skills and we had to learn French by force. After 5 years while I was conversational I still never became fully fluent. We did everything in French all day everyday so well over 10,000 hours. And French is much easier than Russian. But I was never really enamored with French culture or the language.

Most of our defense language immersion programs were in the 2000 - 3000 hour range and around 8+ hours per day 6 days per week. I had to do one in Arabic and I still needed an interpreter also I can barely speak or understand anything in Arabic today.

Post: #10

Last week I made friends with a young guy from Odessa and we hung out for a couple days while he was in town and went for meals, beers, walks together. He spoke Odessa-speed Russian and 20% of what he said was blur/slang/whatever. I could still follow and participate in the conversation without communication barrier, but I realized I still have a lot of room for improvement. I can generally get through any Russian-speaking situation, but I don't consider myself fluent.

It's cool to try and get fluent, but it's not necessary for gaming purposes and no matter how good you get, you'll never get so good that people will think you're a native. I see it as more of a personal challenge/self-improvement goal.