Всем привет! Guys, I would really appreciate if you could share your experience of learning Russian language as I am now preparing an article for my website and I need more data. In addition, I believe that your experience will be interesting and useful to other Russian language learners. Заранее спасибо! (Thank you in advance!) 😀😉
Well, Ben has a valid point. If you want to communicate on a very basic level grammar isn't needed. Same in German, use SVO word order plus infinitive or present tense, and you're good to go. We will get that. It's not correct but good enough for a start. Grammar comes with experience and requires the will to improve. Thus, encourage the will to improve, rather than pointing out the importance of grammar.
It’s easy to say learn it correctly, but that’s why 99% of people just give up on a language within a month. It’s much better to speak a language incorrectly and still be able to make your point than to just quit altogether.
As a professional interpreter and translator (as well as a language teacher) who has spent most of his life learning and practicing languages, I beg to differ. It all depends on your goals and needs. If you just want to hang around in a country, be a well-informed tourist, order in the local language in restaurants, then your approach may be valid (though some occasional, more "traditional" grammar lessons to consolidate your knowledge wouldn't harm you, for sure). If you need to use the language professionally, or enjoy certain high-level artistic products of a certain culture, you DO need to learn the grammar, syntax and everything. Of course, courses may be structured in many different ways and sometimes they are very boring, but the art of teaching languages has improved considerably in the last few decades.
@@nicolanobili2113 very incorrect. Visit any professional establishment in my country (Canada) and you’ll witness hundreds of people with poor english conducting themselves. As a native speaker i can identify their many grammar mistakes, but other ESL speakers can not, therefore they interact with each other and natives without problems. The idea that grammar classes magically teach you grammar is also silly. We don’t learn language we acquire language, this implies a sort of natural absorption rather then deliberate intent.
@@AmazingJunkie Have you really read my message? I suspect you haven't. I never said that grammar classes "magically teach you grammar". I even said that it all depends on your purpose and goal... Frankly, you are accusing me of something that I have never said, thought or implied, and you seem to disgregard the grammar... Which may not be fundamental to pick up a language sufficiently well, but which CERTAINLY doesn't hurt and, indeed, all those who long to achieve a certain fluency level feel is necessary. EVEN IN ONE'S NATIVE LANGUAGE!!! My mum, whose education was unfortunately very poor, realized that I had to study and learn the language, not just "acquire it" and interact with other people, just to give you an idea. Incidentally, I have been a language teacher, as well as a professional interpreter and translator, for over twenty years, don't you think that I may have an idea of what is best for learning languages?
This is what I've found using Duolingo. I could get by in some countries, but I wouldn't be able to pick up a book in German for example and read it all. Everyone is different and has other targets but if you just want to get by then learning vocab is enough.
As a native Russian speaker and not a teacher, I believe BALD's way of learning Russian is perfect. It is less painful, relatively quick and effective. Since Russian language is very forgivable (you can mess with it in a wide extend) you always will be understood anyway. Of course BALD familiar with grammar basics. He just wanted to say - don't stress on it, take it easy.
But I think it only works for a certain type of person. BandB has a personality the size of a truck, and is highly communicative. I've noticed this about people who learn foreign languages really well - they just love to talk to everyone. And you don't need to be particularly clever to learn a language, just be enthusiastic about talking to people. You can't bluff your way through chemistry or maths at school - you simply need to know all the boring details - but you can bluff your way through a conversation in a foreign language, and you get better every time you talk it.
@@MrSonofsonof thats very well observed. The way to speak a language is not to ingest a dictionary. But i love to talk to people..the greatest inhibitor is fear of grammatical mistakes
BALD has two million subs and takes all of them on a journey into country's everybody is curios about and what you find out is that governments can be quite different but the people really are not.
I get the opposite impression from his videos, he does a good job showcasing the various unique cultures and people's of the former Soviet republics. People are different and not all the same.
I really appreciate this review of Benjamin's level of Russian from a native speaker. I've seen some criticism of him that he makes mistakes and that he hasn't learned in the proper way. But for people who want to be able to have conversations and not focus on passing exams with proper grammar he seems to be a good role model. And the fact that you confirm that he's speaking good enough. Of course we can see from the interactions that he's communicating well, but it's great to get your stamp of approval. This gives me a lot of confidence to continue with the method.
It's true that he makes some mistakes in grammar (and as a teacher I don't appreciate it 😅), but as a native I can say that he speaks well and he manages to make himself understood. That's a great way to start learning a language but you should always improve and polish your grammar later. But as soon as you start speaking, you understand how to learn grammar from the context and not with grammar books. That is the magic of a natural language learning 😉
@@hackyourrussian4091 There was one video that made me laugh so hard. He opened the door to a restaurant and there were people there in an awkwardly close position and he meant to say "sorry!", but instead he said "APOLOGIZE!", lmaooooo.
what a great youtuber Benjamin bankrupt is so eloquently funny and also very informative. It doesn't matter how good or bad he speaks the respective national language he is in. In fact, this great youtuber is a mega funny intelligent person who is us viewers entertains, informs, provides information and shows so much that would otherwise be hidden.
Of the country he is in* who entertains us, viewers... Shows so much of what would be otherwise hidden* Also I have never heard anyone say mega, I'd rather say super intelligent.Great stuff!
@@lafritegaming7713 There's nothing wrong with using mega., as above..it's not as popular as other words but your comment isn't well received. I'm sure you'd be more than happy to win the American MEGA LOTTO instead of a non existent SUPER LOTTO.
Took the words rite out of my mouth bald is my favorite utuber. I enjoy his his unending persistence to others learning about, not only about Russia but; the World. Thanks Mr Bald
@@m_b9892 Jesus Christ calm down, it was a light hearted joke, you took that way to seriously. I watch the show for a bit of history and to laugh at the sarcastic jokes that he makes. I don't know what has given you such a chip on your shoulder, but if you don't learn to laugh at your self and the simple things around you that darkness you carry inside is going to drag you down. Laterz
Some weeks after i started to learn Russian by my own, i watched that Bald's video and i was agree with him. Forget about grammar rules at the beginning, so i just boosted my vocabulary with any word i found in texts, videos, etc. and i listen the right pronunciation and practice at home. I started with colors and numbers just to choose something, it was fun to surprise my Russian friends))) After around 500 words learnt i jumped to verbs and the conjugations and that's where i am now with maybe 1000 words vocabulary. The jump to understand nothing to figure it out what was all about was incredible and of course when i read some sentence and i don't know a word, i added to my vocabulary. I make a lot of mistakes yet, but my friends are always happy to hear my messages and they understand me without big problem. So, yes, as you say, i really recommend to first boost the vocabulary and then verbs and their rules, after that the grammar endings and other rules i think will come more naturally.
Some people seem to keep on believing that grammar and vocabulary are mutually exclusive. Of course when you start studying a new language you need to memorize a lot of words, but when I hear "forget the grammar", I honestly smile... and I have been teaching foreign languages for 25 years, besides being a professional interpreter and translator! Sorry for being frank, but your method is fallacious. You are thrilled because your friends are happy when you say something in Russian... But they would be anyway! What you said is extremely naive: when someone hears a foreigner speaking his/her language, he/she normally feels happy and encourages him/her. Believe me, I've checked that in many parts of the world, for over two decades. You should memorize words, but unless you just want to hang around as a tourist in a country or little more than that, you should ALSO study the grammar. Gradually, but starting from the very beginning, with simple rules you can use immediately. If you pick up a structure incorrectly, it may take you years to correct it, and some people never do. Yeah, their friends are sympathetic and smile, but they'll never get rid of gratuitous mistakes.
@@nicolanobili2113 There is a difference between to say "forget about the grammar" and "forget about the grammar at the beginning". You, Mr Professor Translator Interpreter III, seems to not have the ability to read correctly after 25 years :p
I learned Russian by memorizing phrases and copying native speakers, I learned russian faster than I learned English (my first language is portuguese) and russian is much more complex than English. I don't see point in studying so much grammar, especially the russian that is a nightmare, extremely random and hard to understand the logic behind.
I think he also bonds and interacts well with most of the people he meets (not all of them!)... He meets interesting but ordinary people all over the placr.
Yep. He goes to places where other travel channels don't. He goes to the provincial cities and towns, as well as the rural villages, and talks to real people. If all you care about are the larger cities, like Moscow or St Petersburg, or the resort cities, like Sochi, then Bald's channel is probably not for you. This is my main criticism with guys like Sergey Baklykov. He is primarily city focused, and when he does wander off the beaten path, it's to places that have been preserved as living museums that are clean and staffed with professional actors, whose job it is to portray the past, not real people. A preserved village, is not the same as an active village where people still live and work to make a living, and not everything is pristine and perfect.
I was the same when learning Spanish .Grammar made me utterly miserable. I gave in on several occasions . Then , I decided to just learn by listening and copying what people said. The difference was immense . I learned verbs etc . My progress was rapid and I felt so much more confident and happy . I still enjoy learning Spanish today ,years later .Learning a language is a life long endeavour .Good luck to all learners !
I taught myself Spanish the hard way.At least it doesn't have the dreaded cases.You need to be able to pronounce it correctly or people won't understand you.South American Spanish is much clearer than that spoken in Spain.
@@dt5070 hablas Ingles tambien como idioma nativo o no? Si tuviste que aprender ingles seguramente notaste que el Ingles es mas gramaticamente sencillo en algunos aspectos. Y si has aprendido Ingles pero nunca aprendiste otro idioma estoy seguro que lo podrás notar a la hora de estudiar otro idioma que si tenga mucha complejidad en cuanto la conjugacion y la concordancia. Hay menos uso del modo subjuntivo. I hope you are happy. You are happy. El verbo be se mantiene igual. En español Espero que estes feliz. Estas feliz. When it rains I use my umbrella. It rains a lot. Cada persona grammatical (yo, tu, el/usted, ustedes/ellos, vosotros y nosotros) tiene una conjugacion diferente. En cada momento un estudiante de español tiene que considerar el tiempo y la personas y eligir la version indicada de la palabra entre como 40 versions en lugar de como 10 en Ingles. Ah y que no se le olviden los generos de todos los substantivos. ¿Y hay que usar le o lo? Ingles tiene su idiosincrasia y aprender a hablarlo de forma fluida es retador pero la grammatica mas basica y esencial es relativamente facil de comprender.
I am from England and speak similar Russian to him (but he is better!). I agree exactly what you say about grammar and vocab. For me, reading Russian helps me pick up grammar. If you concentrate too much on grammar I feel people will be put off learning it. Speak as much as you can as often as possible. In Russia the native speaker's almost always understand me and actually find it unusual a foreigner is speaking Russian, but they like it very much. I speak a couple of other languages too and base my language learning foundation in which I build upon, as follows: Learn 100 most common words Learn top ten most common verbs in basic forms of I, you, we. Learn top 20 common phrases. Learn alphabet (if structure is entirely different as is Russian). Then I build on this foundation.
I study Italian because I take trips there every year. I learn more Italian by being there for a week than I do in 2 months learning on my own. Probably true for any language.
It may be the quickest but also the most stressful way. I had to learn French from the scratch being in France. Taking into account the fact that not all French people speak English, I faced lots of stressful moments. So I personally had no choice but to forget about grammar and learn more vocabulary to be able to explain even some simple things 😁
It is just a false image. Studying home properly and watching TV on the language that you learn is the most productive ...unless if you don't have a local that hanging with you all over the time and talk and translate in same time all the words and you pay attention. Just pretending that traveling in a certain country doesn't help too much . After all you will be distracted by another things there.
I’m Italian and I can tell you that for a native English speaker learning a good Italian is really difficult. The point is that I met many people from USA or England claiming they could speak Italian but actually they barely could communicate and sometimes their accent was terrible. The only ones who could speak quite good were the ones who lived her for many years or/and married with Italians.
He's very extraverted and likes to converse with people. He's naturally uninhibited. I've noticed that people who talk and converse in a new language without worrying about making mistakes are the ones who learn the fastest and best.
True. A friend of mine never learned proper German yet he still speaks it without any hesitation, whereas I was always afraid to make mistakes so spoke less. Guess who's better at it?
They're good at talking about things they focus on: restaurants, people, weather, travel.... but if you get into things a little technical, their knowledge is ever the more scant.
your insight is absolutely spot on. i worked 25 years as a tour guide guiding in two different foreign languages, french and german and your analysis of the problems a non native speaker can have is excellent.on the bald front. i am a big fan and he is doing a magnificent job spotlighting the delights of the former soviet union. i passed my russian language o level in 1978 but i have been inspired to take up the russian language once again.i am enjoying it immensely.i am tending towards bald`s language learning approach but i have my old forbes russian grammar book at hand for a bit of light reading.great video.
I just really want to say, when we are discussing language in english, we just say Russian or English. We don't say language unless were discussing the technical details of the language. So it'd just be Russian I don't mean to criticise. It's only that it gets very repetitive hearing the word language over and over when it doesn't add anything to the conversation.
in my opinion as a learner, who has only been learning for 7 months on my own at home, i managed to finsih all 6 cases in a months time like a month ago (between jan and feb) and i think that cases is something people over estimate ALOTT, sure memorizing endings seems hard at first , but trust me it isn’t if u really look at it, don’t learn endings from tables because ur never gonna finsih, instead, grab each case, let’s say genetive, learn the endings for masculine and neuter (they are same) а/я, write down a lot of words applying this case, like студент- студента, море- моря, задание- задания, так далее... do this for day1 , day 2 do the same thing for female, day 3 for plural, and finally day 4 for adjectives (u can do all together or also split it), each time making sure to write down example words for each category, after ur done with first case, u need to recognize when it’s applied/used, now most cases have a few uses, but genitive is the most used, it has aloooot of prepositions and situations , like без/для/после/нет/не было/не будет/из-за and so many more, for counting with numbers/ много мало сколько несколько ... now ur pretty much done with genetive, do same for the other 4 cases, each case will take u 1-2 weeks, depending on how much time u spend, once ur done done, find online practice questions on cases, and make sure ur applying them in ur speech, or recognizing them online in texts, for example seeing youtube video with title: топ 5 лучших стран в мире, u see it and u say “oh look here both genitive and prepositional” or idk a tik tok video title like: станцуй со мной, u would recognize the instrumental case, and so on and that’s basically it, coming from someone learning for such a short period of time on his own, i can tell u this is how i did it and how to me, cases can be tricky, but not as “bad” as many people make it seem (edit) one thing i remembered to say, is that most of the endings won’t give u a hard time or take long, except of course for some exceptions, mainly words like дочь и мать change a bit, some words u just have to know it as it is, the word for time время becomes времени in genetive, деньги becomes денег in genetive, имя becomes имени in dative and so on...
These are really wonderful insights. I agree 💯 with you on this technique of learning Russian cases 👍 Огромное спасибо за то, что поделились своим опытом изучения русского языка 🤗 Желаю вам дальнейших успехов!
For English speaker Russian is very hard. There's no genders in English language. I'm Bulgarian and my language is pretty close to Russian. I can watch Russian TV and I can understand almost all. We have genders but we don't have cases and it's very hard for me to talk in Russian. Russian was compulsory here in schools when I was student, and it didn't help at all. Jordan is my real name, it sounds like Yordan in my language. You read Cyrillic - Йордан. Is it close in Jordan? We wanted to visit Jordan with my wife last year, but the pandemic began.
Benjamin is a person who does things at the most effective level for his needs. He is basically a polyglot; he is fluent in speaking and reading Hindi and its dialects as well as the other languages that are somewhat mutually intelligible with it like Urdu. He also speaks Spanish fairly well. A very interesting person at any rate.. Great video!!
I agree with the sentiment, but his Spanish is really bad. I woudn't say he "speaks" the language at aIl, regardless of grammar mistakes and lack of vocabulary. I think his comprehension skills are pretty good for his level, though. That's okay considering he hasn't lived in a Spanish-speaking country or anything afaik.
@@niallsheehan474 when i say 'fairly well' it is all i mean. fairly well, is not considered by most people as "good", it just means he is understandable to spanish speakers and he can understand them for basic communication--vis a vis his Peruvian, Cuba and Mexico trips
I’ve been watching Bald for a long time and he’s inspired me to take a bit of an interest in Russian. I’ve been on Duolingo for 3 weeks and it can feel overwhelming. Not sure where to go with it but the app is teaching me vocabulary so it’s nice. Anyway I’ve subbed to channel. Great video btw.
You should make flashcards with Anki or with the app AnkiDroid. Also, russianpod101/innovative app are great. Duolingo is not bad....but it will not make you fluent. You need other tools, that are more solid. Duolingo is not bad ....but I have been told it is not always correct.
I don't like Duolingo, because like most apps these days, including this one, it spends a lot of time spying on you and selling your data. I wouldn't give it access to your phone mike.
He never said he had learned it perfectly. Actually he has explained before that he doesn't care about grammar he just wants to communicate with people
I have found over the years that it's very helpful to read, out loud, a book you are very familiar with and love, translated (well) into your target language. Another useful technique is to write out your favorite parts, again, speaking out loud as you do so, in your target language. Your brain is learning in multiple ways when you do it this way. It helps cement your ability. You are not only using your mouth, but your hand, and you are hearing yourself say it, so you are thinking it, writing it, saying it, and hearing it. Very effective discipline.
My grandparents were translators originally from Germany. They were always willing to help me with German, French, and Russian, but Polish was their secret weapon. The more I learned the others, the more they would speak Polish when they wanted privacy. My dad said when he was a kid they would speak English around him when they would argue and he had to learn it on his own. 🤣
Хорошее видео, и Вы конечно правы о важной роле лексики в изучении любого языка. Но, что Вы скажете о проблеме "зафиксированных ошибок" среди тех, кто слишком много внимания уделял лексику чем грамматике? К примеру, у нас в городе (в Англии) знаю литовца кто владеется английским, но он говорит со многими простыми ошибками - он говорит I don't can вместо I can't - хотя он прекрасно знает что так не правильно, но он уже не может отвыкнуть от этого - ошибка уже зафиксированной... И когда я сам говорю по-русски, иногда ловлю себя в ужасных ошибках типа "буду сделать" - если стараешься ускорить темп своего русского языка, вполне возможно что привыкнешь к ошибкам, и потом станет всё труднее изменить закоренелую привычку....
Я считаю, что от таких ошибок вполне можно избавиться со временем. На самом деле, эти ошибки возникают чаще всего из-за того, что человек мало уделяет времени аутентичным материалам - чтению полезных блогов, прослушиванию подкастов, просмотру фильмов с субтитрами. Многие грамматические конструкции можно выучить неосознанно и использовать их в речи. И наоборот, когда человек учит грамматику по книжкам, мозг не может сразу найти правильную конструкцию, так как это формула, которую нужно решить в голове; это искусственное знание, навязанное вашему мозгу.
Some people just don't care enough to correct their mistakes. Any wrong grammatical pattern CAN be corrected with a little effort. Only wrong pronunciation is hard to correct through conscious efforts.
My Ukrainian coworkers have taught me a bit of Russian in the past 3 years, the best way to learn is adding words to your vocabulary. Even knowing the smallest bit of Russian just lights up my quiet coworkers. "Oh you speak good Russian!"
I would agree with everything both "Bald and Bankrupt" and "Hack Your Russian" said about starting off. Focusing on vocabulary (with grammatical basics) I look at as building a solid foundation. Basic nouns and verbs is helpful, then moving on to adjectives to describe the action or noun. Grammar seems to be the "Interior Designer" of the building. They come in last to make everything beautiful.
This is excellent analysis! I love Benjamin’s videos. One important point to make is that his playful sense of humor translates very well with so many Russian speakers - especially the babushkas! I once made a Hungarian lady laugh with my limited Hungarian. She asked me where the clock repairer shop was and I looked at my watch and told her the time! Do not underestimate the power of humor to help learn a language and enjoy the process better!
Bald speaks passable/survival/functional Russian, which is clearly enough for his purposes. The thing about Russian is that it's got lots of redundancy in its grammar. The language follows the basic SVO word order but the case endings on nouns and conjugation endings on nouns add redundancy to make sure that even if the word order gets mixed up the sentence will still make sense. In practice, though, what that means as long as you follow the basic SVO word order, people will still be able to understand you even if all your nouns are in the nominative and your verbs are in the infinitive. You will sound weird but you will still have successfully communicated your message and Bald in his video essentially suggests you take advantage of that. It's very practical, very pragmatic and it does work.
I just discovered your channel because I sometimes follow "Bald".... Thank you so much for making this video!!! :) I am a native English speaker from Canada, I learned German many years ago in the exact manner you describe, I started learning Spanish three years ago. And I could not agree with you more, there is a place for grammar in every language but it's definitely not at the beginning of your language journey. I know so many people that quit their new language because they were baffled and confused by the traditional teaching methods, focusing too much on grammar. It's absolutely key to start speaking the new language ASAP, and don't be embarrassed about making mistakes all natives will know your form speaker anyways. None of us speak our own language perfectly, let alone foreign languages.. So I want to say thank you again and I encourage everybody.. Just speak the language and don't worry about grammar at the beginning of your journey... That will come with time automatically... Your ear will pick up Your ear will pick up and you will just know what sounds right and wrong... Good luck at fellow language learners!!!!
I liked this particular vlog evaluation of Bald's fluency of the Russian language. Comparing the many aspects of the Russian language and the different situations Bald faced in his vlogs and yet managed with a very decent level of command of the language, according to your opinion, acknowledgement and stamp of approval would certainly please Bald greatly. Bald has been very truthful of his level of competence of the Russian language and has provided his bit of advice to people interested in learning the Russian language quickly. Lately, in one of his vlogs, a native speaker had bluntly criticised Bald's "poor" level of the Russian language, which hardly ever occured in any other vlogs of his. I am impressed with your findings of Bald and the latter's fluency in a number of other languages. I have just subscribed to your channel.
This is so true! In my own experience, by far the quickest way to pick up a language is to get familiar with the vocabulary by memorizing hundreds of complete sentences (including the correct case endings). Then start combining bits and pieces of these sentences. I learned Russian reasonably well in exactly 100 evenings using a 'Learn spoken Russian in only 100 days' self-study courses, which really lived up to its promises. Thereafter I followed many years of evening courses and noticed how many people were unable to have a basic conversation even after many years of staring at the grammar and trying to read Chekhov, etc.
I am learning Russian but the grammar is very hard. I will never live in Russia, however I would like to learn basic Russian for travelling the country. My question regarding grammar is, would it still be understood if I used the pronoun + infinitive verb in the nominative case? I know this is not perfect grammar, but for basic communication, would this be understood in Russia?
As a Russian speaker, I will say that most of the phrases in Russia will be understood even with incorrect cases. For example, if you want to say: "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the nearest metro station?" If it is correct in Russian: "Извините, не подскажете, как мне пройти к ближайшей станции метро?" Options that are wrong, but we will understand: "Как мне идти к метро?" or "мне надо метро, как хорошо идти?" or quite simply, the hearing is straining, but still understandable: "Я хотеть в метро, как идти?", "где метро? я не знать путь"
If you want, you can write an example of how you would say something in Russian, and I will tell you whether I understand it or not. I write in English through a translator, I don't know English well
@@Yaroslav_Rus ОК давайте попробуем! привет, я хочу узнать русский но грамматика очень сложно. Я знаю немного слова, но нет как положить их в логический заказ. ты Можно понять меня сейчас или нет? Большое спасибо за ты помогать с мой русский и грамматика. ))
@@sambell2152 Привет, понимаю всё отлично! Ошибки в падежах видны, но смысл хорошо понятен.) Интересно, что использование необычных слов или фраз, таких как "но нет как положить их в логический заказ" возможно может кого-то сбить с толку, но я понял, что ты видимо имел в виду что-то типа "но не знаю, как из них составить правильное предложение" Молодец! Знание слов я думаю приоритетнее, а падежи и прочее придут со временем, если не бросишь)
@@Yaroslav_Rus тоже, я Только начинать узнать русский 2 недели назад. в один год еще, я может быть мочь говорить хороший )) благодарить за помощь. ты даете мне еще вера в мой русский и Я буду Продолжать узнать !
Yes I agree about vocabulary. And recommend фасмер онлайн to try to get the words into active memory for speaking or active memory for understanding. You’ll probably think I’m mad when you look at фасмер онлайн for a given word, so I’ll give you an example. Five minutes ago my neighbour with her child came up to the landing where I was sitting in my предбанник(е) (= little lobby between two flats on one side of the landing. Just as she was taking her child to flat on the other side she said to her child : “Что ты хмуришься? Там что-то есть?» So here I understood sentence 2 but not sentence 1. So I looked up both..It was “What you frowning for? Is there something there? “ . Now, хмуришься rang some mental bell of met before, but I couldn’t get it - either to say or to understand. So this time I want to plant it in my memory permanently. Hopefully by use of Фасмер to somehow pull some element out of the etymology which links it closer to either my native English or maybe French or maybe Latin or Greek as long as the end result is that I’m able to mnemonicise [ memory aid] it. I’ll now do this and report back in the next comment frame ..
Спасибо вам большое! I am a Russian language learner for four years. I am also a huge Bald and Bankrupt fan. I also believe that once you have a strong vocabulary foundation, incorporating grammar becomes less intimidating. Cases are clearly a big challenge for everyone but I believe speaking often to native speakers is the key. Great video!!!!
Before I want to started learn Russian I think that grammar is the most important element in learning a language but then a lot of people on the internet says that vocabulary is much more important than grammar, and they were right. I made quite a good progress right now
I'm here from the Bald channel. Lot's of good advice here. Many years ago, I was on duty in France and happened to be in a conversation with a French girl. I had taken HS French and not confident in speaking to her other than simple greetings and such. I noticed I was able to understand what she was saying but not able to respond. I was not able to speak to her in French but for some reason I could write it. My friend happened to have a piece of paper which I used to communicate with her. She would speak something, and since I couldn't formulate the words in my head, I had to slowly write it out word for word. She would keep saying "Just speak it. You can write just say what you are writing." but for some reason I was not able to do that. Likely because it took so long to translate in my head and then the response had to be calculated properly on paper. I found out that she was planning a trip to Los Angeles and was excited to see an American there in her town. It was fun to talk to her for awhile but wish I could have been more fluent to not need the paper as a crutch.
Привет! Thanks, this was a great idea for a video. We've enjoyed Benjamin's travels, particularly places not so often visited. I'm just at the basic vocabulary level in Russian language, I find it helpful when I actually communicate with Russian speakers (digital penpals, TH-cam comments, etc)...to have an immediate urgency, shall I say, to understand the sentences helps me learn.
he also learns more by speaking and listening to all kinds of accents and dialects. which learners of every language should try. I don't speak Russian but I can understand quite a lot simply by learning vocabulary and a few other details, You pick up grammar as you learn sentences. It's how I became a great Japanese and Korean speaker.
I'd love to be able to converse in Russian as Ben does. The Russian teacher here explains it well...you don't need to be a 'grammar expert' to converse but vocabulary is more important. Immersing oneself in the language by actually living in that country is best...you can take classes later to hone you skill.
I am trying to learn Russian and find your observations so true. I am so afraid of the grammar that I feel too shy to speak and make mistakes. This really hampers my progress. I am really glad that I came across your video.
I came here after watching the video where he says NOT to learn grammar, and after watching that and now this video feel much more confident that I'll be able to learn enough Russian to understand and communicate effectively with native speakers. I've just dipped my toe into the whole learning Russian thing up until now but your confirmation of what the bald man said gives me the encouragement to go further :-)
"Она говорит что она не уместиться в объектив (видеокамеры) , (так как она) полная (женщина)" - She said that she would not fit in the lens (of a video camera), (since she is) a plump woman.
😁 She said : "Говорит, что не вместится в объектив - полная" ("she is saying that she wouldn't fit into the camera lens because she is big") 🎥😁 the correct verb to use here is "поместиться в объектив" (to fit into the camera lens)
@@egoldwin it's just that we have quite a lot of similar reflexive verbs built on the prefix + МЕСТО/PLACE+ suffix СЯ pattern. поместиться/разместиться/уместиться/вместиться perhaps Ben simply did not know any of the variants of such a verb and therefore did not catch the meaning from the context.
I don't think his video title is misleading. It is only for catching attention. His point is that you should focus on vocabulary and forget about the grammar because: 1. Others will understand you despite grammatical errors. 2. You will be able to pick up grammar on the way anyway. By the way, I learned English the same way. I didn't pay much attention to the grammar and made many grammatical errors at first. I then began trying to correct the grammar once I was fluent enough in the language to hold a conversation.
This is absolutely true guys. I have reached a B1 level of Russian starting from scratch within 15 months focusing on "listening". Yes, i had a teacher, but we only did 2 lessons per month just to talk about basic grammar and basic language rules, but all the progress i did was because of "context learning". Podcasts, youtube videos with Russian subs, Russian comnedy series: "кухня", "как я слал русским" and talking very often with natives on app "tandem" not giving a fk about the mistakes that i new i was making. At the beginning you will say a sentence in Russian and then switch to Emglish in order to explain all your thoughts but as time goes by you will need less and less help from English. "Learning through context" is the way to go if you want to reach a good conversational level. Of course if you want to speak fluently and reach C1, C2 levels then you need to take a deep dive into the lovely world of russian grammar, падежи, предлоги, приставки, совершенный и несовершенный вид глаголов. Удачи вам.
He has a good cultural and historical knowledge of east slavic countries so I think it helps him quickly understand the context and pull the right meaning.
Benjamin really is amazing. I like his channel (well, most of the time). His russian (in my opinion) is no big deal, but he is more than able to compensate for the shortages with his ready-wit and extrovert personality. I came come to the same conclusion as he did (-> forget about grammar), while learning russian. But I don´t think the case systém to be the biggest problem by far. I think it is rather the grammatical aspect and the huge amount of prefixes. выдавать давать задавать издавать обдавать отдавать передавать подавать предавать преподавать придавать продавать создавать … :) (I am slavic native speaker myself, it should be a way easier for me, but I doubt it) The points /steps which worked very good for me: a) Invest a lot of time and be continuous and consequent. b) Listen, listen, listen (basicaly, You Tube will do for almost everyone) - choose a topic which will be of interest for you (рецензии) or which is easy to follow (новости, спорт..). Obviously, you will have to learn the а́збука and reading basics as well. c) You will remember and comprehend a word far more better, if you first hear it in russian (and only indentifies it as something new) and only then you will look it up in dictionary / or simply you will come to guess it. Try to avoid using you native language whenever possible. Do not build couples (native lang. -> russian / russian -> native lang.) - it is mostly contraproductive. d) Speak to the natives. A lot. Do not mind mistakes. e) Pay great attention to stress, rhytm and melody / intonation (the unit here be not a word, but rather a sentence). Удачу вам!
The case endings are very similar to cases in Latin Once again we see that familiarity with Classical languages is immensely helpful in the study of other idioms There is a lot to be said for a rigorous education. Bald is a natural learner . Very bright and quick. His pronunciation is superb
I took his advice and started concentrating on vocabulary more than grammar. I have been able to increase my Russian learning very quickly. I have only been studying for about 5 months, and I could navigate through Russia without much problem. Another course that I have followed is called "Russian Made Easy." There are only 30 lessons, but it teaches you in real time, much like a child would learn the language. Russian is a fascinating language, but has a high level of difficulty. Thanks for the video, it was entertaining, and I'm glad you agree that vocabulary is very important early in the learning phase.
Why do we say understand to mean comprehension? What does standing have to do with it? Why do we say what's up to greet people? When I asked these questions learning other languages became a bit more easy
I've been interested in Russian for about a week. I love it and will continue to learn as much as I can. I love going to my brothers house and greeting him with the basic hello, good morning stuff, then just making stuff up that I don't even understand myself. He's so impressed 😂
@@hackyourrussian4091 The thing I find with Russian is, yeah it's a bit mental, but that's what I love about it 😂 I like liking the things that other people don't like. It's pretty funny, even if you are just making shit up 😂
Recently, Apple and Goole introduced a voice recognition translator where we speak and it translates to any language in writing with voice. Some people may not bother learning foreign languages.
Well, of course, it does solve a problem but it does not provide this satisfaction when you can speak a foreign language yourself. That is a wonderful feeling when you can speak and understand another language, isn't it?
I was waiting for a B&B scene when he was barbecuing with extremely drunk villagers. Russian Language Teacher: "Here Benjamin shows excellent language skills and I am happy he provided subtitles because I have no idea what they were saying." 😀
Well listen, however he speaks it, he makes himself understood. Job done. That's what language is all about! So yes, quite right. Learn the language and speak it. It's about communication not education.
I believe I have passed the same path with boosting the vocabulary first. Yet, it is easier when you are native in any other Slavic language that has cases (not Bulgarian) ;)
Thanks for the review. It confirms how I see B&B's approach. His method helped me a lot to speak Russian without being terrorised by too much grammar. And thank you, Bald and Bankrupt.
I am still probably at the lower intermediate stage, but I took a very good course called Russian Accelerator where I learned mostly by pattern recognition, with vocabulary, grammar points, and practice within each lesson. It gave me a good foundation, now I am spending most of my time on my weakest point - understanding spoken Russian. I think that listening and speaking helps with grammar more than learning the case names and charts full of rules can help, but I also think that learning vocabulary without having a clue about grammar wouldn't produce good results. When I talk to native speakers, they often correct me when I use incorrect grammar, which I ask them to do. I do like Bald and Bankrupt's videos and am impressed with his language skills.
I've learnt Russian words from bald and I'm not even trying to learn Russian! That's when you know something is good content. But I've only learnt about 10-15 phrases. But still, that's better than zero and not being able to tell the difference between Russian and Polish, how I was before the bald and bankrupt vids!
I've seen other vloggers go to some of the same places and even more beautiful places, but they are much less interesting. He finds characters and stories, and is entertaining.
It's a very difficult language for us adults who never took a course in it in college. I lose motivation very quickly when I feel like I'm not making any progress. The only way for me to initially make progress is to add words to my vocabulary. Anytime I'm able to understand a word on command, I see proof of that progress. I know at some point, I will need to string together a sentence, but for now, I am focusing on vocabulary. I went out and bought a dictionary that lists words in order of their frequency of use and plan to learn the first 500 words to get a good foundation.
I'm Polish and I took a half year exchange to Moscow. I've quit the Russian class they offered us at the Uni, because grammar comes very naturally for Slavs and it was bit waste of time, so I switched to children books like The Little Prince and just interacting with Russians. I came to Russia knowing no Russian and at the begging I was speaking Polish with Eastern accent and they were speaking slowly and we were able to have quite good understanding. When I didn't understand the word and I asked for synonym, nearly always there was a common word in Polish and Russian. I have to admit, a lot of people said they have never heard so funny yet understandable "Russian" I was speaking.
I learned my Russian the same way. I focused on a couple basic cases to make sure I was generally understood and really concentrated on my vocabulary and putting sentences together with increasing complexity. He obviously has a knack for languages but I think it’s a solid way to learn and I am multilingual. Great video
When I was in Russia for a week with two years of Russian language courses at my university behind me, I too realized that Russians don't care much about case endings and such, but they do correct you whenever you put the stress on the wrong vowel. :D University level language studies are way too theoretical and make you thrust your head into the wall.
The truth is that even Russian natives make mistakes in Russian cases all the time, especially when they speak fast... And especially when it comes to numerals 😉
I follow this guy and I was amazed how fluent he is. He has a fantastic channel. One tip just Judging from this video talk over while the video is running. I’m not sure how much content you have seen if his channel but I was really shocked the state some parts of Russia or formerly of Russia are in.
Reporting back from 2 comment frames down: well , this took me to хмура an old word for raincloud. Did not find a cognate link to frown - though one often does find memory linking cognates on Фасмер онлайн - but it now helps that my neighbour said to her daughter - although she obviously didn’t know herself about this origin - sort of , “What are you making a face like a raincloud for?!”.. In a way , you can learn a 2nd language by sometimes knowing more about it than the 1st language speaker.
That's a very interesting approach to learn new vocabulary. I love etymology as weel, it helps a lot to learn many words at once just by knowing a root of the word. The curiosity is always helpful when learning a new language 😉👍
Life is compromise. Ben has very functional Russian. I've tried for a long time and I'm no where near Ben's level. Forget it! Next go I'm trying Ben's way.
The times I’ve said to the Russian minibus driver : на остановку пожалуиста ( accusative case, incorrect) , ditto equal number of times на остановке ( correct locative case) . But he understood either way.
Polish (shine/improve) “pöl • ish” Polish (Countryman of Poland) “pō • lish” Ö makes the same sound as “Ah” when you say “Ah ha!” Ō is a long “O” which sounds the same as pronouncing the name of the letter, or saying the word “Oh”.
Всем привет! Guys, I would really appreciate if you could share your experience of learning Russian language as I am now preparing an article for my website and I need more data. In addition, I believe that your experience will be interesting and useful to other Russian language learners. Заранее спасибо! (Thank you in advance!) 😀😉
я уже оставил комментарий ))
Да, большое спасибо 🤗
УЧИ РУССКИЙ!
@@sundayspring252 кто?
Well, Ben has a valid point.
If you want to communicate on a very basic level grammar isn't needed.
Same in German, use SVO word order plus infinitive or present tense, and you're good to go.
We will get that. It's not correct but good enough for a start.
Grammar comes with experience and requires the will to improve.
Thus, encourage the will to improve, rather than pointing out the importance of grammar.
It’s easy to say learn it correctly, but that’s why 99% of people just give up on a language within a month. It’s much better to speak a language incorrectly and still be able to make your point than to just quit altogether.
As a professional interpreter and translator (as well as a language teacher) who has spent most of his life learning and practicing languages, I beg to differ. It all depends on your goals and needs. If you just want to hang around in a country, be a well-informed tourist, order in the local language in restaurants, then your approach may be valid (though some occasional, more "traditional" grammar lessons to consolidate your knowledge wouldn't harm you, for sure). If you need to use the language professionally, or enjoy certain high-level artistic products of a certain culture, you DO need to learn the grammar, syntax and everything.
Of course, courses may be structured in many different ways and sometimes they are very boring, but the art of teaching languages has improved considerably in the last few decades.
@@nicolanobili2113 very incorrect. Visit any professional establishment in my country (Canada) and you’ll witness hundreds of people with poor english conducting themselves. As a native speaker i can identify their many grammar mistakes, but other ESL speakers can not, therefore they interact with each other and natives without problems. The idea that grammar classes magically teach you grammar is also silly. We don’t learn language we acquire language, this implies a sort of natural absorption rather then deliberate intent.
@@AmazingJunkie Have you really read my message? I suspect you haven't. I never said that grammar classes "magically teach you grammar". I even said that it all depends on your purpose and goal... Frankly, you are accusing me of something that I have never said, thought or implied, and you seem to disgregard the grammar... Which may not be fundamental to pick up a language sufficiently well, but which CERTAINLY doesn't hurt and, indeed, all those who long to achieve a certain fluency level feel is necessary. EVEN IN ONE'S NATIVE LANGUAGE!!!
My mum, whose education was unfortunately very poor, realized that I had to study and learn the language, not just "acquire it" and interact with other people, just to give you an idea.
Incidentally, I have been a language teacher, as well as a professional interpreter and translator, for over twenty years, don't you think that I may have an idea of what is best for learning languages?
This is what I've found using Duolingo. I could get by in some countries, but I wouldn't be able to pick up a book in German for example and read it all. Everyone is different and has other targets but if you just want to get by then learning vocab is enough.
@@nicolanobili2113 bald stated in one of his vids that vocabulary is the most important, and i agree in my experience
As a native Russian speaker and not a teacher, I believe BALD's way of learning Russian is perfect. It is less painful, relatively quick and effective. Since Russian language is very forgivable (you can mess with it in a wide extend) you always will be understood anyway. Of course BALD familiar with grammar basics. He just wanted to say - don't stress on it, take it easy.
Thank you for the post!
Brother, that coming from a native russian speaker is very inspiring. Thank you.
But I think it only works for a certain type of person. BandB has a personality the size of a truck, and is highly communicative. I've noticed this about people who learn foreign languages really well - they just love to talk to everyone. And you don't need to be particularly clever to learn a language, just be enthusiastic about talking to people. You can't bluff your way through chemistry or maths at school - you simply need to know all the boring details - but you can bluff your way through a conversation in a foreign language, and you get better every time you talk it.
Speaking 4,5 languages and I agree
@@MrSonofsonof thats very well observed. The way to speak a language is not to ingest a dictionary. But i love to talk to people..the greatest inhibitor is fear of grammatical mistakes
Bald is the guy who inspired me to start learning Russian.
Me too!
Same!
@@guillembauza1658 same
Same
Here too ☺️
BALD has two million subs and takes all of them on a journey into country's everybody is curios about and what you find out is that governments can be quite different but the people really are not.
That's true.i love watching his videos
One thing I learned is that the soviet people are truly generous people from his videos
@@shorty332 former Soviet as there is no more soviet union
I get the opposite impression from his videos, he does a good job showcasing the various unique cultures and people's of the former Soviet republics. People are different and not all the same.
You are hundred percent right my dear.
B & B can also speak a good Hindi which is another very hard language. B & B is a freaking LEGEND. Long live Benjamin !
I'd rather spend my time watching his travel channel then anything on TV.
@Samuel Sweetmann is comical how he comes up speaking spanish bits in places where spanish is clearly hard to come by, like Mauritania
I think Indiana is harder ?
Although his Hindi is very basic and can't speak more than two sentences at a time, but still is good for an Englishman
There are many Indians (especially south indians) who don't know hindi.
I really appreciate this review of Benjamin's level of Russian from a native speaker. I've seen some criticism of him that he makes mistakes and that he hasn't learned in the proper way. But for people who want to be able to have conversations and not focus on passing exams with proper grammar he seems to be a good role model. And the fact that you confirm that he's speaking good enough. Of course we can see from the interactions that he's communicating well, but it's great to get your stamp of approval. This gives me a lot of confidence to continue with the method.
It's true that he makes some mistakes in grammar (and as a teacher I don't appreciate it 😅), but as a native I can say that he speaks well and he manages to make himself understood. That's a great way to start learning a language but you should always improve and polish your grammar later. But as soon as you start speaking, you understand how to learn grammar from the context and not with grammar books. That is the magic of a natural language learning 😉
@@hackyourrussian4091 There was one video that made me laugh so hard. He opened the door to a restaurant and there were people there in an awkwardly close position and he meant to say "sorry!", but instead he said "APOLOGIZE!", lmaooooo.
what a great youtuber Benjamin bankrupt is so eloquently funny and also very informative. It doesn't matter how good or bad he speaks the respective national language he is in. In fact, this great youtuber is a mega funny intelligent person who is us viewers entertains, informs, provides information and shows so much that would otherwise be hidden.
Of the country he is in* who entertains us, viewers... Shows so much of what would be otherwise hidden*
Also I have never heard anyone say mega, I'd rather say super intelligent.Great stuff!
@@lafritegaming7713 There's nothing wrong with using mega., as above..it's not as popular as other words but your comment isn't well received. I'm sure you'd be more than happy to win the American MEGA LOTTO instead of a non existent SUPER LOTTO.
Took the words rite out of my mouth bald is my favorite utuber. I enjoy his his unending persistence to others learning about, not only about Russia but; the World. Thanks Mr Bald
Well he is a rapist and a sex tourist.. so there is that
He's also a documented sexual predator
He is my inspiration for wanting to learn Russian
Liar, it's the women
@@fallendevonish1869 We are not all simps like you and actually watch his videos for other things but 'women'
@@m_b9892 Jesus Christ calm down, it was a light hearted joke, you took that way to seriously. I watch the show for a bit of history and to laugh at the sarcastic jokes that he makes. I don't know what has given you such a chip on your shoulder, but if you don't learn to laugh at your self and the simple things around you that darkness you carry inside is going to drag you down. Laterz
@@fallendevonish1869 Bro, you are so right. The all other reasons are just lie. 😜🤪
same here
Some weeks after i started to learn Russian by my own, i watched that Bald's video and i was agree with him. Forget about grammar rules at the beginning, so i just boosted my vocabulary with any word i found in texts, videos, etc. and i listen the right pronunciation and practice at home. I started with colors and numbers just to choose something, it was fun to surprise my Russian friends))) After around 500 words learnt i jumped to verbs and the conjugations and that's where i am now with maybe 1000 words vocabulary. The jump to understand nothing to figure it out what was all about was incredible and of course when i read some sentence and i don't know a word, i added to my vocabulary. I make a lot of mistakes yet, but my friends are always happy to hear my messages and they understand me without big problem. So, yes, as you say, i really recommend to first boost the vocabulary and then verbs and their rules, after that the grammar endings and other rules i think will come more naturally.
Some people seem to keep on believing that grammar and vocabulary are mutually exclusive. Of course when you start studying a new language you need to memorize a lot of words, but when I hear "forget the grammar", I honestly smile... and I have been teaching foreign languages for 25 years, besides being a professional interpreter and translator!
Sorry for being frank, but your method is fallacious. You are thrilled because your friends are happy when you say something in Russian... But they would be anyway! What you said is extremely naive: when someone hears a foreigner speaking his/her language, he/she normally feels happy and encourages him/her. Believe me, I've checked that in many parts of the world, for over two decades.
You should memorize words, but unless you just want to hang around as a tourist in a country or little more than that, you should ALSO study the grammar. Gradually, but starting from the very beginning, with simple rules you can use immediately. If you pick up a structure incorrectly, it may take you years to correct it, and some people never do. Yeah, their friends are sympathetic and smile, but they'll never get rid of gratuitous mistakes.
Чувак, общайся больше в чат рулетке с носителями языка, который ты хочешь изучать, поверь, быстрее научишься.
@@nicolanobili2113 There is a difference between to say "forget about the grammar" and "forget about the grammar at the beginning". You, Mr Professor Translator Interpreter III, seems to not have the ability to read correctly after 25 years :p
I learned Russian by memorizing phrases and copying native speakers, I learned russian faster than I learned English (my first language is portuguese) and russian is much more complex than English. I don't see point in studying so much grammar, especially the russian that is a nightmare, extremely random and hard to understand the logic behind.
I really like his channel. The content is amazing. He shows us uncensored/unedited footage of countries we never get to see
He has 2 channels in case you did not know.
I think he also bonds and interacts well with most of the people he meets (not all of them!)... He meets interesting but ordinary people all over the placr.
Yep. He goes to places where other travel channels don't. He goes to the provincial cities and towns, as well as the rural villages, and talks to real people. If all you care about are the larger cities, like Moscow or St Petersburg, or the resort cities, like Sochi, then Bald's channel is probably not for you. This is my main criticism with guys like Sergey Baklykov. He is primarily city focused, and when he does wander off the beaten path, it's to places that have been preserved as living museums that are clean and staffed with professional actors, whose job it is to portray the past, not real people. A preserved village, is not the same as an active village where people still live and work to make a living, and not everything is pristine and perfect.
"He is making a lot of mistakes but they know what he's saying" is her every response
As its true?
Ben is a confident Russian speaker in almost all cases. Very engaging and fun to talk to.
I was the same when learning Spanish .Grammar made me utterly miserable. I gave in on several occasions . Then , I decided to just learn by listening and copying what people said. The difference was immense . I learned verbs etc . My progress was rapid and I felt so much more confident and happy . I still enjoy learning Spanish today ,years later .Learning a language is a life long endeavour .Good luck to all learners !
I taught myself Spanish the hard way.At least it doesn't have the dreaded cases.You need to be able to pronounce it correctly or people won't understand you.South American Spanish is much clearer than that spoken in Spain.
hablo español de nacimiento y no se que es la gramatica
@@dt5070 hablas Ingles tambien como idioma nativo o no? Si tuviste que aprender ingles seguramente notaste que el Ingles es mas gramaticamente sencillo en algunos aspectos. Y si has aprendido Ingles pero nunca aprendiste otro idioma estoy seguro que lo podrás notar a la hora de estudiar otro idioma que si tenga mucha complejidad en cuanto la conjugacion y la concordancia.
Hay menos uso del modo subjuntivo. I hope you are happy. You are happy. El verbo be se mantiene igual. En español Espero que estes feliz. Estas feliz.
When it rains I use my umbrella. It rains a lot.
Cada persona grammatical (yo, tu, el/usted, ustedes/ellos, vosotros y nosotros) tiene una conjugacion diferente. En cada momento un estudiante de español tiene que considerar el tiempo y la personas y eligir la version indicada de la palabra entre como 40 versions en lugar de como 10 en Ingles. Ah y que no se le olviden los generos de todos los substantivos. ¿Y hay que usar le o lo?
Ingles tiene su idiosincrasia y aprender a hablarlo de forma fluida es retador pero la grammatica mas basica y esencial es relativamente facil de comprender.
@@liamsmith4018 Mate why the long ass boring monologue?
spain has no grammar compared to russian
I am from England and speak similar Russian to him (but he is better!). I agree exactly what you say about grammar and vocab. For me, reading Russian helps me pick up grammar. If you concentrate too much on grammar I feel people will be put off learning it. Speak as much as you can as often as possible. In Russia the native speaker's almost always understand me and actually find it unusual a foreigner is speaking Russian, but they like it very much.
I speak a couple of other languages too and base my language learning foundation in which I build upon, as follows:
Learn 100 most common words
Learn top ten most common verbs in basic forms of I, you, we.
Learn top 20 common phrases.
Learn alphabet (if structure is entirely different as is Russian).
Then I build on this foundation.
I love Ben, what a great western guy and i was surprised that he can speak Russian, i think he is doing it very well...
"What a great western guy". You guys have a difficult time wrapping your head around we being alright people, don't you? ;D
I study Italian because I take trips there every year. I learn more Italian by being there for a week than I do in 2 months learning on my own. Probably true for any language.
Deep immersion in the language environment is the fastest way to learn without any doubts.
It may be the quickest but also the most stressful way. I had to learn French from the scratch being in France. Taking into account the fact that not all French people speak English, I faced lots of stressful moments. So I personally had no choice but to forget about grammar and learn more vocabulary to be able to explain even some simple things 😁
I spent a week in Italy last year and I doubled my knowledge of Italian during that time.
It is just a false image.
Studying home properly and watching TV on the language that you learn is the most productive ...unless if you don't have a local that hanging with you all over the time and talk and translate in same time all the words and you pay attention.
Just pretending that traveling in a certain country doesn't help too much .
After all you will be distracted by another things there.
I’m Italian and I can tell you that for a native English speaker learning a good Italian is really difficult. The point is that I met many people from USA or England claiming they could speak Italian but actually they barely could communicate and sometimes their accent was terrible. The only ones who could speak quite good were the ones who lived her for many years or/and married with Italians.
You should do more bald and bankrupt videos! This video was very informative.
Thank you 🤗
He's very extraverted and likes to converse with people. He's naturally uninhibited. I've noticed that people who talk and converse in a new language without worrying about making mistakes are the ones who learn the fastest and best.
So true!
True. A friend of mine never learned proper German yet he still speaks it without any hesitation, whereas I was always afraid to make mistakes so spoke less. Guess who's better at it?
This is gospel
100% true, the most important thing is not to speak without a single mistake, but rather to be understood.
They're good at talking about things they focus on: restaurants, people, weather, travel.... but if you get into things a little technical, their knowledge is ever the more scant.
your insight is absolutely spot on. i worked 25 years as a tour guide guiding in two different foreign languages, french and german and your analysis of the problems a non native speaker can have is excellent.on the bald front. i am a big fan and he is doing a magnificent job spotlighting the delights of the former soviet union. i passed my russian language o level in 1978 but i have been inspired to take up the russian language once again.i am enjoying it immensely.i am tending towards bald`s language learning approach but i have my old forbes russian grammar book at hand for a bit of light reading.great video.
I am happy to know that you found this video useful! Good luck in learning Russian! 😃🤗
The algorithm nailed it when it showed my this suggestion. Great job!
I just really want to say, when we are discussing language in english, we just say Russian or English. We don't say language unless were discussing the technical details of the language. So it'd just be Russian
I don't mean to criticise. It's only that it gets very repetitive hearing the word language over and over when it doesn't add anything to the conversation.
Thank you for correcting 🤗 It's good to learn that 👍
That was wierd for me when I started learning Russian. Because I would always say I want to practice Russian, but they say Russian language
in my opinion as a learner, who has only been learning for 7 months on my own at home, i managed to finsih all 6 cases in a months time like a month ago (between jan and feb) and i think that cases is something people over estimate ALOTT, sure memorizing endings seems hard at first , but trust me it isn’t if u really look at it, don’t learn endings from tables because ur never gonna finsih, instead, grab each case, let’s say genetive, learn the endings for masculine and neuter (they are same) а/я, write down a lot of words applying this case, like студент- студента, море- моря, задание- задания, так далее... do this for day1 , day 2 do the same thing for female, day 3 for plural, and finally day 4 for adjectives (u can do all together or also split it), each time making sure to write down example words for each category, after ur done with first case, u need to recognize when it’s applied/used, now most cases have a few uses, but genitive is the most used, it has aloooot of prepositions and situations , like без/для/после/нет/не было/не будет/из-за and so many more, for counting with numbers/ много мало сколько несколько ...
now ur pretty much done with genetive, do same for the other 4 cases, each case will take u 1-2 weeks, depending on how much time u spend, once ur done done, find online practice questions on cases, and make sure ur applying them in ur speech, or recognizing them online in texts, for example seeing youtube video with title: топ 5 лучших стран в мире, u see it and u say “oh look here both genitive and prepositional” or idk a tik tok video title like: станцуй со мной, u would recognize the instrumental case, and so on
and that’s basically it, coming from someone learning for such a short period of time on his own, i can tell u this is how i did it and how to me, cases can be tricky, but not as “bad” as many people make it seem
(edit) one thing i remembered to say, is that most of the endings won’t give u a hard time or take long, except of course for some exceptions, mainly words like дочь и мать change a bit, some words u just have to know it as it is, the word for time время becomes времени in genetive, деньги becomes денег in genetive, имя becomes имени in dative and so on...
These are really wonderful insights. I agree 💯 with you on this technique of learning Russian cases 👍 Огромное спасибо за то, что поделились своим опытом изучения русского языка 🤗 Желаю вам дальнейших успехов!
@@hackyourrussian4091 очень приятно это слышать, спасибо))
For English speaker Russian is very hard. There's no genders in English language. I'm Bulgarian and my language is pretty close to Russian. I can watch Russian TV and I can understand almost all. We have genders but we don't have cases and it's very hard for me to talk in Russian. Russian was compulsory here in schools when I was student, and it didn't help at all. Jordan is my real name, it sounds like Yordan in my language. You read Cyrillic - Йордан. Is it close in Jordan? We wanted to visit Jordan with my wife last year, but the pandemic began.
@@jordan9339 no way, i’m from jordan ahahhaha, in russian it’s “Иордания”, i’m surprised people know about it
@@SalahMustafaa What? Everyone knows Jordan lol
Benjamin is a person who does things at the most effective level for his needs. He is basically a polyglot; he is fluent in speaking and reading Hindi and its dialects as well as the other languages that are somewhat mutually intelligible with it like Urdu. He also speaks Spanish fairly well. A very interesting person at any rate.. Great video!!
I agree with the sentiment, but his Spanish is really bad. I woudn't say he "speaks" the language at aIl, regardless of grammar mistakes and lack of vocabulary. I think his comprehension skills are pretty good for his level, though. That's okay considering he hasn't lived in a Spanish-speaking country or anything afaik.
His Spanish is very basic , not good at all IMO. The rest is impressive no doubt
Hindi, Russian and English is a very good start.
he does not know hindi at all.
@@niallsheehan474 when i say 'fairly well' it is all i mean. fairly well, is not considered by most people as "good", it just means he is understandable to spanish speakers and he can understand them for basic communication--vis a vis his Peruvian, Cuba and Mexico trips
I’ve been watching Bald for a long time and he’s inspired me to take a bit of an interest in Russian. I’ve been on Duolingo for 3 weeks and it can feel overwhelming. Not sure where to go with it but the app is teaching me vocabulary so it’s nice. Anyway I’ve subbed to channel. Great video btw.
You should make flashcards with Anki or with the app AnkiDroid. Also, russianpod101/innovative app are great.
Duolingo is not bad....but it will not make you fluent. You need other tools, that are more solid. Duolingo is not bad ....but I have been told it is not always correct.
I don't like Duolingo, because like most apps these days, including this one, it spends a lot of time spying on you and selling your data. I wouldn't give it access to your phone mike.
He never said he had learned it perfectly. Actually he has explained before that he doesn't care about grammar he just wants to communicate with people
I have found over the years that it's very helpful to read, out loud, a book you are very familiar with and love, translated (well) into your target language. Another useful technique is to write out your favorite parts, again, speaking out loud as you do so, in your target language. Your brain is learning in multiple ways when you do it this way. It helps cement your ability. You are not only using your mouth, but your hand, and you are hearing yourself say it, so you are thinking it, writing it, saying it, and hearing it. Very effective discipline.
My grandparents were translators originally from Germany. They were always willing to help me with German, French, and Russian, but Polish was their secret weapon. The more I learned the others, the more they would speak Polish when they wanted privacy. My dad said when he was a kid they would speak English around him when they would argue and he had to learn it on his own. 🤣
I like it :)
They left boss level language (to learn) for themselves :))
Хорошее видео, и Вы конечно правы о важной роле лексики в изучении любого языка. Но, что Вы скажете о проблеме "зафиксированных ошибок" среди тех, кто слишком много внимания уделял лексику чем грамматике? К примеру, у нас в городе (в Англии) знаю литовца кто владеется английским, но он говорит со многими простыми ошибками - он говорит I don't can вместо I can't - хотя он прекрасно знает что так не правильно, но он уже не может отвыкнуть от этого - ошибка уже зафиксированной... И когда я сам говорю по-русски, иногда ловлю себя в ужасных ошибках типа "буду сделать" - если стараешься ускорить темп своего русского языка, вполне возможно что привыкнешь к ошибкам, и потом станет всё труднее изменить закоренелую привычку....
Я считаю, что от таких ошибок вполне можно избавиться со временем. На самом деле, эти ошибки возникают чаще всего из-за того, что человек мало уделяет времени аутентичным материалам - чтению полезных блогов, прослушиванию подкастов, просмотру фильмов с субтитрами. Многие грамматические конструкции можно выучить неосознанно и использовать их в речи. И наоборот, когда человек учит грамматику по книжкам, мозг не может сразу найти правильную конструкцию, так как это формула, которую нужно решить в голове; это искусственное знание, навязанное вашему мозгу.
Some people just don't care enough to correct their mistakes.
Any wrong grammatical pattern CAN be corrected with a little effort.
Only wrong pronunciation is hard to correct through conscious efforts.
Benjamin is great. I love this man and his Russian adventures.
What a good video! Thanks! This boosted my belief that I’m learning in a effective way!
Also liked and shared with my friend also trying to learn!! Very good!
Thank you for your kind words 🤗
My Ukrainian coworkers have taught me a bit of Russian in the past 3 years, the best way to learn is adding words to your vocabulary. Even knowing the smallest bit of Russian just lights up my quiet coworkers. "Oh you speak good Russian!"
And what is your mother tongue?
Украинцы учат русскому языку? В Украине? 🤔Странно, у них же полная украинизация идёт, они запретили русский язык в своей стране.
@@Valentin82. это не значит, что они не говорят по-русски
@@koktangri Конечно нет, но что будет через пару поколений, лет так через 40?
@@Valentin82. nobody banned russian in Ukraine. They just put off by all the genocide your people are currently committing.
What exactly does the letter Z mean in Cyrillic and why do I see it everywhere in Russian media?
I would agree with everything both "Bald and Bankrupt" and "Hack Your Russian" said about starting off. Focusing on vocabulary (with grammatical basics) I look at as building a solid foundation. Basic nouns and verbs is helpful, then moving on to adjectives to describe the action or noun. Grammar seems to be the "Interior Designer" of the building. They come in last to make everything beautiful.
I am happy to know that we agree on this topic Matt 😉 "Interior designer" is a great comparison 👍 Thank you for sharing your opinion 🤗
Спасибо
This video is exactly what I was looking for.
Well done.
Пожалуйста 🤗
Bald is brilliant and very charismatic, 2.7 million subscriber's confirm it.
This is excellent analysis! I love Benjamin’s videos. One important point to make is that his playful sense of humor translates very well with so many Russian speakers - especially the babushkas! I once made a Hungarian lady laugh with my limited Hungarian. She asked me where the clock repairer shop was and I looked at my watch and told her the time! Do not underestimate the power of humor to help learn a language and enjoy the process better!
Bald speaks passable/survival/functional Russian, which is clearly enough for his purposes.
The thing about Russian is that it's got lots of redundancy in its grammar. The language follows the basic SVO word order but the case endings on nouns and conjugation endings on nouns add redundancy to make sure that even if the word order gets mixed up the sentence will still make sense. In practice, though, what that means as long as you follow the basic SVO word order, people will still be able to understand you even if all your nouns are in the nominative and your verbs are in the infinitive. You will sound weird but you will still have successfully communicated your message and Bald in his video essentially suggests you take advantage of that. It's very practical, very pragmatic and it does work.
I just discovered your channel because I sometimes follow "Bald".... Thank you so much for making this video!!! :) I am a native English speaker from Canada, I learned German many years ago in the exact manner you describe, I started learning Spanish three years ago. And I could not agree with you more, there is a place for grammar in every language but it's definitely not at the beginning of your language journey. I know so many people that quit their new language because they were baffled and confused by the traditional teaching methods, focusing too much on grammar. It's absolutely key to start speaking the new language ASAP, and don't be embarrassed about making mistakes all natives will know your form speaker anyways. None of us speak our own language perfectly, let alone foreign languages.. So I want to say thank you again and I encourage everybody.. Just speak the language and don't worry about grammar at the beginning of your journey... That will come with time automatically... Your ear will pick up Your ear will pick up and you will just know what sounds right and wrong... Good luck at fellow language learners!!!!
Thank you so much, Tom, for sharing your experience 🤗
I liked this particular vlog evaluation of Bald's fluency of the Russian language. Comparing the many aspects of the Russian language and the different situations Bald faced in his vlogs and yet managed with a very decent level of command of the language, according to your opinion, acknowledgement and stamp of approval would certainly please Bald greatly. Bald has been very truthful of his level of competence of the Russian language and has provided his bit of advice to people interested in learning the Russian language quickly. Lately, in one of his vlogs, a native speaker had bluntly criticised Bald's "poor" level of the Russian language, which hardly ever occured in any other vlogs of his. I am impressed with your findings of Bald and the latter's fluency in a number of other languages. I have just subscribed to your channel.
This is so true! In my own experience, by far the quickest way to pick up a language is to get familiar with the vocabulary by memorizing hundreds of complete sentences (including the correct case endings). Then start combining bits and pieces of these sentences. I learned Russian reasonably well in exactly 100 evenings using a 'Learn spoken Russian in only 100 days' self-study courses, which really lived up to its promises. Thereafter I followed many years of evening courses and noticed how many people were unable to have a basic conversation even after many years of staring at the grammar and trying to read Chekhov, etc.
Hi! Thanks for sharing. Can you send a link to that "Learn Spoken Russian in 100 days" thing?
When he travels to the old Soviet Republics, where language varies a lot, he gets by!
I am learning Russian but the grammar is very hard. I will never live in Russia, however I would like to learn basic Russian for travelling the country.
My question regarding grammar is, would it still be understood if I used the pronoun + infinitive verb in the nominative case? I know this is not perfect grammar, but for basic communication, would this be understood in Russia?
As a Russian speaker, I will say that most of the phrases in Russia will be understood even with incorrect cases.
For example, if you want to say: "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the nearest metro station?"
If it is correct in Russian: "Извините, не подскажете, как мне пройти к ближайшей станции метро?"
Options that are wrong, but we will understand:
"Как мне идти к метро?" or "мне надо метро, как хорошо идти?"
or quite simply, the hearing is straining, but still understandable:
"Я хотеть в метро, как идти?", "где метро? я не знать путь"
If you want, you can write an example of how you would say something in Russian, and I will tell you whether I understand it or not. I write in English through a translator, I don't know English well
@@Yaroslav_Rus
ОК давайте попробуем!
привет, я хочу узнать русский но грамматика очень сложно. Я знаю немного слова, но нет как положить их в логический заказ. ты Можно понять меня сейчас или нет?
Большое спасибо за ты помогать с мой русский и грамматика. ))
@@sambell2152 Привет, понимаю всё отлично! Ошибки в падежах видны, но смысл хорошо понятен.)
Интересно, что использование необычных слов или фраз, таких как "но нет как положить их в логический заказ" возможно может кого-то сбить с толку, но я понял, что ты видимо имел в виду что-то типа "но не знаю, как из них составить правильное предложение"
Молодец! Знание слов я думаю приоритетнее, а падежи и прочее придут со временем, если не бросишь)
@@Yaroslav_Rus
тоже, я Только начинать узнать русский 2 недели назад. в один год еще, я
может быть мочь говорить хороший ))
благодарить за помощь. ты
даете мне еще вера в мой русский и Я буду Продолжать узнать !
I am learning Czech and I actually do the same. I learn the cases indirectly, just like you said.
So happy to finally see someone reacting to Bald & Bankrupts video🙂
Yes I agree about vocabulary. And recommend фасмер онлайн to try to get the words into active memory for speaking or active memory for understanding. You’ll probably think I’m mad when you look at фасмер онлайн for a given word, so I’ll give you an example. Five minutes ago my neighbour with her child came up to the landing where I was sitting in my предбанник(е) (= little lobby between two flats on one side of the landing. Just as she was taking her child to flat on the other side she said to her child : “Что ты хмуришься? Там что-то есть?» So here I understood sentence 2 but not sentence 1. So I looked up both..It was “What you frowning for? Is there something there? “ . Now, хмуришься rang some mental bell of met before, but I couldn’t get it - either to say or to understand. So this time I want to plant it in my memory permanently. Hopefully by use of Фасмер to somehow pull some element out of the etymology which links it closer to either my native English or maybe French or maybe Latin or Greek as long as the end result is that I’m able to mnemonicise [ memory aid] it. I’ll now do this and report back in the next comment frame ..
Спасибо вам большое! I am a Russian language learner for four years. I am also a huge Bald and Bankrupt fan. I also believe that once you have a strong vocabulary foundation, incorporating grammar becomes less intimidating. Cases are clearly a big challenge for everyone but I believe speaking often to native speakers is the key. Great video!!!!
Before I want to started learn Russian I think that grammar is the most important element in learning a language but then a lot of people on the internet says that vocabulary is much more important than grammar, and they were right. I made quite a good progress right now
I'm here from the Bald channel. Lot's of good advice here. Many years ago, I was on duty in France and happened to be in a conversation with a French girl. I had taken HS French and not confident in speaking to her other than simple greetings and such. I noticed I was able to understand what she was saying but not able to respond. I was not able to speak to her in French but for some reason I could write it. My friend happened to have a piece of paper which I used to communicate with her. She would speak something, and since I couldn't formulate the words in my head, I had to slowly write it out word for word. She would keep saying "Just speak it. You can write just say what you are writing." but for some reason I was not able to do that. Likely because it took so long to translate in my head and then the response had to be calculated properly on paper. I found out that she was planning a trip to Los Angeles and was excited to see an American there in her town. It was fun to talk to her for awhile but wish I could have been more fluent to not need the paper as a crutch.
Привет! Thanks, this was a great idea for a video. We've enjoyed Benjamin's travels, particularly places not so often visited. I'm just at the basic vocabulary level in Russian language, I find it helpful when I actually communicate with Russian speakers (digital penpals, TH-cam comments, etc)...to have an immediate urgency, shall I say, to understand the sentences helps me learn.
Amazing analysis. You are 💯 % right! Great things for me to work on
I am glad you agree with me 😉👍 Удачи!
He is able to communicate and thats what is most important.
he also learns more by speaking and listening to all kinds of accents and dialects. which learners of every language should try. I don't speak Russian but I can understand quite a lot simply by learning vocabulary and a few other details, You pick up grammar as you learn sentences. It's how I became a great Japanese and Korean speaker.
I'd love to be able to converse in Russian as Ben does. The Russian teacher here explains it well...you don't need to be a 'grammar expert' to converse but vocabulary is more important. Immersing oneself in the language by actually living in that country is best...you can take classes later to hone you skill.
I am trying to learn Russian and find your observations so true. I am so afraid of the grammar that I feel too shy to speak and make mistakes. This really hampers my progress. I am really glad that I came across your video.
Thank you! I wish you success in learning Russian 🤗
I was a non English speaking
I moved to Australia didn't speak English just listened and learned
Same in Mexico
German I learned from tv
I came here after watching the video where he says NOT to learn grammar, and after watching that and now this video feel much more confident that I'll be able to learn enough Russian to understand and communicate effectively with native speakers. I've just dipped my toe into the whole learning Russian thing up until now but your confirmation of what the bald man said gives me the encouragement to go further :-)
I am happy to know that 😃👍
24:21 what she is actually saying? I understand that he didn't understood, but what was she saying?
"Она говорит что она не уместиться в объектив (видеокамеры) , (так как она) полная (женщина)" - She said that she would not fit in the lens (of a video camera), (since she is) a plump woman.
😁 She said : "Говорит, что не вместится в объектив - полная" ("she is saying that she wouldn't fit into the camera lens because she is big") 🎥😁 the correct verb to use here is "поместиться в объектив" (to fit into the camera lens)
@@SpankyHam spacibo , i thought they were making fun of him
@@hackyourrussian4091 spacibo ya dumal they were making fun of him and he didnt understood
@@egoldwin it's just that we have quite a lot of similar reflexive verbs built on the prefix + МЕСТО/PLACE+ suffix СЯ pattern.
поместиться/разместиться/уместиться/вместиться
perhaps Ben simply did not know any of the variants of such a verb and therefore did not catch the meaning from the context.
Bald and Bankrupt has the perfect basso profundo voice for Russian!
I don't think his video title is misleading. It is only for catching attention. His point is that you should focus on vocabulary and forget about the grammar because:
1. Others will understand you despite grammatical errors.
2. You will be able to pick up grammar on the way anyway.
By the way, I learned English the same way. I didn't pay much attention to the grammar and made many grammatical errors at first. I then began trying to correct the grammar once I was fluent enough in the language to hold a conversation.
This is absolutely true guys. I have reached a B1 level of Russian starting from scratch within 15 months focusing on "listening". Yes, i had a teacher, but we only did 2 lessons per month just to talk about basic grammar and basic language rules, but all the progress i did was because of "context learning". Podcasts, youtube videos with Russian subs, Russian comnedy series: "кухня", "как я слал русским" and talking very often with natives on app "tandem" not giving a fk about the mistakes that i new i was making. At the beginning you will say a sentence in Russian and then switch to Emglish in order to explain all your thoughts but as time goes by you will need less and less help from English. "Learning through context" is the way to go if you want to reach a good conversational level. Of course if you want to speak fluently and reach C1, C2 levels then you need to take a deep dive into the lovely world of russian grammar, падежи, предлоги, приставки, совершенный и несовершенный вид глаголов. Удачи вам.
Thank you for sharing your great experience, Mike 😊👍
That's really impressive. 👏👏👏👏
He has a good cultural and historical knowledge of east slavic countries so I think it helps him quickly understand the context and pull the right meaning.
Benjamin really is amazing. I like his channel (well, most of the time). His russian (in my opinion) is no big deal, but he is more than able to compensate for the shortages with his ready-wit and extrovert personality.
I came come to the same conclusion as he did (-> forget about grammar), while learning russian. But I don´t think the case systém to be the biggest problem by far. I think it is rather the grammatical aspect and the huge amount of prefixes.
выдавать давать задавать издавать обдавать отдавать передавать подавать предавать преподавать придавать продавать создавать … :)
(I am slavic native speaker myself, it should be a way easier for me, but I doubt it)
The points /steps which worked very good for me:
a) Invest a lot of time and be continuous and consequent.
b) Listen, listen, listen (basicaly, You Tube will do for almost everyone) - choose a topic which will be of interest for you (рецензии) or which is easy to follow (новости, спорт..). Obviously, you will have to learn the а́збука and reading basics as well.
c) You will remember and comprehend a word far more better, if you first hear it in russian (and only indentifies it as something new) and only then you will look it up in dictionary / or simply you will come to guess it. Try to avoid using you native language whenever possible. Do not build couples (native lang. -> russian / russian -> native lang.) - it is mostly contraproductive.
d) Speak to the natives. A lot. Do not mind mistakes.
e) Pay great attention to stress, rhytm and melody / intonation (the unit here be not a word, but rather a sentence).
Удачу вам!
At 24:20, what does she say? You said the word/phrase, but am curious how it translates to English?
She was joking that she wouldn't fit into the camera frame meaning that she is not really thin 😁 'не вместится в объектив камеры'
The case endings are very similar to cases in Latin Once again we see that familiarity with Classical languages is immensely helpful in the study of other idioms There is a lot to be said for a rigorous education. Bald is a natural learner . Very bright and quick. His pronunciation is superb
24:20 "oonestits ne objectivni polni"... what was said?
He speaks perfect Russian like you speak perfect English.
I couldn't agree with you more 😅
That is not even remotely true.
Don't be ass hurt.
That's my boi....fkin great reply
@@danijel3227 yeah exactly her English is terrible and ben,s Russian ia amazing i totally agree bro!!!!!!!
I love your videos. I've been trying to research a bit of Russian over the past few months.
Once you learn vocabulary the grammar seems to eventually naturally develop
I took his advice and started concentrating on vocabulary more than grammar. I have been able to increase my Russian learning very quickly. I have only been studying for about 5 months, and I could navigate through Russia without much problem. Another course that I have followed is called "Russian Made Easy." There are only 30 lessons, but it teaches you in real time, much like a child would learn the language. Russian is a fascinating language, but has a high level of difficulty. Thanks for the video, it was entertaining, and I'm glad you agree that vocabulary is very important early in the learning phase.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Shannon 😉👍
Its all about confidence and some charm. Bald has loads of both.
He goes for it and carries himself well.
Great video. This was my problem with another language.
My first language is Russian, and I don't give a flying f#ck about bald's level of Russian. He's great and inspiring.
Why do we say understand to mean comprehension? What does standing have to do with it? Why do we say what's up to greet people? When I asked these questions learning other languages became a bit more easy
I've been interested in Russian for about a week. I love it and will continue to learn as much as I can. I love going to my brothers house and greeting him with the basic hello, good morning stuff, then just making stuff up that I don't even understand myself. He's so impressed 😂
That's great! Keep going! 😃👍 Russian is not an easy language to learn but that is a great challenge. Enjoy the process!
@@hackyourrussian4091 The thing I find with Russian is, yeah it's a bit mental, but that's what I love about it 😂
I like liking the things that other people don't like. It's pretty funny, even if you are just making shit up 😂
Recently, Apple and Goole introduced a voice recognition translator where we speak and it translates to any language in writing with voice. Some people may not bother learning foreign languages.
Well, of course, it does solve a problem but it does not provide this satisfaction when you can speak a foreign language yourself. That is a wonderful feeling when you can speak and understand another language, isn't it?
Of course, I had to study Russian grammar, but only after I could speak it fluently.
That's my fave video, too! I love how they interact. Such a wonderful conversation and warmth.
I was waiting for a B&B scene when he was barbecuing with extremely drunk villagers.
Russian Language Teacher: "Here Benjamin shows excellent language skills and I am happy he provided subtitles because I have no idea what they were saying." 😀
Ben speaks well enough for me..we love him 💕
Well listen, however he speaks it, he makes himself understood. Job done. That's what language is all about! So yes, quite right. Learn the language and speak it. It's about communication not education.
yes, impressive that he understood бродить as "ferment"
I believe I have passed the same path with boosting the vocabulary first. Yet, it is easier when you are native in any other Slavic language that has cases (not Bulgarian) ;)
Thanks for the review. It confirms how I see B&B's approach. His method helped me a lot to speak Russian without being terrorised by too much grammar. And thank you, Bald and Bankrupt.
I am learning for fun from youtube. So focus is on short phrases and vocabulary.
I am still probably at the lower intermediate stage, but I took a very good course called Russian Accelerator where I learned mostly by pattern recognition, with vocabulary, grammar points, and practice within each lesson. It gave me a good foundation, now I am spending most of my time on my weakest point - understanding spoken Russian. I think that listening and speaking helps with grammar more than learning the case names and charts full of rules can help, but I also think that learning vocabulary without having a clue about grammar wouldn't produce good results. When I talk to native speakers, they often correct me when I use incorrect grammar, which I ask them to do. I do like Bald and Bankrupt's videos and am impressed with his language skills.
Спасибо, что поделились своим опытом, Дэвид 🤗
I've learnt Russian words from bald and I'm not even trying to learn Russian! That's when you know something is good content. But I've only learnt about 10-15 phrases. But still, that's better than zero and not being able to tell the difference between Russian and Polish, how I was before the bald and bankrupt vids!
A most wonderful video.....thank you. I watch Mr Balds adventures and travels on a regular basis, and your insights were excellent.
Bald and Bankrupt is the best travel blogger, and his Russian is really good. Mistakes don't matter until people understand each other IMHO.
I've seen other vloggers go to some of the same places and even more beautiful places, but they are much less interesting. He finds characters and stories, and is entertaining.
It's a very difficult language for us adults who never took a course in it in college. I lose motivation very quickly when I feel like I'm not making any progress. The only way for me to initially make progress is to add words to my vocabulary. Anytime I'm able to understand a word on command, I see proof of that progress. I know at some point, I will need to string together a sentence, but for now, I am focusing on vocabulary. I went out and bought a dictionary that lists words in order of their frequency of use and plan to learn the first 500 words to get a good foundation.
I'm Polish and I took a half year exchange to Moscow. I've quit the Russian class they offered us at the Uni, because grammar comes very naturally for Slavs and it was bit waste of time, so I switched to children books like The Little Prince and just interacting with Russians. I came to Russia knowing no Russian and at the begging I was speaking Polish with Eastern accent and they were speaking slowly and we were able to have quite good understanding. When I didn't understand the word and I asked for synonym, nearly always there was a common word in Polish and Russian. I have to admit, a lot of people said they have never heard so funny yet understandable "Russian" I was speaking.
Fascinating! Thank you.
I learned my Russian the same way. I focused on a couple basic cases to make sure I was generally understood and really concentrated on my vocabulary and putting sentences together with increasing complexity. He obviously has a knack for languages but I think it’s a solid way to learn and I am multilingual. Great video
Thank you for sharing your experience, Chris 🤗
When I was in Russia for a week with two years of Russian language courses at my university behind me, I too realized that Russians don't care much about case endings and such, but they do correct you whenever you put the stress on the wrong vowel. :D University level language studies are way too theoretical and make you thrust your head into the wall.
The truth is that even Russian natives make mistakes in Russian cases all the time, especially when they speak fast... And especially when it comes to numerals 😉
I follow this guy and I was amazed how fluent he is. He has a fantastic channel. One tip just Judging from this video talk over while the video is running. I’m not sure how much content you have seen if his channel but I was really shocked the state some parts of Russia or formerly of Russia are in.
I think this applies to learning any language.
Reporting back from 2 comment frames down: well , this took me to хмура an old word for raincloud. Did not find a cognate link to frown - though one often does find memory linking cognates on Фасмер онлайн - but it now helps that my neighbour said to her daughter - although she obviously didn’t know herself about this origin - sort of , “What are you making a face like a raincloud for?!”.. In a way , you can learn a 2nd language by sometimes knowing more about it than the 1st language speaker.
That's a very interesting approach to learn new vocabulary. I love etymology as weel, it helps a lot to learn many words at once just by knowing a root of the word. The curiosity is always helpful when learning a new language 😉👍
I forgot to mention another good website that I personally use for my lessons - Карта слов. You can find lots of useful information for a word.
Life is compromise. Ben has very functional Russian. I've tried for a long time and I'm no where near Ben's level. Forget it! Next go I'm trying Ben's way.
The times I’ve said to the Russian minibus driver : на остановку пожалуиста ( accusative case, incorrect) , ditto equal number of times на остановке ( correct locative case) . But he understood either way.
It's pronounced "pollish"
"You can polish your russian"😄
Thank you for a great video👍😁🇷🇺
Polish (shine/improve) “pöl • ish”
Polish (Countryman of Poland) “pō • lish”
Ö makes the same sound as “Ah” when you say “Ah ha!”
Ō is a long “O” which sounds the same as pronouncing the name of the letter, or saying the word “Oh”.