Incredibly bored in language learning

I am currently learning Russian, and I’ve hit a wall with learning. I can’t find any interesting material because it is mostly stuff like grammar rules. And the stuff that is interesting is not lengthy. Could someone help me find a beginner 2 or intermediate 1 lesson that is lengthy, I would like to find a book that I can dig into. Thank you.

If you would like to learn Russian language, you have to go a bit through the Grammar structures because Riussian like also German is a languager with a quite difficult Grammar.
But if you hate grammar, you can use some sets of different texts from my podcasts, for excample for Veginner 2 and low Intermediate there is my collection “Простые тексты”(41 texts):

You can use also “Полезные диалоги”(27 dialogues):

“АНЕКДОТЫ И ШУТКИ”(355 Russian jokes):

Good luck!

You know, this thing about grammar genuinely fascinates me. I do sometimes wonder whether formal learning of it is ultimately a waste of time, as some people contend? Do we perhaps internalise those things that we truly learn by a kind of “osmosis”, just through exposure to the target language? Or does a formal knowledge of grammar perhaps serve some kind of temporary purpose while we are passing through intermediate stage? I don’t know.

I used to have a pretty extensive theoretical knowledge of German grammar - stuff I was forced to learn when I was a youngster. But I probably couldn’t recite it all now the way I used to. Yet I can read books, watch TV, etc in German far better now at age 40 than when I was a kid.

I have to say, it is kind of hard to imagine how one could make headway in Russian without at least knowing the main case patterns by heart? (To say the least, I think one would have to accept a huge degree of fuzziness and uncertainty for a very long time.)

I think that if you don’t learn grammar at all you will have major problems for a long time, which will likely be more tiresome than studying the grammar to begin with. That is not to say that it is a good idea to overdo it; there is a limit to how much grammar you need to know. I have this thick university level grammar book for Russian that I only ever learned the first two chapters of. Specifically the spelling rules, regular noun cases, and noun irregularities. I did fine with the much more modest grammar of alphadictionary.

That said, as I am learning Serbian now, having learned Russian grammar for so long, I am much more able to contruct things correctly by instinct. This makes me think that the grammar is important for a while until you develop the instincts needed to use the language. I know that I wouldn’t be able to understand why the dative is needed in the Serbian sentence “Ide mi se u bioskop” (mi = dative; I feel like going to the cinema) if it were not for my experience with Russian. I don’t recommend for anyone to learn a slavic language without learning any grammar at all. Of course that’s just my opinion. Others opinions may follow.

Yeah, I think it’s especially true for languages which have a lot of complex morphology such as Russian, Polish, Serbian, etc.

On the other hand, if I wanted to devote my efforts to something with relatively few inflections (Indonesian or Farsi maybe?) then perhaps I would try just focussing entirely on vocabulary? Maybe it would work in those cases?

What subject matters are you interested in? And what type of music?

I do wish someone would put together a more thorough guided course for Russian. I found several of Evgueny’s more complicated essons before finding “Простые тексты”. And Lingq’s ‘beginners’ course doesn’t include the lesson on the alphabet, but jumps from Greetings to Going Out.

As for the grammar, if you haven’t seen someone diagramme a German sentence, it is a huge leap for English speakers. It’s probably best to intersperse it with more interesting material. I think to learn Russian without any grammar, one would need a patient friend and high motivation.

How about the dialogues and texts from russianforfree.com? You can import them into lingq and they’re translated into English anyway and graded according to level:
Dialogues in Russian with audio– Learn Russian for free
Texts in Russian with audio – Learn Russian for free

I do think that finding interesting content is key

Other podcasts for beginners:
http://ochenporusski.com/links-for-russian-learners/

Hello mate, how are you doing?

Please, don’t stop!!! Just keep moving…

I’m sure you’ll find something interesting, well in another languages I know we have Steve book, not sure in russian but could be a good start.

Good Like.

It might work. I have been researching Thai grammar and it looks very simple with verbs not conjugating at all and no plurals of nouns. I thought about trying to learn some French using LingQ only but never actually got around to it. As it turns out, thinking about it and doing it are two different things entirely. Lol.

There’s actually a bit more in the Russian translation of Steve’s book than there is in the French, but it’s not a bad entry to longer material. I do wish there was audio for Bill Browder’s book in Russian and not just in Polish.

If you want it to be interesting you need to move on to authentic material which is not originally designed for language learners. I personally prefer and recommend MOOCs, the best, in my opinion, way to find something of interest to you.

Here are some links which might be useful:

https://openedu.ru/ – MOOC based on EdX platform. Basic academic disciplines. Unfortunately, only a few courses have a transcript.
http://universarium.org/ – another MOOC, less academic
Курсы • Arzamas — short video lectures (10-15 min, 4-6 episodes) on history, art, society etc., with transcript.

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I too went through a stage where I wasnt really making progress, I felt like I wasnt getting anywhere. I got bored, I started spending less time on Lingq. I actually left for a few months then came back. It happens. Progress is a big motivator for many people including me. and when you feel you are getting nowhere it really can get to you.

I tend now to do three courses at once. I have been going through evgueny40’s library of courses for a long time, which have given me a great deal of progress. I also have been doing this course Login - LingQ which I definitely recommend starting on. I have also been importing small new broadcasts from Видео - Новости they are about 1-2 minutes and come with a transcript which you can import into lingq. I like new stories so that works for me, I do one a day. There are 3000+ short news videos there, some are bound to interest you. I recommend upping the level of reading to 1000 plus words a day. I found the number of new words I add improves when I regularly read 1k+ a day.

Not really looked at grammar yet. Its been about 4 years too. I just switch off. However i know Ill be attempting to get that dealt with soon as now feel slightly hindered by my lack of grammar.

Best of luck.

You have a hump to get over in terms of your capabilities, but as you get more advanced you’ll realize that you chose a very good language for not being bored. There is a lot of very good Russian literature, classic and contemporary. There is another whole world of film, much available online. There are good talk and music radio stations online than can stream to mobile devices. Stick with it, and good luck!

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Step 1 - Make up a list of all the engaging Russian content that you can think of.

I can think of some awesome content - and I don’t know anything about Russian - StopXam Msc - YouTube

Step 2 - Filter for content with transcripts, or make some transcripts for yourself- https://www.lingq.com/forum/1/31709/

Step 3 - Enjoy.

I do think LingQ needs to fix their library to where it becomes easier to navigate and search for content. The problem is, when you come in as a beginner, you’re pretty much in the wild west, to where starting out is difficult and a bit confusing. That’s how I felt at least.

Ignore the level; they’re more easy than they’re listed. My interest started to wane until someone introduced me to something different but grammar lessons. The vocabulary is plentiful and the grammar is pretty simple (despite the random word syntaxes that come with the territory of learning Russian).

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Ditch the language learner material and get some real content.

Perhaps here you will find something interesting, see maybe game and fun section: http://lingosearch.com/

I second what Dimethylamine suggested above: Русский Подкаст. Long and easy. Not as interesting as normal native material, but not bad. A very good place to start.