You, learners of Russian, what do you think?
A year of intensive lingqing and grammar classes should do the trick, yes.
It really isnât as hard as people say 
The link is describing a situation of total immersion in which a foreign student is living in Russia while having 5-6 hours of Russian instruction per day. That is far far different than an adult learning the language in a country and environment in which Russian is not spoken 24/7. Of course immersion plus intensive daily instruction geared to the studentâs level will produce fast results.
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Trust me, no one can handle 5-6 hours of Russian instruction per day. It is a huge waste of time.
Wow. Youâve surpassed even Steve in lingqs since the last time we spoke. Where would you say you are at now in your studies/abilities?
I attended University lectures in Russian all summer and can now say that I am fluent, but Iâm still not satisfied with it. Overall, I want both Spanish and Russian to become like my English. Iâm not a native speaker, but my classmates are always surprised to learn that Iâm a francophone (which is extremely flattering).
I guess itâll take years to reach this level. Donât pay too much attention to the stats btw, I have 38,000+ lingqs to learn :o
Understandable. I have 40K+ in Spanish to go through some decade in the future. I know youâre never really âdone.â
Be that as it may, at what point in your known words count do you think you âhitâ fluency or at least the âpotential fluencyâ Steve talks about, ie the point at which you have enough known words that, if you activate your vocab, you would be fluent.
Just looking for the light at âendâ of the Russian tunnel
I would say that around 60K is a good number for Russian.
There is no light at the end of that tunnel. All I can see is a young dude wearing adidas sweatpants in a grey, half-abandoned soviet city telling me about the good olâ Brezhnev days!
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Please cite a study.
All things are true or false. The absence of a study doesnât change the true-untrue status of the thing in question. It just means people like you canât be satisfied that itâs what people claim it to be because you have no experience of it.
Somebody placed in an environment for 50 hours per week where the natives speak at normal speed but try to tailor their language to the individual will learn the language eventually with zero deliberate study.
I have no study to prove this. Itâs still true.
Life isnât academia. Stop leaning on what other people observe and interpret and get the experience for yourself and then judge whether itâs true or not.
Ha! Thatâs great. Thanks for the number and reality check.
âŠand whatâs the number needed to impress the Russian babes that visit the Hamptons (eastern Long Island) in the summer? lol
My friend can do that with the phrase âĐŻ Đ»ŃĐ±Đ»Ń ŃДбŃâ.
Three things are especially important for the study of any language, not only Russian: MOTIVATION, IMMERSION and PRACTICING.
I was recently in Turkey, and I was very surprised to see how good a lot of hotel administrtors command Russian, even with the correct endings!
They didnât learn Russian at schools and courses - they just learn it from the Russian tourtists, and they undersrtand very well how important Russian is for their job and their living conditions.
And thatâs why they learn it step by step practicing every day and going through mistakes and correcting them gradually - and that makes good results!
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Youâre right, @evgueny40, and Iâm glad you take your time to comment on this thread. My concern was - still is - the level of command of Russian for these students. Are they really full capable to do their university studies in Russian, only after 1 year of introduction?
Is it easy to learn Russian, @evgueny40?
âPour Ă©tudier en Russie il faut parler russe â une langue trĂšs difficile. Organisera-t-on un soutien linguistique pour les Ă©tudiants Ă©trangers?â
It depends on what you mean about âthe level of commandâ.
The most of foreign studebnts have an introduction year and then they study at a Russian university. It is difficult during 2 first months, but itâs possible.
But the most English diplomats which I taught Russian had only 6 months of everyday study in Londoin and then 3 months at our language school 4-6 hours a day - and they could command Russian quite well after that and were able to work in the embassies in Russian and also in the countries of the former USSR.
Of course, the Turkish hotel officers canât speak about politics in Russian, but they speak well about the things which are vitaly important for their job.
However, in all cases itâs impossible to learn the language some time and then suddenly speak it well. It must be some months to practice and improve their abilities, step by step, keeping on the patience.
Sorry; I didnât mean to hurt your feelings. Iâm curious where the OP got his information. Were teachers polled in a study or article? If so, Iâd like to see it. If nothing else, Iâd like to hear what level they are talking about when they say âa good command of the languageâ.
The link in the OP just sends me to a Russian language school site. Maybe there is a specific page?
@wulfgar, I donât think thereâs any study about this, but only these articles, one in English and another in French.
By the way, if you understand French you can see that the government pays 1250 euros par student during this period of 1 year - a lot of money!.
âMais cela coĂ»te jusquâĂ 100.000 roubles (environ 1.250 euros) par an pour chacun de ces Ă©tudiants. LâĂtat perd de lâargent, et eux perdent du temps.â
According to this same article, there are 4 000 students every year in this program.
One may find the answer in this phrase : LâĂtat perd de lâargent, et eux perdent du temps.
I rely on what these teachers are claiming - as corroborated by our fellow @jaliscostate.
Find the link in French