language maintenance-this is long, so get a cup of tea!

[E Wayles Browne]

I'd like to second the suggestions below. One rapid way to find
things you'll want to read in Russian:
Choose something that you're really interested in, let's say,
basketball or tornadoes or Nashville.
Read about it in the English-language Wikipedia (fastest way
to get there: open Google and type
wiki basketball
and hit return).
Next look along the left-hand column on the Wikipedia page.
You will see Languages, and very frequently there will be a
link Russkij that you can click on. The Russian Wikipedia
article won't be an exact translation of the English article,
but it will give you something to read about basketball
(or tornadoes, or Nashville)! Most computers nowadays are willing
to show Russian Wiki pages in Russian.

I like the suggestion about getting multiple textbooks too.
A famous English teacher and translator in Croatia once told me
that he worked the same way on his English-language hobby as a
young schoolboy. He got all the English textbooks he could find
and went through them, one after the other. Things that didn't
stick the first time would become more and more familiar to him
when he encountered them in book after book. He suggested that
going once through 15 books would be better than going 15 times
through the same book.

Best wishes,
-- 
Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

>     On the  topic  of what students could do over the summer:  I think
> they should find something- a hobby, an obsession, a real love- that
> they normally are very interested in, and study new things about it in
> Russian. They can keep their textbooks and dictionaries around in case
> they need them, and  hopefully they will end up using those for
> reference-but NOT put pressure upon themselves to "keep up the
> Russian". They DO need to keep it up, of course,  but not with the
> attitude that that is what they are doing. They have to  do something
> FUN that they already like...and incorporate Russian into it.
> Examples: if it is sewing-then find out about Russian patterns and
> designs and sewing books-try to buy a Russian pattern and made
> something-they'd have to follow the directions in Russian..if it is a
> sport, watch it or read about it in Russian, join an online group or
> website dedicated to that sport, in Russian. If they love
> computers,make  a website in Russian. If someone  has a second
> computer, buy Russian Windows and install that and learn to use it....


>
>     Another thing I would like to mention is that because I am on my own,
> I have bought a variety of used textbooks. At first it was a little
> confusing because I could not really decide which to use as a base.
> Then I sort of worked out a system where I would pick one and go as
> far in that one as I can, then stop and take up another, and go as far
> as I can in that one, and so on. Over time, I would get back to the
> first one again and see that I have progressed and can now go much
> farther in that one..and so then I continue on again with them all. It
> was rough  in the beginning because after the authors finish with the
> usual introduction of alphabet and pronounciation rules, then anything
> goes. Some begin discussing all 6 cases, others do not mention them at
> all, but start giving simple dialogs. Some seem to be addressing 6th
> grade students and others seem to be addressing very academically
> motivated graduate students, and the approaches are all so different.
> It was very slow going for a while because each book had me doing
> something different. Now I have found which books I like best and use
> them for my "base" and use the others as extra sources for reinforcing
> things or for excercises-in other words, I  don't follow the others
> chapter-by-chapter, but use them when I need extra practice or
> clarification. And that is the main advantage of this oddball method
> of mine- the clarification. I feel fortunate to have   many books
> because sometimes the explanation in one about a topic is  really
> mystifying. And in the next, I still don't understand it. But in
> another, the author will have explained that same thing in a different
> way and it just hits me the right way and suddenly I understand! It is
> like having several people explain something to me, and finally one
> explains it in a way which I can understand.
> ...

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