Yesterday my Wife and I got over the first part of our Home Study. In other words, the social workers discovered we were not serial child abusers so they have approved our adoption, unless they discover our house is a death trap for children. They will check that out next week.
However, since we are looking for Siblings, and Russia has them to adopt, we will be going there for some children to go.
Unfortuneatly, with sibblings, the older one at least, if not both, will be old enough to have a well established Russian vocabulary, but too young to have any English.
That means I need a well established Russian vocabulary.
Any ideas where I could learn some Russian?
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I don't have any resources, but this thread makes me thrilled.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I was going to write an ongoing thread of the thrills and challenges of the adoption, but there were so many thrills and challenges, I haven't had time to write it.
Posted by Jacare Sorridente (Member # 1906) on :
Repeat after me:
Ya nee pahneemyoo
That should get you through the first several things they say to you.
Seriously though, all of the self-taught russian courses I have seen were woefully bad. Hearing the pronunciation is pretty necessary since you'll probably learn to say everything wrong if you try to learn how to say the cyrillic syllables on your own. So if you do get a self-taught course make sure it includes tapes (or spoken examples if it is a software program).
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Have you looked at Pimsleur's Russian program? I haven't used any Pimsleur stuff myself, but I know people who swear by it, and intend to pick up their Thai program when I have the time to pick back up with that language.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Also, the Eurotalk software for Spanish, Thai, French, and German is all fairly good for learning nouns quickly, and I'm sure they would be for Russian as well. They aren't good for much else though.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Dan, it's probably not necessary for you to know Russian, IMO (take it for what it's worth). Some friends of ours adopted a pair of children (brother and sister) from Haiti some years ago. The boy was, I think, 7 or 8, maybe a little older. His sister is a couple of years younger. They both spoke Creole. Our friends don't speak anything but English, with maybe a smattering of Spanish. Not much help with Creole. They said that the first couple of months were very frustrating, as they used mostly hand gestures to communicate, but it really wasn't that long a period. The kids were speaking fluent English within 4 months. Now they don't even have an accent. You would never known that they weren't born in America.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
What katie said! Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Thanks Jeni, I needed that.
I just need a few phrases that every parent uses:
Do you need to use the bathroom? Stop hitting the dog. You do not want me to stop this car. Behave or I'm telling your mother. Get that out of your mouth.
and of course
NO, Barney sucks!
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Dan: I'm so happy for you!
edit: Oh...and Dan if you are really serious about having some phrases, my brother speaks Russian and could probably give you some info on learning. (He goes to Moscow each summer to study more in depth, so it's a real passion for him.)
[ October 17, 2003, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: jeniwren ]
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
Dan, that is so cool!
I agree with jeni, but I'd ask a friend who speaks Russian to teach you those key phrases. I agree that you should know how to say just a few things in Russian so you don't have any disasters at first. Starting parenthood with disasters can't be any fun.
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
There are a lot of language CDs that you can get - I've looked at some Russian ones. Dr.M and I are looking at Russia, too. Do you have an agency? We're looking at Tree of Life.
Are there any Russian restaurants or bakeries in your area? The owners of the European deli in my neighborhood are Russian and we are very friendly with them. They have given us a lot of advice already and I'm sure that they would teach us some basic phrases if we asked them. You might want to check someplace like that. Or if there's a Russian Orthodox Church in your area, someone there might be willing to help you.
Have they told you about the extensive gift-giving that you'll be required to do? I got really excited about that b/c I love giving gifts. Also, they recommed that you make an album to show the judge (including pictures of your entire family, your house, and your cars).
I'm really, really nervous about our homestudy and I'm thrilled to hear that yours is going well.
Posted by Robespierre (Member # 5779) on :
Russia and Russians are a favorite topic of mine. If you need to translate words into or out of russian, go here:
You must be able to read cyrillic to use this properly though. I will suggest that you at very least learn to read cyrillic. This is very very easy to do. Most of the letters are the same as or similar to the latin alphabet. It took me 2 days to learn the whole thing veyr well.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Thanks all.
Mrs.M, we are going through CHI (Children's Hope International though it used to be China Hope International. They have branched out to many other countries since those early days) they have a very good reputation and some people my wife works with have used them.
I have heard some good things about Living Tree, mainly on the Yahoo Groups I've joined.
We went to a Russian Festival put on by a church a few weeks ago, but there were only ten people there, some food, and a bunch of religious artifacts we really were not interested in. There are no Russian bakeries or restaurants near us, though my wife has a friend from Russia who has volunteered to help.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Dan, I am not sure of your timeline, but Middlebury College has an excellent summer language program. I took Russian at the school, not during the summer, and I really loved it. You would be conversant at the end of the summer. Liz PS And while I agree that you wouldn't NEED Russian to adopt a child, it sure would be nice to move into a home where people had taken the time to learn your language.
Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
Here is a site that I think is an excellent resource for someone learning Russian.
i've been to russia twice, and as much as i'd like to see more of the world, i'd go back in a heartbeat. i'm also thinking about learning the language in case i do get to go back. here's a page i think will be helpful:
Dan, At my college, we learned Russian through lessons in class, and tons of drills, but we had to go to a listening lab each night for an hour or so. I wonder if they publish those tapes and accompanying books for the public now. It was different than the language-on-tape things you can get. Let me check.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Here are some links, Dan. It looks like my old Russian teacher moved to a different college.
(Online language program)
Posted by imtheskywhoru? (Member # 4404) on :
I think I must agree with jeniwren. I am from Russsia and came here when I was 12 and it took me 6 month to learn how to speak english...no worries about the language skills. I remember seeing a comercial on TV back in Russia that encouraged adoption...that's truly a good thing your doing.
Other than language problems you might want to try to find out more about their past....I was not adopted but because of the sittuations that I have seen and been in when people scream or yell I don't react in the .....ummmm....well I react in a violent way and I have had beer, vodka and at least 60 pacs of smokes by the time I was 8 years old, I'm pretty sure I was not a special case. In Russia or maybe just me we have different standards of normal might want to cxonsider that too just in case. Well I can't give much advice on kids...I am one but after baby sitting my 6 year old cousin this summer all I can say is patience and good luck. Hope everything works out and you, your wife and children will be very happy.....if you need to know some emergency words that you can't find anywhere else I will be more than glad to help. Best wishes, D.
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I'm so happy for you!![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Starting parenthood with disasters can't be any fun.