Does anyone have a good way to learn noun declensions?

[el_guero]

The first language to totally kick my *#$%@#.

Does anyone have good resources to learn Declensions in Russian?

I make VERY slow headway, I made my best progress with a Russian teacher in Odessa, but I still need to get better when I am not in country.

Wayne

[Ste]

Immersion, it's the only way, memorising tables doesn't help..

[Danchik]

Immersion is by far the best way. If this is not possible, I would recommend you read and get your wife to help with pronunciation and then repeat often to get the right structures perfected and how declensions work together.

For me, I found it easier to look at a phrase, work backwards, and then understand how declension works in specific cases (i.e. nominative, genitive, dative, etc.). When you start to talk in situations, you'll start to understand the sense of the context.

I also take translated phrases, checked through a native speaker, and repeat, repeat, and repeat. I usually work out 2-5 phrases daily, weekly, etc. You'll find that by doing this, when put in speaking situations, the phrases will magically appear and work together. It's how the brain works with languages, and it works for me. It will also take years to make it work correctly, and then you'll still make mistakes, so keep that in mind and don't get too frustrated .

I don't think Russian is more difficult to learn for a foreigner than English is for a non-native. But, Russian grammar is much harder than English grammar. Remember though that much of our early learning of a language as a child is done by ear, not grammatically. This goes hand-and-hand with repetition as an adult.

Also, repetition (usage and feel) is not memorization, as Ste said, memorization doesn't work for languages, it works for short term memory situations like test taking.

So, listening, repeating phrases, start with small phrases and if the phrase is too difficult move on to an easier phrase you can work with, practice with your wife, and let her correct you. Do NOT learn words; learn words as they appear in phrases to see how they work together to understand declension because the beginnings and endings of words is where you'll find the most changes (i.e verbs, nouns, etc. and numbers in cases).  Good luck.

[Maxx]

start with small phrases and if the phrase is too difficult move on to an easier phrase you can work with,

 Do NOT learn words; learn words as they appear in phrases to see how they work together

I have reached the same conclusion. 

[Ste]

I learnt my Russian at uni, back then by rote, memorising tables and reciting them back. However I only did Russian there cos I was a bit of a Commie (still am!) wasn't my main subject, so as life went on I kind of forgot it.

Fast forward to mid life crisis and my Trans-siberean trip circa 2003 I found Russian easy to relearn but I was still stuck in the table frame of mind, and I still am, so much so the Nadia and I were having a Russian day lately and she asked a particular question and I answered it perfectly, all nouns/pronouns/adjectives inflected perfectly, all verb aspects perfect, zero errors. Trouble is it took me a full five minutes to answer a simple question and Nadia said she could see me slowly mentally traversing the tables in my mind. Ok at home but not good in the train ticket queue in Moscow at rush hour.....

[Maxx]

I learnt my Russian at uni, back then by rote, memorising tables and reciting them back. However I only did Russian there cos I was a bit of a Commie (still am!) wasn't my main subject, so as life went on I kind of forgot it.

Fast forward to mid life crisis and my Trans-siberean trip circa 2003 I found Russian easy to relearn but I was still stuck in the table frame of mind, and I still am, so much so the Nadia and I were having a Russian day lately and she asked a particular question and I answered it perfectly, all nouns/pronouns/adjectives inflected perfectly, all verb aspects perfect, zero errors. Trouble is it took me a full five minutes to answer a simple question and Nadia said she could see me slowly mentally traversing the tables in my mind. Ok at home but not good in the train ticket queue in Moscow at rush hour.....

Weird thing I found is RW want you to speak Russian perfectly or not at all. You get no E for effort with them. YMMV

[Ste]

My quick English - Russian language difficulty summary from native English speaker perspective, forgive me if I miss something....

1. No articles in Russian - seemingly easier but in fact harder - since nuances in Russian cover that...

2. Noun/pronoun/adjective inflection (not declension) - hard in Russian, no two ways about it, Russian has five inflections, six if you count the nearly dead vocative, Mam', Pap', Ol', Nad' etc. English still has genitive (i.e. possessive, he/his, I/mine etc) and accusative (he/him, I/me) etc and a bit of dative I think, (who/whom) but not much compared to Russian.

3. Tenses - easy in Russian, hard in English, should/ought/would etc nuanced in English, simpler in Russian, but Russian has verb aspects, which I find hard to grasp, like edu and yedu, like going and going on a regular basis, hard for me!

4. Reflexive - I find this hard too, why is 'ya nadeus' not 'ya nadeyu'? Seems some expressions are, and you just have 'to know'.

That's it, just a stratch on the Russian surface...!

[el_guero]

Thank you all.

Russian noun declension (inflection) will just haunt me for a long time.

It is much more difficult than Koine Greek was .... Just no shortcuts.

I prefer the memorize by rote, in table form, but I just have not found a realistic table (1); and I have found few lists of all of the exceptions (violations and modifications of the rules).

And nowhere have I found the 'critical, you must know these' cheat sets of examples. 

I was reading a list of 'you should know these' sets of examples.  And two words used were so arcane, I had to look up the English definitions.

So, I trudge slowly forward ....

Wayne

[Ste]

Best to do it by 'feel' - I'm feel very comfortable with instrumental case cos in my head it's all '-am, -oi, -ami' type endings (dependant on gender) and I can hear it easily and speak it easily. Same with Dative, it's all '-yu, -oo, -iy and -ye' endings. The rest I find I have to mentally traverse the tables which is terribly slow but more accurate usually.

[el_guero]

That helps me.

Thanks.

[AvHdB]

. . . . Russian noun declension (inflection) will just haunt me for a long time. . . .

. . . . So, I trudge slowly forward ....

If that is the only thing haunting you keep on trudging.

[el_guero]

. . . . Russian noun declension (inflection) will just haunt me for a long time. . . .

. . . . So, I trudge slowly forward ....

If that is the only thing haunting you keep on trudging.

Спасиба