This year’s homeschool curriculum includes first-year Russian – The Son’s language of choice for the rest of his high school years.
I was psyched when he chose it, because I actually want to learn it myself. I went to Moscow back in ’86 when the Iron Curtain was still alive and well, and my father feared I’d never come back because he once served in the FBI. (Note: they let me go anyway, which probably means something I’m choosing to ignore.) I learned Cyrillic then, along with a few useful phrases which I’ve subsequently forgotten.
Enter The Son and his decision. After learning he’s still too young to take classes at the community college, I went online and grabbed a 2-year course from Rosetta Stone – on the theory that since I speak Spanish with a Chinese accent (guess which language I practice more), I’m probably not the best primary instructor for this course.
After a week learning the Cyrillic alphabet and basic phonics, last night the course work began. I’m taking the Rosetta Stone course myself, both to keep track of his progress and to give him someone to talk with (ok, and because I’ve wanted to speak Russian for almost 20 years now and I’m jumping at the opportunity).
I spent 2 hours with the program, and I am pleased to announce that I Have Made A Sentence. And not just made it – remembered it for almost 24 hours. I haven’t figured out how to get Cyrillic on the blog yet, but I refuse to let that minimize my satisfaction with My First Russian Literacy Achievement.
Better still, The Sentence is in line with all my other linguistic firsts, such as my first sentence in Spanish (Your mother is a little white dog.) and Mandarin Chinese (I am not a book.).
It won’t get me far in life, but if you’re ever in Moscow and need someone to say “Look! The cat swims!” … I’m your gal.