[Sidney_Ivan]

Hi.

I'm curious to get all of your thoughts on attempting to learn Russian before first and second trips. Anyone try? Was it worth it/appreciated? What did you use and would you recommend it?

I'm currently attempting to learn some Russian via Rosetta Stone. It takes a very different approach than my French class in high school! I think it's working though. Though we are adopting an infant (no older than 18 months old), we figured it would be good for us while we travel as well as potentially teaching our child when they are much older.

Anyway, I just wanted to get all of your feedback on this. Thanks!

[Shark01]

We learned about 20 words and phrases for our last trip, and adopting a 23 mo old, wish we had done a better job as we were pretty clueless trying to communicate with her.

We are using the Teresa Kelleher program......

[Drazil]

We learned very little (Good Morning, Good evening, thank you, goodbye, eat, drink, please etc), very basic and we got along fine. That being said we adopted from St. Petersburg and everyone spoke english very well, the menus in restaurants were in english and we did not have to fly any domestic flights so I think we were better off then someone adopting outside a big city would be. Also our agency provided us with a guide/translator all day (from 9:00 am until 6:00pm each day, every day we were there) so we really did not worry about communication for the most part. I think you will probably be ok unless you really want to learn it.

[kretzklan]

We tried - really did - but failed miserably. It is a HARD language to learn. Eventually the stress of that was too much and I gave up. I did take a book of phrases specifically for APs and used it alot! If you can do it - that is AWESOME!
We got by with little to no problems. Any person of HS or college age in Russia speaks some English and a few times we paid kids to help us with things - like ordering in restaurants and the like! For like $2 it was worth it!

[GCS]

Like Kretz I tried and failed to learn much of any of the language. DH made no attempt and did as well as I did. I did take along a booklet of common Russian phrases and that was helpful.

The only words we use now - home 3 years- are:
"no", "yes", "car", "dog", "bear", "cat", "sit down," "airplane" and "Hello, goodbye, thank you" and of course for our then 3 year old "stop!"

Lots of time spent listening the Theresa Kelleher cds in my car not a whole lot of retention.

[beckyww]

We learned a few phrases which I consistently butchered. Reality - politcally incorrect, but reality - is that your child is coming to an English-speaking country and investment in Russian might be fun or cool or whatever, but you child needs to learn English. Unless you can use the Russian later for something, I sure wouldn't invest heavily in learning it.

Becky
The Woodworth Family in Beautiful San Antonio TX

[cmmandjam]

I did Rosetta Stone and learned quite a bit of vocabulary. We adopted from the Leiningrad region and had a translator much of the time. We found that lots of people did know at least some English. I enjoyed being able to pick up various words that the translator and driver were saying to each other. It wasn't at all necessary in my opinion, but was a GREAT way to fill the time as we waited. We adopted a four year old who was mostly non-verbal. He speaks no Russian one year later and never stops speaking English!! Enjoy your ride!!!

[ddahl]

I believe improving your mind is never ever a waste. As far as learning the language before you leave or in between trips, its very hard to do unless you are a natural with language in general.

I used and am still using the Pimsleur discs which I have down loaded to my ipod. Our adoption took 17 months so I had adequate learning time in my car commuting to work. I was shocked that my pronumciation and retention with this method was so good in a very short time. I hear the same about Rosetta Stone but my preference was Pimsleur which the first singe disc was available at the library.

I have a passion for it so I say go for it. We should, IMHO, attempt to learn as much about a country, including its language if we intend to travel there. JMHO

[Sally26]

We went exploring Moscow on our own and had a map from the Marriot in English which only helps if you know Russian. Thank goodness my dh had learned the alphabet and we were able to find our way around!

We also learned please, excuse me, thank you, bye, how much, bottled water without carbonation. Those were all helpful as well!

[MamaChinch]

I tired to learn as much as I could, but as others have said, it's very hard. I had always felt I was very good at languages, I learned French and Italian super easily, but Russian knocked me over! I finally just memeorized pharses I thought I would need, greetings, asking for things, etc. I also then just memeorized words, like Restuarant, Toilet, milk, etc. so I would recognize them when I saw them.
My agency sent a a booklet of phares for children and I memorized some of those, as well. DD was only 18 months and began to do fine with English, but I found I used Russian more for getting around and trying to be polite to the officials. Some of the phrases I memeorized were a life saver when we caught a cab once, though!

[momraine]

I tried and it was hard, but I got a tape with with phrases specifically for children made by an adoptive mom. I have lost the link, but you could probably search and find it. Now, my daughter was ten months so it really was not that big of an issue, but when I adopted my son at six years of age, learning some Polish was critical. Espeically, kid Polish. If you are getting an older child, it would be very, very helpful to learn words like Potty, hungry, thirsty, tired, hurt, etc. There is a sticky at the top of the page with some that will help.

[k8c]

I think it's just plain good manners to learn some survival phrases for whatever country I visit. I feel like an ambassador out to correct the picture of "The Ugly American". (Why we are so much uglier out of our own country, I don't know, but it is an accurate description.)

You will be more confident if you can at least read (Russian is very phonetic), say hello and goodbye and count to ten.

Learning a foreign language in your thirties fights Alzheimers.

;>

Kate, living in Russia, who wishes her Russian was better than it is but manages to get by with a willing spirit and lots of pantomime.

[waiter]

I too used the Pimsleur program. I liked it for the most part. Only down side was that you had to do it in the order they had. So if there were things in future lessons you wanted to learn you needed to work through to that point as each lesson built on the one before it. It is a hard language but I think anything you learn is appreciated by the people in Russia. I think it depends a little bit on what region you will be going to. Our region there were not many English speakers besides our translator so when they weren't around we were on our own to figure things out. I also had an electronic pocket translator and that worked well because you could type it in in English and then just show someone what you wanted in Russian.

[sak9645]

It is always appreciated if a foreigner takes the time to learn a few words of a country's language, especially things like "please" and "thank you". And if you are adopting a toddler or older child, it may help if you know a few words so you can ask about his/her basic needs --like "hungry", "thirsty", and "bathroom".

Real mastery of a language, however, isn't going to occur in study between the first and second adoption trips. Mastery takes years, especially if you are not immersed in the culture 24/7.

Even if you study with great tapes, CDs, etc., you will learn, at best, a few basics. They are probably good basics, however, for you to know. As an example, if you must visit a doctor, it's a good idea to be able to state your symptoms -- "I have a sore throat and an earache." If you have allergies, you may need to say to the waiter in a restaurant, "No fish, please. I am allergic to fish." If stopped by the police, you will want to know, "I am an American. I want to talk to someone at the U.S. Embassy." If someone asks about your child, you may want to know phrases like, "I adopted my beautiful daughter in Tver."

You may learn to ask a question, such as "Where is the museum?" But there is no guarantee that you will understand the answer, if the speaker starts going on about, "Turn right here, and then walk three blocks and turn right again after you pass the big department store. And, by the way, it is closed on Mondays." So you'd better be prepared to do things like giving a cab driver the address of the place you are going to visit, or your hotel, written in Russian by the hotel concierge.

And as far as talking with a child, remember that most language tapes and CDs focus on the form of a language spoken by an adult. "Toddler Russian" is likely to be as different from "real" Russian as toddler English is from real English.

As an example, the language tapes may teach you to say the words for "bowel movement", because it may be important to tell the doctor about your stools, if you are experiencing traveler's diarrhea. However, a toddler is simply not going to know those words, in most cases. He/she will probably know the Russian version of "poo-poo"! And that simply won't be on most language tapes, unless they are designed for the adoption traveler.

Also, remember that the language tapes generally are made by speakers of the "purest" form of the language. Just because you can understand simple phrases spoken by a highly educated Muscovite does NOT mean that the same phrases spoken by a less educated person from a remote area of Russia will be equally understandable.

I remember driving home to the U.S. from the francophone province of Quebec, in Canada, many years ago. It was nighttime, and my friend and I got lost as we looked for the border crossing. We finally found an open gas station, and I asked the station attendant, who spoke no English, for directions in the French I had learned in high school and college. I had been a very good student, and had once taken an oral exam entirely in French.

Well, the attendant clearly understood me. He started talking, and he could have been speaking Amharic, for all that I understood him. He was going on and on, gesturing as he spoke, and I was utterly clueless. Finally, he kept repeating something that sounded like "vir-a-go".

And it suddenly dawned on me that "a go" was the way he was pronouncing "A GAUCHE", which means "to the left." He was telling us to turn left! We did so, and after driving a while, sure that we were lost again, we arrived at the border. I had just had my first experience with Canadian French, as spoken by a rural gas station attendant.

Basically, my advice to you is that you should study Russian if you wish, as part of becoming more familiar with your child's cultural heritage. But don't beat yourself up if you can't seem to learn it, or if you don't make enough progress to converse while in Russia. Some people simply don't learn languages easily. And NOBODY is going to be able to converse easily in a foreign country, after just a couple of hours a day spent listening to Russian tapes.

Also, do remember that some children -- not a majority, but more than a few -- will have a paradoxical reaction to hearing their native language spoken, after being with you for a few weeks. Interestingly, some of them may react with a show of fear or anger, especially if the language is spoken by a stranger, even if they are quite young. In some cases, the children react because they are afraid that they are going to be taken away from you, back to their orphanage/foster home. In some cases, memories of "bad things" in their birth family's home may surface, even if vague and unformed.

If your child does show such a reaction, whether it is to your efforts to speak Russian, to a stranger speaking it, to a tape of Russian children's songs, etc., you will simply have to "back off". All of your explanations about your child being with you forever, or about how nice it would be if all of you could speak Russian, will not bring reassurance. Try again in a month or two, and back off again, if necessary. In most cases, the negative reaction will fade, as the child grows older and more secure.

There are lots of ways of celebrating your child's culture. Studying the language of your child's country of birth is one way, but only one way. Celebrate the country's holidays, if they don't conflict with your religious traditions. Develop an appreciation for the art, music, and food of the country. Read the works of famous writers in translation; you can still appreciate Chekhov, Tolstoy, or Dostoyevsky, even if you read them in English. Join an adoptive parent playgroup or FRUA chapter for special events. In short, be proud of your child's heritage; don't wallow in embarrassment that your Russian doesn't go much farther than "spaseebo", "pozholusta", "dobry v'yecher", or "da svidanya".

Sharon

[Jessi_76]

We also tried and failed miserably. Trip 1 was very difficult, being in the middle of Siberia with no one who spoke English. We are making additional attempts before our second and third trips to at least learn the basics, although I'm not sure how muhc luck we'll have -- it's a very tough language, imo.

Good luck!