any help on learning some russian phrases?

Hi, I will be traveling to russia (moscow and petersburg) and estonia
(tallin) very soon, I don't speek any russian, I am worried that I
might have big problems especially navigating around the city and
subway and can't ask local people, so I want to learn Cyrillic alphabet
first, but is there any kind of simple phrase mapping between english
and russian so worse case I can just point to a line on a print out (or
try to pronounce it :P) and show to those nice russian people for help?

thanks a lot!

On 11 May 2006 15:35:01 -0700, wrote:

Hi, I will be traveling to russia (moscow and petersburg) and estonia
(tallin) very soon, I don't speek any russian, I am worried that I
might have big problems especially navigating around the city and
subway and can't ask local people, so I want to learn Cyrillic alphabet
first, but is there any kind of simple phrase mapping between english
and russian so worse case I can just point to a line on a print out (or
try to pronounce it :P) and show to those nice russian people for help?

Don't worry about Tallinn, as English is widely spoken there. Very few
people bother to learn the tough Estonian tongue!

Just grab any phrase book for Russian, and make sure to LEARN the
Cyrillic alphabet (it takes a few hours, not years!), so you can
approximately pronounce and translate the words. Apart from that, a
handful of phrases should see you through.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

wrote:

Hi, I will be traveling to russia (moscow and petersburg) and estonia
(tallin) very soon, I don't speek any russian, I am worried that I
might have big problems especially navigating around the city and
subway and can't ask local people, so I want to learn Cyrillic alphabet
first, but is there any kind of simple phrase mapping between english
and russian so worse case I can just point to a line on a print out (or
try to pronounce it :P) and show to those nice russian people for help?

thanks a lot!


Russians are so thoroughly hated in Estonia that even if you address an
Estonian in Russian and they understand you they will probably ignore
you...English is the new language of choice, at least in tourist
centers.

The cyrillic alphabet is easy to learn, you can memorize it in a few
hours (practise by writing it out a few times). Russian is a
relatively phonetic language (unlike other Slavic languages like
Polish) so pronounciation is not a huge hurdle, you can easily be
rattling off written Russian in no time (grammar is another matter).
For practise, try to get some Russian language instuctional CD's or
cassettes...

--
Best
Greg

wrote:

Hi, I will be traveling to russia (moscow and petersburg) and estonia
(tallin) very soon, I don't speek any russian, I am worried that I
might have big problems especially navigating around the city and
subway and can't ask local people, so I want to learn Cyrillic alphabet
first, but is there any kind of simple phrase mapping between english
and russian so worse case I can just point to a line on a print out (or
try to pronounce it :P) and show to those nice russian people for help?

What about http://masterrussian.com/index-2.shtml ?

Not clear what you call "very soon" - but if its in a few
days or weeks, try to get a language book for tourists
you can carry while travelling

Prononciation is a little bit tricky - worth imho spending
some time with a teacher if you have the chance for.
Plenty of russian speakers now almost everywhere ...

Enjoy your trip!

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, I will be traveling to russia (moscow and petersburg) and estonia
(tallin) very soon, I don't speek any russian, I am worried that I
might have big problems especially navigating around the city and
subway and can't ask local people,

I found in St Petersburg that there was always someone around who spoke
English. Approaching younger people increased the probability.

Colin Bignell

Dave Frightens Me writes:

As a point of interest, I met a 22y.o. Estonian guy last week who
speaks 6 languages fluently (Est, Finnish, Russian, German, perfect
English, and Italian).

As a point of interest, how do you know his Finnish, Russian and
German are fluent?

Des

On 11 May 2006 21:14:52 -0700, "Gregory Morrow"
wrote:

Russians are so thoroughly hated in Estonia that even if you address an
Estonian in Russian and they understand you they will probably ignore
you...English is the new language of choice, at least in tourist
centers.

As a point of interest, I met a 22y.o. Estonian guy last week who
speaks 6 languages fluently (Est, Finnish, Russian, German, perfect
English, and Italian).

He managed to pick up Italian in a mere 7 months, and has even
acquired the Genovese accent. People think he's stupid because he
sounds mother tongue, but his vocab is small.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Following up to Dave Frightens Me

Just grab any phrase book for Russian, and make sure to LEARN the
Cyrillic alphabet (it takes a few hours, not years!),

not even many hours, if you are young.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

The Reid wrote:

Following up to Dave Frightens Me

Just grab any phrase book for Russian, and make sure to LEARN the
Cyrillic alphabet (it takes a few hours, not years!),

not even many hours, if you are young.


I took a course in Russian over 30 years ago and still easily remember
the Cyrillic alphabet, once you learn it you remember it. I learned to
write in cursive Cyrillic, I would need to practise a bit but I'm sure
it would come back to me very easily. IIRC it took me a few hours over
just about two days to learn the cursive...

To the OP I'd suggest learning to recognise the Russian words for
things like "exit", "entrance", "open", "closed", etc. That will come
in handy in negotiating places like the Metro, shops, museums,
etc....oh, and "toilet" translates as "tualeta" :-)

--
Best
Greg

Dave Frightens Me writes:

On 12 May 2006 11:08:09 +0100, Des Small
wrote:

Dave Frightens Me writes:

As a point of interest, I met a 22y.o. Estonian guy last week who
speaks 6 languages fluently (Est, Finnish, Russian, German,
perfect English, and Italian).

As a point of interest, how do you know his Finnish, Russian and
German are fluent?

His Finnish is, as his girlfriend is Finnish.

Finnish is probably the easiest for a native Estonian, but my
girlfriend is Dutch and I am barely even plausible in the langwidge.

He spent some time in Finland as a child. The Russian I don't know
for sure, but I assume he's not bull****ting about it.

Spoken like a gentleman who's never padded his own CV.

Des