I had lots of fun times with Mike Burda from eSellerate on the ISDEF
conference.
Both he and I have been learning some Russian, but from a course that
takes a different point of view.
Mike has been studying Russian from a book, accompanied with audio
tapes, while my course consisted only of audio tapes, but much more of
them.
The result of my course is that I know only a very little bit of
Russian, but can pronounce what I know just like a real Russian, with
impressive fluency. Russians who hear me say the few things that I know
think that my Russian is very good, while it is not. They answer back
in Russian and I don't understand a word of it.
There was even a Russian woman who proposed that I would translate all
her correspondence for her.
The result of Mike's course is that he has a much more profound
knowledge of Russian, while giving the impression that his Russian is
very poor. He knows how to read and write Russian, which I don't know
at all. He knows more words than me, has a better understanding of
grammar, and so on. But he never practiced really speaking the
language, which is what I have done.
If we could just combine the 2 skills, the result would be almost
perfect Russian.
But I don't think I will have the patience to do what Mike has done.
Maybe Mike will have the patience to do what I have done, and in that
case by next year his Russian will be perfect.
On saturday evening, several Russian people, including Constantin from
Registry First
Aid, were giving Mike and me Russian lessons.
Mike was consistently saying "da" to everything.
This whole thing, vodka and champagne in hand, was both fun and interesting,
because we had the experts to ask any question.
But the Russians were most impressed when I knew how to say
"Let's Party!" in Russian.
Da!