{"id":48,"date":"2020-09-28T11:53:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T11:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/declansoftware.com\/blog\/?p=48"},"modified":"2022-11-19T00:59:17","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T00:59:17","slug":"bald-and-bankrupt-language-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/bald-and-bankrupt-language-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Bald and Bankrupt &#8211; Russian Language Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized is-style-rounded\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/maxresdefault.jpg\" alt=\"bald and bankrupt Russian language\" class=\"wp-image-49\" width=\"245\" height=\"264\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One of our all-time favourite YouTubers is the travelling Englishman, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCxDZs_ltFFvn0FDHT6kmoXA\">Bald and Bankrupt<\/a>.  He is based in Belarus and travels widely in Russia and the ex-Soviet republics. His avoidance of tourist traps and his openness to local people and unpredictability is what is particularly endearing about his videos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also his ability to speak fluent Russian and some Hindi is also impressive.  Indeed, around two years ago he made a video talking about how he mastered Russian &#8211; which incidentally is a really difficult language for English speakers to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is the episode:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Do Not Study Russian Grammar!\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gcYCT9wEUuU?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In his own words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>&#8220;<span style=\"color:#354e76\" class=\"has-inline-color\">You might not believe me but I am testament to the fact that if you want to learn Russian, throw away the grammar books and you&#8217;ll make massive progress very quickly. Grammar holds you back in the beginning of your language journey so hold off until you are much further down the road&#8221;.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And instead of getting bogged down in the grammar, what he does recommend is learning vocabulary. And then getting out there and using the language by just stringing words together, grammatical mistakes be dammed. The most important thing was to not be afraid to make mistakes but just use the language as much as possible and knowing lots of words facilitates this. He argues that the grammar will come as you listen to what people are saying back to you. In fact native-speakers tend to instinctively correct learners of their language &#8211; appreciating the effort and trying to be helpful. I think that that is something we instinctively do with children when they are learning to talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think this is a very interesting and while of course knowing as many words in the language you are learning is helpful, this approach will only work if you are in a position to get out there and use the language functionally very frequently. Not all people are in this position and text-book learning including studying grammar might be the only way forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ready to learn Russian Grammar step-by-step?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\" style=\"line-height:0\"><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"815\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screenshot-2022-11-11-at-12.00.54-815x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-616 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screenshot-2022-11-11-at-12.00.54-815x1024.png 815w, https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screenshot-2022-11-11-at-12.00.54-239x300.png 239w, https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screenshot-2022-11-11-at-12.00.54-768x965.png 768w, https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screenshot-2022-11-11-at-12.00.54.png 906w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:36px\"><strong>Bootstrap Russian Grammar<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>A 535-page book and accompanying mobile app.<br>\u25cf Step-by-step introduction to French grammar in <strong>200 topics<\/strong>.<br>\u25cf Over <strong>3,000 annotated examples<\/strong>.<br>\u25cf High-quality audio pronunciations via the app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100 has-custom-font-size is-style-fill has-normal-font-size\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/russiangrammar.html?referrer=BLOG_BALD\" style=\"background-color:#eb5851;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Click here to find out more&#8230;<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of our all-time favourite YouTubers is the travelling Englishman, Bald and Bankrupt. He is based in Belarus and travels widely in Russia and the ex-Soviet republics. His avoidance of tourist traps and his openness to local people and unpredictability is what is particularly endearing about his videos. Also his ability to speak fluent Russian<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/bald-and-bankrupt-language-learning\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Bald and Bankrupt &#8211; Russian Language Learning&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.declansoftware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}