Five Mistakes Russian Language Learners Make

1. They ignore the cultural context

Culture brings a language to life. Finding an interesting aspect of the Russian culture and learning about it through reading, watching and listening helps to make language learning less tedious and more focused. It also helps to be more open-minded about strangeness and foreignness of an unfamiliar language and customs. In language learning an attitude can be a key factor. The culturally curious learners will be more receptive to the language and more open to communication with native speakers. 
Helpful resources:  Weekly Russian YouTube Channel, Star Media YouTube Channel

2. They use a single method

Some learners are most comfortable with the listen-and-repeat drills, while the others need a grammar textbook to make sense of a foreign tongue. Each of these approaches is fine, but it’s a mistake to rely on only one. Language learners who use multiple methods get to practice different skills and see concepts explained in different ways. What’s more, the variety can keep them from getting stuck in a learning rut. Russian language learners should practice all four language skills -reading, writing, listening and speaking and use a combination of textbooks, audio and video materials.

Helpful resources: Master Russian

3. They don't listen enough

There’s a school of linguistics that believes language learning begins with a “silent period”. Just as babies learn to produce language by hearing and parroting sounds, language learners need to practice listening in order to learn. This can reinforce learned vocabulary and structures, and help learners see patterns in language. Listening is the communicative skill we use most in daily life, yet it can be difficult to practice unless you are surrounded by the native Russian speakers. Luckily there is a wealth of information on the Web. Find songs, poems, audios, videos and movies in Russian, and listen, listen, listen, as often as possible, even if you don’t understand every word.

Helpful resources:  Weekly Russian YouTube Channel, Star Media YouTube Channel

4. They don't speak

It doesn’t matter how well a person can write in foreign script, read, or conjugate a verb. To learn, improve, and truly use the language, one has to speak. This is where language learners can clam up, and give in to feelings of shyness or insecurity. They’re too afraid of making an embarrassing mistake or mispronouncing a word. The key is that those mistakes help to correct the errors before they become ingrained. The more you speak Russian, the quicker you improve.

5. They want to stay in the comfort zone

Linguists have found that learners with a low tolerance of ambiguity tend to struggle with language learning. Language learning involves a lot of uncertainty and insecurity – new sounds, vocabulary and grammar, and for each grammar rule there is an exception. Accept the fact that in the beginning you are going to make lots of mistakes, won’t understand most of conversation, and be misunderstood most of the time. No matter how much you repeat phrases on your own and rehears conversations, learning to speak a foreign language is a constant trial and error. When beginning to speak Russian you will have to practice figuring out the meaning of many words from the context of conversation. You can try it on your own by listening to a song or text in Russian and practicing figuring out the meaning even if a few words are unknown.