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Many parents want to understand a little bit of Russian or Kazakh prior to their adoption trips. And most certainly for the parents who are adopting an older child and need to communicate their basic needs, they will want to learn at least the basics. That waiting stage is so difficult; it might help to focus on learning your child’s language!
Although my husband and I did not learn any words prior to travel – I did try and thought I’d share some of the resources that I had investigated and have heard about from other adoptive parents throughout the years.
Teresa Kelleher’s CD (Adopting from Russia, Language and Parenting Guide) which included a computer game which is a great resource to check out and the link I found was:
http://worknotes.com/AZ/AdoptingFromRussia/Kelleher/index.html
I’ve heard about parents using the Pimsleur language CD’s which they felt was great and helped with the accent. Try your local library, Amazon or eBay!
An adoptive Dad – has a CD that comes with two little booklets with words and phrases – spelled out phonetically and even goes into the Cyrillic alphabet at bit – you may want to visit his website:
http://internet.cybermesa.com/~fdd/
And certainly last but not least, perhaps you have a community college nearby that has a Russian class – which would be a great way to get a jump start!
We found a great resource for our sons was to host an exchange student from Kazakhstan in our home – she spent 10 months with us last year – won an honors scholarship to a nearby university and has spent the last month with us over break. It is cute to hear our almost 7 year old son speak a few words with her! He even answers me (yes and no) in Russian.
Best wishes on your adoption journey!
