September 02, 2013

9 Ways to Brush up Your Russian


9 Ways to Brush up Your Russian

Has your college Russian gotten a bit rusty? Looking for some fun, useful, but most important effective ways to brush up on your Russian? The internet is here to help! 

Sure, in an ideal world, you would set up a weekly chat over кофе or чай with a local Russian. But that can be hard to pull off and even harder to maintain. So, barring that, here are a few online resources to help dust off your rusty Russian and/or pump a bit of new life into it.

  1. Ekho Moskvy. This great radio station offers the ability to listen to its programming online, with the all important bonus that most programs feature full transcripts. It's a great way to recharge your listening comprehension. Sure, you still need to look up the Russian, but it sure helps when you can read what you are hearing. Start by exploring their interview section.
  2. Dozhd television also offers transcripts for some of its talk programs.
  3. TV Tsentr, the television station overseen by the Moscow City Government, offers transcripts for their news videos.
  4. Political ads. No transcripts here, but the videos from political campaigns stretching back to the mid-1990s are a great test of your comprehension, plus a great way to walk down memory lane. 
  5. Audio Books. Listen to Собачье сердце while driving to work, or Dostoyevsky while you work out. These books are all free to download and listen on your MP3 player, in iTunes, etc. Pick up a copy of the print version of a work at an online bookstore (ruskniga.com or vasha-kniga.com are two recommended sources) or find the text at Maxim Moshkov's lib.ru and you can read along (not while driving, of course). Our link above is to the classics page, but book-tracker has all sorts of other books including detective novels, humor, science, foreign lit, etc.
  6. Podcasts. Podcast programs are great to listen to while driving, jogging, walking, sleeping, whatever. We have not found wonderful riches here, but there are a few worth exploring, depending on how advance you are: RussianPod 101 (not to be confused with RusPod), Master Rusian and Lingq, some of which we have written about before. Lingq's podcasts of Anna and Andrei's conversations are fun.
  7. YouTube Video language courses. We have yet to find anything stellar in the realm of free videos for intermediate and advanced users (most lessons seemed to be geared toward beginning users), but there is plenty that is decent and free . A few decent alternatives include Russian Plus, Fun Russian, and Alrus.
  8. Movies, movies, movies. Once your language reaches intermediate comprehension and conversation level, you need to dive in and start watching Russian movies. They are an amazing source of cultural knowledge and awareness. And the best thing is that many of the classics are now available free online. Russian Remote offers free access to films, documentaries, video clips and more. And MosFilm has begun putting much of its film archive up online for free viewing.
  9. Music. Finally, load up some Russian music into your iPod and start listening. Recommended: Vysotsky, Galich, Okudzhava and Grenbenshchikov, all of whom are now readily available on iTunes. Also recommended for language learners: Timur Shaov. Meanwhile, you can of course also stream many Russian radio stations live, and watch Russian music videos online. 

 

This is a far from comprehensive list, but hopefully a good place to start your linguistic brush-up. Of course, if you have any suggestions or corrections, please pass them along!

Special thanks are due to the ever-resourceful participants of the SEELANGS Slavic languages list for some of the ideas shared above. 

Photo credit: HNumus.

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Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

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