Back (Russian)

Resources and tips

Resources

Here is all the websites and tools I regularly come back to when learning Russian.

Lexilogos Russian Keyboard - A no-nonsense online keyboard in Russian cyrillic, that I used daily before I painted Russian letters on my keyboard.
Yandex Translate - If you didn't know, Yandex is a Russian search engine, and just like Google, it has an auto-translation feature. It is pretty much as useless as any other automatic translator, but it is a bit better at translating text into and from Russian than Google Translate is.
duolingo.com - Good old Duolingo! Great for learners that need constant threats reminders to keep up the habit of practicing, but it should not be the only way you learn the language.
practicerussian.com - Simple and straighforward old school website with quizzes, games and tests.
openrussian.org - Fantastic dictionary, with extra features like a personal word list and links to videos for learners, plus quizzes and tests behind a 3.79/month membership.
Russian Wikipedia - A great hack for translating words when automatic translation doesn't quite do it, is to look up the word on Wikipedia and switching the language to whatever language you wanted to translate the word into! Some day I want to be fluent enough to properly read the articles, I imagine it would be wonderful for practicing reading comprehension...
Russian language on Wikibooks - Speaking of Wikipedia, there is a good wikibook for learning Russian. It is focused on the rules of the language, but has a casual tone compared to wikipedia articles.
Между нами - Another completely free web-base textbook, that seems very extensive and useful!
Russian with Max - A Russian language teacher that makes a lot of content to practice listening comprehension. He has a Youtube channel and a podcast, where he speaks in slow Russian. I listen to his podcast on public transport a lot!
Be Fluent in Russian - This is the Youtube channel of an online Russian course, that has a lot of videos explaining grammar rules and vocab. They also have a podcast, but with faster, "natural" Russian

Tips that work for me

1. Do EVERYTHING in my target language. Grocery lists, recepies, books, movies, tv shows, books, comics, yutube videos, websites, language settings on devices, diary (see point 2), internal thoughs, conversations with yourself, tutorials, news, articles and everything else that could be done in a language different than your own.

2. Keeping a diary is THE tip when learning a new language. Writing something every day, even if it is only a few scentences, is completely perfect for me. I interact with my target language at least once a day, I quickly learn what words are missing from my vocabulary, I learn to speak in past tense which is what you generally use in casual conversations when retelling stories and such, I get the bonus of documenting my life little by little, the positives are endless!

3. Going crazy with the words helped me deeply get into the construction of Russian as a language. Throughout the day, whenever I read/hear a new word, whether it be from todays Duolingo lesson or a song lyric, I write it down. Then, when have time, I look it up in a dictionary. I copy down the defenition(s), the cases I most likely will find myself using and also use the word in a sentence or two. I also learn the etymology of the word, try to understand why it is the way it is, what words it is related to. But that's mostly because I find etyomolgy interesting. That reminds me...

4. Being interested and passionate about your target language is a recepie for instant success. My whole life is filled with Russian music, movies and general culture, and that constant exposure to the lanuage has helped me on the way in countless ways. Learn the language you WANT to learn!


Ways to practice your target language

These are examples of tasks you can give yourself.

If any of these helped you on your way, don't hesitate to send me an email and we can talk about language learning!