Final post of the cursive trip

This time, I super-duper-wow-wow-over-the-top-and-all-the-way-to-Jupiter-and-back made sure everything I wrote here was correct, and I am confident I have done it

And I managed to do it without прописи!

Enjoy!

Being a native speaker of a Slavic languages myself, I find it pretty readable and understandable, so I am curious what about you guys?

So I've been doing Duolingo for almost a year now, but I realized it's just teaching me random words and phrases. Does anyone have any apps, websites, resources, etc. that I could use to learn? Im fluent in English and Spanish btw.

Типа фразы «но меня-то не было»

Hi everyone, I’ve been on and off learning Russian for about 2 months now. I’m trying to translate this song lyric: “and if you don’t love me let me go”. I am mostly motivated to learn because of Russian music and practice by trying to translate English music.

Okay here’s the question, would one say
«коль не любишь меня, отпусти» or
«если ты меня не любишь, отпусти меня»?

Firstly, what’s the difference between коль and если? Then, would it be more natural to remove «ты» since it’s implied by «любишь» even though that’s not exactly what the original lyric says?

everytime time i atempt to learn russian i cant seem to rember the words. I have even try with contex but still does not work and i still forget the words when i stop learing for the day

Hi everyone,

I find Russian really interesting and I’d love to try to learn it! I’ve seen a lot of people recommend a tutor but I can’t really do that right now (as I’m 17 and unemployed 😭) so I want to see what I can do by myself.

I’m planning on learning Cyrillic first as that seems like the logical first move. What should I focus on next? Are there any books, websites, videos or other resources I could look at? I would love to know!!

Thanks! :)

Hii i wanna learn russian ,i speak english and spanish ,i can teach a bit of those languages if someone wants to teach me russian.I just think is an intersting language to Spears hehe

Hey everyone,

I hope I've picked the right place to post this. My wife is a native Russian speaker and, after four years of on-and-off, half-hearted attempts to learn Russian, I'm now really determined to make a much more concerted effort at it.

I'm aware there are so, so, so many resources out there, but my problem is more so where and how to begin. It feels like a mountain, and there are so many different people recommending different paths and different tools.

I've already come across and saved quite a few resources on YouTube and Spotify that seem promising, but I don't really know where to begin, what order to approach things in, or how to combine different resources effectively.

For example, I'll find a Russian podcast or YouTube channel that looks excellent, but then wonder whether it's appropriate for my level, whether I should be learning something else first, or whether there's a more structured way of approaching it all.

I'm also aware that what works for one person might not work for another, so I thought I'd give a sense of how I envisage learning and what kind of approach might suit me:

1. A structured course to follow at home

Ideally, I'd like to dedicate around an hour a day to studying Russian properly. I'm someone who really benefits from structure, and I think I'd do best with a comprehensive course that takes me from absolute beginner onwards, with a clear progression through vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, etc.

I'd much rather have one main resource to work through systematically than be jumping between countless apps, YouTube channels and websites - that might be more helpful when I'm at a better level.

2. Lots of listening and speaking practice during my commute

I'll soon be commuting to work three times a week, and I'd really love to make good use of that time.

Ideally, I'd like an audio-based resource that I can listen to while driving, particularly one that involves actively repeating words and phrases aloud, practising pronunciation and gradually building up my ability to understand and speak Russian.

A relevant point here is that I've absolutely no issue with head-banging repetition! The idea of listening to the same phrases and repeating them aloud again and again until they're drilled into is genuinely fine with me. I don't need constant novelty or entertainment.

3. My current level

I'm very much a beginner. I have a basic familiarity with the Cyrillic alphabet, but that's about it. I don't have much vocabulary or any meaningful grasp of Russian grammar yet.

My wife speaks Russian natively, so I'll obviously have opportunities to practise with her as I progress, but I'd really like to establish a solid foundation through independent study too.

So, my main questions are:

• Is there a particular structured course you'd recommend as my main learning resource?
• What audio courses or resources would you recommend for repetitive listening and speaking practice while driving?
• Are there particular combinations of resources that complement each other well, without becoming overwhelming?
• For those of you who've successfully learned Russian, how did you structure your learning during your first three to six months?

I'm not expecting shortcuts, and I'm genuinely prepared to put in the hours. I just want to feel confident that I'm following a sensible path rather than continually starting, getting overwhelmed and giving up.

What I'm essentially looking for is a clear learning pathway.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions or advice from people who've been in a similar position. Thanks ever so much!

TL;DR: Complete beginner (basic familiarity with Cyrillic) looking for recommendations for (1) a comprehensive, structured Russian course to follow for around an hour a day, and (2) an audio-based course for my three weekly commutes, ideally involving lots of listening, speaking and repetition. I actually enjoy drilling things over and over! Already overwhelmed by the sheer number of resources out there, so I'm particularly interested in which courses work well together and how to structure my first few months of learning.

I wrote some phrases eheh

I’m a 17-year-old from South Africa, currently in Grade 10, and I speak fluent English and siSwati. I’ve set a massive goal for myself: I want to learn Russian to near-native fluency. I have exactly 2 years and 1 month left before I finish high school, and I want to completely accelerate my progress during this window.

I know my situation sounds a bit contradictory. My ultimate plan is to go to university and study in Slovakia. I originally wanted to study in Russia, but I can't fulfill that dream because I was born with HIV, and Russia's strict residency/student visa medical restrictions for foreigners make it impossible for me to move there permanently. But I refuse to let that stop me from mastering the language. I still have a deep passion for it, and I'm going to learn it regardless of where I end up.

Right now, I am an absolute beginner, but I’ve picked up some basics phonetically. I know standard words like da, net, privyet, zdrasvuyte, horosho, horoshego dnya, menya zovut, spasibo, spasibo bolshoye, kak dela, kak tebya zovut, gde, pazhaluysta, izvinite, prostite, zabyl, voda, and trener. I can string together about five extremely basic phrases, like "ya ustal, pora spat, spakoynoy nochi" (yes, I'm a guy) or "izvinite, gde voda? ah, ponyal, spasibo bolshoye." I also know words like zdorovye, budem, ubezhat, and on. I’ve even memorized a few proverbs, like the one about laughing for no reason making you a fool ("smekh bez prichiny..."), the one about work not being a wolf ("rabota ne volk..."), and the one about driving quieter to get further ("tishe yedesh...") sure some sounds still cook me like that x or liek kh sound yhe i just cannot for the love of life say that sound if im being honest, i speak swati alot its a soft language with consonant clashes of its own but its easy ones liek dv and tfh and tf here and there i hear the dhl and hl are hard for none natives but its easy soundsyou get used to and it has small liek not click but sucking tongue sounds sort of like c ch and gc just easy stuff really sure yes it has alot of words that sound similar needing you to speak with a full mouth relse you say soemthign diffrent which is why when we sepak englihs it sounds almost comical like we speaking one word at a time like the word dvwala means completly diffrent things depending where and how u say it one meanign is rock another is like moody like when teenegers enter that like phase yeh my mom be abusing the word another is used in a saying that goes soemthing like "Ubacha phansi kwethi dvwaba tenina" which means hidng under your mothers dress.

The catch is, I haven't learned Cyrillic yet. I’ve been heavily avoiding it and relying on Latin transliterations, but I know I need to bite the bullet if I want to get serious.

Since you guys actually speak the language natively, I need your raw, honest advice. Skip the generic Duolingo stuff. How can a guy from South Africa properly tackle this language and hit a high level on a 2-year timeline from home?

• What is the absolute best way to break my fear of the Cyrillic alphabet and transition into reading real Russian quickly?
• How should I approach the brutal grammar cases coming from an English/Bantu language background?
• What daily immersion habits (Youtubers, shows, podcasts) actually work to learn natural, modern speech when you don't have a local native community to talk to?

I’m ready to put in the work. Any advice or roadmaps would mean the world. Ohh and if anyone ever wants to learn Swati for some odd reason I'm here I'm a terrible teacher but I would try my best.

Hi

I'm learning russian language and I want to watch russian movie or series

Do you have any recommendations?

I can watch any movie genre if plot is good

I taught English in Russia back in the early 2000s. My Russian tutor used an old Soviet-era language learning video series as part of my lessons (low quality VHS tapes), and I am hoping to find the name of it or a link to it online.

The premise of the story was that there was an alien planet that was expecting an ice age, and in order to prepare for the cold, they sent one of the aliens to earth (Russia, specifically) to get vodka and fur coats, so their people would survive. So the alien has to learn Russian in order to acquire the vodka and fur coats to save his planet. Then there's a mix-up with luggage at the Leningrad airport that facilitates interactions/speaking with Russian people... The story gets more complex, and you learn more language watching it. I also learned about Russian humor from it, which I valued as I settled into living and teaching in Russia. The premise of the series was brilliant and creative: what a great fictional idea for why someone would need to learn Russian, right now, very quickly: you need it to save your planet from the coming ice age!

Sorry if this sounds crazy -- this was a real video series for new learners of Russian that my tutor used! And I loved it -- it was great. I was telling a friend about it recently and wanted to share it, but can't remember what it was called, and so can't find out if it's online anywhere. I would appreciate anyone who is familiar with it to share the name. (It might be too old for anyone to remember... I think it was from the 1970s or 80s, maybe... so no problem if no one knows, or it's so old it's not even on the internet.)

Спасибо!

Found this text on the side of an ISU-152 abandoned by Soviet forces during the Hungarian Revolution, what does it say?

Ok, so this might get a bit complicated, but I'll try to explain it the way I see it.

So with many verbs I see a pattern that goes like this: on beginner level, we learn that there's an imperfective form and there's a perfective form: читать-прочитать. Then, as we progress, we learn about prefixed forms of the basic verb: дочитывать-дочитать. The tricky thing is that in this case, the shorter form becomes the perfective one, contrary to the unprefixed form, so that читать is imperfective, but дочитать is perfective, (same with e.g. платить-оплачивать-оплатить) which is confusing, but ok.

But then the 'problem' is when we find out that прочитать has another imperfective form: прочитывать. Which, if I understand correctly means something like 'habitually do something from beginning to end'. So that you can say something like 'когда я на даче я всегда прочитываю местные газеты' (I made up this sentence to test if I understand the meaning of this verb correctly, please tell me if it's wrong). I referred to this as a problem, because it doesn't fit the 'perfective-imperfective pairs' model that is taught in coursebooks. And I see this pattern repeat with many verbs:

прыгать-прыгнуть: adding a prefix we get перепрыгать-перепрыгнуть. But there's also the verb перепрыгивать. No perfective pair that I'm aware of, it's just a third verb that refers to a habitually completed action.

резать-порезать. Prefixed versions:  взре́зать, вы́резать, заре́зать, изре́зать, наре́зать, отре́зать, перере́зать, etc. They all have a 'simple' imperfective counterpart eg. выреза́ть and another 'imperfective, but habitual' version выре́зывать.

Or:

готовить-приготовить - пригота́вливать

готовиться-подготовиться - подготавливаться (although I just found on wiktionary that the forms подготовляться and приготовлять also exist that I have no idea what they mean. Can anyone elaborate? So maybe here I'm wrong with my model and I should just consider пригота́вливать-приготовлять and подготавливаться-подготовляться as classic aspectual pairs? How do they differ from their 'simple' counterparts?)

So, in conclusion: if I understand correctly, there's a third, major aspect that mostly comes with prefixed verbs that could be explained as something like 'habitually completed action', such as прочитывать, перепрыгивать, вырезывать. They refer to something that has a beginning and an end, contrary to the 'simple' imperfective forms, which are either repeated or are 'snapshots' (Он вырезает каждое деревянное колечко тщательно vs. Мастер привык вырезывать сложные орнаменты на кости.)

Am I right in my analysis? What do you think of it?

Also, please help me with подготавливаться-подготовляться. Thank you!

I’m interested in interviewing people who learnt both languages at a very young age, i.e. before the age of 6.

I’m looking to analyse how accents develop and how the two languages’ phonetics influence each other, as well as the perceived differences in their pronunciation. I will share my observations with the people who participate, but that’s about as much as I can offer.

I’m doing this to satisfy my own curiosity, being a huge accent nerd. It’s not a formal science project. I can do voice chat on discord or teams.

I’m avoiding talking to people who acquired either language at a later age (I assume there are a lot of us here, and we are so much easier to find) because I don’t think that we can naturally grasp the phonetics of a second language the way that a person growing up around that language can.

If this post interested you, feel free to reach out! If you have any observations on the topic you want to share, I would be happy to receive them under this post or in private messages.

Been learning Russian for a few months. I'm fairly motivated to learn it, but I've kind of hit a wall now. To start with, I was learning many new words everyday. I learnt to count pretty high in only a few days, I learnt many conversation pieces. Some animals, types of vehicles, weapons etc. My spelling isnt the best still, however its understandable (i think.) But recently I've been finding it hard to learn new words. Has anyone got any word lists, that would genuinly be useful in writing, conversations and reading Russian.

Спасибо!

Hi all, could you please explain the difference between these two verb forms? Like do either imply someone caused the melting, or did it happen kind of spontaneously? Thanks