Category: Blog

What kind of a language learner are you? To answer this question, you need to know the person who is doing the lessons, at least a little bit. Here are the factors to consider: Are they good linguists naturally, that …

Parts of sentence – why do we need to know them in Russian For example, someone who does not know what a direct object is, will not be able to use the Accusative case correctly. And without understanding what the …

Business Russian is a vast field  I often have requests for teaching business Russian, and often people who want to do it are very vague about what aspect of Business Russian they are interested in. The fact is that business …

Discovering the handwritten version of the Russian alphabet usually causes either a slight shock (oh my God, I’ve just learned the alphabet, and now there is another one to learn) or curiosity and desire to start using it. Either reaction …

If reading War and Peace in the original is your goal to be achieved at the end of your Russian course, prepare to be patient and learn some French as well as Russian… As your Russian tutor will tell you, …

What do you need to know, while working or socialising with Russians? Are there any western habits that would seem strange or unattractive to Russians, and the other way round? Should you shake hands with Russian women in a business …

Key facts and figures • Russian is the most widespread language of Eurasia, and the most widely spoken Slavic language. In Europe, more people speak Russian as a mother tongue than any other language. • Russian belongs to the family …

How many words are there in the Russian language? The biggest dictionary of the Russian language (“The Contemporary Dictionary of the Russian Language” in 3 volumes) lists about 250 thousand words. The vocabulary of Pushkin (Russian equivalent of Shakespeare) is …

1. Learn the Russian Cyrillic alphabet If you’re planning to get around on your own, your life will be much easier if you learn the Cyrillic alphabet. Most street signs and signs in the public transport are not translated into …

What should you know about learning Russian grammar if you are considering taking a Russian course? Here are the main features of Russian grammar that you need to be aware of, if you are about to start learning Russian. Russian …

Are Russians superstitious?  Sometimes students ask – are Russians superstitious? And if so, are Russian superstitions similar to English ones? The answer is, yes and yes. Russians are superstitious. Most people will laugh if you ask them about superstitions, but… …

Язык мой – враг мой. Эта сентенция невольно приходит на ум, когда двадцать раз на дню слышишь от самых разных людей вроде бы обыденные, привычные слова, от которых, тем не менее, дрожь пробирает. Причем дрожь вовсе не приятная, а совсем …

By Jeff Ryder Dark, dirty … and brown, all brown. The last time I’d seen so many brown buildings and brown upholstery was during my childhood in Britain in the 1970s. I half expected the customs officers at the airport …

By Jeff Ryder London, UK: Fog. Seattle, USA: Rain. Mecca, Saudi Arabia: Pitiless sunshine. Rostov-on-Don, Russia: ? If this were a sequence on the UK gameshow ‘Only Connect’, you’d get short odds on ‘Snow’ for the missing word. It’s a …

Did you know that Vladimir means “owning the world” and Svetlana – a “woman of light”? Here is some interesting info that you may not learn in your Russian lessons but can impress your Russian friends with! Three components of …

When do we use surnames? In Russian, someone’s surname is one of three components of a person’s full name, the other two being the Christian name and the patronymic. Surnames are used only in formal situations, mostly in writing, often …

The first question that students ask in the very first lesson is – what do you know about the Russian Cyrillic script? The usual answer is – all we know is that it’s different, and we have to learn it! …

Thursday, September 2, 2021 Learning Russian remotely is the opposite of a traditional classroom setting, students and the teacher are not in the same room, they can only meet virtually. Material is typically transmitted through technology so that no physical …