There was certainly no shortage of YouTube channels teaching Russian, but there’s always room for one more – therefore, also always for more than one. Here are seven pretty new ones, worth checking out.
Even with bad news there is good news: there is a lot to learn from it. Russian news articles are excellent teaching material, even for the more advanced student.
Learn spoken Russian while also getting to know some Russians. From a rocker and a tennis player to Dmitri at the disco and the average Joe. Educational and entertaining: these are the most useful and fun interviews на русском.
Зелёная лампа (The Green Lamp) is a short story from 1930 by Aleksandr Grin (1880–1932), the surname being an abbreviation. Regarding Aleksandr Grinevski (Russian: Александр Гриневский), Wikipedia offers a real recommendation: “His stories mainly revolve around the sea, adventures, and love.”
A frequently asked question that’s not so easy to answer. There are certainly degrees of difficulty (see How long it takes to learn Russian; more at the bottom), but what’s a breeze for one person can be a challenge for another. Some can run a marathon with ease, while others struggle to bike even half the distance.
With Russian films, you can learn the language and practice listening while lounging on the couch with chips and soda (just to paint a scenario). Learning becomes enjoyable, and watching films becomes productive—almost the perfect combination.
This might sound like music to many ears: learning Russian without grammar. Is this a case of ‘too good to be true,’ or is it really possible? The advice of
Benjamin Rich
(Bald and Bankrupt on YouTube) is clear. Forget grammar. In fact, (from the description under the video embedded here),
‘throw away the grammar books and you’ll make massive progress very quickly.’
For Russian hobbyists and students, the pandemic (is? was? will be?) not all bad. In many cases, some extra time became available, and what better way to spend it than learning русский.
From earlier (2017) and corona-free, here’s an analysis by Anna Cher (Russian from the Heart) of a short excerpt from a TV interview. Putin talks about social media and the common practice of operating under a pseudonym.
Whatever your opinion may be of Russia’s president, his language is excellent material for learning. He expresses himself clearly, but with sentences that are not simple or impoverished — something not all presidents manage, even in their own language. While the language isn’t always easy and may not be ideal for beginners, there are subtitles and explanations available, and it’s about more than just language alone.
