Student Ideas To Immerse Yourself In Russian Culture Want to learn to speak Russian? Do you have Russian in your blood, family living in Russia or perhaps a special friend who is a Russian native? Or perhaps you just love languages and feel that learning Russian is a good next challenge for you? The best[…]
28 May 2019∙12 minutes to read
How to Get the Most Out of Your Time in Russia “Russia has twelve different time zones just to weave its immense tapestry” - Sylvain Tesson It’s difficult to envisage a trip to Russia where you get to see everything. It’s the biggest country in the world, there’s a lot to do. Whether you’re going[…]
18 March 2019∙7 minutes to read
The Most Important Aspects of Russian Culture “The whole world recognizes Russia's cultural achievements. It is impossible to imagine the world culture without Russian culture, without our music and literature.” - Vladimir Putin When we talk about Russian culture, we also are referring to famous people like Chekhov and Tolstoy, as well Russian history, the[…]
14 March 2019∙7 minutes to read
What Are the Prerequisites for Teaching Russian? “Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie.” - Russian Proverb The number of people learning how to speak Russian as a second language has increased in recent years. Would you like to be one of the people teaching them? If you want to[…]
1 February 2019∙7 minutes to read
Basic Russian Grammar for Beginners Eager to start learning Russian and find out more about the land of the Tsars, maybe even take a trip to Moscow or St. Petersburg? Learn to read Tolstoy or Pushkin or other greats of Russian literature in the original language? Wonderful! This Slavic language is spoken by about 154[…]
29 January 2019∙10 minutes to read
How to Learn Russian An anonymous wit once said, “A Western communist is someone who loves everything about Russia, aside from the idea of having to live there.” A breathtaking history, a very rich culture, and an influential role in world geopolitics: these are all general qualities we could attribute to Russia. The Russian language[…]
5 March 2018∙15 minutes to read
How can you learn to speak the language of Tolstoy? Far from prejudices related to the former USSR – communism or the plains of snow of Siberia – the Russian language reigns as the master language among the Slavic languages of Eastern Europe. It's the official language in many different states, such as Belarus, Kazakhstan[…]
5 March 2018∙7 minutes to read
Make the Cyrillic alphabet your first milestone
Russian looks unfamiliar to many beginners because it uses the Cyrillic alphabet, but learning to read it can provide an encouraging early milestone. Some letters resemble their English equivalents, others represent unexpected sounds, and a few are completely new.
Once the alphabet becomes familiar, street signs, names and simple texts start to become readable. From there, pronunciation introduces another layer: Russian word stress can change from one word to another, and unstressed vowels may sound different from the way they appear in writing.
Working with Russian tutors in Sydney can help learners connect spelling with natural speech from the beginning rather than relying entirely on transliteration. Russian lessons in Melbourne can similarly combine reading with conversation, listening and vocabulary.
Understand the patterns that hold Russian together
Russian grammar contains features that English speakers may not have encountered before. Nouns change according to case, adjectives agree with the words they describe, and verbs distinguish between different ways of viewing an action through aspect.
These systems can initially look like long lists of endings. They become more meaningful when learnt through complete sentences and situations: asking someone where they are going, describing an object, talking about something you finished yesterday or explaining what you do regularly.
A learner taking Russian lessons in Brisbane might need extra time with cases, while someone working with a Russian tutor in Perth may already understand the grammar but want more opportunities to speak spontaneously.
Personal lessons allow that balance to change instead of giving every learner the same sequence of exercises.
Find your own reason to keep using Russian
For one person, the motivation might be reading Chekhov or Dostoevsky with less dependence on translation. For another, it could be speaking with family, travelling, studying history or understanding Russian-language films and media.
Learners can also explore Russian tutors in Adelaide for conversation, literacy, grammar or more structured study.
On Superprof, tutors can be compared by their experience, availability, teaching approach, lesson format and the levels they teach. That makes it easier to choose someone whose strengths match the particular side of Russian you want to explore.
Having a concrete use for the language can make difficult grammar feel less abstract. Each new case ending, verb or expression then becomes something you can recognise in a book, hear in a conversation or use for yourself.