Grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening comprehension… These words don’t sound too exciting, do they? At Liden & Denz, we believe that studying Russian can be fun. After a class with a native speaker, you can study as you go, just walking around the city and exploring. However, for the days when you don’t feel like going out and about, we bring you five fun tips to improve your Russian skills. The best part? You don’t even have to leave your bed!
1. Cosy up with a good book
Reading helps you memorize new vocabulary and get used to phrases and grammar that might be completely different from your native language. Don’t worry if you find Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy a bit intimidating, though – you can choose any genre you like, be it fairy tales or horror. I suggest picking up the Russian translation of your favourite book. You already know you’re going to love it and it won’t feel like studying at all!
2. Rest your eyes and let your ears do the work
If you prefer audiobooks to paperbacks and Kindle, we have good news for you: there are audiobooks in Russian! Podcast Чтение (Reading) lets you listen to excerpts from famous novels for free. Recently, they’ve posted The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but you can also find Haruki Murakami, Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King on their website.
3. Youtube and chill
Calling a day spent watching Youtube videos productive sounds mad, doesn’t it? Actually, Youtube can help you to better understand spoken Russian and learn some slang words along the way. We recommend TheBrianMaps for funny sketches and parodies and Sonya Esman for girly content ranging from fashion and beauty to lifestyle, health and travel. And if you’ve ever wondered how much weight a fly can carry or what would happen if you lit 10 000 sparklers at once, go check out SlivkiShow. They make videos of crazy experiments, come up with clever life hacks and their cat is super cute, too!
4. Keep up with current events
If you want to talk about current affairs, you have to use current vocabulary, right? Reading or watching the news is a great way to learn new words you can later use in conversation with native speakers. One of the most popular Russian newspapers is Аргументы и Факты (Arguments and Facts), which is sold worldwide. It covers politics, business, sport, history and culture – the whole package you need to really immerse yourself in Russian language. If you prefer celebrity gossip or are interested in a particular topic such as health, fashion or cars, have a look at these online magazines in Russian.
5. Dear diary…
Have you ever kept a diary? It’s not always easy to stick to it and write every day, but if you see it as a way to improve your language skills, you’ll probably make more of a commitment. Writing a diary in Russian has several advantages: Firstly, you practice writing without being judged and graded for your grammar. Secondly, you learn how to express your thoughts and feelings in a foreign language, which doesn’t always come easily. And finally, Cyrillic is an unbreakable code for non-Russian speakers, so all your secrets are safe!
We hope you found these tips helpful – please, let us know on our Facebook page. If you’d like some more advice on learning Russian, check out Esther’s recent post, Level up your Russian!
Read also: The Best Websites for Learning Russian