Tips to Read & Listen in Russian
Since these two are ~passive~ skills, I wanted to give some tips to make them a bit easier. This list is not exhaustive, but rather some things that will help. Note: Some of these rules only apply to the central Russian dialects, notably the Moscow one that is normally taught, so it will vary around the country.
These tips are more about getting accustomed to reading in Russian, rather than learning from scratch. I sound like a broken record, but practice is really the only way to improve. When reading, try reading the whole thing to the end even if you do not know the vocab. Then go back and read again trying to figure out the meaning of the words and then translate. It will help you with your reading speed as you are not stopping as often to translate.
Lingualy is a great way to read in Russian as a beginner. It presents you with short articles based on your level and if you do not know a word it translates it for you. You can then save the words to your list and learn them as you go. It has articles by theme so it is nice if you want to read about fashion or technology instead of literature. Readlang is another thing you can use, but the Russian selection is limited. Another way to practice can be found here for various activities.
I found this cool app that shows you a word in Russian and then you have to click on the translation quickly like a bubble game. It forces you to read and think quickly so it is great for training yourself to read in Russian. Link: [Android] [Amazon App]
Influent Video Game: This is a computer video game meant to be like immersion where you click on an object and it gives you the word in Russian and translation. You can then play different ways in the game to learn the vocabulary and memorize it. This is great for vocabulary for home and comes in many languages if you want it for something other than Russian. The next sale is in the summer, so if you can wait to do it. Link: [Steam]
Set your video games to Russian subtitles. This is more for intermediate learners as the vocabulary is usually more complex and you have to be used to quickly reading. It also gives you some immersion without having to commit fully.
Since listening is a passive skill, it is something that can only be obtained through frequent exposure. However, listening to material that is clearly above your level is not exactly helpful as you do not know the words and would be wasting time. That said, it is unreasonable for you to quickly learn 3000+ words at the beginner level to be able to understand things like films or tv shows.
1. Learn the spelling rules
If you are writing a dictation or anything in Russian, you need to know the spelling rules. By learning them early on, you know when you should and shouldn’t use certain letters next to each other, making it easier to figure out if it really was a и or a ы that you heard. The rules are as follows:
Spelling Rule 1: Ы - И: Never write the letter “Ы” after the letters ‘Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ’ instead use “И”
Spelling Rule 2: unstressed O - E: Never write an unstressed “O” after the letters 'Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ц’ instead use “E”
Spelling Rule 3: Я - А: Never write the letter “Я” after the letters 'Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ц’ instead use “А”
Spelling Rule 4: Ю - У: Never write the letter “Ю” after the letters 'Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ц’ instead use “У”
For more information, go here, here or here for a video by Gabriel Wyner.
2. Distinguish Similar Sounds
This is perhaps the hardest thing to do because it can vary by speaker, but by listening to them in minimal pairs, you can make it easier. My favorite way of distinguishing sounds is by listening to скороговорки, tongue twisters! Links: site, youtube.
ы vs и: Videos: [1] [2] [3] Try to make your own minimal pairs. Words such as бить and быть are easy to input into forvo.com and hear them pronounced by native speakers.
unstressed о vs а : This is something that has to be learned by practice. Words such as она and оно are common so you know how to write them when you hear them pronounced as “ana and ano” However, I know of no tricks to learn stress other than to read a lot of books with stress indicated in them.
ш vs щ : This is not as hard as the above and you just need some practice. Article, videos [1] [2] [3]. Again, look for words on forvo.
ь : Videos [1] [2] [3] [4] A common rule is that the infinitive form of a verb ends with a soft sign. A list of common nouns that end with a soft sign can be found here.
Other similar sounds: I find it best to go on youtube and check the two letter sounds compared or just find a few tongue twisters with those sounds and find some audio with them.
More Practice: Here, vowels in Russian here
3. Know how prepositions sound and when to use them
Prepositions in spoken Russian sound as if they are part of the word they are in front of. For example, “с ума” sounds like “сума”. Some common prepositions that work like this are в/во, о/об, к, у, с, до. Remember to write them out as their own word, not as part of another if it is a preposition. (This does not apply to verbs as they have their own system.)
4. Take note of constructions and words that are pronounced differently than what they look like*
Since many of these words are common, it is a bit easy to take note of. For example, его is pronounced like “yevo” not “yego” Here are some common words like this: *For the standard Moscow Russian taught.
его/ого: The г is pronounced as a “v”. This is quite a common feature usually seen in genitive adjectival endings, or in words like сегодня.
что: This is usually pronounced like “shto” but can be said differently by native speakers in different areas of Russia.
пожалуйста : The уй is not pronounced.
жч,сч, and зч : In these clusters, the resulting sound is like a long “sh”. Common words are счастье (shast’ye) , мужчина, заказчик.
жж and зж: In these clusters, the resulting sound is a longer “zh” than ж. Common words are жжёт, езжу, дрожжи, поезжай.
Vowel Reduction: This post by @properrussian explains it well
5. Practice Listening with Youtube
My favorite way to learn from videos is from music and channels dedicated to help you with Russian. While I wish there was something like Yabla Player, FluentU, or even LyricsTraining for Russian, I can work with just YouTube. While cartoons may help you, I also find that many have squeaky voices that make it hard to understand.
Music: Most popular songs have lyrics with translation on lyricstranslate. You can then listen to songs you like over and over until it becomes easier to understand the words. You can also go here .
Russianpod101 has some listening comprehension videos on youtube that are great for practice. The beginner playlist is here.
Easy Russian: Since both the Russian and English transcription is there, this is great for listening. Re-watch the clips over and over to get a feel for pronunciation, vocabulary, and listening comprehension.
My list of youtube channels is here.
While some dictation exercises are derived from textbooks, some professors will read an article or something else that is not part of your curriculum. Therefore, there will be words that you will not have studied but will have to figure out how to write. Dictation only becomes easier the more you do it. When I had them, it helped to look over what I got wrong and study from my mistakes. Some exercises I found are: Audio Dictation , UCLA (audio is at the top for the dictations), Cool exercises . I find that these immensely help improve your listening comprehension as you are trying really hard to understand vs when you watch a show with subtitles.
Podcasts are great because many come with scripts and the quality is usually high. You can listen to them whenever you want to. It is my go-to thing to do. You can also use them for dictation exercises if they have a script.
Ochen Po-Russki (Intermediate)
A Taste of Russian (Intermediate)
Proper Russian (Intermediate)
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