I’ve been meaning to blog about Russian YouTube for quite a while. Current events have spurred me to get on with it. Russian creators need all the support they can get. This, then, is the second of two new posts. The first was my recent list of the best channels for the beginner and lower intermediate levels: Top Learn Russian YouTube channels. Check those out too! Many of them still have lot to offer you further down the road to fluency.

You probably won’t “click” with all my chosen creators, but my work will have been done if this post gets you a bit further into Russian YouTube and spurs you on to find a channel or two that becomes part of YOUR regular viewing.  

I plan to update this post regularly, so if there are gems you’d like me to add, let me know in the comments at the end.  

Oh, and by the way, in the list below, I’ve stuck with “real YouTubers”. I’ll cover Russian films and TV shows on YouTube (and elsewhere) in later posts.

Self development

Marina Mogilko

Marina Mogilko moved as a young woman from St Petersburg to California and hasn’t looked back. The channel is a mixture of “slice of life” vlogging, lifestyle and YouTube / business tips. The content is sometimes filmed back-to-back Mogilko’s similar English channel (Silicon Valley Girl). So, if you’re a lower intermediate learner, you could watch the English version first. Both channels are packed with inspirational and motivational value, even if they do sometimes sail close to the borders of bling. The commensurate social media professional, Marina also has massive language learning channel, Linguamarina, aimed mainly at learner of English. She earns her place among the best Russian YouTubers several times over.  

Link to channel homepage: Marina Mogilko. Example video:

Sergio Nee

In each video Sergei sets himself a new challenge for a set period of time. These are often physical or craft challenges (“I learned a trick on the skateboard in 24 hours”, “I became left-handed for a month”, “I learnt to do a backflip in 24 hours”). But also craft and making.  Sometimes intellectual (English). We follow the inception of the project, the execution and the end result. Well planned, scripted and crafted. 

Sergei mainly voices over from a script. He doesn’t take himself too seriously and has a relaxed, chatty style. There’s lots of practical vocab to do with movement and doing things, just the sort of stuff you’d pick up early as a Russian child but could easily miss as an adult learner.  

Altogether, very worthwhile entertainment from “the guy next door”.  

Link to channel homepage: Sergio Nee. Example video:

Travel

Kasye Gusanov

Classic Millennial travel vlogging from a wide range of countries, but in Russian. 

Link to channel homepage: Kasye Gusanov. Example video:

Maks Listov

I first discovered this young photographer when he was on his road trip through the US in 2017. He produced a wonderful series of very well edited vlogs from the West Coast with a mildly hippy flavour.  It was hardly a surprise when he relocated to south-east Asia. There, he developed an unhealthy obsession for Durian fruit and started to look rather anorexic. He seemed to veer further off course with each new tattoo and started making preachy videos drawing attention to the horrors of the meat industry. I took refuge in his back list from Moscow and Barcelona. A vlog from St Petersburg in April 2021 showed that he could still pull it out of the hat and I really hope that his return in April 22 with a video about Bitcoin (!) doesn’t mean that his decline is complete. 

Link to channel homepage: Maks Listov. Example video:

Dmitrii Shamov

Another chance for vicarious travel, at least if your destination is Japan. I came across this channel in advance of my trip to Fukuoka for the 2019 Polyglot Conference and subscribed at once. Instead of watching videos about Japan in English, here’s a great chance for me to get a Russian take and some Russian practice. 

Link to channel homepage: Dmitrii Shamov. Example video:

Politics, current affairs

Maksim Katz

I only discovered Maksim Katz’ channel as I searched for new things to watch at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. He has been active in Russian opposition politics for over a decade (including in Alexei Nevalny’s team and for the liberal “Yabloko” party). His daily videos are carefully scripted essays delivered to camera, with visual variety from stills and stock footage and what may just be YouTubes only tartan transition frame. The videos are usually about ten to fifteen minutes long and there’s a new one each day. These are monologues intended (in Katz’) own words, to be “calming”, delivered in clear Russian and with a raised eyebrow. They usually finish with a resigned “Vot tak. Do zavtra” (“So, that’s where we are then. See you tomorrow”). 

Link to channel homepage: Maksim Katz. Example video:

Alexandr Nevzorov

I remember watching Aleksandr Nevzorov’s sensational glasnost’ era show 600 Seconds on Leningrad TV during my first visit to the city in 1990. His trade was biting exposés of corrupt Soviet officialdom and each breathless episode was over in just two minutes. Nevzorov has been through various incarnations since then but is now firmly in the opposition camp, demolishing “head political corpse” Putin and his Ukrainian misadventure with coruscating tirades. Fasten your seatbelt and be prepared to use the pause and rewind buttons if you don’t get his sophisticated, literary Russian first time. Yes, Nevzorov still deals it out like he’s only got shest’ sot sekund. 

Link to channel homepage: Aleksandr Nevzorov. Example video:

Ekaterina Shulmann

A good-natured political scientist, journalist and public intellectual, Shulmann is now also a “foreign agent” (according to the Russian powers that be)  I first came across her on the liberal speech radio station “Ekho Moskvy” in the second half of the noughties when I was living in the Russian capital. Nothing if not loquacious (and easier to follow than Nevzorov), she seemed to be able to churn out well-considered opinions at (great) length on any topic raised by a caller with zero notice. She still can. 

Link to channel homepage: Ekaterina Shulmann. Example video:

Il’ya Varlamov

Engaging journalism out from under an unruly ginger mane. In normal times, there’s a lot about the interface between urban planning, governance and Russian quality of life (including one from Russian-occupied Crimea). He’s also ranged further afield. There are videos from the Balkans and in January 2021 he vlogged from his jail cell in South Sudan. There’s a regular critical roundup of politics from Moscow and the regions each Sunday. In the last two years, the unrest in Belarus in 2020 and now Ukraine have been centre-stage. The videos in his series on each of the post-Soviet republics “thirty years on” are well worth a watch. You’ll need a long coffee-break, though, as Varlamov videos rarely come in at less than thirty minute (and are often significantly longer). 

Link to channel homepage: Il’ya Varlamov. Example video:

V Dud’ 

Yurii Dud’ is another Russian journalist who has become a top Russian YouTuber. He specialises in long-form interviews and has built up one of the largest Russian channels of all (10M+ subs). Here, you’ll mainly find in-depth conversations with outstanding Russians from various walks of life. The one I’ve most recently watched was with author Boris Akunin.  There are also a handful of in-depth reports on particular regions, such as the one I watched on Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East (an advert for the break-up of Russia, if ever there was one).  Branded a “foreign agent” for taking a stand on the war against Ukraine, he has now relocated to Istasnbul.  

  Link to channel homepage: V Dud’. Example video:

Culture 

Mikhail Sein

Pop cultural criticism from a young Russian with a high octane intellect. After the outbreak of the war, he moved from Russian first to Georgia and now to NYC. He’s the reason I now follow an art collective from Burytia on Instagram. Sophisticated cultural criticism of pop culture: rock, rap, street art…. Sparking discussion in youth slang (some of which I cannot reproduce on a family website). He passes my test for a gifted teacher: he makes ME feel intelligent just for listening and leaves me buzzing to find out more. Wow!

Link to channel homepage: Mikhail Sein. Example video:

Hobbies

Gazeta sadovod 

About as far from Mikhail Sein as Kalingrad is from Vladivostok. This channel accompanies the internet magazine of the same name. In front of the camera is the editor, Yurii Bushuev. If you’ve watched any of MY vlogs, you might remember that I’m into gardening. There was even a time (around age 15), when it looked like I might strike out this way for a career. “I’ve met quite a few gardeners and they’ve all been the most contented people” said a teacher at the time and I’ve never forgotten. 

Link to channel homepage: Gazeta sadovod. Example video:

The point is this: what are your hobbies?  Have you found a YouTube channel that will let you use your advanced Russian to engage with them? 

In the comments below, let me know that, and your other thoughts and recommendations for the best Russian YouTubers.    

Related posts

TRKI 2nd and 3rd certificate exam preparation materials reviewed

Project Advanced Russian (First in series. How I passed the TRKI 3rd certificate (C1) exam)

TRKI 4th certificate interviews with successful candidates (first in a series of posts)

The post Best Russian YouTubers for upper-intermediate learners in 2025 appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

What’s the level of the Russian A2 test / TRKI Basic Level exam?

A2 is a level on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. That’s a set of ability standards used by educators in Russian and many other languages. There are two CERFL “Basic” levels. A1 (“Breakthrough”) is the lower beginner level. Then, for upper beginners, comes A2 (obscurely called “Waystage”).

How good does your Russian have to be to pass the TORFL Basic Exam? In short, applying the CEFRL scale at A2 you need to be able to:

• understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment)
• communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters
• describe in simple terms aspects of their background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need

Sure, what you can say and understand at this level is still rather limited to expressing basic needs, communicating on the most common, everyday topics. You will still often only catch some of the main points of what’s being said, even if it’s expressed in clear speech that isn’t that fast.

But pause to reflect for a moment.

You’ll have covered many of the most frequent Russian grammatical patterns. You should be aiming for a vocabulary of about 1,300 words. With an active command of a lot of these words and patterns and a passive understanding of more of them, you can expect to be able to deal well with some important real-live situations when travelling.

Altogether, you have developed a wonderful skill that will help you connect with Russian-speaking people all over the world. This will transform your experience in countries where Russian is widely spoken.

For more information on where in Russian and abroad you can take the TRKI Basic level (A2) exam and for new possibilities to take it online, check out my overview post on Russian language exams. 

Let’s look at the format of each section in turn!

But first… 

My sources of information on the exam

I’ve based this post on two published “model” papers as guidance. First, the Russian Ministry of Education’s published sample paper (2001), which I call the Ministry Sample. Second, St Petersburg University’s Language Centre’s example paper (no date, but much more recent). I call this the St Petersburg Sample. I’ve also looked at the book TRKI na 100%. A2 published in 2020 (ISBN: 9785907123540) by Zlatoust’ publishers with St Petersburg University. This volume contains two complete past papers (actually used in testing centres). 

Together, these give a good idea of the type of tasks and the level but there are some differences of allotted time and format between them. I’d be inclined to go with the St Petersburg Sample and TRKI na 100% as they are the most up-to-date. TRKI na 100% is, in the main, consistent with the St Petersburg Sample but there are one or two differences (e.g. 10 minutes more than the St Petersburg Sample for the reading sub-test).

Given the differences between the sample papers and that the formats may change, be sure to check the most up-to-date format for yourself with your teacher / exam testing centre. Do this in good time before the exam, so that you don’t have any disconcerting surprises on exam day. 

Deep dive into the Russian TRKI Basic Level exam: section by section

The Russian A2 test is split into five parts called “sub-tests”.  Let’s look at each one in detail. 

Vocabulary and grammar sub-test

• Time allowed: 50 minutes
• MInistry Sample: 110 questions, St Petersburg Sample / TRKI na 100% – 100 questions

The questions are multi-choice with, variously, two, three or four possible answers to choose from.

Topics tested would typically include picking the right verb (tense and verbal aspect could be important here), choosing a noun in the correct case, choosing the missing preposition with the correct case ending, expressions of time. 

The time pressure will be on. Even if we go with the St Petersburg Sample / TRKI na 100% (“only” 100 questions instead of 110), you’ll only have thirty seconds per question. 

Reading sub-test 

• Time allowed: Ministry Sample and TRKI na 100% – 50 minutes; St Petersburg Sample 40 minutes
• Ministry Sample: 30 questions in three parts; St Petersburg Sample / TRKI na 100% – 30 questions in four parts
• Bilingual or Russian-only (paper-based) dictionary allowed

Part One of the Reading sub-test in the Ministry Sample starts with five short declarations of the sort you might find on an official notice board and you have to say what action is required to comply. For example: “Please do not smoke in the corridor”.  The answer could be: (a) “Do not smoke in the corridor”, (b) “You may smoke in the corridor” or (c) “Everyone smokes in the corridor”.  

Questions 6 to 10 are statements and you have to choose what follows logically. For example: “It’s so cold here”: (a) “Please close the window” (b) “Please turn the light on” or (c) “Please don’t smoke here”.  

Part One of the St Petersburg Sample and TRKI na 100% – Questions 1 to 5 – are of the same type as Questions 6 to 10 in the Ministry Paper (and there’s no equivalent of the “noticeboard announcements” in the Ministry Sample).  

In the St Petersburg Sample and TRKI na 100%, Questions 6 to 10 are a separate section, Part Two. There are five short texts of roughly 60 to 90 words each. You have to identify what each text is about (three possible answers). This deviation means that there is more text to read here than in the Ministry Sample.  

Part Two of the Ministry Sample (Questions 11 to 25) is a longer text: synopses of three Russian films. You have to choose the film to which each of fifteen statements applies.  This is Part Three of the St Petersburg Sample and TRKI na 100% (Questions 11 to 25) but they neverthless follow the same format at the Ministry Sample, with texts about three other films (in TRKI na 100% the topics are “Attitudes of young people towards  sport”  and “How people spend national holidays in Russia”). The total length is very roughly 300 to 350 words).   

Part Three of the Ministry Sample (Questions 26-30) or Part Four for the St Petersburg Sample / TRKI na 100% is another chunky text (again, about  300  to 350 words) and there are five multi-choice questions to test your understanding.  

Listening Sub-Test

• Time allowed: 30 minutes
• Ministry Sample: 30 questions in five parts; St Petersburg Sample / TRKI na 100% – 25 questions in five parts

According to TRKI na 100%, you will be given time to familiarise yourself with the written questions before the audio is played. 

All three of my sources come with transcripts of the audio and TRKI na 100% has QR codes for you to access the actual audio recordings online.  

In Part One of both Samples and TRKI na 100% (Questions 1 to 5) you hear phrases and have to choose which of three options conveys the same information.  For example was it “She came from America”, “She loves America” or “She was born in America” (Ministry Sample).  

Part Two (Questions 6 to 8) you have to identify what two people are talking about in a short dialogue or where they are, for example “at home”, “in a restaurant”, “in a shop” (St Petersburg Sample) . 

In Part Three (Questions 9 to 13), you have to identify what the “basic aim” of the dialogues is, which seems to mean the key information conveyed. There is a choice of three answers, such as “Lena goes to work…” (a) by car, (b) by bus or (c) by metro.

Ministry Sample Part Four (Questions 14 to 23) involves listening to one longer dialogue and answering comprehension-checking multi-choice questions (with two or three options).  The format is slightly different in the St Petersburg Sample (Questions 13 to 19). You have to listen to the dialogue and then fill in one piece of missing information in a grid. For example Question 18: “Elena Sergeevna is interested in (what?)” or Question 18: “Andrei will visit Elena Sergeevna (when?)”.  However, TRKI na 100% (Questions 13 to 19) is back with the Ministry Sample format: comprehension checking questions (three multi choice options for each answer). 

Ministry Sample Part Five (Questions 24 to 30) is a “text” (presumably a reading). There’s a choice of three answers for each question. In the St Petersburg Sample (Questions 20 to 25), there is also just one speaker, a tour guide (presumably giving a set spiel, so similar to a reading).  As in Part Four of the St Petersburg Sample, you have to fill in your answer in a grid.  Part Four of TRKI na 100% (Questions 20 to 25) is also a monologue (e.g. a radio advert), with three-option multi-choice questions.  

Writing Sub-Test

• Time allowed: 50 minutes
• Two tasks
• Bilingual or Russian-only (paper-based) dictionary allowed

Task One of the Ministry Paper is “Your friend is thinking of changing jobs. Write to him about how the hero of the story “How Victor chose his profession” solved this problem. There is then a list of six questions around which you may (should?) organise your answer. For example “What did Victor’s school friends say?” and “Why couldn’t Victor matriculate straight away at the Leningrad Institute?”  

This seems problematic. It’s not absolutely clear whether they require a letter (seems so). There’s no guidance as to length. Plus, there’s a rather long text to read in what’s supposed to be a test of your writing skills. That said, you’ll have a chunk of correct, “on message” Russian in front of your eyes as you do your own writing.  

In the St Petersburg Sample and TRKI na 100% , you have to write a letter to a friend (in TRKI na 100% Paper One the letter is about a recent trip you’ve made, in Paper Two – about your favourite sport. You have to write “not less than 12 phrases” and there are five things specified that you have to cover (e.g. How long your trip lasted; Why you chose this sport). There are also three things you have to ask your friend in the letter (e.g. Would s/he like to come to training with you? Where does your friend want to go on a trip?).

Task Two of the Ministry Sample is to write a letter to somebody living in Russia. You have to talk about yourself in not less than ten phrases.  There are then ten questions to help you, such as “What is your name?”, “Where do you live at the moment”.  These are clearly included as helpful prompts.  

Task Two of the St Petersburg Sample is to write a note. You’re going to be ten to fifteen minutes late to meet a friend. You have to ask the friend to wait for you in the agreed place.  The note should be “not shorter than five phrases”.  In a rather bizarre twist, it says that the message is “to be given over the phone” (dlia peredachu po telefonu). Who scripts their phone calls in real life (or leaves a message for somebody else to give over the phone)? In TRKI – na 100% Paper One the task is similar (but you’re writing a Whatsapp message).  

Speaking sub-test 

• Time allowed: Ministry Sample 50 minutes; St Petersburg Sample and TRKI na 100% – 25 minutes
• Ministry Sample: 4 tasks, thirteen “points of view”; St Petersburg Sample / TRKI na 100% – three tasks
• Bilingual or Russian-only (paper-based) dictionary allowed for the preparation of St Petersburg Sample / TRKI na 100% task 3

TRKI A2 na 100% says that you take the sub-test in a one-to-one format with the examiner and your performance is recorded. 

MInistry Sample Tasks 1 and 2 (positions 1 to 5) (3 minutes, no preparation time). No preparation in advance. For some reason, the Ministry Sample calls the first five “positions” “Tasks 1 and 2”, even though it looks more like one task. The examiner will give you a prompt. For example: “Today you are miserable. What’s wrong with you? Why do you feel bad today?” Your task is to respond (and you should give a full answer,  don’t just answer “Yes” or “No”). 

Task One of the St Petersburg Sample and TRKI na 100% is similar (five questions, ten minutes in total, including Task Two, below, no preparation time): you have to respond to the five prompt questions (repliki) with a “full answer” (not just “yes” or “no”). For example: “Do you often go to exhibitions, to museums?”. 

Ministry Sample Task 3 (positions 6 to 10)(4 minutes, no preparation time). You are given five situations and you have to come up with an opening salvo in a dialogue.  E.g. “You’ve come to the library to borrow a magazine. Explain to the librarian what you want”.

Task Two of the St Petersburg Sample / TRKI na 100% is similar (five situations, ten minutes in total including Task One, above, no preparation time). You are given five situations and have to start a dialogue on each one. For example: “You don’t know when your friend started college. Ask him.” 

Ministry Sample Task 4 (positions 11 to 12)(up to 25 minutes. It says 15 minutes preparation and “up to 8 minutes” for the answers but 15 + 8 is not 25 (!)). To answer both you have to read one text (roughly 300 words).. Position 11 is to explain the “problem that interests the author”, which is how a young male student would tell a young female student that he loves her. In the text, he asks three people what they think a young person would say but they all give different answers. Position 12: you must say what you would advise the author if he asked you how a young person would respond.  

Ministry Sample Task 5 (position 13) (10 minutes preparation, up to 10 minutes to answer).  You are given a situation to read about and have to prepare a statement (10 to 12 phrases). You can write a plan but you shouldn’t read out. The sample scenario is this: “A journalist who’s writing about how young people relax in their free time has come up to you on the street and asks you about this. You explain what you normally do during the holidays or on vacation.”  There are then six quite detailed prompts of information that the journalist needs to hear in what you say. For example: “about what you do when the weather is good and bad”.  

In the St Petersburg Sample /TRKI na 100% Task 3 (10 minutes preparation, bilingual or Russian-only dictionary allowed; 5 minutes to answer). You are given a scenario with five prompts as to aspects that you need to mention in your verbal report. For example “Sport in my life”. You can prepare notes but only for use as a prompt. Don’t try to read something you’ve written out.  

Where to take the Russian ToRFL A2 exam

You can take the Russian A2 test at different language testing centres (Russian universities or their local and international partners). Each will have their own timetables throughout the year. The large centres in Russia may run the test several times a month, some foreign centres may do so only once a year.

According to TRKI A2 na 100% you normally take the A2/Basic Level Russian test over two days. This is also the usual pattern at the Russian Language Centre in London, where I have taken the TRKI 2nd and 3rd Certificates (a partner centre of St Petersburg University).

On the first day it’s writing, reading and vocabulary/grammar sub-tests. On the second day: listening and speaking. However, if you have a good reason and inform the organisers in advance, it is also possible to take all the sub-tests in one day.  

One result of the COVID crisis was to give a spur to online learning and the Language Testing Centre of St Petersburg University now also offers the exam online (also over two days). 

Remember, always double check with your exam centre what their arrangements are.

Pass marks and certification 

You need to get at least 66% in each section to pass. If you fail one section with a result of not less than 60%, you will still get a certificate and the breakdown transcript will indicate “unsatisfactory” for this sub-test but the overall result will still be “satisfactory” (according to TRKI na 100%).  There is no grading other than “satisfactory” / “unsatisfactory” but the breakdown transcript will include your percentages for each sub-test and overall. 

Alternatives to the TRKI Basic Level Exam

Don’t forget that the ToRFL Basic Level is not your only Russian option at this level. TELC is one of the leading language exam bodies in Germany and they offer a the TELC A2 Russian exam. Also the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute in Moscow has its own exams at all levels. You can find out more on both providers in my overview post on Russian language exams. 

How to prepare for the Russian TRKI Basic Level A2 exam

You now have an in-depth sense of what the TRKI Basic Level Russian A2 test involves but how do you prepare for it? 

We’ve already talked about some of the practicalities around testing centres and where and when they hold the exam. You can find out more in my overview post on Russian language exams. 

Before you get any deeper into the practical side, you need to ask yourself whether you have the required level of Russian to pass the exam. My post on the grammar and vocab that you need for A2 for this level will help you there.

It would also make sense to talk to a teacher who is capable of assessing your level.  

If you are already at the requisite level across all the skills, your main task is to practise the format of the five sub-tests.

If your Russian still needs more work, then set a realistic date when you’d like to do the exam. Then you’ll have a great goal to keep you motivated. All you need then is a plan, the right materials to get stuck into and some help (especially for feedback on your written work and speaking practice).

Interested in consolidating and revising your A2-level Russian grammar as part of your preparation? Then check out my popular Focus in Five A2 Russian Grammar Revision Course.  

Удачи вам!

The post Russian A2 test: the TRKI Basic Level exam uncovered appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

This post is aimed mainly at beginner and lower intermediate Russian learners. True, most of the channels have something for all levels but as an upper intermediate and advanced learner, you’ll also want to look at channels aimed at native speakers (check out my recommendations here). Scroll straight on down for the list, but if you’re new to using YouTube in your language learning, check the tips in the next section before you start.

Things to look out for as you choose a YouTube channel to learn Russian

Part of the enjoyment from YouTube comes from getting to “know” the personality in front of the camera, so a lot of your choice will come down to chemistry. I would choose two or three of the channels that “click” for you, subscribe, hit the bell and follow the creators regularly. Check out a few vids first (I’ve included one example vid for each channel below, but each channel offers a lot of variety). An easy way to start to get a sense of the types of content on a channel is to click the channel “Playlist” tab to see themed groups of videos.

But personality and content style aren’t the only important variables.

What do you want YouTube for?

Do you want a free channel to be your main go-to Russian learning resource or (more recommended) will you use it to supplement other materials and work with an exchange partner, a teacher, a self-study book or online course?

More things to consider when you choose your YouTube channels for learning Russian:

• How much English is spoken in the videos and will this help make things clear/speed up the learning process or take away from Russian thinking and listening time?
• Are there embedded subtitles that you can’t turn off do you have a choice with the YouTube on/off subtitles. Are the subtitles in Russian and English or just one language
• Does the creator have a podcast? Do they have presence on other social media (this can be a great way to feel connected, get more exposure to the language and hear about new YouTube vids as they appear).
• Are there paid options from the creator, that could augment your experience. For example a Patreon scheme that unlocks goodies such as a downloadable pdf transcript or worksheets, an offer of tuition or courses from the creator?

Now, straight to the list (in alphabetical order):

1. About Russian in Russian

As the channel name suggests, Ira teaches Russian through Russian. No English here (not even auto-generated subtitles). Many of the lessons are simple in form: explicit instruction to camera from Ira, standing by her whiteboard. She covers a range of beginner and intermediate topics (The past tense, a series on individual prepositions, How to use svoi. For intermediate and above there are slice of life and travel vlogs (Trip to Kaliningrad region, travel blogs from St Petersburg, Murmansk, Sakhalin). There are videos on method and also on taking Russian language exams. Advanced students will enjoy the “lives” with advanced level learners from various countries (including one with Raffi whom I’ve interviewed here on at Howtogetfluent).

Link to channel home page: About Russian in Russian

2. Be Fluent in Russian

One of the largest channels in the field. Many of teacher Feodor’s lessons are in English with the points being taught shown as text on-screen in Russian only. The format is good for focussing in on a particular point that may have been bugging you (How do natives use li in Russian; Useful phrases with мне in Russian; How to use себя in Russian). The vids flagged as “podcast”, “Super Easy Russian”, “Real Russian” and “Fast Russian” are in Russian only (after a brief intro in English). There are also a handful of method advice videos in English about how to learn Russian (How not to get overwhelmed with grammar; How to make amazing flashcards with ANKI).

Link to channel home page: Be fluent in Russian. Example video:

3. Comprehensible Russian

Inna aims to teach your Russian through Russian directly with the help of gestures and pictures on a whiteboard (no embedded subtitles).

This is the “comprehensible input” method associated with the applied linguist Stephen Krashen. If you’re at the very start of your Russian journey, go for the videos marked “Zero Beginners”. There are vids on many of the essential vocabulary areas: Body parts, food, rooms and furniture… Maybe then move on to the vids flagged “Beginners”. Now she’s covered a lot of the usual beginner topic, Inna has moved on to add lessons on aspects of Russian daily life, culture and history, without compromising on the comprehensible input approach. There’s a video of her making the popular salad “Herring under a fur coat”, one on the end of the Stalin era, even one on the Mongul invasion of old Rus’ in the 13th century. All great for widening your knowledge of Russia and the language and altogether, a unique learn Russian YouTube channel.

Link to channel home page: Comprehensible Russian. Example video:

4. Easy Russian

The “Easy Languages” franchise began with Easy German and channels for other languages have the same brading. The format is usually interviews with passers-by on the streets of Moscow or St Petersburg on a wide range of (safe) topics (What’s your favourite city, The most annoyingly catchy Russian songs).

There are also some monologues to camera and some explicit in-Russian only lessons (e.g. 10 situations where Russians use the genitive case). The Super Easy Russian playlist is very useful for beginners and there are also hand playlists of the grammar and vocabulary lessons.

Anya and Ira front many of the videos but there are several other presenters.

You have no control over the subtitles, unfortnately, as they are embedded in Russian (larger font size) with English (smaller font size underneath).

Link to channel home page: Easy Russian. Example video:

5. Real Russian Club with Daria

The largest channel in this line up, is Daria, a Russian teacher now based in Colorado. There’s a mixture of content and styles here. At one end, there are some live lessons on grammar and delivered mainly in English (for example, looking at the different cases). There’s a recent series on individual verbs, with conjugation and example phrases (each vid is mainly in Russian). Another format is longer vids (over an hour) in which Daria reads a children’s story, stopping to explain words and phrases and showing the relevant pages with illustrations on screen. There are vids about Daria’s life and travels just in Russian, both pieces to camera (Why I moved to Slovakia) and in a vlog style (Ukrainian doctor fixed my neck, Burnt village in Belarus).

Link to channel home page: Real Russian Club. Example video:

6. Russian Progress

The channel is run by Artyem, himself an accomplished language learner whom I know from the Polyglot Gathering. Many of the videos are pieces to camera (also released as a podcast). Artyem may be talking about something in his life (A week in Hong Kong, My experience learning Polish) or teaching a particular expression. Very useful transcripts are available for some videos (and for all for Patreon supporters). There are also vlogs where Artyem shares his thoughts and impressions as he walks about in various places, interviews and less formal, unscripted conversations (Artyem’s babushka is a regular guest).

Everything is in Russian only, making this channel a must for intermediate learners and above. Very helpful thematic playlist.

Link to channel website: Russian Progress

8. Russian with Dasha

Dasha is from St Petersburg. Vlogs cover what’s going on in her own life (My district, Summer Camping, My tough Siberian Babushka), Russian traditions (Mushroom Hunting, Beekeeping in Russia) and vids shot on the road (Karelia in winter, Exploring Kronstadt). The channel’s strap-line “Culture, Language, Travel” is thus right on the money.

Besides the vlogs, you’ll also find more formal grammar, vocab and phrase-focussed lessons here, some taught in English (try the vid on Survival Russian and see Dasha’s Russian for Beginners playlist).

Link to channel home page: Russian with Dasha. Example vid:

9. Russian with Max

Max is a warm and communicative on-screen presence who thinks like a vlogger. The channel coheres well with clear thumbnail labelling and well-curated play lists helping is find our way through a wide mix of thematic lessons (Twelve Russian Idioms, Let’s talk about friendship), one-to-one conversations on the sofa between Max and his partner Julia (including one where proposed to her in one video) and out-and-about vlogs (including most recently in exile in Yerevan). It’s great that there’s a strong emphasis on comprehensible input and teaching through Russian in the videos aimed at beginner. For the more recent vids on the channel, you can get pdf transcripts and vocab if you join the lowest level of Max’ Patreon.

Link to channel home page: Russian with Max. Example vid:

9. 1420

Vox-pop vids from a young guy called Daniil Orain. Russian passers by are on screen while Daniil remains off camera asking the questions. Each video has a set subject, these range widely, from the trivial through public opinion, including the risqué and topical questions: How beautiful are you from 0 to 10? Russians name a country they don’t like. Russians react to LGBT flag on US embassy, What do Russians think about “Z”? and so on.

Vids are often only about four or five minutes long: a real plus if you’re lower intermediate and looking to listen through several times or maybe try a dictation exercise (which you could then correct with a teacher) but you’d have to block out the embedded English subtitles. Cover up that part of your screen!

Well worth watching for an unfiltered cross-section of Russian public opinion in all its frightening variety (not suggesting that opinion elsewhere is any less so!).

Ling to channel home page: 1420. Example video:

Over to you

That’s my round up of learn Russian YouTube channels. Are you already a fan of any of my choices? If so, why? Are there any channels I’ve missed? Why should I add them to the list? How do you use YouTube in your Russian learning? Share your thoughts in the comments below. I can’t wait to read them!

Related posts

Why learn Russian?

How to learn Russian fast

How I learned Russian

Learn the Russian alphabet in an afternoon

Get Russian verb aspects right every time

Russian language exams: a guide

Best Russian YouTube channels (upper intermediate / advanced)

The post Top Learn Russian YouTube channels appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Info on this exam still isn’t that easy to come by and Here on the site, we’ve already talked to Daria, Barbara, Aga and Ivan. Each has a unique story and has shared priceless advice for students advanced Russian (and very useful insights for other advanced language learners as well). Now it’s Raffi‘s turn in the fullest conversation in the series so far. If you’re thinking about doing the exam, this will be one you’ll want to bookmark and come back to more than once, I’m sure.

When did you start learning Russian and why?

The glib, if honest, answer is because I was bored of studying French and wanted a change. My (public) high school offered Russian and to me it seemed like an obvious choice.

By way of context, I should say, my father speaks Russian as did my grandparents. I’m half Armenian and my grandmother was born in the Russian Empire. She, and my grandfather, who was born in Tabriz, Iran both spoke Russian. I was born in the US, English is my native tongue, but spent half my childhood in Iran (returning to the US a couple years after the Islamic Revolution).

In Tehran, once a week we would visit with my grandparents. I would hear my father converse with them in a mix of Armenian and Russian. I never understood what they said. I spoke Farsi with my grandparents. So, it was an obvious choice to start studying Russian in high school; this was the dawn of the era of glasnost’ and perestroika. I immediately fell in love with the language.

After my first year of language study, my grandmother came to the US to live with us. And I got to practise the language with her constantly. I learned much more about the very interesting life she led before moving to Iran at the height of Stalin’s purges.

I continued with Russian study in college and did study abroad for one year in 1991 (arriving in then-Leningrad a week after the failed August putsch). Then I lived and worked in Russia from 1997 to 2006. In 2006, I returned to the US.

Why did you decide to take the TRKI 4th certificate exam?

With COVID having us all under lockdown, with the help of a tutor, Anastasia Bredikhina (Krasnodar), I was studying to pass my state´s Russian court interpreting exam. I realised that there were gaps in my knowledge of Russian. And another tutor mentioned the TRKI-4 and I thought that passing the TRKI-IV would definitely help me improve my language knowledge.

A certain mystery and mythology surrounds the TRKI 4 exam. I’ve personally found it difficult to get information about it. Did you experience the same?

I think that a big part of it is that very few people take the test. I imagine there is little point in putting out practice tests for such a tiny demographic.

That said, things are gradually changing. There is a good series of videos on Youtube put out by St. Petersburg State University´s Language Testing Centre. Plus, of course, Daria´s excellent website. Additionally, I think your compilation of interviews here on Howtotfluent.com helps fill the gap. But, of course, this is nothing like the amount of information available about, say, a Cambridge C2 English Exam or the DELE-C2 for Spanish.

How much work did you put into preparation for the TRKI 4th certificate exam?

I was working with three tutors at the same time as I was studying for both the TRKI 4 and the state interpreting exam. For much of a period of about fifteen months, I had ten hours of tutoring per week. About five hours of that tutoring was directly for the TRKI-4. The other five hours was preparation for the state interpreting exam and deciphering Russian novels.

In addition, I had on average about five hours of TRKI-4 homework per week, plus I was listening/watching 40 minutes to an hour of Russian language content daily (films, TV series, podcasts).

So, I was getting a good twenty hours of focussed interaction with the language each week.

On top of this, I typically listened to Russian podcasts (or sometimes audio versions of the book I was reading with a tutor at the time) while driving.

What materials did you use to prepare for the TRKI 4?

Here’s a list of the main materials that I used:

Grammar and vocabulary materials

My tutors assigned me selected exercises from each of these books (or the associated websites):

• Е. Р. Ласкарева Чистая грамматика
• Е. Р. Ласкарева Прогулки по русской лексике
• А. Ф. Егорова Трудные случаи русской грамматики
• Серия Учебно-тренировочные тесты по русскому как иностранному (4 части)
• Часть 1.
• Н. А. Афанасьева
• Палитра стилей. Учебное пособие по стилистике русского языка для иностранцев
• О. И. Глазунова Грамматика русского языка в упражнениях и комментариях. Часть 2. Синтаксис
• Дел Филлипс, Н. А. Волкова
• Улучшим наш русский! Часть 1 / Let’s improve our Russian! Step 1
• Т. Ф. Куприянова Глаголы движения с приставками
• Т. П. Чепкова Русские фразеологизмы. Узнаем и Учим: учебное пособие
• Прагматикон: НКРЯ

Speaking materials

Лексический минимум для ТРКИ-3: https://zlatoust.store/catalog/testy_…
My tutor also developed her own exercises and role plays based on the actual test tasks

Listening comprehension materials

• Пьесы А. П. Чехова
• Телеканал “Культура” including
• Подкасты Медуза
• Подкаст “Голос зоны”

This podcast probably doesn’t have much of a connection to the exam, but it was most entertaining!

Reading comprehension materials

• Т. Н. Толстая Кысь
• М. А, Булгаков Белая гвардия
• Авторы рассказов:А. П. Чехов, И. А. Бунин, А. И. Солженицын, Ю. М. Нагибин, Киберленинка
• Банк заданий по ЕГЭ (в видео говорим о задании 22)
• В мире людей 3.1

To stay on the topic of materials, to my knowledge, there are only two published model papers available online, the “official one” published on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Education in the year 2000 and the much more recent “demo” paper.

Some aspects of the exam ”demo” version from the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg State University are significantly different from the official version developed over 20 years ago.

The test followed the “demo” version of the exam pretty closely.

Even so, the actual test seemed a bit harder than the “demo” version.

The grammar and vocabulary section had a set of questions where I had no idea what they were asking about. I think the demo version of the reading comprehension section of the exam had about five words that I didn’t know. In that same section in the actual exam there were probably above 25 to 30.

Tell us a bit more about the extensive work you did with your three tutors.

I found Anastasia, my tutor for the court exam quite easily on the Preply platform.

It was actually rather difficult to find TRKI-4 tutors. I first searched via Russian tutoring websites (profi.ru and repetitors.info), but I did not have much luck there.

This may seem rather obnoxious, but I asked candidate tutors to take a (three hour) test so that I could ascertain their Russian! I figured that if this test was so difficult then I better work with someone qualified.

I developed this exam with the help of a friend and the court interpreting tutor. (I did pay candidates for their time). Some people ghosted me, simply refused, or told me to go %$# myself in so many words!

In the end, I found the other two tutors, Alexandra and Anna Lyubivaya on italki.com.

Alexandra is trained as a TRKI scorer and proctor but she had never prepared someone for this exam). She said she felt qualified to help me with every section with the exception of the writing part. She explained that there is so much subjectivity involved in how grading occurs for this section that she couldn’t take on the responsibility of preparing me for this section.

She asked her Russian as a Foreign Language colleagues, including those who teach Russian in the university where she’d trained, if they’d be willing to work with me. They all refused. Why? Because it is hard to know how in practice the writing section will be scored. There is no way those instructors felt they knew how to get in the head of a test scorer and prepare a student to pass this section.

Anna Lyubivaya is the head of the Zlatoust Language School (St. Petersburg, a subsidiary of the Russian language study materials publisher of the same name). She has had a fair amount of experience preparing people to take this test.

My takeaway is that it is key to find people who are trained to work with this exam. I had trial lessons with a couple tutors who have excellent Russian, lots of teaching experience under their belt, but I could not see what we were working towards in our classes. The tutoring sessions lacked a clear structure.

Alexandra was excellent in that she was very thorough, took a holistic approach. We worked with all the test sections at the same time. She was very strategic in her choice of materials. I could see the direction in which we were going, These were well-structured lessons. It helped that she was very personable and responsive. Also, I really appreciated when she would say she didn´t know the answer and would have to get back to me or when she would acknowledge that she had made a mistake. I treasure that honesty and humility in a teacher.

Remember, working with tutors was just the path that I chose. If I were self-motivated, I could have done most of the preparation on my own and just consulted with a tutor from time to time.

Do you think you need to have a solid knowledge of Russian culture and literature to pass the test?

I think some hold this view. But it was interesting to hear Anna say that she has worked with students who have never been to a Russian-speaking country and yet have passed the TORFL fourth certificate / TRKI IV.

I have huge gaps in my knowledge of Russian literature. It is just in the past few years that I am making more of an effort to read novels in Russian.

All the same, when it came to the reading comprehension (or listening comprehension) sections, I hardly felt like I was struggling.

Also, I think it is possible to close gaps in knowledge of Russian culture by watching films. Anna was always recommending films – both excellent classics and newer films. I found watching them most illuminating and enriching. I was very fortunate that with Anna I had someone who has a deep knowledge of Russian and Soviet film.

Did you have problems staying motivated and, if so, how did you overcome them?

I need external motivation and working with tutors was the answer for me. I wouldn’t want the embarrassment of having to come to class and saying “Oh, I didn´t do my homework”.

As my tutor Anna says, when you already have a high level of mastery in a language and want to make it to the summit (if there even is one), the air gets thinner. It becomes “harder to breathe” and it takes much more effort to make significant, tangible progress.

We sometimes lose perspective on our achievements. Often I would feel like my knowledge of Russian was very poor. My tutor Alexandra would remind me (with a touch of irritation in her voice) that I´d be a guru to her other students.

So, in my case, it’s been about learning to live with the knowledge of the language I have and knowing that I will still make mistakes. One of the reasons I created a series of videos on Youtube about the experience of preparing for and taking the TRKI 4th certificate was to show that you don’t need to have perfect-sounding Russian to pass the test. It may seem a bit embarrassing, but over 35 years since I first started the language, I still speak haltingly, with innumerable pauses and the occasional beginner mistake.

It’s good that in the COVID era it’s become possible to take the TRKI exams online. You took the exam online with the Language Testing Centre at StPGU. Did you find the administrative side easy to organise?

The new ability to take Russian language exams online is a wonderful opportunity.
I think you should approach the administrative side of things and the online test-taking experience with a sense of humour and an attitude of divine nonchalance (“Забей!”). As I learned from my tutors, it is quite common for Russian universities to be terribly understaffed. They are just doing the best they can. We test-takers just have to roll with it!

I found that typically after sending an email, I would get a response after, say, two days. However, often something would not be clear enough or workable in the response. So, I found that what worked would be to follow up an email with a phone call after two days and try to solve the issue over the phone.

For example, I had scheduled a consultation (for a fee) with the Language Testing Center of St. Petersburg State University a couple months before the exam. I had a date scheduled, but the time (if my memory serves me correctly) had not been finalised. I didn’t hear back. It took calling them to find out that the 7 page contract had not been signed by hand (I had used the drawing tool in my word processor to sign the document), so things had not gone forward with scheduling the meeting. I had to print each page out, sign by hand, take digital photos of each page and send it back.

As for scheduling the exam, when the TRKI IV is taken in person, it is typically conducted over two days but the online version was offered in just one sitting. Given the time difference between the US and St Petersburg, I made a request for a particular exam start time. They had confirmed the exam date, but they told me that they would inform me of the exam start time 24 hours before the test was due to begin. Thankfully, they were able to accommodate my requested time.

To their credit, they were very quick to deliver the test results. I got the scores within two days.

What was taking the exam online like?

There were some hiccups but as long as one is prepared to be surprised, one should be fine.

Before the exam, they send you a link to check that your computer meets all the technical requirements. My Internet connection failed a “reflexive connectivity” test. To this day, I don´t know what this means.

You are filmed with your webcam throughout the exam.

The day of the exam they send you a link to the testing platform and before each test section you have to go through an authentication procedure (the webcam takes a picture of your passport). This process worked for the first few sections and then by the third test, it stopped being able to take the picture but authorised me anyway!

The first test sub-test, however, was the speaking section. I was told that I would receive a separate Microsoft Teams video conferencing link for that. In fact, I got a link to a Zoom meeting.

At points during the speaking sub-test, the connection slowed to the point that the proctor´s speech was a bit garbled.

There was then a one hour break before the writing sub-test. As the testing platform said: “You have a break, use this time to prepare for the next section.”

So, I prepared responses to each of the three writing tasks. I wrote out one response in full and the outlines for the two others. Right before the writing exam I put those papers in another room so it wouldn’t look like I was copying.

Daria is right when she says that you really don’t have much time in the writing sub-test. Still, thanks to my preparation, even after finishing writing my responses and checking my answers, I had five minutes to spare. Note that you have to write your responses for this section by hand. Then you take pictures of the pages and upload them.

I had been most worried about the writing section and thought that I could coast once I got to the next sub-test: grammar and vocabulary. Boy was I wrong! The real thing seemed harder than the demo grammar and vocabulary test. I also began having problems with my wifi. A pop-up would come up from time to time saying that there were issues with my connection and that I needed to restart my browser. This happened five or six times during the sub-test. I lost valuable time and was unable to do the last few tasks.

One important change compared with the “demo” paper was that the real grammar / vocabulary test was all multiple choice. There were no task where you needed to come up with your own answer.

When you’re taking the exam online, you can’t move on to the next section within each of the grammar / vocab, reading and listening sub-tests until you have answered all the questions from the section before. So you can’t move backwards and forwards and vary the order in which you work through the sub-test.

After a ten minute break, it was time for the reading comprehension subtest. Again the pop-up window kept warning me about my connection but I just ignored it and kept going. The biggest issue with this reading comprehension subtest is that the passages are quite long. When you’re taking the exam online, you lose a lot of time scrolling up and down between the text and the questions.

After another ten minute break, I had the listening comprehension subtest. I barely finished it in time again, in large part because of the technical difficulties.

All in all, I think the grammar/vocab, listening, and reading sections were all a little harder than the demo version.

You’ve shared your experience with each of the five parts or “sub tests” of the exam. Do you have any tips and tricks for preparing for and taking each sub-test?

Grammar/vocab sub-test:

In the earliest stages of your preparation, try the grammar / vocab subtest in the official and “demo” published papers. The mistakes you make in those will help you to decide what you need to focus on In your preparation. All the books that I’ve listed above are good to work from.

It really pays to follow Daria’s advice here and study idioms intensively .I had studied idioms to some extent but not nearly enough and I did poorly in this part of the sub-test.

You should study what I later learned are called дискурсивные формулы (discourse formulas). Examples include: “Что вы говорите,” “ну-ну,”, “надо же!” An excellent resource for this, called Прагматикон, based on the НКРЯ (Национальный корпус русского языка, which is also an excellent resource). There these дискурсивные формулы are presented in context in short film extracts. The exam includes a number of these formulae that I´d never encountered before. I was stuck when confronted with some of these questions!

Also, be sure to take the time, if possible, to study the more obscure rules for determining the gender of nouns, including proper nouns.

Reading sub-test:

I began reading Russian novels before actually preparing for the TORFL Fourth Certificate.

Anastasia and I worked on Tatyana Tolstaya´s The Slynx and Mikhail Bulgakov´s White Guard, among other novels. I began this reading without the exam in mind but both are quite difficult and reading them was excellent preparation for the exam.

The Slynx is incredibly intertextual. My tutor and I would carefully go through all the references to other books, poems and so on. If the text referenced a poem or a song, we would go through that text as well. As challenging as The Slynx was, it’s probably the funniest thing I’ve ever read.

White Guard was an even tougher read. Bulgakov kind of drops the reader in the middle of the Civil War and says, “Swim!”.

If you can handle texts at this level, what you´ll encounter on the exam will be a walk in the park.

The textbook В мире людей 3.1 has excellent reading selections and the questions are very similar to what you might find on the exam, including ones where the “answers” are likely to depend very much on the subjective view of the examiner.

I think a clear sign of this “subjective” element is that Alexandra and I both got the same result on the reading comprehension section of the demo version of the exam- 84%, even though Alexandra is a native speaker and specialist Russian teacher.

Once we finished В мире людей, we began working with sample reading comprehension questions from the ЕГЭ (the standard Russian high-school leaving / university entrance examination). The types of stories on that exam in terms of style and lexical difficulty track closely with the TRKI 4.

Two tips for the reading sub-test: read the questions first, so that you approach the passages on the lookout for the answers. Also, if you’re doing the exam online, write down the questions on a separate piece of paper. The texts are all quite long and I lost a lot of time scrolling back and forth between the text and the questions.

The first task of the reading section was putting paragraphs of a marketing text in the correct order. We practised this task a fair amount and I almost never got it right. I noticed that the marketing text for task one was a little longer than what was in the demo version.

As a test candidate you should also read a good number of articles on scientific topics aimed at the general reader (найучно-популарный стиль). There is a good chance that at least one of the readings will be from a technical-scientific field and in this register.

In my pre-exam consultation with the Language Testing Centre, they encouraged me to prepare myself by looking at the following websites to prepare for this the task (and in general for other reading tasks on the test): Sobaka.ru; Paperpaper.ru; The-village.ru; Iz.ru; Kudago.com; Moya-planeta.ru; Nat-geo.ru; Vokrugsveta.ru; Arzamas.academy (also excellent podcasts); diletant.media.magazine; nkj.ru; hij.ru; popmech.ru; sciam.ru; postnauka.ru(also excellent talks); lychik-school.ru.

Listening sub-test:

In preparation, I watched TV series, and films.

I also listened to a lot of podcasts too, but do keep in mind that a lot of podcasts are created by millennials and Generation Zers who pepper their speech with lots of Anglicisms. Don’t start doing the same! In real life, people may really say “гилти плеже” rather than “постыдное удовольствие”. It doesn’t hurt to be exposed to this sort of contemporary, informal Russian, but I think the kind of Russian expected in the speaking test is more that of the older generations.
The sophistication of the speech of an older person is something one should train oneself with for this exam. Sure, I enjoy вДудь, Ирина Шихман, Артемий Лебедев, but one needs to be careful.

Another limitation of podcasts is that they typically have just one or two people speaking. For the TRKI Fourth Certificate listening sub-test what one wants to get used to are conversations with multiple speakers. For practising this sort of listening, the Kultura TV channel is a great resource. They broadcast lots of sophisticated shows where different experts discuss literary, art topics in a roundtable format.

One of the most useful things I did was to watch, say, 30 minutes at a time of Kultura’s Наблюдатель show. Then, I’d write a kind of granular analysis of the content. What was the point of view of each speaker? How were they trying to position themselves? What mixed messages were they conveying? Where were there latent conflicts, forms of passive-aggression being expressed between the panellists? I would also note down new words and phrases.

My tutor Alexandra made a point of assigning me content from Kultura that was either very boring or on a topic that I knew nothing about. After that, I felt prepared for just about anything!

The textbook В мире людей 3.1 was also very useful for the listening sub-test. It is really aimed at B2-C1 level, but it has a fair amount of good content to practise with for C2 level Russian as well.

In my pre-registration consultation with the St Petersburg University Language Testing Centre, I asked if I should be familiar with Russian literature.

The consultant mentioned only Chekhov’s plays and this very specific response moved me to watch all four of the main Chekhov plays. I watched a Soviet production, a Soviet film adaptation, and an English-language version of each play. The latter included Inua Ellams’ reinterpretation of Three Sisters from the UK’s National Theatre. It’s set during the Nigerian Civil War. I connect with Chekhov’s short stories but I really don’t care for his plays, so all this was a huge slog (I can connect far more to his short stories). Anna said that I was overdoing it.

However, one of the listening comprehension tasks was a video extract from the middle of a play I was totally unfamiliar with (and not one of Chekhov’s). There were seven characters interrupting each other. The exam asked questions about the position of several of them. I held my own with this, thanks to those many hours of watching Chekhov.

What was key for the listening comprehension section was to read the questions before actually watching the video extract and if any characters are mentioned, to write down the characters´ names. Once I started watching the video extract (you can only watch it once; also, the video player does not indicate the length of the piece), I would manically write down everything I heard.

This was the last section of the exam. By this point I was pretty exhausted. Thanks to having a daily meditation practice, I could catch the indifference setting in. I just wanted this hell to end and began to stop caring about how I would do! But with a mindfulness practice, I reminded myself to gather my senses and maintain focus.

The exam started at 7am and ended at 2:20pm (yes, seven hours and twenty minutes!)

Speaking sub-test:

Practice, practice, practice!

My tutor Alexandra would go over both my speaking mistakes and also times when I didn’t do what the rubric required.

For the “responding with contextual antonyms” exercise, Daria is correct that you really need to study these kinds of words in-depth!

For the “customer service” exchange, your task is to demand to have a situation rectified. Be sure that you greet the person you are speaking to. Be clear that you are actually demanding. No softening here!

When you do the “explaining an abstract concept to two different age groups” task, be sure to greet each target audience and also have appropriate closing words. It really helps to watch videos where children explain concepts like “love” to get used to how to adjust one´s speaking for the younger set.

In the “radio/TV monologue with questions” exercise be sure to use linking words (слова-связки). The examiners want to see a clear structure: who are you, what organisation do you represent, what are its goals and objectives, how can they get in touch with you and so on. It is possible to have fun with this. I had prepared the monologue beforehand and had practised it multiple times with Alexandra. I did mine on an elite vegan cooking club which has the aim of taking St. Petersburg eateries to the next level of plant-based culinary virtuosity!

After the monologue, there is a short question and answer session. Where the question implies that you need to disagree, be sure that it is clear that you are expressing a dissenting view. No, hemming and hawing here!

Writing sub-test:

To prepare for the TRKI 4 writing sub-test, I recommend Daria’s materials, especially her section on writing abstracts. Her section on linking words (клише, слова-связки) is worth memorising.

You will most likely have to choose from three very uninspiring abstract topics. For example:

• Защита окружающей среды – дело государственное или личная ответственность каждого?
• Гендерный вопрос: как относятся сегодня к этой проблеме в РФ и США.
• Электронные или печатные книги: что читают и будут читать»
• Национальные культуры и глобализация: поглощение или сохранение?

I practised such topics against the clock with my tutor Anna. We noticed that whenever the topic bored me, my writing would “regress”. When I felt engaged like I actually had something to say about a topic, the result tended to be much more respectable. I saw that part of my training was to just learn to live with the awful responses I produced even if they were of (barely) passing quality!

There’s no time to plan out your writing in advance. All I could do was write non-stop, only lifting my pen from the paper when I was done.

Don’t forget, you have to write your exam answers to the writing sub-test by hand and upload photos of them. So, when you practise be sure that you’re also writing by hand.

At first, I practised writing assignments without setting a time limit. Sometimes, I would do the same assignment twice the same day. First, I would take my time, looking up words. Later, I would do the same task under exam conditions, against the clock and without reference works or dictionaries. For the abstract writing, I aimed to finish in 17 (instead of 20) minutes so that I would have more time to do the longer assignment (the plot summary of a film or book).

The writing task where one has to give advice to a friend visiting your country was the easiest of the tasks and we spent the least time on this. Key is to have a clear structure for this task, greeting and closing, and very focused advice for your correspondent.

For the plot summary task, Anna would have me read stories by Bunin, Chekhov, and the fascinating Soviet writer Yuri Nagibin. Then I had to write a summary of the piece. Anna would correct my mistakes and discuss them with me.

One very helpful thing that you can do to prepare is to memorise typical standard phrases that are used in plot summaries (though I must admit that I was too lazy to do this).

When she read my written work, my tutor Anna would have her ups and downs about my prospects.Several months in, she said I was ready for the exam. And then I would produce a writing sample that would lead her to say, “Frankly, I´m worried!”

When I felt I was close to ready, I had another consultation with the St Petersburg University Language Testing Centre. We went over some of my writing samples and they said I’d reached the required level. They were happy to point out my mistakes but they would not reveal how many points I would have got in each subsection based on the official grading rubric (as published in the official and demo versions of the test on their website).

Did you find the exam as difficult as it is rumoured to be?

I first read about the exam on Daria´s website. She described it as “сверхсложный” (super difficult) and she followed a super-intensive study regimen. I was left thinking, “Boy, I’ll have to study consistently for five years to pass this test!”.

Then, I took the official version of the test under timed conditions. Of course, I couldn’t know how the speaking and writing sub-tests would have been graded, but for the listening, reading, and grammar & vocab sections I got results of around 70%. The pass mark is 60%. So, at the beginning of my period of preparation I was already in a pretty solid position even though I hadn’t been using Russian much for fifteen years.

So, I don’t think it’s terribly accurate or useful to describe the exam as “difficult.” I think it is better to say that it’s a quirky and arbitrary exam.

Why quirky? Well, I think it’s a little silly to mark down points in some of the speaking talks for not greeting someone when it isn’t made clear that is necessary. Imposing a spurious framing like this isn’t very true-to-life. In the “customer service” role play, for example, perhaps I’d be too angry to say “hello”.

If you take to become as familiar a you can with the quirks of the exam, I think it becomes a far less frightening beast! Не так страшен черт, как его малюют!

This may surprise you, but in some ways I think that the test is too easy.

For example, you know that there is going to be a role play where you have to make demands. You can practise for this very specific situation. It would be more of a test not to have advanced knowledge of the exact type of what kind of communicative situation one will have to deal with.

I think that really the writing task should be more difficult but also more time should be given to do it. The fact that one can memorize an answer for 1-2 of the writing tasks makes me wonder how well the writing test really measures one’s capacity to produce texts in Russian. In my view, a better test is the essay task along the lines of what you have to write for the Graduate Record Exam (for entry into post-grad studies here in the US). For that, you have to take sides in a debate but really engage with the opposing arguments.

The “Russian for court interpreting exam” that I did is only 45 minutes long. Nevertheless, for that exam you have to demonstrate a mastery and precision with the language that is simply not demanded of you by the TRKI 4. The court exam is an oral interpreting exam. There are no multiple choice questions where you can guess the answers. In advance of the exam, you don’t really have an idea what kind of texts they will give you.

Unlike the TRKI 4, there is no mystery around the court exam. There are study materials, sample tests, clear descriptions of what is expected from the test-taker. To this day, so far as I know there is no document outlining in detail what a C2 speaker of Russian should know.

Is there anything you’d do differently if you were going through the preparation and exam process again?

I would study the fixed expressions (слова-связки, клише) for the written tasks. And really learn idioms, discourse formulas, and polysemantic adjectives (for the speaking task). Perhaps, I would spend more time on grammar, study the mistakes I made on the two practice tests more carefully.

It would have been good to put in more focused energy on preparing for the first task of the reading sub-test: I would have asked Alexandra to find more marketing texts and practise putting the paragraphs in the correct order (which is what this part is all about).

Also, for peace of mind, I´d make sure to have a fibre optic Internet connection!

Would you encourage others to do the TRKI 4 and – if so – what’s the one main piece of advice would you give them?

Absolutely! I rediscovered Russia, the Russian language, and Russian culture thanks to this exam. Preparing for this exam changed me. I have loved Russia for many years, but this intensive preparation led me to have an even greater affinity for the culture. It has been a very rich and satisfying journey!

Advice? Enjoy the ride! Create the systems that will keep you motivated and focused. It can be a fun process!

A favourite topic of discussion among new learners of Russian online seems to be how long will it take to become fluent in Russian. Setting aside the question of what “fluent” means, how long do you think it can take to start from zero to get to C2, to pass the TRKI 4?

As impatient a person as I am, I never thought about when I’d become fluent in Russian in the course of my studies. When I was preparing for the TRKI 4 exam, I came across a number of videos by folks who made very rapid strides in Russian without even living in a Russian-speaking country. For example, Valentina from Catalonia made it to B2 from zero in the space of two years and three months having spent all of 25 days in Russian-speaking countries over that period. Of course, it probably didn´t hurt that she grew up trilingual (Spanish, Catalan, and Italian).

Anna Lyubivaya had a student from China who came to Russia with no Russian and got to B2 in the space of 1.5 years. And Daria, it sounds like, got from B2 to C2 in the space of, what, 2 years?

So, I imagine it is possible to get to C2 with uninterrupted focused study in the space of 3.5-4 years.

C2 level is called the “mastery” level for Russian but do you really feel that you have a near-native mastery of the language?

Supposedly at C2 you should be able to understand everything in the target language. That is not my experience.

I’ve been doing a language exchange with a teacher of Russian. We have been studying Zhvanetsky´s monologues. I still find that I can neither understand nor appreciate them without the help of a native speaker, even though I’ve passed the TRKI 4th Certificate.

I would like to come back and tackle the wonderful TV series Ликвидация. It really stretches you, as they shift rapidly from regular Russian to суржик to bits of Ukrainian to просторечный язык with a smattering of Yiddish thrown in. I can’t understand it all without the help of a native speaker. This series reminds me of The Wire, the highly-acclaimed American crime series from the 2000s. As a native speaker of English, I struggled with a lot of the dialogue in that!

I have really enjoyed the podcast Голос зоны. It’s about an underground rap group in a maximum security prison camp. The speech of the inmates is so amusing that I decided to record myself repeating a portion of one of the interviews and share it with friends. But, again, without the help of a native speaker, I wouldn’t have been able to decipher a lot of it. And note that the slang that I am having difficulty understanding is not even феня (slang among criminals)!

You’ve reached the fabled C2 level but what next for your Russian?

For now, I am continuing with the tutors. With Anastasia, I’m focussing on translation and interpreting practice and reading novels.

With Anna I am having a fabulous time finally getting around to Russian poetry and finding it quite enriching.

And with Alexandra I have made plans to continue grammar practice and close gaps in my knowledge of cultural references. We plan on working our way through а reference book on прецедентные тексты. Also, we plan on working with idioms.

Also, I hope to improve my accent. Maybe I’ll need a fourth tutor for that!

More from Raffi:

Check out the YouTube playlist that Raffi’s put together. This includes conversations about the exam on his own channel, interviews with him on other channels and other useful videos on the topic. If you discover other YouTube vids worth adding to the list, make one of your own, or have taken the TRKI 4th certificate exam and would like to be interviewed on Raffi’s channel, let him know via the channel (or mail me here at Howtogetfluent and I’ll pass on your message).

Related posts:

Interview (1) in the TRKI 4 series, with successful candidate Daria is available here.

Interview (2) in the TRKI 4 series, with successful candidate Barbara is available here.

Interview (3) in the TRKI 4 series, with successful candidate Aga is available here.

Interview (4) in the TRKI 4 series, with successful candidate Ivan is available here.

For more on exams from me, check out the archive tab above for all my posts about my TRKI 3 Russian and German Goethe C1 exam experiences for more information and tips.

You might also like my general series on language exams, including How to pass a foreign language exam and Ten brilliant ways to beat exam nerves.

The post TRKI Fourth Certificate: the fullest “how to” candidate interview yet appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

First, back to basics: a verb is a word that expresses an action (such as to eat), process (such as to develop) or a state (such as to be). In Russian.

In this post, we’ll assume you’re already familiar with the Russian verb tense system: how verbs change to show the past (я говорил, я сказал) and how they conjugate to show the present (always imperfective aspect: я говорю) or the future (always perfective aspect: я скажу). You’ll also have learned how to form the imperfective future with быть  imperfective infinitive, e.g. я буду говорить).

“Verbal aspect” is different from tense, as we’ll see in this post.

We won’t focus here on how to form the imperfective and perfective aspects of the Russian verb.  If you just know one verb of an aspect pair, there are unfortunately no hard and fast rules to discover the other. There are common patterns of pairs, but that’s a topic for another day.

The focus today is on using Russian verb aspects correctly.

Ask this question to get the Russian verb aspect right

So, to business: 

To get increase your chances of getting the Russian verb aspect right, first ask this simple question:

Is the focus on the completion (result) of an action?  On its one, single end? 

If the answer is yes – if the message is that an action is completed already or will be done and dusted in the future – the verb will be perfective. 

If the focus isn’t on the result, the verb will be imperfective (the aspect for an ongoing state, regular, or repeat actions or just for naming a state or action in general. Nothing is said about the end. It could have one single ends – repeated or habitual actions – or no end at all – incomplete action or action in progress). 

That’s it!  

Thanks for reading. 

Do visit the site again sometime….

Erm, hold on a moment. Not so fast! 

While that rule of thumb will answer the question most of the time, you need some context to get the hang of how to apply it. 

So, let’s look in a bit more detail! 

When to use the perfective aspect in Russia

There’s no present tense form for perfective verbs. Results either have happened or will happen. If they are happening at the moment, they haven’t fully happened yet and Russians use the imperfective as the action is continuing at the current point in time. 

1. To talk about a completed action or result (past or future)

The perfective aspect puts the focus on the result: a change of state or a completed action. 

Она умерла – She died

Я прочитал книгу – I read (and finished) the book yesterday evening. 

Sometimes, a the perfective will “happen” while another action is going on in the imperfective (“in the background” as it were):

Когда она прощалась с ним, она уронила ключи  – When she was saying goodbye to him, she dropped the keys.   

In the future, perfective verbs indicate an express or implied intention to complete an action at some point in the future.

Я отдохну – I’ll relax (an intention to complete/result). 

В следующий четверг мы отдохнём на пляже – Next Thursday we’ll relax on the beach 

Я пойду на экскурсию – I’ll go on an excursion

90% of the time the perfective is used to express the future. The imperfective is only used if the action will be unfinished, ongoing or if repetition is involved:

Я буду отдыхать – I’ll be relaxing (Emphasis on duration, process).

Во время каникул, каждый день мы будем отдыхать на пляже  – During the holidays, we’ll relax on the beach every day 

Во время каникул, каждый день я буду ходить на экскурсии – During the holidays, every day I’ll go on excursions every  

2. To show a sequence of finished events

The perfective is the aspect for moving a story forward. Each action is finished before the next takes place. LIfe, as is sometimes said, is “one damn thing after another”   

You could have an imperfective followed by a perfective, with the imperfective showing attempts or a process and the perfective showing that the result is finally achieved:

Она сдавала и сдала экзамен – She sat and passed the exam.

3. To indicate the beginning of an action

Perfectives with the prefix за- (and a handful beginning по-) often indicate the beginning of an action: 

Она заболела – She fell ill

Он запоёт – He will start singing 

Other examples of verbs with the “inceptive” meaning are заплакать – to start crying, закурить – to light up a cigarette, замолчать – to fall silent. 

The emphasis here isn’t on the duration of the action. The action is the starting up, a one-off change, itself a kind of result: wasn’t crying, burst out crying so now I am. Cigarette wasn’t lit, I lit up, now it is….. 

4. To express an instantaneous action

Many perfective verbs with the suffix вз/вс-  раз/рас- у- -ну- indicate an instantaneous action.  It’s over before you know it (result again!). 

Вдруг я увидел лису – I suddenly saw a fox 

Ночью вспыхнули сразу три автомобиля – In the night three cars suddenly burst into flames

Крупные пожары вспыхнули сразу в трех регионах страны – Large fires suddenly broke out in three regions of the country.  

Мгновенно раздался взрыв – An explosion rang out instantly

Сзади раздался шорох. Я мгновенно обернулся – There was a rustle from behind. I instantly swung round. 

5. To show that an action went on for a short time

Perfectives with the prefix по- often suggest that something is done for a short while (usually with verbs with no imperfect equivalent): 

Он поспал – He had a nap  

Я покурил пять минут – I had a quick smoke for five minutes 

Она хотела поговорить с другом – She wanted to have a word with her friend (Compare with сказать, the normal perfective of говорить).

Again, the emphasis is on the limits of the action. It’s completed, not on-going (even though it may not be instantaneous, unlike the perfective verbs we saw above that express the beginning of an action).  

“По-  perfectives” can be reinforced by a word like “немного” (a little).  

It’s worth mentioning the prefix про- here as well e.g. прожили (they lived for a period) – here the duration may be very long but the emphasis is still on completion (of a chunk of time). 

6. When an action is repeated in rapid succession

Russians usually use the imperfective aspect for repeated actions because the imperfective indicates continuity, duration, habit.  That said, if the emphasis is on completion of a whole action in rapid succession in rapid succession, they use the perfective:

Таксист просигналил дважды – The taxi driver honked the horn twice

Птица вылетел, чирикнула четыре раза и улетела  – The bird flew out, chirped four times and flew off.  

The actions are seen as multiple parts of one complete action. 

It follows that if the repeat actions are spaced out, we’re back to the imperfective:

Она несколько раз перечитывал “Войну и мир”  – She read “War and Peace” several times

7. As a negative to show the failure of an expected action to take place 

If something was expected to happen but didn’t use the perfective. You evoke a complete, finished action, and negate it:

Вера не позвонила – Vera didn’t phone  

The sense is that Vera was expected to telephone but that expected result failed to materialise.  

We can contrast this with:

Вера не звонила – Vera didn’t phone

This is a neutral statement of fact usage of the imperfective (discussed further below). There is no sense of an expected result that didn’t happen.  

This is a subtle contrast and we’ll look again in the section on the imperfective.  

Speaking of which…..  

When to use the imperfective aspect in Russian

Russian imperfective verbs basically “name the action” (or a state).  It’s for expressing continuity, duration or habit in the past, present or future.  

Verbs in the imperfective aspect do not imply the idea of completion or result that are so central to the perfective aspect.  

So, use the imperfective for everything other than to focus on the result (and the other subsidiary uses of the perfective that we saw above). 

1. To express a state rather than an action

Usually, an enduring state will be in the imperfective aspect.

Они жили в Самаре – They lived in Samara

В Вологде вы будете жить у моего деда (In Vologda you’ll live/you’ll stay with my grandfather). 

Через месяц я буду в Сочи – In a month I’ll be in Sochi  

2. To state a fact, with no emphasis on completion

If completion is irrelevant, use the imperfective. The used this way, the imperfective makes a bald statement of fact, with no more detailed context and no focus on whether there was a result. 

Мы уже встречались – We have already met

Она писала ему – She wrote to him 

There’s a bald fact here, in a contextual vacuum. 

If you fill in more detail, the perfective would be used:

Мы встретились в прошлом году в Москве – We met last year in Moscow

Она написала ему письмо – She wrote him a letter 

Here are some vague factual questions: 

Вы звонили ему? Да, звонил – Have you phoned him? Yes, I’ve phoned.

Вы читали “Войну и мир”? Да, читал –  Have you (ever) read “War and Peace”? Yes, I have.

Вы встречали Анну? Думаю, что встречал   Have you met Anna? I think so. 

These questions are general in the sense of “Have you ever….?”. If you’d instructed somebody to read “War and Peace” or they’d told you that they were going to meet Anna last night, you’d check up on the result with a question using the perfective. 

3. To talk about an action in progress

If the action is in progress, with no focus on completion or result, you’ll use the imperfective: 

Мы читаем книгу – We are reading/read a book

Он спит – He is sleeping/sleeps

The action in progress could be in the imperfective in the past, present or the future tense.. 

Strictly speaking, all actions in the present are ongoing, so they are all in the imperfective and the conjugated “present” perfective forms of Russian verbs talk about the future.  

90% of the time, we use the perfective to talk about the future. That’s because we’re usually contemplating concrete, complete future actions or results (things that “will happen”). 

It’s only if there is no focus on completion or result in the future that you’ll use the compound быть + imperfective instead of the perfective:

Завтра он будет работать – He’ll be working tomorrow

4. To talk about an action that is repeated an unspecified number of times  

Here the emphasis isn’t on the result, it’s on the repetition of the action (including habitual actions):  

Она несколько раз перечитывал “Войну и мир”  – She read “War and Peace” several times.

 Я буду звонить часто – I’ll phone often  

As in the example above, adverbs of time can be used to reinforce the sense of a habit: часто (often), обычно (usually), всегда (always), иногда (sometimes), раз в месяц (once a month) and so on.

As we saw in the section on when to use the perfective aspect, if the repetition is in rapid succession such that the actions can be seen as multiple parts of one complete action, rather than spaced-out, separate actions, we use the perfective: 

Таксист просигналил дважды – The taxi driver honked the horn twice

Птица вылетел, чирикнула четыре раза и улетела  – The bird flew out, chirped four times and flew off

5. For an action in the past that was completed but is then undone  

The imperfective indicates an action done but then reversed.  

Он надевал костюм – He put on a suit (implied: was later taken off)

Кто-то включал свет – Somebody switched on the light (implied: was later switched off)

Почему в комнате холодно? Я открывал окно – Why is the room cold? I opened the window)(implied: window closed again)

Compare this last example with:

Почему ты открыл окно? – Why did you open the window? 

In the second case, the window is still open. 

Сосед брал у меня эту книга – A neighbour borrowed this book from me (and has returned it)

Сосед взял у меня эту книга – A neighbour borrowed that book from me (and still has it)

These are quite subtle differences you probably won’t want to worry about until your Russian is moving into upper intermediate.  

However, don’t wait to get used to this common use of the imperative to convey the idea of a “round trip” in the past:

Позавчера приходил мой сотрудник – The day before yesterday my colleague came (implied: and has now left/round trip)

Они уезжали на прошлой неделе – They went away last week (implied: and have now returned)

Verb + infinitive: imperfective or perfective aspect?

The infinitive of the verb is the basic, unconjugated form (that you’ll find as the main entry in a dictionary, for example.  In English, it’s the form we can put “to” in front of: to eat, to think and so on.  

If a Russian verb is followed by another verb in its infinitive, what about the aspect of that second verb?

Sometimes, a verb in the infinitive could be in either aspect, depending on meaning: 

Решать/решить (to decide): 

Он решил читать книгу – He decided to read the book (spend some time reading it – not implied that he’ll finish it)  

Он решил прочитать книгу – He decided to read the book (whole book, to the end)  

With (За-)хотеть (to want), ask yourself whether the  “want” is general (imperfective) or a specific result/for a little while (perfect):

Мы хотим работать – We want to work (i.e. we want a job) 

Мы хотим поработать – We want to do a bit of work/work a while  

Я хочу говорить по-русски – I want to speak Russian (general desire) 

Infinitives following verbs of starting, continuing, finishing will ALWAYS be in the imperfective infinitive:

Начинать/начать (to begin):  

Он начал искать работу 3 месяца назад  – He started looking for work (continuing) three months ago 

Продолжать/продолжить (to continue): 

Она продолжала петь песню – She continued to sing the song 

Заканчивать/закончить  (to finish):  

Когда вы закончите думать об этом? – When will you stop thinking about that.

The action that is starting, continuing or finishing is seen as ongoing.  

With verbs like учиться/научиться (to learn to), привыкать/привыкнуть (to get used to) любить/полюбть (to love) отвыкнуть (to get out of the habit of) the main verb will also be in the imperfective as we’re talking about an activity not a one off event:

Они научатся петь – They are learning to sing

Ты привыкнешь танцевать You’ll get used to dancing

Она любила работать – She loved to work/working

It’s the same with уставать/устать   надоедать/надоесть  запрещаться

Игорь устал говорить  – Igor got tired of speaking

Я надоедаю говорить – I am getting board of speaking

Запрещаться курить – Smoking forbidden/No smoking   

The perfective infinitive is common after verbs of intention, advice:

Я советую тебе прочитать эту статью – I advise you to read this article 

Я собираюсь написать ему письмо – I intend to write him a letter 

The logic is clear: the focus is on the result. Remember, we’ve been talking about the second verb (the aspect of the first verb will be decided on the usual principles – are we talking about a one off action or a process?).  Notice too that the English translation doesn’t always use the “to” infinitive.  We can say “I like to eat” or “I like eating”, we have to use the -ing form after “to get bored of”. 

The aspect of the verb after Russian modals (necessity, obligation, possibility)

Modals express the attitude or standpoint of the speaker towards a state or action, often connected to desire, possibility, likelihood, ability, permission or obligation.

They are used in relation to verbs which express the state or action itself. 

The perfective infinitive is found particularly often with the modals надо, нужно должен/должна/должно/должны, хочеть, мочь when talking about a single action which is not viewed as repetitive:  

Мне надо сказать… – I have to say…. 

Он должен сделать это – He should do that 

Она должна встретить его – She ought to meet him 

Я хочу понять – I want to understand 

Ты можешь взять ключи – You may take the keys  

Можно войти? – May I come in 

But use the imperfective with modals надо, можно if “it’s time to” (пора) is implied:

Восемь часов! Надо (implied пора) вставать – It’s 8 o’clock, you must/should get up  

Сейчас можно (implied пора) начинать – You may start now

The imperfective is also used with не нужно (there’s no need to); не надо (you mustn’t/shouldn’t):

Не нужно вызывать врача – There is no need to call out the doctor 

With нельзя use the imperfective if something is forbidden (think: that’s just the way it is – continuing state of affairs): 

Нельзя входить – You can’t go in (not allowed) 

Отсюда нельзя звонить – You’re not allowed to phone from here. 

По этой дороге нельзя проезжать – It is not permitted to drive along this road

Use the perfective with нельзя if something is impossible (you can’t get a result):

Нельзя войти – You can’t get in (think: we’ve lost the key/this result is not therefore possible). 

Отсюда нельзя позвонить – It’s not possible to phone from here 

По этой дороге нельзя проехать – It’s not possible to drive along this road, e.g. because a fallen tree has blocked it/the result isn’t possible, это сделать не получится).

With мочь in the negative the imperfective expresses “need not” (doesn’t have to) and the perfective expresses “might not” (it might not happen).   

Он может не уехать – He might not leave

Он может не уходить – He doesn’t need to leave/He doesn’t have to leave.  

The negative не должен/должна/должно/должны followed by the imperfective suggests “is not obliged to”.   

Она не должна делать покупки – She doesn’t have to do the shopping

If the perfective follows, the sense is “is unlikely to”:

Она не должна забыть – She shouldn’t forget (I only told her this morning). 

Imperative and verb aspect – positive commands

1. Command to perform a single action – perfective

Use the perfective for commands to perform single action (we’re ordering a result): 

Сделай это! – Do it!

Закройте дверь! – Shut the door!

2. Polite invitation to perform a single action – imperfective

Unless it’s an invitation, then use the imperfective: 

Заходите, раздевайтесь, садитесь! Кушайте! – Come in, take your coat off, have a seat! Have some food!

Here the imperfective politely softens the impact. It’s as if we’re emphasising the process by which the person we’re speaking to gets comfortable, not ordering a result.

3. Commands to perform a repeated action – imperfective

Commands to do repeated action are imperfective too: 

Пейте молоко каждый день! – Drink milk every day! 

Три раза в день принимайте лекарство! – Take the medicine three times a day! 

4. Commands to repeat an action in rapid succession- perfective

But repetition of an action in rapid succession would be perfective (because the focus isn’t on repetition or continuity but on a rapid succession of results): 

Повтори эту фразу несколько раз! – Repeat this phrase several times! 

5. A request to continue an action – imperfective

 A request to continue an action will, logically enough, be imperfective: 

Продолжайте! Я вас слушаю – Carry on! I’m listening

Imperative and verb aspect – negative commands

1. A simple negative command – imperfective

Use the imperfective aspect if a negative command is a prohibition: “Don’t!” 

Не закрывайте дверь! – Don’t shut the door!

Не разговаривайте! – Don’t talk/chat! (E.g. teacher addressing class).

2. A negative command as a warning – perfective

But if the negative command is a warning of the consequences (Mind you don’t!) use the perfective. You’ll typically hear this with verbs like забыть (to forget), опоздать (be late)  упасть (to fall):

Не забудь это сделать! – Don’t forget to do that! 

Смотри, не упади! – Mind you don’t fall! 

The focus is on an undesirable result,  “Or else!”.

Russian verbal aspects and English continuous/non-continuous tenses compared

English like Russian has verbal aspect. In English, we distinguish between actions in progress (continuous verb form -”ing”) on the one hand and an enduring state or a habitual or one-off action on the other (non-continuous verb form): I am living, I live.   

As a result, you can be confident as a good rule of thumb is that If you would use a continuous tense in English (verb + ing), then you’ll use the imperfective in Russian (past, present or future tense), because both put the focus on an action in progress : 

We were watching television > Mы смотрели телевизор 

They are going home > Они идут домой 

He’ll be working tomorrow > Завтра он будет работать

However, as we’ve seen, the Russian imperfective it encompasses not only actions in progress (like the English continuous) but also states and habit, both of which are expressed with non-continuous verb forms in English: 

Они жили в Самаре – They lived in Samara (state) 

Она всегда надевает юбку – She always puts on a skirt (habit) 

Mы долго смотрели телевизор – We watched the television for a long time (duration) 

Они разговаривали всю ночь – They talked all night (duration)  

Russian thinks “there’s no completion/result here”, and defaults to the imperfective.  

In contrast, English defaults to the non-continuous aspect and would only be shaken out of the default to stress that a state or act was in progress, for example for a particular period or as it was interrupted: 

They were living in Samara, when he died – Они жили в Самаре, когда он умер

She is putting on a skirt now – Сейчас она надевает юбку 

We were watching television when he telephoned – Мы смотрели телевизор когда он звонил 

They were talking when I called by –  Они разговаривали когда я зашёл 

Compare both sets of sentences and notice how the underlined imperfective verbs in Russian have stayed in the imperfective in the Russian in the second set of examples, despite the change of aspect in English.

Russian perfective or imperfective? Summary and tips to go

• The imperfective has past, present and future tense forms. The perfective just has past and future forms and the perfective future is  much more common when talking about the future than the imperfective future. 
• Remember the fundamental idea behind Russian verb aspect is that the perfective aspect expresses a single, completed action, often with the focus on the result. It moves the action forward. This happened, then that happened, then the other happened. 
• The imperfective denotes an on-going state, an action that is continuing or in progress or is repeated (often as a habit).  

Nine times out of ten, this basic analysis will get you to the right aspect. 

That’s the case not just with simple examples but also, you’ll have seen above, when a verb is used as an infinitive after another verb, is used with a “modal” or used in its “imperative” (command, request) form.   

That said, don’t forget the secondary functions of the perfective aspect: some verbs in the perfective express the beginning of an action or that it is instantaneous (though this is really just a type of result). Others (mainly with the prefix по-) show that an action only happens for a short period of time.  

As you listen to Russian and read in Russian, pay attention to the verb aspect chosen. If you can’t understand the choice of aspect by asking “is the focus on a completed action or result or not”, look again at the discussion in this post to find the explanation. 

As you speak Russian, don’t stress it! 

You’ll get better at applying the rules with practice and the more fluent you get, the more your natural “feel” for what’s right will develop. 

Master Russian verbal aspects with Dr P’s revision course

If you’re an upper beginner/lower intermediate Russian learner take a look at Dr P’s Focus in Five Russian grammar revision course.

It’s a series of engaging five video tutorials, delivered weekly with full notes and self-correct exercises.

Just the thing to help you get on top of Russian verb aspects and a whole lot more of the grammar you need as an upper beginner or lower intermediate learner!

Check out the details on the course information and enrolment page.

Related posts

Why learn Russian?

How I learned Russian

Russian language exams: a guide

Learn the Russian alphabet in an afternoon: three tricks

The post Get Russian verb aspects right every time appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Rapid Russian: a reality check

To learn Russian more quickly, take responsibility for your own progress.

No teacher can beam the language into your head.

“School style” group Russian classes very inefficient if you rely on them on their own, though group language classes can give your learning a welcome social dimension and help with motivation.

One-to-one classes or language exchanges can be an invaluable tool but full time one-to-one learning is expensive.

If you’re an adult learner, make the two real engines for rapid progress in Russia effective self-study and lots of practice in your own time.  

And let’s be clear from the get go: nobody ever got fluent in Russian just by using an app. Some apps are better than others, many are “gamified” to, erm, keep you on the app. What are they good for? As a supplement or for some extra down-time engagement (if you don’t feel like doing something more effective instead).

1. Learn with your specific Russian goals in mind

Follow the advice in this post and you can get yourself ready to use your Russian in the sorts of basic everyday contexts that we all need or in highly specialised contexts that are personal to you.

This post is addressed to you if you’re a beginner, a false beginner or rusty.

That said, much of what you’ll read will also help intermediate learners who are ready to move swiftly to the next level.

You might want to be able to connect with in-laws or grandchildren or use the language to get things done and make wonderful memories when you’re travelling. You might already be into aspects of Russian culture and want to experience it from within.  You may want to forge new business contacts by giving a presentation in the language or bond less formally with potential customers afterwards.  

You’re clear on what you want your Russian for?

You’re sure you REALLY want it?

And you want it, like, yesterday?  

Ok, let’s look at what you need to do to learn Russian fast.  

2. Master pronunciation fundamentals

Time may be short, but don’t be tempted to neglect the key elements of the Russian soundscape. If you haven’t tuned your ear in properly, your listening skills will suffer even if you know the words or grammar “on paper”. 

You’ll sound dire, too.  

Focus on sounds that are different from English. Understand that getting the rhythm and intonation of phrases right can be even more important than the pronunciation of individual sounds and words. 

You don’t need to polish so much that you could pass for a native. but if you pay attention to the right things and you can “sound” better than you are. 

That matters because you need to win the confidence of the fluent Russian speaker you want to talk to. 

If you fail at key aspects of accent, talking with you can be a real strain for them.

There’s a risk they’ll just switch to English…or avoid you altogether. 

3. Learn the Russian alphabet

Russian is written in a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet that’s also used for Ukrainian, Bulgarian and several other Slavic languages (and for some non Slavic ones).

Beginners in Russian often imagine that the alphabet is a formidable hurdle but the truth is, you can learn it in less than a week (some argue even in one afternoon). You should! Not only will you have something to impress your friends with, but you’ll feel like an insider from the word go and you’ll be able to access authentic Russian texts much more quickly (obviously!).

For more on how to do it, check out this post: Learn the Russian alphabet fast: three tricks.

4. Get the main sentence patterns 

If you want to learn Russian fast, don’t get distracted by abstract Russian grammar for its own sake.

Don’t get bogged down in tables showing Russian verb and case endings. 

Instead, think of grammar as the most important repeatable Russian sentence patterns. Focus relentlessly on these patterns. 

Grasp rules of thumb that explain what’s going on and that you can apply on the wing (like the ones for the Russian case endings). Learn the highest frequency exceptions. 

Later, when you’ve developed more of a feel for what sounds right, you can work some more on “grammar” to help you fill in the gaps, refine your expression and explain surprises. 

5. Learn the most frequent Russian vocab

Raw word power matters but did you know that just 250 words or so make up about 50% of everyday Russian? 

Build up to six or seven hundred “essential words” and you’re very much in business. 

Reach 1000 words, you can understand 80% of an everyday Russian text and say a lot of what you want, even if you have to explain things in a roundabout way.  

Your “first thousand” should include the 650 most common words (the top 50 Russian verbs are of course, important among them). And then?

6. Add three types of fluency booster vocabulary 

Add to those 650 or so most common words another three classes of words and phrases (think of them as special fluency weapons in your drive to learn Russian quickly): 

Filler and conversational connector words such as “nu” (well, so), “znachit” (I mean, kind of, like), “tak” (so), “kak by” (like, sort of). They pepper natural speech and can really help move a conversation forward. 

“Tool kit phrases” that help you keep up and learn as you go, without switching to English: “Kak skazat’ x po-russki” (How do you say x in Russian), “Pozhaluista, govorite medlennee” (Please speak more slowly)and so on. 

Your own personal “islands of fluency”, that’s to say, bespoke words and phrases that may not be so common but which relate to your personal need for Russian: talking about your profession, hobbies, goals and so on. 

7. Learn how to get Russian into your memory (and out again)

Ok, Dr P, but how do I actually remember the key grammar patterns and essential vocab well enough to use them in real life? 

Not by accident! Not in your sleep! Not with one magic method! 

First, you need to get words into your memory (“encoding”). 

To help you remember, understand how Russian words are formed: look out for similarities with English, understand how Russian makes bigger words out of smaller parts by gluing smaller words into bigger ones (compounding) or adding prefixes and suffixes.  

Use memory association techniques to remember individual words. 

Learn “chunks”, that’s short phrases for every situation that native speakers of any language deploy without thinking.  

Second, you need to make sure you don’t forget what you’ve just learned. 

It’s been shown that reviewing material as soon as the day after you first tried to learn it and then at increasing intervals is the way to make it stick. The method is called the spacing effect.      

Paper flashcards or a flashcard app with the English on one side and the Russian on the other are great for this. If flashcards aren’t your thing, you can double down on lots of reading and listening practice with your course materials and other sources that interest you.   

8. Make your learning more effortful for maximum efficiency

Work creatively with your new vocab, chunks and grammar patterns you want to focus on. 

Make up your own short dialogues with your words and phrases and practice with a conversation partner. Do the questions and other exercises that come with your course make your own. Dictation and translation back and forth can be powerful activities to get you working intensively with new examples of Russian that you’ve just come across. 

Test yourself to turn vocab and grammar review from just repetition into more effective recall.

Working with flashcards or translation from English into Russian makes for more effortful interaction, great for consolidating memories! 

Go back to your dictation, translation and or other exercises at intervals.  

In short, don’t be passive, be interactive with your Russian texts and audio.

Make your learning effortful. 

If you’re tired after focused study, that’s a good sign. No pain, less gain!

Yes! Deliberate practice like this is hard.

You may well finish a session feeling more frustrated than when you began or even that you’re going backwards. 

Get what I call the “fluency mindset“, stick at it and trust the process.  

8. Get a good beginner’s Russian course

With new sounds, grammar patterns and vocab to master, you could easily waste a lot of time gathering scattered materials for yourself. You can end up overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. 

If you want to learn Russian fast, do yourself a favour and begin with a well designed course that introduces the high-frequency Russian that ALL beginners need in a step-by-step way. 

Working through the course unit by unit, week by week is a great way to pace your learning. 

You can also refer back to your course materials if you hit questions when you’re out using your language “in the wild”. 

Make sure the course is dialogue based, has audio with transcript and parallel translations into English. 

Go for courses that have some explicit grammar explanation but made accessible and with a light touch. If you like exercises, make sure your course also supplies self-correct answers. 

You’re looking for a course that doesn’t just teach the key pronunciation, grammar and vocab that we saw are so important but one that you can use for the effortful practice that we’ve just been looking at. 

9. Get lots of enjoyable reading and listening practice

Focussed study with the aid of a good course will accelerate your progress in Russian remarkably, but it’s not enough on its own.  

If you want to learn Russian fast, you also need a lot of exposure to the language: listen, read.  

Once you’ve got some basics through your course – or earlier if you feel the urge – get started earlier with more relaxed “extensive” listening and reading. 

Here the aim is to get enough to follow main thread of conversation or a story. 

Extensive listening and reading are great helping you remember what you’ve already seen. 

Plus: if the material isn’t too difficult for you, you’ll be able to “acquire” more Russian as well in a natural context, sub- or semi-consciously, without deliberate effort.  

So, find books to read aimed at learners at your level.

Try podcasts for learners in the language, ideally with transcripts. 

Some successful learners love diving into authentic content (i.e. made for natives) asap too.

To make reading native-level material easier, choose short articles on factual topics, read stories that you already know in English or use a parallel text with Russian on the right and an English translation on the left

As for listening, you may find it easier to watch the Russian (original or dubbed) films or series that you already know in their English versions.

As you start watching authentic Russian films, TV shows and YouTube vides, don’t be shy of switching on the subtitles to help (but, beyond the very earliest stages, use the Russian ones). 

The golden rule for “extensive” reading and listening practice is this: find things you find interesting and would want to listen to or watch in English anyway.  That way, it’s going to be so much easier to clock up hours and hours of enjoyable practice.  

10. What about speaking? 

Whether you should speak from the very beginning depends on your personality. 

If you’re the gregarious type who loves talking, learn the absolute basics and then throw yourself into using the language. Otherwise, there’s a risk your motivation will flag and you’ll give up. 

If you’re not so social, it’s also not a problem.  For you, conscious vocabulary and pattern building, reading or listening are going to be much more efficient activities in the early stages.  When you start to speak, you’ll have a larger vocab and more experience of what sounds right and better listening skills. All these will help you activate your speaking more rapidly than somebody who focusses on speaking from the very beginning.

Most of us want to speak as well, though, and you can’t get good at speaking without speaking a lot. 

Don’t put off speaking too long, just because you don’t “feel ready”. You don’t want to pass up on opportunities to make new friends in your language.

More than that, if you want to learn Russian quickly, don’t be a perfectionist. 

Don’t fixate on mistakes. Nobody cares. Instead, focus on your message and on the other person.

Prepare and practice short, relevant “scripts” on conversation topics that you’re going to need. 

Guess intelligently, pick up non-verbal clues to meaning, use those filler and conversational connector words to sound more authentic and win some time. Ask questions for the same reason and to check you’ve understood.  

If you already know Russian speakers with whom you can practise, great.

That said, will they always have time to help you as you strive to move forward at pace? Will they have the knowledge of the language to explain why things are said a certain way?  Do they know how to give feedback constructively?

Don’t pay for a teacher to explain things you can get much more cost and time effectively from a good course.

No, where a teacher can really help is to explain things you’re stuck on and to ensure that you get consistent deliberate practice speaking. A good teacher will be able to give you reasoned feedback on your speaking and writing.  

Try out different teachers over Skype or Zoom on a platform like italki.com. When you’ve “clicked” with one or two, book a series of sessions in advance to make sure they really do happen.

The platform I use for this is italki.com. I’m such a fan, I’ve had over six hundred lessons (for several languages).

Want to learn Russian fast? Let’s recap   

• Get real! It takes hundreds of hours to get really fluent, but if you’re clear on what you need your Russian for and you use smart methods, you can make rapid progress.
• Don’t skimp on sound. Get key aspects of pronunciation right and you’ll win friends and influence people (well, they won’t run away or switch to English, at least
• You don’t need all the grammar, just the main sentence patterns.
• You must learn the highest frequency vocab. The first 650 words, plus “toolkit phrases”, conversational fillers and connectors and the bespoke vocab that matters for your, personal needs.
• Apply “brain savvy” methods to remember patterns and vocab. Effortful intensive, deliberate practice will speed things up.
• Use a course to present you with just what you need, to avoid wasting time, confusion and overwhelm.
• Read and listen for pleasure as much as you can. You don’t have to “speak from day one” but to get good at speaking, you need to start and practise, practise, practise. One-to-ones with a teacher or exchange partner are great for this.

Related posts

Why learn Russian?

How I learned Russian

Russian language exams: a guide

Learn the Russian alphabet in an afternoon: three tricks

Get Russian verb aspects right every time

The post How to learn Russian fast appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

But should you even bother to learn the Russian alphabet?

Is it important to learn the Russian script? 

Yes! 

Sure, when you start a language like Chinese or Japanese with a more complex system, there’s a strong argument to postpone learning the script. 

Not so with Russian.   

If you’re going to learn the language, start with the alphabet and with a run through of the sounds of the language.

True, if you’re just visiting Russia, you’ll probably get by without learning to read Russian writing. I travelled in China without knowing the Chinese characters, after all. On the Moscow metro, you’ll find signs in Latin script. It’s the same at the most popular Russian tourist sites, in major hotels and menus in quite a few restaurants and cafes. 

But, hey, traveller! You want more than just to get by, don’t you? 

If you follow the instructions in this post, you’ll have learned the script in no time and you’ll at once feel so much more of an insider. 

It might just stop you ordering the wrong thing at a cafe or getting on the wrong bus!  

How difficult is it to learn Russian script? 

The Russian script is easy to learn for three reasons. 

First, just like the Latin symbols used for English and all other central and Western European languages, it’s an alphabet. That’s to say, it’s writing in which one symbol represents one unit of sound. So, you don’t have to grapple with an unfamilari system such as symbols that stand for the consonants only (Hebrew, Arabic) or a symbol representing an abstract idea (Chinese). 

Second, a lot of the symbols are already familiar. 

Five letters have roughly the same basic sound value as in the English alphabet: А, Е, Ё, К, М, О, Т. Another six are “false friends”: В, Н, Р, С, У, Х. Their sounds are unexpected but the symbols, at least, you already know.  Others still will be easy to remember if you know Greek (or the Greek letters used in mathematics): Г, Д, Л, П, Ф). We’re left with a “hard core” of only 12 really alien symbols (Б, З, Ж, И / Й, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ь, Ю, Я).  

Third, the relationship between how words are written in Russian and how they are pronounced is relatively regular. Some letters represent different sounds depending on where they are in a word and whether they are stressed, so the system isn’t perfectly phonetic. That said, written Russian is much more phonetic than English. So much so, that native English speakers have to spend two more years learning to read than Russian children, so estimates the linguist V. K Zhuravlev (that’ll soon be В. К. Журавлев to you ).   

Russian alphabet in overview, alphabetical order, names of the Russian letters 

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. That’s ten vowels (а, е, ё, и, о, у, ы, э, ю, я), 21 consonants and two, erm, signs. 

Here they are in alphabetical order (upper case followed by lower case). We’ve also their rough, basic equivalent of the sound in English and of the name of the letter. I’ve also rendered the Russian name of the letter in a make-shift phonetic way.

Remember, these are rough equivalent sound values. Not all the sounds overlap perfectly with their nearest English equivalents and sometimes the way a letter is pronounced changes (due to stress, position in the word). But those are concerns for another day. This post is all about learning the basics.

How to learn the Russian alphabet: the three tricks

To help you learn the Russian alphabet in next to no time, we’ll use three tricks: 

First, learn the letters in logical groups rather than in alphabetical order.  

Second, use mnemonics. By finding an image to remind us of the x of the 33 letters that don’t stand for more or less the same sounds as identical English letters.  

Third, focus on cognates. That’s to say, for each letter, work from the known to the unknown by first trying to decipher some words that are the same or similar in Russian and English. This will help you concentrate on the symbol/sound relationship without having to worry about the meaning. 

Now, before we get stuck in, do I really believe that you can learn to read Russian in an afternoon? Yes…., but….  

How long does it really take to learn the Russian alphabet? 

You certainly could learn the Russian alphabet in an afternoon.  

The well-known Russian teacher Betty Lou Lever has described how she teaches the alphabet in twenty minutes by focussing mainly on cognates. 

But, what’s the rush? 

If you use the techniques recommended in this post and take time to build in some review, you can comfortably learn the Russian alphabet and the rough and ready English pronunciation approximations in a week.  

The next stage, if you’re going on to learn Russian is to fine tune the pronunciation. For that, check the second post in this series (coming soon).

Here’s the “but”.

Your early steps in Russian literacy won’t be like reading in English.

Sure, you’ll be able to “decipher” a Russian word, letter for letter but it’ll take a lot or reading practice until you can “hear” the sounds in your head.

It’ll take even more practice until you can read naturally and with ease by taking whole words at a glance so taht it otfen doens’t even matetr if the lerttes are in odrer for you to udnsanedt.  

Just like it did with English.

Let’s get stuck in and learn the Russian alphabet. For each letter, I’ll give you a basic approximation – the nearest equivalent sound in English (sounds don’t overlap completely in the two languages), an mnemonic image or two that will help cement the letter and the associated sound in your memory and some cognate words (identical or almost identical the Russian and English) for you to practise reading straight away.

Now, let’s start with what we already know.

Friendly Russian letters that look like English and sound the same (or very similar)

А а  (=A) as “ah” in “father” or “car”. 

Cognates: Африка (Africa); диета (diet); зоопарк (zoo – literally zoo park).

Е е (=Ye) as in “yes.”

Ok, this isn’t quite the English “e” but the symbol is familiar and the sound very close.

Cognates: Европа (Europe) университет (university); инженер (engineer).

К к  (=K) as in “kind”. 

Cognates: критика  (criticism); балкон (balcony); танк (tank); цирк (circus).  

М м (=M) as in “man”. 

Cognates: мама (mum); лампа (lamp) шампанское (champagne).

О о (=O) as in “port”.

Cognates: опера  (opera); глобус (globe).

Т т (=T) as in “tank”.

Cognates: танк (tank); лифт (lift i.e. elevator) диета (diet). 

Trickster Russian letters that look like English but sound different

To learn these quickly, associate each one with an English word that begins with the same sound.  

В в = V as in “vet”.

Think of half a violin.

Cognates: виола (viola); Киев (Kiev); Европа (Europe). 

Ё ё = Yo as in “yonder”.

Not quite “yo” as in egg “yolk” but think of the dots as two yolks atop an egg.

Not a cognate but remember the common Russian word ещё (still). 

Н н = N as in “never”.

Like a No Entry sign and the first letter of the Russian for no: нет! 

Cognates: нуль (null, zero); балкон (balcony); танк (tank); Нью-Йорк (New York).

Р р = R. It’s a “trilled r”.

It looks like a poor old R, rudely robbed of one leg.

Cognates: рис (rice); опера (opera); инженер (engineer); And, if you’re over a certain age, you’ll remember the old CCCP (EsEsEsEr = USSR. Not SeeSeeSeePee!).

С с =S as in “soon”.

A bit like a handless sickle: very Soviet! Originates in Greek sigma Σ.  

Cognates: суп (soup); рис (rice). And, if you’re over a certain age, you’ll remember the old CCCP. (EsEsEsEr = USSR. Not SeeSeeSeePee!).

У у = U like oo as in “fool” but a little shorter. 

A “moose” with two sets of antlers and a tail.

Cognates: университет (university); нуль (null, zero). журнал (journal).

Х х = Ch like “kh” in Scottish “loch” or German “Bach” or “hoch”. 

Imagine the white cross on a blue background of the Scottish flag of St Andrew. It’s also quite close to a “h” and looks like a target you have to hit. Originates in Greek (letter “hi”).

Cognates: Христос (Christ); хоккей (hockey); яхта (yacht).

Talking of Greek….. X doesn’t mark the only spot!

Russian letters borrowed from Greek

The Russian alphabet is a variety of the Cyrillic alphabet which at its inception drew heavily from Greek. So, it it’s no surprise to find some letters that will give classical buffs – and mathematicians – an unfair advantage. 

Г г  = G as in “gallows” or “gun”….

….and it looks like both! Symbol from Greek gamma. 

Cognates:  глобус (globe); генерал (general); грамм (gram(me)).

Д д = D as in “dark”.

Looks like a doughty, stubbly legged dancer who’d be better performing in the “dark”. Symbol form Greek “delta” Δ.

Cognates: диета (diet); идеа (idea); парад (parade) . 

Л л = L as in people.

Two legs. The left leg has a tapping foot. (Greek lambda Λ).

Cognates:  лифт  (lift); балкон (balcony);  журнал (journal); генерал (general).

П п = P as in “pip”.

A portal or a podium or a pair of pillars. From Greek pi).

Cognates: парад (parade); опера (opera); грамм (gram(me)); шампанское (champagne).

Ф ф = F like in “farm”.

A flapping flamingo or your favourite flower. It’s the Greek letter “phi”.

Cognates: лифт  (lift); Африка (Afrika). 

New letters, familiar sounds

Б б = B as in English “boy”.

Looks similar to a lower-case “b” but if you have difficulty remembering, think of a boy with his neck and head tilted downwards. Or, is this the letter with a big bulging belly?

Cognates: балкон (balcony); бизнес (business); глобус (globe).

З з = Z as in zero, zebra or zoo.

Think of three zebras in the zoo (in as compromising a position as possible).

Cognates: зоопарк (zoo, literally zoo park); зона (zone); бизнес (business); менеджер (manager).

Ж ж = zh pronounced rather like the “s” in “pleasure” or “measure”. 

One of the cognates for this word is журнал (journal). Think of the pages of your secret journal all blown open in the wind for every body to see.

Cognates: журнал (journal); инженер (engineer); менеджер (manager).

И и = long “e” similar to “ee” in “see” or “cheap”.

Like three letter capital “i”s, the walk was so long that middle one fell over and the other two are trying to prop it up. Or the word “IN” backwards (which would sound something like nee). Or is it simply a twisty eel?

Cognates: идеа (idea); критика (criticism); Киев (Kiev); виола (viola).

Ц ц = ts as in “its” or “gets”.

A face with the tsongue or a tsigarette hanging out of the mouth.

Cognates: цирк  (circus); эволюция (evolution); эмоция (emotion). It’s always hard (can’t soften) like Ж and Ш. 

Ч ч = ch like in chair.

Looks like an upturned chair.

Cognates:  Чечня (Chechnya); чек (cheque/check (for payment)). Also, remember Russian Что? (What?)

Ш ш = sh like in sheep.

Did you know when sheep fall on their back, they can’t get up and will die? Even harder for a poor three-legged sheep as it waves its legs in the air. Some see here the three masts of a ship. This letter also looks like the Hebrew “shin” ש‎.

Cognates: шампанское (champagne); шоколад (chocolate).

Щ щ  = shch a bit like in “fresh cheese” or “Welsh sheep”.

Yep, that sheep again, but imagine the little downwards line at the right a “soft sign” merged into it because this sound is always soft.

Cognates: щи (shchi – Russian cabbage soup); щека (cheek). Remember Russian ещё (again).

Э э = E as in “bed”. 

Letter E reversed, so let’s say E got out of bed on the wrong side!

Cognates: эволюция (evolution); эмоция (emotion). эффект (effect).

Ю ю = Yu as in “universe”, but a slightly longer yooh.

This is the alien “ET” from another universe, with his squashed head, long neck and body, but he’s fallen over on his side as he tries to get used to gravity on planet Earth.

Cognates: юмор (humour); юбиляр (jeweller); Нью-Йорк (New York).

Я я = Ya as in “yard”.

It’s the mast of a yacht moored in Yalta.

Cognates: яхта (yacht); Ялта (Yalta); идея (idea); эволюция (evolution); юбиляр (jeweller).

The vowel bender 

Й й is close to the “y” in “toy”.

Aside from foreign borrowings like Нью-Йорк, this letter is only found after another vowel, it turns the preceding vowel into a diphthong (a single sound in which one vowel that merges into another). The English “y” after a vowel sometimes works in the same way: contrast the purer “a” in “bat” with the diphthong in “day”, for example. 

In Russian, а + й is like “y” in “sky”: май (May – the month);   о + й is like “oy” in “boy”: мой. (my); е + й: рейтинг (rating); хоккей (hockey); ё + й; у + й; ю + й.

The sound of “ы” doesn’t change after й, though, so the pronunciation of the common adjective endings  -ый and -ий are the same. 

Vowel + й is one syllable whereas other vowel combinations are pronounced separately as one syllable:  оо, аи,  ое,  ая and so on.   

One new sound

Ы ы (=i) similar to the “i” in “it” or “bit”.

We need to pause a little here as this sound doesn’t exist at all in English. It’s a “back vowel”. The tongue further back than the “i” in “bit”. The tongue is in the position for “boot” but don’t round your lips, instead, the lips should be like for “beet”. Crazy, no? 

No cognates for this sound, then, but remember these two very common words: мы (me) and быть (to be).

Pronunciation symbols

Ь ь – the soft sign.

Used after some consonants to “soften” them. The effect is like rolling the consonant into a “y”, for example what happens to the “n” in canyon. When the L softens, it’s pronounced with the tip of the tongue just between the teeth. Consonant softening like this isn’t really a thing in English at all, but it’s very important in Russian. If you use a hard consonant instead of a soft one, it can change the meaning of a word.   Example in a cognate:  альтернатива (alternative).

This softening also happens when a consonant (except ж, ц, ш) is followed by the vowels that we represented with an initial y (ya я, yu, ю e yo ё) and also и. Ж, ц and ш are always “hard” which brings us to….

Ъ ъ  – the hard sign.

If a consonant comes before one of the “glide” vowels (ya я/ya, yu, ю/yu, e, ё/yo, и/long i) the hard sign is added to show that the consonant retains its original “hard” sound.  The full “y” can be heard with the following vowel.  Example in a cognate: объект (object).

Takeaways

Well done! You’ve completed your initiation into the world of the Russian alphabet.

Unless you really want to, don’t put yourself under pressure to learn the alphabet in an afternoon. Take a week….or two.

Use the three tricks we’ve set out in this post:

• break down the task by learning the letters in logical groups, starting the letters that are the same as in English, then moving to the “false friends” and the “Greeks”. Then the gaggle of “aliens”….not forgetting the soft and hard signs.
• vividly imagine the letters using the mnemonic images I’ve suggested (and if you come up with better ones, share them with us all in the comments below).
• practise reading the example cognate words out loud.

If you’re starting to learn Russian, your next step is to fine tune your pronunciation of the letters.

If you’re just learning for tourism or to impress your friends, you’re ready to roll!

Related posts

Why learn Russian?

How to learn Russian fast

How I learned Russian

Get Russian verb aspects right every time

Russian language exams: a guide

The post Learn the Russian alphabet in an afternoon: three tricks appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Here on the site, we’ve already talked to Daria, Barbara and Aga about how they prepared for this “ultimate” Russian exam . Their stories showed me that there were at least three talented women out there who have passed this mysterious test. I’m glad to say that Ivan from Moscow Night Guide now provides proof that there are guys out there, too, who are up to the task. Well, one of them, at least

Let’s find out more!

Dr P: When did you start learning Russian and why?

Ivan: I grew up bilingual, we spoke Croatian at home and I spoke German in school. That’s why I’ve always had a knack for languages. I can’t put my finger on it but Russian fascinated me for some reason. Maybe it was the similarity to Croatian. Anyhow, I started learning it for a semester at university but had to stop because I went abroad. A year later, I enrolled in a double degree that sent me to Moscow, so I studied it for one and a half more years at both unis. By that time, I was fluent. But I wanted to become proficient and I studied Russian for one more year in a start-stop fashion. All in all, it took me three years to reach C2.

Dr P: How did learning Russian to this level compare with your experience learning other languages?

I had studied English, French and Italian in school so I was sort of a polyglot already. My French and Italian are pretty passive these days. However, that was the first time that I learned a language because I wanted to and not because school forced me to. To be fair, I don’t think the basic approach differs significantly from other European languages. Russian has cases, which is alien to native English speakers. But so does German. Of course, the lexis is harder to learn. But it’s not like, say, Chinese, which is completely alien in lexis, pronunciation, and writing. I have a C2 certificate in English too and the biggest difference for me is the following: the more difficult grammar and the “richer” lexis makes it harder to feel like you have ever mastered Russian. I wouldn’t say I have mastered English but my level is still higher than my level in Russian.

Dr P: Did being a native speaker of Croatian give you any advantage in learning Russian?

Ivan: Yes, it helps A LOT. I’ve never formally learned Croatian. But I could instantly make sense of Russian because of the similar grammar and lexis. I’d imagine it’s like learning Swedish for an English person. Had I had a formal education in Croatian, it would have been even easier. Until a B1 level, you get a big head start with speaking a similar language.

Dr P: Why did you decide to do the TRKI 4th certificate exam?

Ivan: After I decided to stay in Moscow, I wanted to become proficient. Passing the exam itself was more of an ego thing. I went back and forth on this for years, self-studying, stopping and starting again. Mastering that last bit is the hardest, also because it doesn’t make a big difference in your daily life. In the end, I just wanted to be able to say that I passed it, no matter how little use I had for the certificate.

Dr P: It seems to me that a certain mystery and mythology surrounds the TRKI 4 exam. I’ve personally found it difficult to get information about it. Did you experience the same?

Ivan: Yes, I fully agree. How to get fluent was probably the most helpful because I found Daria’s brilliant site about the C2 exam. There also aren’t any books in Russian for that level. The newest advanced books I saw were for C1. I had to scrape together information from old Soviet books.

Dr P: Where did you take the TRKI 4th certificate exam? Was the administrative side straight-forward?

Ivan: I took the exam at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow. Here, I can add some new information. The exam is computer-based nowadays, I didn’t know this beforehand. Also, it’s poorly organised (as is often the way of things in Russia). You turn up and they first read you the rules and let you pay.

Our examiner mixed up the different parts. This led to confusion as we started with reading and everyone else with writing. While the examiner was explaining the rules to the beginners, we could go through our essay questions and think of some good answers. The computer crashed twice during the exam as well.

The funniest thing was probably that no one supervised us so cheating would have been no problem. Don’t expect things to be as professional as when you take “Cambridge” or “Goethe” language exams, because it’s not like that at all. No one cares.

Dr P: Before you started preparing for the advanced Russian exam, did you feel that you were at roughly the same level in speaking/reading/writing/listening. Or, was there one (or more) particular sub-test(s) you felt needed more attention that the others?

Ivan: I practised writing a lot because of the time constraints and because, for me, that’s skill I use the least. I felt comfortable with my reading even though I am not one for classical literature. I figured from the few practice materials that I had that I’d be fine there. Since I live in Russia, I barely practised speaking because I get plenty of real-life practice. Grammar and writing were the parts that I spent the most time on.

Dr P: What materials did you use to prepare? (Please include references to any textbooks/reference works/online resources etc etc).

Ivan: The B2-C1 test books from the St Petersburg publisher Zlatoust are good for prep. Even if it says C1, they prepare you for C2 as well. I had another book about verbs with prefixes and one about Russian particles, both from Zlatoust as well. They aren’t so much direct test prep as just general language practice.

I also bought one book with “required lexis for the C1 test.” I learned all of the collocations and phraseologies from that book.

Online I like the Russian vlogger Yuri Dud. His interviews are great for learning what bothers young Russians.

Dr P: Did you work with a teacher?

Ivan: I haven’t worked with a teacher since I left uni. I’m pretty self-sufficient and living in Russia, I didn’t find it necessary. But I let my girlfriend correct all my essays. She has a degree in journalism so that probably counts as well.

Dr P: How much work did you put into preparation?

Ivan: As I was saying, I prepared for months and years but not that regularly. I only did a month or so focussed prep, about 5 hours per week, I’d guess. From experience, I know that your gut feeling is a good indicator of your skills. If you feel like you need a lot of prep, you probably do.

Dr P: So far as I know, there’s only one published model paper available online, published on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Education in the year 2000. Did the actual format of the exam correspond with what would be expected from that model exam?

Apart from the test being computer-based, the structure was the same. The sources were different, though. We got more contemporary sources for listening, excerpts from Russian talk shows. Some of the essay questions were also not Russia-centred. There was a question about the environment, for example. But, overall, it was similar.

Dr P: There are five separate parts or “sub tests” to the exam: grammar/vocab; reading; listening; speaking; writing. Do you have any particular advice for any of them.

Ivan: Don’t stress out over the exam. They don’t take the time constraints too seriously. In the speaking part, you see the question and can think of a good answer. Only then the timer starts. At least when I too the exam, you could take breaks between the different parts and walk out of the room. To prepare, write plenty of essays and watch Russian talk shows or vloggers; Speak a lot! You won’t pass the C2 without immersion.

Dr P: Did you find the exam as difficult as it is rumoured to be?

Ivan: I found the exam itself significantly easier than the practice test. The listening part was far easier because the source was contemporary and played twice (whether by accident or on purpose, who knows?).

I was lucky that I had time to think of answers to the essay questions. I started answering those on paper but then another set of questions appeared on the computer (and those were harder). But our examiner didn’t care either way. The organisation on the day was far more relaxed than the regulations make it seem. At least my exam was.

Dr P: Is there anything you’d do differently if you were going through the preparation and exam process again?

Ivan: Not really. I barely passed the grammar part. Maybe I should have practised more there. It would have been nice to know about the computer dimension as well. I had never done a computer-based test before.

Dr P: Would you encourage others to do the TRKI 4 and – if so – what’s the one main piece of advice would you give them?

Ivan: Unless you’re a language geek, my honest answer is “no”. There are very few contexts in which this qualification is required. If you prepare for it, you will spend a lot of time studying minor, irrelevant details. If you’re a linguist or pride yourself on passing the exam then do it. For normal folks, the C1 is more than sufficient.

But if you want to disregard my advice and take it anyway: do topical learning. I engage in public speaking and after I started doing so in Russian, I was able to make that final step. You have to step out of your comfort zone and tackle something you don’t understand at all. If you like physics, go buy a few physics books in Russian and find some lectures. Your level will improve drastically.

Dr P: What next for your Russian and your language learning in general?  

Ivan: I’m done with “learning” Russian. No more books or flashcards for me. I’m revisiting Spanish now, I was already at a B2-ish level there so I want to reach C1. Italian and French are low-hanging fruit for me too. After that, who knows? My sister learned Chinese but I am not sure I want to go there… (Published March 2020)

Related posts:

The interview with Daria: The TRKI 4th certificate: this top Russian exam really does exist and CAN be passed (interview with a successful candidate)

The interview with Barbara: The TRKI 4th certificate advanced Russian exam: successful candidate interview (2)

The interview with Aga: The TRKI 4th certificate advanced Russian exam: successful candidate interview (3)

Interview (5) in the TRKI 4 series, with successful candidate Raffi is available here.

Dr P’s TRKI 3rd certificate Russian experience: How to pass an advanced foreign language writing exam or “writing Russian right” for the Test of Russian as a Foreign Language Third Certificate

“Dr Popkins Method?”: How I learned Russian

Why learn Russian?

The post The most advanced Russian exam? Guy aces the TRKI 4th certificate (interview) appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

How to say Happy New Year in Welsh

New Year’s Eve in Welsh is “Nos Galan”. New Year’s Day is “Dydd Calan”. The word “calan” comes from Latin kalendae and means the first day of each Roman month. There’s an English equivalent: “calend” that has fallen out of use, but survives in “calendar”. In Wales “calan” is commonly used also in Calan Haf/Calan Mai (first day of summer, 1 May) and Calan Gaeaf (the first day of winter – 1 November).

The basic New Year’s greeting translates directly into English: “Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!” Year (blywddyn) New (newydd) (dda) Good. You’ll see at once that Welsh adjectives to follow the noun (usually), just like in Spanish or French.

Welsh has two grammatical genders, masculine or feminine. “Blwyddyn” is feminine. In many European languages that have grammatical gender, such as French, Polish or Spanish, the adjective changes to match the gender of the noun. In Welsh, it’s different. What happens is that the beginning of adjectives change (if they start with t, p, c, m, d, b or g) when they qualify a feminine noun: da (good) becomes dda. That’s why it’s Nos Galan (nos is feminine) but Dydd Calan (dydd is masculine). Welcome to “mutation” (a common feature of all Celtic languages).

Learning set phrases like “Blwyddyn Newydd Dda” is a way good way to sound naturally fluent. You have a burst of language you can use straight off when you need it. If you learn this way, the correct gender and mutation hard-wired. Plus, set phrases help you cement the gender for when you use the word “blwyddyn” in another context. If you remember Blwyddyn Newydd Dda, you know that blwyddyn is feminine.

Just as in English, “Blwyddyn Newydd Dda” can be used throughout the day or two before New Year, as the clock strikes midnight and for a few days at the beginning of the new year.

How is New Year celebrated in Wales?

New Year celebrations in modern Wales are much the same as in England but are enlivened by an old tradition that’s now undergoing a revival: a visit from the Mari Llwyd, a mare’s head parading about on a stick. Love it!

How to say Happy New Year in German

As I’ve mentioned before on the site, the Germans have the lovely habit of naming the “no man’s land” between Christmas and New Year as “zwischen den Jahren”. For example: “Zwischen den Jahren bleibe ich zu Hause” (I’m staying at home between Christmas and New Year). Is there any equivalent in your target language?

Did you know that 31st December is St Sylvester’s Day? “Das Silvester” is the German “New Year’s Eve”. New Year’s Day is “das Neujahr”.

Before the clock strikes midnight, if you want wish somebody a happy new year in very idiomatic German you could say, simply, “Guten Rutsch”.

Here we have the adjective “gut” and the noun “der Rutsch”, slip, slide.

We can at once see that the adjectives come before the noun in German. Here the adjective has declined, as the critters are wont do in German, both for case (four in German) and gender (three: masculine, feminine and neuter).

In “guten Rutsch” we have the masculine accusative form of “gut” because the “Rutsch” is the object of the action in the sentence. What sentence, you may ask? Well, the full phrase is just implied here, but you could also say it: ich (wir, etc) wünsche(n) dir (Euch/Sie einen guten Rutsch (ins neue Jahr) (zu kommen).

As well as starting a campaign to rename 27th to 31st December “between the years”, I think I’m going to start using an appropriately revelrous idiomatic English translation Guten Rutsch. How about “Tumble well into the New Year”?

One word of caution: like “Gute Reise” (Have a good journey!) or “Guten Appetit” (Enjoy your meal!), you can only say “Guten Rutsch” BEFORE the the clock strikes twelve on New Year’s Eve. Once the New Year is a fact, even a second after midnight, Germans say “Frohes Neues Jahr” or, informally, “Frohes Neues”. That’s what you might say in the first few days of the New Year when you see somebody for the first time that year, as well (thanks to regular reader Harald for pointing this out to me).

How is New Year Celebrated in Germany?

As the German “Sprachraum” (German-speaking territories) is so varied and rich in tradition, there are no end of local New Year’s celebrations to discover.

When I was living in Heidelberg in the mid 1990s there was always a New Year’s firework display up on Heidelberg castle, which many would watch from the town’s bridges.

At the time, the idea of New Year fireworks was unusual for a Brit. It’s only since the Millennium that New Year fireworks have been the norm in England. One of the more bizarre modern ones, in the FRG, is the annual New Year’s Eve screening of the short English sketch “Dinner for One”. I was oblivious to this during my German years, I have to admit.

How to say Happy New Year in Russian

In Russian New Year’s Eve is is “Новогодняя ночь” (novogodnyaya noch’). New Year’s Day is “День Нового года” (den’ novogo goda). Like in English and German, in Russian the adjective comes before the noun: новогодняя (novogodnyaya/New-Yearish) ночь (noch’/night); день (den’/day) нового (novogo/new) года (goda/year). New and Year are in the masculine genitive, showing that the day is possessed by them: “the New Year’s Day”, as it were.

The standard greeting is “C новым годом” (s novym godom). The preposition “c” here means “with”. A fuller rendition of the phrase could be something like “поздравляю с новым годом” (pozdravlyayu s novym godom/lit. “I congratulate with the New Year”). In Russian you congratulate people “with” something, not “on” it: поздравляю с днем рождения (pozdravlyayu s dnem rozhdeniya/congratulations on your birthday – lit. “I congratulate with day of birth”); поздравляю со свадьбой pozdravlyayu so svad’boi/congratulations on your wedding – lit. “I congratulate with wedding”).

“C новым годом”: three short words and we’re already deeper still into the Russian case system. There’s the masculine singular instrumental adjectival ending – ым and the equivalent noun ending -oм.

If you’re on a roll, you could get some practice declining the ordinal numbers at this time of year as well: “поздравляю с новым 2020-м годом” (pozdravlyayu s novym 2020-m godom/lit – “I congratulate with new 2020th year”).

In Russian, you can also say “с наступающим (новым годом)” (s nastupayushchim (novym godom)) or “с наступившим” (past active participle, perfective verb form) to give your declined verbal participles a mid-winter work out.

Here we have, first, the active present participle, imperfective verb form of наступать (nastupat’/to begin, set in). In the second phrase, the verb, наступить (nastupit’/to begin, set in), is in its active past participle form.

How come there are two verbs for “begin”. Well, with these phrases, we’re also already in up to our necks with Russian verbal “aspect”. Yes, there are two forms of most verbs, the perfective for use, broadly, when an action is completed or a one off and the imperfective for when it is not.

How is New Year celebrated in Russia?

Celebrating New Year was the main gig at this time of year back in the Soviet Union, when the official policy of state atheism meant that religious festivals were frowned upon. Дед мороз (Ded Moroz/Grandpa Frost), the traditional Slavic equivalent of “Father Christmas”, was initially banned but soon rehabilitated. An authentic Ded‘s garb should have a bit of light blue about it (not all this red from the West!). He’s also often even more camp and elaborate than his Western counterpart.

Here he is in action in something I found on the Toob which includes the immortal line мой дед мороз, мой дед мороз, дай укушу твой красный нос! (My Ded Moroz, my Ded Moroz, let me peck your red nose (it rhymes in the original)). A reminder (if I needed one) that it’s high time that I got back to Russia and for you, in and of itself, sufficient justification to get started learning Russian

In post Soviet times the “Christmas tree” has remained the New Year’s tree: новогодняя ёлка.

Now Christmas itself is back with a vengeance….but not till the seventh of January.

On New Year’s Eve in Russia today there is typically a big party in the centre of Moscow (and many other cities) with an address from the president broadcast on a big screen.

I first saw in 1992 in Russia in the middle of my first year in the country. I was back back living in Russia from 2004 to 2009. In New Year 2005, for the first time, all the otherwise working days between New Year’s Day and the Russian Orthodox Christmas became one long public holiday. Some native wags suggested at the time that this was just the government recognising the inevitable, that your average Russian muzhik (geezer) wouldn’t have sobered up from New Year Year’s celebrations in the interim anyway.

The long New Year’s holiday quickly became a an institution in Russia but that first one rather put the cat among the pigeons.

Whereas the creation of a new public holiday in the UK would require years of consultations, the Russian government, in true autocratic style, just announced the change with very little notice. I recall a mad scramble at the law firm as we sought to get docs signed and sent off before the couriers started their six day break. Some colleagues were grumbling because it was too late to book flights and trips at a low price for a New Year trip. The following year, we’d all planned properly.

_____________________________

What about Happy New Year in your language? Does the phrase translate literally? What grammar can it teach you? Have you had chance to see in the New Year with native speakers yet? If not, is that something you could aim to do as 2022 becomes 2023? Would that be a suitable motivation and reward for the coming year’s active work on your language?

Happy New Year/Bonne année/Blwyddyn Newydd Dda/Guten Rutsch/Hyvää uutta vuotta/Boldog új évet/Feliz Ano Novo/Urte berri on/Selamat Tahun Baru/С новым годом/Καλή χρονιά!/Gleðilegt nýtt ár/明けましておめでとうございます!

Related posts:

Planning for language learning in a New Year: your compass

Christmas and New Year words, phrases and traditions in German

The post Happy New Year in three languages…and more appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

If you’re not fully familiar with the Test of Russian as a Foreign Language exams (Тест по русскому языку как иностранному) check out my earlier overview post on Russian exams.

I’ve passed both Certificates and I’ve used most of the materials mentioned below myself.

The books are all in Russian only without the useful acute accents to mark stress you’ll find in many materials in the earlier stages. Hey, you’re at B2/C1 level now….Remember?

Without further delay, дамы и господа, allow me to present today’s runners and riders:

Russkyi yazik. Uchebnik dlia prodvinutykh

This is a four volume course, aimed at learners already at B2 who want to get to the top of C1 (that’s to say, to a level ready for the exam). Each volume is about 200 to 250 A4 pages, with some colour photos to break up the text.

As you’d expect at this level, the books won’t teach you grammar or vocab explicitly.

Each volume is sub-divided into two or three over-arching themes (e.g. “Towns and their inhabitants”, “Our holidays and important dates”, “The future of humanity is emerging today” and (I kid you not) “The Russian Army” (vol 4).

Each theme is the further sub-dived into divisions of the TRKI C1 exam (reading, speaking and listening (rolled into one section), vocab and grammar, writing. There’s a CD in the back of each volume for the audio material.

There’s a huge amount of material here in a range of registers. The input material (reading, listening) has exercises to prime you first and for reflection afterwards.

There are also occasionally QR codes to relevant additional material (e.g. Russian Wikipedia articles), which, one hopes, won’t become as obsolete as quickly as the pictures of 2015 ipads. (I do so wish authors wouldn’t labour the “latest” from the world of technology or entertainment. It always feels like an attempt to get down with the kids and is a sure-fire way to date a text rapidly.)

Even if you just get one of the four volumes, you’ll find a huge amount of material presented in an interactive way. There are lots of exercises of all types but their value for self study is limited in that most do not have answers.

Still, there’s an awful lot you could do with it in addition to what the authors intended. For example, there are transcripts for the audio so you could do dictation exercises. You could translate some of the reading passages into English and then try translating them back, and so on.

Russkyi yazik is a course to be begun maybe a year before the exam and used to provide structure as you move up from B2 to C1. As the day of judgement approaches, you could then move over to some of the books mentioned below, which are more tightly focussed on the exams themselves in the narrow sense (i.e. the questions rather than the general level of Russian you need as a prerequisite).

The publishes have posted a webinar by co-author Olga Khorokhordina exploring the book in detail This is aimed at specialists, not students. That said, if you want to start honing your Russian now and have one hour 14 mins to spare, “Russky yazik: the movie” could be for you. At least listen to the first minute or two and let me know in the comments below what you think she’s saying about a mysterious fifth volume

(Series details: Русский язык. Учебник для продвинутых. Рогова К.А., Вознесенская И.М., Хорохордина О.В., Колесова Д.В. Вып.1 2014, 204 стр. 978-5-86547-713-6; Вып. 2, 2015, 288 стр. 978-5-86547-851-5; Вып. 3, 2015, 228 стр. 978-5-86547-852-2; Вып. 4, 2016, стр 292. 978-5-86547-853-9)

V myre lyudeu

Three volumes, aimed at students who are approaching the end of B2 and want to do the TRKI-2 or B2 plus students working towards TRKI-3.

I used the first volume: “Writing and speaking” (B2 and C1). The second volume, “Reading and speaking” is also aimed at both levels but the third volume “Reading” is just for students preparing for the B2 exam.

The first two volumes weigh in at about 280 pages and there is audio with the second volume. There is some use of colour, including photos, to lighten and brighten the text.

The first volume covers nineteen topics (“Our home: capital city and provinces”, “The pace of life”, “Gender equality in the job market”, “Science and the future of mankind”….)

I didn’t have the book when I sat the TRKI 2nd certificate but used it a lot in advance of my TRKI 3rd certificate exam.

The two exam levels are interwoven through book one (exercises are marked TRKI-2 or -3).

Despite the title (“Writing, speaking”) there are passages to read as well (as a springboard for writing exercises, as in the exams).

There are lots of exercises. These are either aimed at developing and testing your vocabulary and syntax or aim to look and feel similar to the actual TRKI-2 or TRKI-3 writing or speaking exercises (the latter, though, in written form).

It’s great that you can correct many of the exercises with the key at the back. Of course, if you want corrective feedback on your free composition writing tasks, you’d need a teacher.

The second volume is split roughly in half. There is a large selection of audio of the types of monologues and dialogues required for the listening sub-test each level (including formal meetings, extracts from Russian films, news reports) with questions on what you hear and the answers. At the end of each section, there’s information on the format of the listening sub-test.

At 164 pages, the third volume is shorter than the first two. It describes itself as “3.1”, suggesting that a second part was planned. Like book 1, it’s all intended for both levels (though it’s indicated if individual questions or tasks are aimed at TRKI-2 or 3). There are texts of various registers and on a range of topics. A text will typically fill one page (say, about 400 words). Then there are a good number of varied exercises to each text. First multi-choice questions on the text, then a focus in on individual words. Next, the questions open out again to the topic, with a suggestion for how to use the topic for speaking practice.

Again, there’s an academic webinar on-line from one of the authors.

(Series details: В мире людей. Вып. 1. Письмо. Говорение: учебное пособие по подготовке к экзамену по русскому языку для граждан зарубежных стран, 2013, 288 стр. 978-5-86547-612-2; Вып. 2. Аудирование. Говорение…, 2016, 288 стр. 978-5-86547-916-1; Вып. 3. Чтение. Говорение…, Часть 1. 2018, 164 стр. 978-5-86547-941-3)

Trenirovochnye testy po russkomu yaziku kak inostrannomu II/Testovyi praktikum po russkomu yaziky kak inostrannomu II sertificatsionnyi uroven’

In the older of these two books (2012) you have two full past papers.

The 2019 volume has the same format and there are two more papers. It appears that there a CD but there also QR codes, so you can call up, for example, the film extracts for the listening text straight to your phone.

If you’re now a TRKI-2 student, you’re in training clover. Just think: when I was preparing in 2015, I didn’t know about the Trenirovochnye testy volume and all I had was the one, “official” model paper.

You should get hold of both relevant volumes and the official paper and train yourself under exam conditions on all five at intervals in the three months or so before your exam. You don’t have to spend a full half-day doing all the sub-tests at once but you should do each under “exam conditions”, with your stopwatch going.

(Details on both books) Тренировочный тесты по русскому языку как итостранному II, Андрюшина Н.П., Макова М.Н. 2012 4-й изд. ed 140 стр. 978-5-86547-466-1)/(Тестовый практикум по русскому языку как иностранному. II сертификационный уровень. Общее владение 2019 1-й изд. 164 стр.
978-5-907123-14-4)

Trenirovochnye testy po russkomu yaziky kak inostrannomu III

Practice papers are at a premium for the TRKI-3. There’s the one official model paper. This book adds an invaluable second and third model paper to your training roster.

You should get hold of this book and do both exams (and the “official” one) under timed conditions.

I did them all twice in the couple of months or so before the exam.

Both the II and III level books have audio/audio-video CD and/or QR code for the listening and speaking parts. The keys at the back give the multi-choice answers for the vocab/grammar, reading and listening sub-texts. It isn’t, of course, possible to provide answers for the writing and speaking sub-tests. All-in-all they are indispensable TRKI 2nd and 3rd Certificate materials.

(Details: Тренировочный тесты по русскому языку как итостранному II Андрюшина Н.П., Жорова А.П., Макова М.Н., Норейко Л.Н. 2019 7-й изд. 152 стр. 978-5-86547-812-6)

Testy, testy, testy II/III

These two books are essential additional practice for the vocab and grammar subtest of the TRKI-2 and TRKI-3 exams respectively.

Each book contains eighteen sets of multi-choice questions (on average forty or fifty per set). They follow the exam “Vocab and grammar” sub-test format but most sets focus in a particular one of the examiners’ favourite topics (cases, verbs of motion, aspects, prefixes, gerunds). At the end, there are a number of mixed sets of questions.

(Details on both books: Тесты, тесты, тесты… : пособие для подготовки к сертификационному экзамену по лексике и грамматике. II сертификационный уровень, Капитонова Т.И., Баранова И.И., Никитина О.М. Zlatoust (2019 изд.) 152 стр. 978-5-86547-820-1)/(Тесты, тесты, тесты… : пособие для подготовки к сертификационному экзамену по лексике и грамматике. III сертификационный уровень Капитонова Т.И., Баранова И.И., Никитина О.М. 8-й изд. 144 стр.
978-5-86547-820-1 144)

TRKI na 100% – Tests for Russian language B2 level; C1 level

This is much-needed new series of practice tests appeared only after I’d done the Second and Third Certificates. So, I haven’t used them myself but they sound very promising: first, they are actual past papers (each volume contains two complete papers), second, there are answers included, third, the exam audio is accessible online. There’s one volume for each level from A2 to C1. Can’t wait to have a look!

(Details: ТРКИ на 100%. Тесту по русскому языку – B2, Виноградов et al, Zlatoust (2019 изд.) 156 стр. 978-5-90712-362-5; ТРКИ на 100%. Тесту по русскому языку – C1, Левентал, И.В et al, Zlatoust (2021 изд.) 140 стр. 978-5-90749-316-2)

Uchebno-testirovochnye testy po russkomu yazyku kak inostrannomu

There are four books in the “Learning and Testing” series of TRKI 2nd and 3rd Certificate materials and we’ll look at each one in turn.

“1. Grammatika. Leksika”

Five chapters, each with about a hundred multi-choice questions as found in the vocab/grammar subtests at both levels. Most questions are suitable for both levels but there is a block of questions (each time about 15) aimed just at TRKI-3.

Then there are five more chapters, each of which delves into the topics tested in the first five. There’s a useful table of commonly confused words (гористый горный духовный душевный).

There’s a key to all the multi-choice questions, so this volume is great for self-testing.

“2. Chtenie”

The first two brief chapters offer some theory and reading skills tips. Then there are a further four chapters with a wide range of texts across different genres (popular science, journalism, sociological (economy, politics), creative literature). There are multi-choice questions to each text.

You get other types of exercise for each text too, for example identifying words or phrases which perform a particular function or are typical of a particular style of text. There are sometimes open questions arising from a text. There’s a key for self-correcting the multi-choice questions.

“3. Pis’mo”

Volume three begins with a brief initial “theoretical” section explaining the different types of rhetorical styles (scientific, business/official, conversational etc. and different types of text.

Then there are five chapters, each focussed on how to write different types of text (short business texts such as memos, formal and informal letters, essays. There is DVD with video clips which serve as sources for some of the writing tasks (e.g. a letter, description or essay).

According to my Russian teacher, some of the stylistic recommendations in the book are rather old-fashioned (pre-internet).

It’s not always made explicit how the material relates to which exam and it’s not always clear. Chapter Two “Записываем содержание изходного текста” is only four sides long and has a section on acronyms and abbreviation of words and how to précis a text. This appears to be aimed at question 2 of TRKI-3 for which you are required to use these. No keys to the exercises (as most involve free composition).

“4. Listening. Speaking”

The first section (two chapters) are theoretical background explaining and illustrating concepts such as the difference between “language” and “speech” and explaining what homonyms, synonyms and paronyms are or how when people listen, different types of listening (for gist, detail).

The meat of the book is section two (three chapters).

Section II Chapter 1 One focusses on speaking with material and exercises on intonation, and relevant to speaking tasks such as resolving conflicts or discussing a film. Chapter 2 is “Let us listen and answer” and Chapter 3 is “Let us listen and discuss”. There are a wide range of materials to listen to and different types of exercises (with a key at the back for the multi-choice ones).

There is a DVD with audio and audio/visual clips for the exercises.

The book closes with a short third section “Preparation for giving a speech” which seems to be of limited relevance given that this is not required in either exam.

If an exercise in this volume is “of a type found in the certificate exams” (задание, подобное сертификационному), it’s marked with a big “C”. This is a minority of the exercises and it’s not made clear which level or which particular question rubric the exercise relates to. I think that the volume is best approached as a broader education in the skills and providing materials and exercises to think about what’s going on when you speak and to practise listening.

Overall, this series has a much more academic feel than the other books mentioned above.

I think the theory would have sat better if it was more tightly and explicitly linked to what you need to be able to do for the exams. Likewise, the “point” of the exercises throughout could have been made clearer.

I think the most useful are the “Reading” and the “Grammatika. Leksika” the vocab grammar volumes would be useful even in the last weeks before the exams.

The other two books feel to more like something you’d use in the long run up to the exams rather than in the immediate preparation phase. Yes, there’s lots of useful training material in “Listening. Speaking”, but you’ll need to use it along side the past papers to get a sense of where the authors are coming from. The “Writing” volume needs handling with care.

(Series details: Учебно-тренировочные тесты по русскому языку как иностранному. А.И. Захарова, Е.Н. Лукьянов et al. М.Э. Парецкая, И.Н. Савченкова, Г.Р. Шакирова, Выпуск 1. Грамматика. Лексика, 136 pages 2019 10-й изд. 88 стр. 978-5-86547-815-7; Выпуск 2. Чтение. 2012 4-й изд. 88 стр. 978-5-86547-494-4; Выпуск 3. Письмо. 2019-изд. 96 стр. 978-5-907123-17-5); Выпуск 4. Аудирование. Говорение. 2019 5-й изд. 168 стр. 978-5-907123-23-6)

TRKI 2nd and 3rd Certificate materials: Choose and use!

All the TRKI 2nd and 3rd Certificate materials reviewed above come from the Zlatoust press in St Petersburg, whose website you can check out for content page pdfs and sample pages for the other texts. You can generally obtain them from specialist foreign language booksellers and some may be on larger, well-known online stores.

Except for the past papers, the Testy books, TRKI na 100% and the “Gramatika. Leksika” volume in Leaning and Training Test series, all of the books discussed above have a wider purpose of getting you thinking about Russian and offering explicit instruction. You’ll find that the exercises range wider than the actual tasks require in the two exams and you’ll be exposing you to a lot of Russian texts whether written or audio/audio visual.

They’ll overlap then, with other types of exposure that you’ll want to use at this level.

Needless to say, as you move up through the levels, you’ll be getting as much general listening and reading input as possible. You’ll also be speak Russian as often as you can and don’t neglect the writing. For speaking and correction of written work in particular, taking lessons on Skype on a platform such as italki is convenient, flexible and good value. The other thing you’ll want is a good descriptive grammar book (I used Wade’s A Comprehensive Russian Grammar – but grammar books are a topic for another post).

Have you found other TRKI 2nd and 3rd Certificate materials, whether books or other resources that you’d recommend or that I should add to the list? Let me know in the comments below. Good luck with your exam preparations and don’t forget to enjoy the challenge and the journey. If you want to check out more on my chequered TRKI 3rd Certificate history, start with this post. Whichever exam you’re taking: yдачи вам!

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