Just A Fun Fact

helpful apps

i know there are a million of these posts out there but here’s a personalized one for the apps that i find helpful during the school year! i won’t mention stuff like forest or duolingo bc obv we all know about those. 

1. pocket schedule - this is my go-to new app for glancing at my schedule. because i am a disaster of a human being, my first few weeks of class are spent continuously checking back on the student website for my timetable in order to figure out what room number i’m in. pocket schedule is a basic timetable and also lets you add in tasks and assignments. 

2. overdrive/libby- overdrive has saved my goddamn life. i RARELY have time to go to the library (just look at my library fines, lmao) and when i do i usually get way too much that i don’t read. if you download libby or overdrive you can access your library’s ebook selection. if i remember correctly libby also has audiobooks for those like me who walk everywhere. 

3. onenote- perfect for a digital bujo if the regular bujo doesn’t work for you. it’s easier to look at on a laptop but i like to check my habit tracker if i’m waiting in line for food or on the bus. 

4. bear- a simple and clean writing app. mostly used for grocery lists. can also be used as a diary if that’s your thing.

5. daylio- a mood journal in which you can track your mood over the course of several months. an awesome tool if you go to therapy and need to check yourself daily.

So I was innocently watching a stand up about Russian language and found this comment. Even though it includes a lot of swear words, I thought it would be useful to people who have trouble remembering some Russian words. The stand up I was watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtMd6PbscwE&t=14s

I was watching Evening Urgant as usual and I just couldn’t resist translating this funny bit for you. What is Ivan talking about? Беляш, беляши — bel’ash (sing.), bel’ashi (plur.) Bel’ash is a dish of Kazakh, Bashkir and Tatar cuisine. It’s practically the same as a regular pirozhok with meat. Except the recipes and the forms of the dishes are a bit different.

P. S. Please let me know if you want me to keep tranlsating fun parts from Russian TV shows and wether or not the Russian subtitles above the screen are comfortable for you to watch/are necessary. Thanks for reading my little blog :)

Hey, I thought I would compile a selection of different resources dedicated to learning the Russian language. Feel free to reblog and add your own

Information about the language

Russian Language on Wikipedia

Russian Language on BBC

Russian Language on Encyclopaedia Britannica 

Russian Language on Real Russia

Books

I have a masterlist of different Russian language textbooks for all levels, as well as general Russian literature and Russian magazines for reading practice. It contains over 60,000 books and over 4,000 magazines

Children’s Books in Russian

Project Gutenberg Free Russian Books

Courses - Note that not all of these courses are free. 

Lingvist (comes with a 2-week free trial, and by far my favourite course)

Duolingo  (Joining with this link automatically adds me as a friend)

Busuu 

I Kinda Like Languages Russian Course

Learn Russian with RT (The audio files no longer work but there’s a lot of great resources that work)

Live Lingua Russian Tutors (Not a course as such, but a way to get a Tutor. You can get a free hour lesson)

Russian for Everyone

Russian for Free 

RussianLessons

Russian Made Easy

Way To Russia 

Russky

Lingodeer

Между нами

MasterRussian

Я говорю по-русски/ I speak Russian

Русский как иностранный: B1+. Russian as a foreign language: B1+

Русский как иностранный: B1+. Часть 2. Russian as a foreign language. B1+. Part 2.

Русский как иностранный B2-1 / Russian As a Foreign Language B2-1

Русский язык как иностранный B2-2 / Russian as a Foreign Language B2-2

A1 Elementary Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

A2 Basic Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

B1 I Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

B2 II Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

C1 III Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

C2 IV Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

Beginner Russian Course / Курс России языка для начинающих

Intermediate Russian Course / Курс России языка среднего уровня

Russian Grammar Course / Курс грамматики России языка

Russian Course for Travelers / Курс России языка для путешественников

From Zero to Fluency Youtube Course

Start Speaking Russian Youtube Course

Russian Reading Youtube Course

Learn Russian Alphabet

Russian (Kazakhstan) Peace Corps Course

FSI Russian Course

Learn Russian

Yes Russian

Polymath

Learnalanguage

Ready Russian

Simplang

Russian Learning Reddit

Learn With Oliver

Memrise is a great resource as it has Memrise courses and user-created courses. These are the official Russian courses if you go through them one by one they amount to approximately 54 hours of content. The thing I like about Memrise is they test you on your pronunciation, and they have lots of videos by Russian native speakers. So it really tests you in all your skills.

Russian 1 by Memrise

Russian 2 by Memrise

Russian 3 by Memrise

Russian 4 by Memrise

Russian 5 by Memrise

Russian 6 by Memrise

Russian 7 by Memrise

These are some unofficial Russian Memrise courses you might like too. Although they tend to not have audio and they don’t have pronunciation tests or native speaker videos, they can still be a good resource.

Learn Basic Russian 

Top 10,000 words part one 

Top 10,000 words part two

Russian Grammar through Exercises

Assimil Russian

New Penguin Russian Course Vocabulary 

Vocabulary resources

Anki

Word Reference

Ba Ba Dum

L-Lingo

Russian Swadesh list

English terms derived from Russian

Wikipedia Russian Topics (Click on different topics then click on different words for their English translation and meaning)

Russian Idioms

Russian Proverbs

Russian Similies

20,000-word Frequency dictionary of the modern Russian language (the Russian National Corpus)

Russian spelling alphabet

Russian Frequency lists/1-1000

Russian Frequency lists/1001-2000

Russian Frequency lists/2001-3000

Russian Frequency lists/3001-4000

Russian Frequency lists/4001-5000

Russian Adjectives - Frequency List

Russian Nouns - Frequency List

Russian Verbs - Frequency List

Russian palindromes

Russian Pronouns

Alpha Dictionary

Dubbed Russian Songs (Russian songs with Russian lyrics alongside transliteration and English translation. They also accept requests)

Clozemaster (I’d say this is more for intermediate-advanced, but beginners might make use of this as well)

Vikida Children’s Encyclopedia (Entirely in Russian)

Russian for Children by Pushkin Institute (Entirely in Russian) This actually contains resources for 5+ to 18+ so it covers a broad range of levels

Slow Russian Podcast

Slow Russian Youtube

Beginning Russian through Film

Amazing Russian Youtube

Bab.La English - Russian Dictionary

Grammar

Grammar Exercises Youtube Playlist

MasterRussian

Online Interactive Grammar 

Learn Russian Grammar Tables

Russian Grammar Youtube

Russificate

Conjugation Tool

Russian Grammar

Russian News Sites

Russia Today (In Russian) / Russia Today (in English) (They also have a whole database of documentaries/shows/films that are in English or Russian. Just click on a show here and it’ll give you the option to watch in English or Russian) 

The Moscow Times (In Russian) / The Moscow Times (In English) (They have free English PDFs of past print publications too)

Tass Russian News Agency (In Russian) / Tass Russian News Agency (In English)

Moskovskij Komsomolets (Московский комсомолец) (only available in Russian)

Komsomolskaya Pravda (Комсомо́льская пра́вда) (only available in Russian)

Izvestia (ɪzˈvʲestʲɪjə) (Only available in Russian)

Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Российская газета) (Only available in Russian)

Kommersant (Коммерса́нтъ) (Only available in Russian)(There is also a UK news website entirely in Russian)

Trud (Tpyд) (Only available in Russian)

Moskovskiye Novosti (Московские новости) (Only available in Russian)

Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Независимая газета) (Only available in Russian)

Novye Izvestia (Новые Известия) (Only available in Russian)

Vedomosti (Ведомости) (Only available in Russian)

Pravda Правда (Only available in Russian)

Delovoy Peterburg Деловой Петербург (Only available in Russian)

RBC daily (Only available in Russian)

Sport Express (Спорт-Экспресс) (Only available in Russian)

Sovetsky Sport (Советский спорт) (Only available in Russian)

Russia Beyond The Headlines (In Russian) / Russia Beyond The Headlines (In English)

Krasnaya Zvezda (Кра́сная звезда́) (Only available in Russian)

Moskovskaya Pravda (Московская правда) (Only available in Russian)

Argumenty i Fakty (Аргументы и факты) (Only available in Russian)

Sovetsky Sakhalin (Советский Сахалин) (Only available in Russian)

Tyumenskaya Oblast Segodnya (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Murmansk (Вечерний Мурманск) (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Novosibirsk (Вечерний Новосибирск) (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Stavropol (Вечерний Ставрополь) (Only available in Russian)

Novaya Gazeta (Новая газета) (Only available in Russian)

Novgorod (Новгород) (Only available in Russian)

Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti (Санкт-Петербургские ведомости) (Only available in Russian)

Literaturnaya Gazeta (Литературная газета) (Only available in Russian)

Parlamentskaia Gazeta (Парламентская газета) (Оnly available in Russian)

Meduza (In Russian) / Meduza (In English)

Please note that sites listed do not equal an endorsement. I don’t know the political background or views of each of these publications. I’m merely compiling a variety I saw through various Russian news lists and search engine results. Content warnings may apply and not all content may be suitable for minors

Listening practice (Note, I may make another masterlist compiling various Russian podcasts and Youtube channels so I’m leaving them out of this section)

LibriVox

Listeningpractice.org

Slavic Languages and Cultures Department, University of Groningen Listen to the Slavic languages

Audio Lingua

Learn Russian with Peppa Pig

Forvo

StarMediaEN (Russian shows, documentaries etc with English subtitles)

Russian Films With English Subtitles Youtube Playlist

Alosha (Алёша Попович и Тугарин Змей) Children’s Film

Dobrynya and the Dragon (Добрыня Никитич и Змей Горыныч) Children’s Film

Ilya Muromets and Sparrow the Robber (Илья Муромец и Соловей Разбойник) Children’s film

How Not to Rescue a Princess (Три Богатыря и Шамаханская Царица) Children’s Film

Russian Animation (Mixture of dubbed content and subtitled content)

Киноконцерн “Мосфильм” (Moscow Film, only some of these are subtitled)

фильмы о Холмсе и Ватсоне (Movies about Sherlock Holmes with Russian audio and English subtitles)

Okay, so this list has gotten long enough lol. If you have any resources you feel should be added feel free to reblog and add them or message me and I’ll edit it in. If you have any requests for resource compilations that you want me to do (e.g. compiling Russian podcasts, general Russian websites, Russian YouTubers etc) please let me know. 

Hey, just a random anon who found this blog looking for Russian content (somewhat new learner here). I came to learn the flow of the language and stayed for my new favorite Russian comedy—it’s absolutely hilarious, and I hoard your clips like precious gems, watching them again and again. I’m glad to see you’re back—I’ve realized just how much something you do to bring positivity for yourself can bring positivity to a total stranger. Thank you for making me smile and doing what you do.

You are literally the nicest! You have no idea how much you made my day. I'm so glad I'm back too, I almost forgot what wonderful people you all are. Thank you for your kind words, I hope you continue learning and familiarizing yourself with Russian! <3

Don't worry guys, Daniel is actually the new Ophiuchus.

TikTok by: matweytv

Just wanted to let you know that English speaking people aren’t the only people who have problems with the word ‘pregnant’. This is Milla Jovovich trying to say the word ‘забеременела’ on a local Russian TV show. The original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AATwZGHgn24&t=229s

Just a fun fact #4

It's time for some slang!

Sometimes, when we want to say "___ is not the same now" ("___ уже не тот"), we say "___ is not a cake now" ("___ уже не торт"), because I guess "тот" and "торт" sound similar. Plus, by comparing the object with cake we express our disappointment that it is not as sweet and good as it used to be.

Examples:

"Шерлок" уже не торт - "Sherlock" is not a cake now

Мне раньше нравилась эта группа, но сейчас она уже не торт - I used to like this band, but it's not a cake now

Я подписалась на этот канал ради обзоров мемов, но сейчас он уже не торт - I subscribed to this channel for meme reviews, but it's not a cake now

This is my favorite TED talk by Mikhail Kazinik called “The school is dead, long live the school”. 

The point of his TED talk is that the school system is not teaching the right way anymore. The school used to teach to create the image of the world, but it now teaches the subjects without associative thinking.

“We shove information into our poor children like bags […] and where do we put the bags after that? To the junkyard. Because the school’s task is to ignite, and not to shove information.”

The poems Mikhail quoted in this bit: http://www.pushkins-poems.com/Yev704.htm https://ruverses.com/fyodor-tyutchev/we-can-not-divine/8632/

The original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gt6m7RwlYk&t=924s

A quick grammar reference: what -ся may mean and how to use it.