Время говорить по-русски! is a Russian instructional site developed by the Centre for International Education at Moscow State University for learners seeking to pass the elementary level of the TORFL (Test of Russian as a Foreign Language). There are 10 levels, each containing subtitled claymation video introductions to the topic, grammatical explanations, cultural information, exercises, tests, and supplemental reading and audio texts.
Learn Russian is an interactive language learning website from the news site RT. The 30 comprehensive lessons include dialogues with audio, exercises, grammatical explanations, and tests. The site also contains sections on the alphabet, pronunciation, and grammar tables.
Яндекс карты is the Russian answer to Google Maps. Moscow has the most detailed maps, which include live traffic, webcams, panoramic street view, public transport routes, local businesses, photos, map/satellite/hybrid views – even a layer that shows the path of Gagarin’s first flight into space, complete with a transcript of his transmissions. There’s also a link to a map of the Moscow metro, where you can find out how to get from one station to another, complete with the number of stops, transfers, and approximate travel time.
This морфологический анализ site will conjugate or decline any inflected Russian word that you input, as well as provide a dictionary definition. It will also give verb participle forms and gerunds. Use it to double-check your endings or to figure out tricky declensions and verb conjugations. Indeclinable words are noted as such.
MOSKVA.FM is the best resource I’ve found for listening to Russian radio online. Stream popular radio stations (Эхо Москвы, Наше радио, Русское радио, and many more), listen to archived programs (news, horoscopes, countdowns), and browse the charts (хит-парады). The interface is what really sets MOSKVA.FM apart: it shows what song is playing, a box for user comments, and a visual timeline of the songs and programs that have aired – it even notes each song’s number of rotations. Also, click “текст песни” to bring up lyrics in the window as a song plays. More features are available for registered users (including the ability to make playlists).
The University of Sussex’s Russian Language Learning on the Web contains glossed works by Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy and Blok, complete with: historical background and literary criticism in English; a side-by-side English-Russian translation; comprehension, vocabulary and grammar exercises; grammatical explanations; audio recordings of the texts; and videos of native speakers discussing the texts.
Отрезал.РУ is an online dictionary of Russian idioms, sayings, film quotes, and other language chunks that provides historical background on these phrases as well as their meaning. Advanced students of Russian can use this website as an aid while reading texts, or, alternatively, browse the entries to learn new expressions like белая ворона or to find out when to use the phrase зубы заговаривать.
РЖД (Российские железные дороги) has created a very cool virtual tour of the “Россия” train. Read about the train’s passengers and employees as “Россия” makes its way from Moscow to Vladivostok over the course of six days. Click the pink circles on the map of the train at the bottom of the page to visit each interactive location on board.
The School of Russian and Asian Studies contains many excellent resources for students learning Russian and those who are interested in studying abroad in Russia and Eurasia. Their Russian Mini Lessons provide cultural background knowledge and vocabulary on a variety of topics: religion and folklore, politics and military, village life, business, love and friendship, birth, health and safety, science and technology, and others. The lessons introduce readers to key words, phrases, and idiomatic expressions related to the topic. Use this resource to add new vocabulary to your vocabulary log, or simply to beef up your knowledge on Russian culture.
Ералаш is a children’s comedy program that has been on air since 1975. The Ералаш YouTube channel hosts nearly 300 clips from the program. These segments are short and lend themselves well to listening practice, as they provide contextualized language use. Independent students can watch the videos as many times as needed to comprehend them, and teachers can use them to build lessons on pragmatics, humor, or other topics.
