stazi-learns-languages - Tumblr blog

[stazi-learns-languages]

so I know it’s been quite a while since I posted…but I recently hired a Russian tutor and will be having my first session on Wednesday so I will post what I’m working on! Excited to get back into this Russian journey!

[stazi-learns-languages]

Russian - English Cognates

Studying cognates is one of the easiest ways to familiarize yourself with the alphabet of a new language. By comparing words you already know to those that you are just now learning, it’s easier to correlate the new letters to their new sounds. Here’s a list of Russian-English cognates that help me to remember pronunciation:

Акцент - accent

Бюджет - budget

Гитара - guitar

Журналистка - journalist

Комфорт - comfort

Лаборатория - laboratory

Меню - menu

Паспорт - passport

Литература - literature

Парашют - parachute

Университет - university

Яхта - yacht

Хоккей - hockey

Pобот - robot

Зебра - zebra

Принцесса - princess

студе́нт – student

экза́мен – exam

иде́я – idea

центр – center

Пицца - pizza

Фрукт - fruit

баскетбол - basketball

Радио - radio

класс - class

Аквариум - aquarium

Балет- ballet

(Feel free to comment some more, I love finding new cognates!)

[stazi-learns-languages]

A big thank you to all of the native speakers out there who take the time to read and correct posts. Without you the langblr community wouldn’t be the same! We learn from mistakes, so keep correcting :)

[stazi-learns-languages]

Russian Immersion: Music

So I’m a huge advocate of immersing yourself in your target language as much as possible and music is one of the easiest ways to do it. Even if you have no idea what the song is saying, just hearing the words, pronunciations, etc., is already helping you improve your auditory comprehension skills! Just put on a song and do your homework with it in the background for the exposure or take it one step further and look up the lyrics and follow along! My target language is Russian, so I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite Russian songs, even though I have no idea what they’re saying half the time! I use Spotify so these are all available on there, but I’m not sure about other platforms. Check them out and let me know what you think:

Доза by Dati

Принцесса by Babek Mamedrzaev

Sayonara детка by Eldzhey (love this one because half is in English so it makes me feel like I actually know what’s going on lol)

Судный день by PHARAOH

ТЕЛО by GRILLZY

Крепко влип by LUCAVEROS

Кино by MACAN

Нет сердца by PHARAOH

I’ll be adding more to this list as I find more Russian songs that I like! Also, please feel free to recommend some to me! Disclaimer: I literally have no idea what these songs are saying for the most part so I’m sorry in advance if they’re offensive! I just really like the beats!

[stazi-learns-languages]

Russian - English Cognates

Studying cognates is one of the easiest ways to familiarize yourself with the alphabet of a new language. By comparing words you already know to those that you are just now learning, it’s easier to correlate the new letters to their new sounds. Here’s a list of Russian-English cognates that help me to remember pronunciation:

Акцент - accent

Бюджет - budget

Гитара - guitar

Журналистка - journalist

Комфорт - comfort

Лаборатория - laboratory

Меню - menu

Паспорт - passport

Литература - literature

Парашют - parachute

Университет - university

Яхта - yacht

Хоккей - hockey

Pобот - robot

Зебра - zebra

Принцесса - princess

студе́нт – student

экза́мен – exam

иде́я – idea

центр – center

Пицца - pizza

Фрукт - fruit

баскетбол - basketball

Радио - radio

класс - class

Аквариум - aquarium

Балет- ballet

(Feel free to comment some more, I love finding new cognates!)

[stazi-learns-languages]

Russian Langblrs!!!!

Привет! I’m trying to get back into Russian now but tumblr seems a bit more inactive than usual. If you’re a Russian langblr like/reblog so I can follow you! Love having fellow learning buddies :)

[stazi-learns-languages]

Basic Rules to Determine Grammatical Gender of Russian Nouns

Masculine ➞ usually ends in a consonant letter or -й — студент, музей

Feminine ➞ usually ends in -а or –я — лампа,станция

Neuter ➞ usually ends in -о, -е, or -ё — окно, море

[stazi-learns-languages]

Basic Russian Phrases

Russian - Latin Phonetic- English

привет - priVYET - hello (informal)

Меня зовут... - miNYA zaVOOT... - My name is...

очень приятно - Ochin' priYATna - Nice to meet you

Как дела? - kak diLA - How are you doing?

хорошо - haraSHO - Good

очень хорошо - Ochin' haraSHO - Very good

неплохо - nipLOha - Not bad

отлично - atLEEchna - Perfect

Здравствуйте - ZDRAstvooiti - Hello (formal)

пока - pakA - bye (informal)

до свидания - dasviDAniya - goodbye (formal)

Доброе утро - DObraye OOtrah - Good morning

Добрый день - DObry dYEn - Good day

Добрый вечер - DObry VEchir - Good evening

спасибо - spaSEE bah - Thank you

пожалуйста - paZHALsta - You’re welcome/Please

не за что - NYEzashta - Don’t mention it

понятно - pah nYAT nah - Is it clear?/It is clear.

[stazi-learns-languages]

Hello friends! I know it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted but by the end of the week I promise I’ll post some of my Russian studies. It’s just been hectic. Not sure if I mentioned this at all, but I actually broke both my jaws a few months ago. My mouth has been wired shut for over 2 months now so I haven’t been able to talk or eat. It’s been wicked hectic. But I’m starting to feel better and I wanna get back into Russian!

[stazi-learns-languages]

literally me when my Russian tutor asked if I spoke Spanish or French. like yessir I speak both so my pronounciation is going to be WHACK

The best feeling is when you’re learning a new language and a native speaker is like “oh how strange you have xyz accent in this new language” and you’re like oh ! I also speak xyz language :’)

[stazi-learns-languages]

Hi! I have a question about the ABC Languages class you’re doing. Are you able to practice speaking a lot? I’m not learning Russian, but there are two languages I am studying—Thai and Korean— that I’m really struggling to learn to speak (I’m beginner in Thai and low-intermediate in Korean). I was thinking that having a real human teacher might help with that. Do you think an online class with ABC languages would be a good fit for something like that?

Thanks for the question! So I’m doing the online group class for Russian through ABC Languages and, like I said, I love it. Usually groups have a minimum of three students but there are only two in my class (it’s probably at the teacher’s discretion). The maximum amount of students per class is 6. I love this because I get time to personally interact with my teacher, which includes speaking! I’ve tried teaching myself Russian before but it never stuck, but as soon as I signed up for ABC Languages, it clicked! My teacher teaches us common conversational words and commonly used phrases that I would find useful (he taught me how to spell my dogs’ names and to say things like “Where are my dogs?”). He expects us to respond with “да” (“yes”) when he asks us a question— he consistently tries to have us speaking as much Russian as possible even though it’s in the beginning stages. I think that for you and the languages you’re studying, it would be a great fit! I’ve always been too intimidated to do a language exchange so the (online) classroom setting of ABC Languages alleviates a lot of the anxiety! I highly recommend! They also offer private courses if you think that would be more beneficial. I’m sorry this is such a long response— if you have any more specific questions or any questions really, feel free to pop into my inbox! I did tons of research about different language schools before I signed up for ABC so I can try to be as helpful as possible!

-S

[stazi-learns-languages]

Yesterday I had my third Russian class! I really feel myself getting more comfortable with the Cyrillic alphabet and my teacher is so patient with me (even when I absolutely butcher the words). Usually it is me and another girl in the class but her internet wasn’t working very well so she logged off and it was just me and the teacher— it was like a personalized lesson and I feel like I learned so much more! He even helped me learn to write my dog’s names in Russian (Фрэнки and Харли, I just thought that was cool!). I’m absolutely loving this class and I think I’m gonna buy more lessons. I got 8 weeks for $325 so I think I’m gonna try to extend it since it’s going so well. I HIGHLY recommend ABC Languages (it’s based in New York but they’re doing online classes due to COVID). Overall, I’m loving my Russian class!

[stazi-learns-languages]

Question for any native Russian speakers or those fluent in Russian! I once heard that Russians only use cursive for handwriting, not regular printing (like how the letters look when a beginner learns them). Is that true? I was just trying to write something in Russian and it was really hard so if they only use cursive/if it’s easier I would definitely want to learn that, as well. Thanks in advance! Спасибо!

[stazi-learns-languages]

Basic Rules to Determine Grammatical Gender of Russian Nouns

Masculine ➞ usually ends in a consonant letter or -й — студент, музей

Feminine ➞ usually ends in -а or –я — лампа,станция

Neuter ➞ usually ends in -о, -е, or -ё — окно, море

[stazi-learns-languages]

Привет! I think it’s been about a week since I posted (sorry!) but my Russian class was canceled yesterday because of the Fourth of July. I have done some mild studying in the meantime but I plan on doing some intense studying (to make up for the missed class) on Tuesday. I’ll post an update then. Sorry I don’t have a more substantial post for last week, but I promise I’ll upload another batch of Russian words/phrases this week.

Espero que todos estén bien!

-S

[stazi-learns-languages]

Russian: Class 2

So yesterday I had my second Russian class! My teacher is super cool and patient with me (because I’m 100% butchering all the words but he always helps to correct me). He made fun of me because I kept pronouncing things in a Spanish or French accent, both of which I speak, so I’m definitely gonna have to figure out how to fix that. We went over the alphabet for added practice then he introduced us to the Russian words for “my” and “your”. I am having such a hard time pronouncing these words in Russian so I’m gonna have to do a lot of practicing. If you have any tips for how to remember pronounciation, please let me know! Other than that, I think I’m doing really well and I’m really enjoying my time learning Russian. I originally booked it to be an 8-week course but I’m seriously considering extending it indefinitely because I enjoy it so much! We meet every Saturday so unfortunately that falls on the 4th of July next week so there is no class on that day, so I’ll be doing a lot of independent studying. Expect a good amount of posts from me this week!

-S

[stazi-learns-languages]

Basic Russian Phrases

Russian - Latin Phonetic- English

привет - priVYET - hello (informal)

Меня зовут... - miNYA zaVOOT... - My name is...

очень приятно - Ochin' priYATna - Nice to meet you

Как дела? - kak diLA - How are you doing?

хорошо - haraSHO - Good

очень хорошо - Ochin' haraSHO - Very good

неплохо - nipLOha - Not bad

отлично - atLEEchna - Perfect

Здравствуйте - ZDRAstvooiti - Hello (formal)

пока - pakA - bye (informal)

до свидания - dasviDAniya - goodbye (formal)

Доброе утро - DObraye OOtrah - Good morning

Добрый день - DObry dYEn - Good day

Добрый вечер - DObry VEchir - Good evening

спасибо - spaSEE bah - Thank you

пожалуйста - paZHALsta - You’re welcome/Please

не за что - NYEzashta - Don’t mention it

понятно - pah nYAT nah - Is it clear?/It is clear.