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TED Talks

A Hidden Gem for Language Lovers and Learners

This article presents a unique approach for intermediate to advanced (and beyond) learners of many languages to gain exposure to interesting material in their target language(s). It has to do with a very popular website that features short (usually less than ten minutes) presentations by some of the world's greatest and most famous minds (not always both ;) on their specific areas of expertise. It's called, simply, TED, and the presentations are called "TED Talks".

The TED website itself is not geared towards language learners or educators yet is useful for both. It is especially useful for English learners, as all the talks are in English. But it's also useful for anyone learning most of the world's most-spoken languages (as well as numerous lesser-spoken ones) who want to simultaneously watch inspiring, funny, courageous, fascinating, informative, persuasive, ingenious and often jaw-dropping presentations about technology, science, entertainment, design, business and global issues - all while gaining exposure to their target language. Here's how and why...

Your rating: None Average: 4.2 (13 votes)
Free Russian Phrasebook

Learn Survival Russian

Wikitravel users have collectively created a free Russian phrasebook with the goal of making it possible for travelers to "get by" while traveling in areas where Russian is spoken.

Wikitravel phrasebooks are available in many languages and each one varies in depth and detail. Most of the phrasebooks include a pronunciation guide, a general phrase list, information about dates and numbers, a color list, transportation-related phrases, vocabulary for shopping and phrases for eating and drinking. Some are even more in depth, and all are free!

From Website

Your rating: None Average: 3.7 (11 votes)

RussianPod101.com Learn Russian Podcast

Summary

From beginner to advanced levels, RussianPod101.com is an excellent, all-around online environment for learning Russian. The Pod101 platform, method and technology provide the necessary tools to get you immersed in the Russian language and achieve the goals you desire and/or require.

Since RussianPod101.com is web-based, you can access your personal Russian Learning Center from anywhere, and it's really easy to download the podcasts and put them on your mp3 player (iPod, Zune, etc) or mobile phone to take them with you for practice and learning on the go.

One of the most important things when learning a language is good content - and RussianPod101.com has this, and a steady flow of it. This constant flow of fresh content regards cultural aspects of Russian you will want to know, interesting tidbits about navigating in Russian society (whether on vacation or living abroad), practical information about getting by and much more.

Your Russian Learning Center brings together audio podcast lessons, lesson notes and checklists, transcripts, PDFs, video lessons, vocabulary training with flashcards and quizzes plus a Russian dictionary, grammar bank, a verb reference and plenty more.

And if you enjoy asking questions and learning from and helping other learners, a forum is available for all users.

It's simple to try it for free and upgrade if it works for you.

From Website

At RussianPod101.com, our goal is to make learning the Russian language easy and fun, while also incorporating culture and current issues into our lessons. We believe that the more you speak, the quicker you learn, so we have designed our program to get you speaking right away. Situational Russian is heavily stressed, and our team role plays various situations to demonstrate the proper form of Russian to use when speaking with friends, customers, executives, and so-on. Knowing the proper form to use separates good speakers from great speakers.

RussianPod101.com was developed with the hope of showing the world how fun and easy learning Russian can be. Here at RussianPod101.com, we truly believe that learning can be fun, while at the same time convenient. We know how busy you are and that each day brings unexpected surprises. That is exactly why we bring the lessons to you and let you decide when they start.

Our innovative, fun, and easy to use language learning system is designed to get you speaking and interacting from the very first lesson. Learn Russian at your own convenience and pace with short, effective, fun daily lessons and a comprehensive, state-of-the-art Learning Center that provides you with the tools to take your Russian to the next level! Our interactive learning system consists of free daily audio podcast lessons, accompanying PDF materials, a Premium Learning Center, and a vibrant user community.

Our Method

RussianPod101.com offers a unique learning experience that cannot be found in conventional classrooms. In addition to offering lessons that can be completed on your own time, we approve all of the content we release through a government certified Russian teacher. Here are just a few of the revolutionary advantages of our method:

Exposure to native speakers and many different kinds of voices and speaking styles…

RussianPod101.com aims to have you speaking Russian after just one lesson! Our lessons focus on pronunciation and listening comprehension, so that you can start practicing what you learn from our professional teachers. Inside the PDF you will find the necessary tools for reading comprehension, and thorough explanations of phrases and key grammar points, in addition to segments on cultural insight. To address speaking practice, we have state-of-the-art software to allow you to record your own voice so you can compare your pronunciation to our teachers and continue to refine your speaking skills.

When all the aspects of RussianPod101.com are put together, this program provides students of Russian with ultimate self-study learning course. In addition, we often provide conversations between three people to more closely simulate real-life situations.

Fresh, up-to-date content...

Many Russian teachers who live overseas have been out of the country for a long period of time and can be “out of the loop” on current words, culture, etc. This is another major gap that we fill. Lessons are carefully crafted to include current events, words, celebrities, and so-on. This is very dynamic content.

Borderless education on-demand...

We also fill a definite demand in remote locations. Our lessons provide you with a mobile classroom, as we bring you Russian on Demand. Russian lessons wherever you may be.

RussianPod101.com offers our listeners a unique learning experience that delivers cutting-edge, dynamic content to be accessed at your convenience. With the inclusion of our lesson notes and Learning Center, we offer a full solution that provides the material, guidance, exercises, and testing to really make the knowledge your own. And it doesn’t even stop there - our vibrant and extremely helpful community provide each other not only quick answers to questions, but also give each other a sense of encouragement and motivation that is often lacking.

We focus on Russian, and Russian only...

Just Russian! All we do is Russian. RussianPod101.com is not a generic package language learning course, such as some of the other big name language learning programs out there. Many other programs “scale” their solutions across several languages, simply recycling the same material over and over - the same pictures, the same conversations, just in a different language. But each language is unique, and at RussianPod101.com we pride ourselves on developing a system that’s only about the Russian language and Russian culture!

One stop studying...

Have you ever found yourself lost on the information highway? Sometimes it’s like trying to drink from a fire hose! Hundreds of bookmarks, all with varying levels of quality and credibility. You finally find a great site, but it only updates once a year! RussianPod101.com offers users one stop studying. The learning center has been carefully designed to provide you with the resources you will need to take your Russian to the next level.

Visit RussianPod101.com.

Learning Russian .net Logo

Summary

LearningRussian.Net is a good entry point for beginner Russian learners. The site provides clear lessons on the basics of the Russian language, including the alphabet, verb conjugations and aspects, case forms, pronouns, numerals, mood and more. There is also a number of introductory level lessons on meeting and greeting, introductions, fun and games, directions and congratulations - with more lessons being added regularly.

Of special note are their Russian-English dual-language texts available right through the site! Currently the beginning chapters of two novels are available in dual-text format: Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoy and Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Audio is also being integrated into the site as this article goes to press, so expect more audio soon.

From Website

Learn Russian language with Free Lessons

If you are feeling excited about learning how to speak and understand Russian, this is the right place to be. Designed to become the best online destination for Russian language study, our website offers free high-quality Russian lessons with audio recordings, online dictionaries, original texts of Russian literature classics, and other practical resources to help you learn the Russian language. Our site is absolutely free for you to use and we plan to keep running it as a totally free service for everyone.

Anna Karenina Russian-English Dual-Language Text

Visit LearningRussian.Net

Your rating: None Average: 3.4 (10 votes)

Wikipedia Learn Russian Language

Summary

If you don't know about Wikipedia, now is the time to find out! Especially since it is so useful in learning languages.

Wikipedia is the "Free Encyclopedia", a collectively-authored, dynamic, online encyclopedia that is free not only as in price, but also as in freedom. This means that the content you find anywhere on Wikipedia is free and open in the Public Domain. You can reproduce, redistribute and rehash the information there. This is empowered by the GNU Free Documentation License. This same license protects and empowers the content on Free Language! (How?)

This particular resource links to the Wikipedia entry on the Russian language. This entry contains loads of information for the curious reader as well as for the serious Russian language learner, including historical and linguistic data.

Use this resource to become familiar with the Russian language and its context in today's world, to discover facts and linguistic data about Russian and its many varieties, access further information about and resources for learning Russian, and much more.

From Resource

Russian (русский язык), transliteration: Russkiy yazyk, [ˈruskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk]) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three (or, according to some authorities, four) living members of the East Slavic languages; the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn, often considered a dialect of Ukrainian).

Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards. While Russian preserves much of East Slavonic grammar and a Common Slavonic word base, modern Russian exhibits a large stock of borrowed international vocabulary for politics, science, and technology. Due to the status of the Soviet Union as a superpower, Russian had great political importance in the 20th century. Hence, the language is still one of the official languages of the United Nations.

Russian has palatal secondary articulation of consonants, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found in almost all consonant phonemes and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels, which is not entirely unlike that of English. Stress in Russian is generally quite unpredictable and can be placed on almost any syllable. Syllabic stress is one of the most difficult aspects for foreign language learners.

Link

Visit "Russian Language" on Wikipedia.

License

GNU Free Documentation License

Your rating: None Average: 2.5 (2 votes)