Free Language

Primary links

Learn Russian Online Now, Free!

Start learning Russian free right now!

Busuu Russian offers learners a dynamic combination of online lessons, language exchange and mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android.

You Make Language Happen

Free Language Newsletter

Discover the magic of learning languages.

Subscribe to the Free Language Letter.

Ask Questions, Get Answers

Ask anything about learning and teaching languages! Share your language questions.

View questions that have been asked and answered. Together we are creating a collective knowledge base for effective language learning and teaching. You can help!

russian discourse

RussianLingQ.com Russian LingQ Podcast with Free iTunes iPod MP3 Audio using Linguist Method by Steve Kaufmann

Summary

The LingQ language-learning platform is among the most intentionally-created foreign language education products available. Developed by reknowned polyglot linguist Steve Kaufmann and company, LingQ is an excellent way to learn Russian using materials you choose yourself!

In fact, this is where LingQ excels as an educational platform because students can import any license-free content they want to base their lessons around. This means that the students decide what subjects and topics they wish to learn about based on professional needs and/or personal interests.

The particular podcast highlighted in this article is RussianLingQ, a roughly weekly podcast with mp3 audio content for Russian language learners. Transcripts of the podcasts are available through LingQ.com, and can also serve as learning content themselves.

One additional advantage of the LingQ system is that for a single subscription, you can use their web-based platform to learn ten languages (and growing) including Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

From Website

What is RussianLingQ?

First of all, the name itself (which is pronounced Russian Link) needs a little explaining. The first part, “Russian”, is fairly obvious since we teach Russian. LingQ is the name of our online learning system which you can find at LingQ.com. At LingQ you’ll study many different languages in a fun, community atmosphere. The “Ling” in LingQ comes from TheLinguist.com the people behind LingQ. Lastly, the “Q” is important because it forms the speech bubble in our logo and throughout our site and because it makes “lingq” sound like “link” (we think!) which is what our system does for you.

At RussianLingQ...

. we LingQ you to a world of real Russian content
. we LingQ you to our revolutionary learning tools
. we LingQ you to a community of fellow Russian learners

Our podcasts may contain interviews, articles, or audiobook excerpts but are most often just general conversations in Russian. We will usually talk about topics of general interest. Please do send us feedback and topic requests. We’re always happy to hear from you.

After you listen to the podcast, sign up for a free account at LingQ (l-i-n-g-q.com) and study the full transcript using LingQ's revolutionary learning tools.

At LingQ, you may also want to submit writing for correction or join live 1 on 1 and group discussions with our tutors. Plus you will find thousands more podcasts with transcript. Come and find out what LingQ is all about!

Of course, even if you don’t decide to become a member, you can continue listening to the podcasts as long as you like.

Visit LingQ.com

Posted Thu, 2008-02-28 22:40

Add new comment
8979 reads

Learn about the Russian Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

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.