More cursive practice...

If you're really itching for more practice with русский почерк (Russian handwriting)... Here's the list of Russian sight words we've been working on, in cursive, with space for you to copy.

Added: People are having trouble with the Scribd version, so I posted one here. За работу! 

Russian Tutoring at the Russian Studies Center

Christine Jacobson will be available for Russian language tutoring at the Center:

• Wednesdays  1pm-5pm

more lectures on the alphabet

A 15 minute lecture (in two parts) on the consonant-vowel system in Russian. 


Watch these for Wednesday's class!

Important dates for Russian 101 (Fall 2011)

Alphabet and Phonetic quiz (word recognition): September 1

Vocabulary Quiz (based on 1-11): September 7

First Portfolio: September 13

Web Resources for Elementary Russian

Here are some resources for learning the Russian alphabet and the first couple of units of Голоса.  

• A list (in Word (.doc) format) of Russian sight words—these are calques from and homophones of English. (Not all the words are from English—some are words that both Russian and English borrowed from other sources, like Greek, Latin and German.) You received a copy of this list in class. 
• A recording (mp3, your browser should just play it) of me, reading the words above. I’ve slowed down the recording a bit so that you’re better able to hear my pronunciation of individual phonemes.
• If you like flashcards, flashcardexchange.com has a set dedicated to learning the алфавит (alphabet). 
• A creepy version of the Russian alphabet from IKEA (the number one foreign investor in Russia!). In fact, the Russians don’t NEED an alphabet song, and no one sings it and no one teaches it to kids. It’s a phonetic alphabet—there aren’t really standardized names for the letters, as there must be in English. (How else would we explain how to spell our crazy words???)
• The Golosa site, where you can listen to recordings of many of the exercises from the Алфавит (Alphabet) section.
• For those of you who want to perfect your Russian cursive (пропись), some “worksheets” that I concocted (in .doc format).
• And, while I’m at it, a link to the Golosa cards on FlashcardExchange website, where you can find all your work done for you…

Recordings for your portfolios

Sometimes the simplest way is the best. Vocaroo lets you skip the step of saving and uploading your recording--just speak into the microphone, Vocaroo records you, then gives you a link to the recording on the web. Couldn't be easier, though you don't have the opportunity to do any post-production editing of your video.

Russify your computer!

A video on working with Russian on your computer. 

Russian for Gringos (check for links at the top of the Gringos page for other platforms)
Google Transliterate
Google Transliterate IME (a small, resident, input software package that lets you use the Google Transliterate technology in other programs, e.g., Word)