Teach yourself Russian with free online Russian resources

Let’s be honest, Russian is not the easiest language to learn, isn’t it? But it’s totally possible to teach yourself Russian completely on your own (without a teacher). The internet is full with the resources to learn and practice Russian language for free and not only for free.

In this article we’d like to present to you some of the websites that you might use to teach yourself Russian language.

Russian alphabet

It will take you some time to learn the Russian alphabet. Even if some letters are very hard to remember and it becomes very confusing at times, don’t give up! It’s only 33 letters and after some regular practice you’ll find yourself reading Russian words and even understanding the meaning of some of them without translation (like интернет, ресторан, банк, телефон, etc.).

A little advice:

We receive a lot of questions about Russian pronunciation rules and the exceptions of these rules. The best advice we always can give is not to focus too much on the rules, but to try to imitate the native speech. By copying what you hear you’ll be able to teach yourself Russian pronunciation much easier.

Useful links:

– Russian letters – a guide to the Russian alphabet
– Russian alphabet, hand written Russian and pronunciation rules
– learn Russian alphabet with free online Russian grammar and vocabulary course for beginners

Russian grammar

There is a lot to learn there, so take it easy, step by step. Learn a little bit every day, and you’ll notice that the results “не заставят себя ждать” (will not keep you waiting).

“Повторенье – мать ученья” (repetition is the mother of learning), so don’t hesitate to go through the same topic even if you have already learned it.

Useful links:

– Learn Russian grammar with Learn Russian Step by Step
– Russian grammar lessons on Everyday Russian

Russian vocabulary

Building your Russian vocabulary should become your everyday habit. For that your can use the apps like Memrise or to subscribe to the Russian word of the day.

Use Russian flashcards to recall the Russian words and phrases you’ve already learned.

Useful links:

– Learn Russian words daily
– Practice with Russian flashcards
– Russian vocabulary lessons on Everyday Russian
– Basic Russian vocabulary on Learn Russian Step by Step

Reading and listening Russian practice

These two categories of activites to teach yourself Russian have the most to offer when you look for online Russian lessons. Don’t miss any opportunity to read more in Russian and to listen to the Russian native speech as often as possible.

Listening to the Russian speech and following the transcription at the same time is a very good practice. It helps you to get used to the pronunciation and learn new Russian words and useful expressions. A good source of such practice are Russian podcasts with transcriptions.

Writing Russian practice

To be able to speak Russian (or any other language) fluently, you need to teach your brain to constuct the sentences differently, and eventually to be able to think in Russian.

The best we can recommend here is to find a Russian friend that is interested in learning your native language. For example, find a Russian pen pal.

Another good activity is dictations in Russian: listen to the audio, pause it when needed, and try to write down what you hear. Usually you’ll be able to check yourself with the provided transctiption of the dictation.

Speaking in Russian

That’s another thing for which you’ll need a Russian speaking friend or even a Russian language teacher. Even if you’ve learned to compose and structure your thought in written Russian, you need a speaking practice to, firstly, memorise the words easier, and secondly, to make sure you pronounce them right.

Engage in the conversations with native Russian speakers everywhere you can find them. It’s very easy if you are in Russia, but even if you are not, it should be relatively easy to find somebody to practice with. For that check out Facebook Russian learning groups and online communities where people exhange languages.

Advanced Russian

When you already know the basics, jumping to the next step of understanding conversational Russian language might take a lot of time. The spoken Russian language, as any other, is in many ways different than the one you learn from the textbooks. One of the best ways to learn the conversational Russian language and have fun on the way is to study the Russian humor.

Useful links:
– Russian jokes in Russian with translation in English and audio

Conclusion

This is, of course, not the complete list of all the activities you can engage into to teach yourself Russian. The most important is to practice regularly and keep your motivation high. With these two provided, you’ll be speaking a pretty good Russian very soon. 🙂