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Listen2Russian.com News
June 16, 2009
Recently we launched a new section of the site called 'Russian Culture'. Our first article is all about Последний звонок (The Last Bell): Russian High-school Graduation. We chose this topic because it happens throughout Russia every year around May 25, about the time we wrote the article. We are very excited about our next article, which will be all about Borsch (борщ), the famous Russian beetroot soup! [Note, some people spell this soup 'borscht'] For the first time we would like to invite our visitors to submit contributions to the article, and be acknowledged amongst your peers. You might like to submit some unpublished trivia about borsch, or perhaps even your babooshka's secret borsch recipe! In fact, if you submit a borsch recipe that we use in the article we would like to put your picture next to the recipe as an acknowledgement of your great work! Please email us if you're interested (note, any submitted recipe must not be taken from another site on the internet). We look forward to hearing from you! In terms of other updates we are currently adding even more phrases to our multimedia Russian course that we launched several months ago. This will bring the total number of recorded phrases up to approximately 1600. The feedback so far has been 100% positive, and our customers generally comment that they can't believe such an in-depth course is so inexpensive. Well, we hope to give our students value for money, and keep them engaged and interested in studying Russian!
See you soon, and don't forget to dig out your old borsch recipes! Jonathon.
April 17, 2009
Ура! (Hooray!) We are pleased to announce that a few days ago we launched a beginner's Russian language course called Learn Russian: Step-by-step. The course has been in the making for over a year-and-a-half, and has involved native Russian language consultants from all over the globe. It will take you beyond what you can learn from the free lessons, and is suited to people who recognise the limitations of memorising phrases.
We sincerely hope you enjoy the course because we have put a lot of work into it. We have tried to make it as user-friendly as possible because some of the textbooks out there forget that we are human and not grammar-table learning machines! Warm regards, Jonathon.
December 17, 2008
Hi folks, Thanks for your emails and sorry for the delay with the major update .. it is more major than we expected and is taking some time to complete. However, we are sure the update will keep you occupied well into the New Year. If you would like to be notified when we update the site please send us a message here and we will keep you informed. On behalf of everyone at Listen2Russian.com, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Jonathon.
October 01, 2008
Привет студенты! (Hi students!) We continue to update the Listen2Russian on Video section. Latest video collections include wonderful sets by Julia and Ivelina! Although we haven't updated the lessons for a while, I want you to know there is a HUGE update coming in about a month. So please check back around November for a surprise that will blow you away if you are serious about learning Russian. In the meantime we will continue to expand the video section to keep you amused during the waiting period =) Lastly, a BIG THANKYOU to Tim from Russian-Resources.info for helping me to optimise some of the code on the Listen2Russian website. Check out Tim's site because he has some terrific, hand-picked resources for learning Russian:
For now, from the crew at Listen2Russian.com, пока! Jonathon.
July 14, 2008
It's a cold Winter's morning as I write this - not Siberian cold, but cold enough. To warm your spirits wherever you may be I have created a new section on Listen2Russian.com called "Listen2Rusisan On Video". You can access this section by heading to the menu page and clicking the Video camera LCD screen in the right-hand panel (or hover your mouse above it for a treat!). We plan to build a good selection of videos here that I hope will aid in making your Russian lessons not quite so dull! If you want to suggest a video for inclusion on the site then please Contact Us. We also have some other new surprises coming up soon! Many apologies to those who have not received an email response over the past month as I have been incredibly busy with work - I run a small business, and if you have had experience with this you will understand how much time it takes. But I will endeavour to reply to everyone as soon as I can. Until next time, I hope you enjoy the videos!! Jonathon.
March 11, 2008
Over the past few months we've received many emails that ask, "Why do you do it?", "Why don't you charge any fee for your lessons?". The answer is that we do it because it's our hobby, and once you start making money from a hobby it takes the fun out of it. Listen2Russian will always remain free, but we appreciate your thankyou's very much! Tommy, a tailor from Koh Samui in Thailand, recently wrote to us and asked if we could list some phrases that might be useful in his business. He has many Russian customers, and, in general, you will find quite a few Russians travelling throughout Thailand. Tommy, here are some useful phrases to get you started:
Please let us know if you need any more! Also in this update we have loaded instructions on how to make your own Mail.ru email account. This section features a lot of computer terminology that isn't available in any dictionary Ive seen before. E.g, I'm yet to find a Russian-English dictionary with the word for 'inbox' (входящие)! I realise this word is a neuter combination of вход (entrance) and ящик (box), but I can't find the word reported in any dictionary. Please let me know if you find one.. Personally, I spend a lot of time on Mail.ru, and especially the social site called "Мой Мир" (My World). If you create a profile and list a location from outside the Former Soviet Union you will get many emails from strangers wanting to hear more about your country. Many can't speak English so it's a good test of your Russian skills! Very soon Lena will be making new recordings, especially some of the more difficult pronunciations from the Mail.ru section. Unfortunately we have lost Irina to the pressures of school work and teenage life, so if anyone else would like to make some recordings please contact us. We are always looking for new talent! Finally, we would like to make a "Russian Student Profile" page that features a new Russian student each month. If you're interested we will ask you to submit a photo and write a short piece (in English) about yourself and why you are interested in Russian, what difficulties you have encountered, what techniques have been useful, what keeps you motivated, etc. Please contact us if you would like to be featured on Listen2Russian! Ahhh, I wish I was sitting at a beach-bar in Koh Samui right now......maybe Tommy will fly me over if he sells enough suits? :) Jon.
September 15, 2007
Privyet fsyem! I hope I find you all eager to learn new Russian words and phrases! As many of our loyal visitors have noticed, we haven't updated Listen2Russian.com for some time. We regret that we haven't been able to find any funding that would help us make time to work on the website, so unfortunately the updates have been few and far between. I draw your attention to some new 'New Years' phrases recorded by the lovely Irina (Ira) from Rostov-on-Don (not to be confused with teenage Irina!). We hope to hear more of her voice in the future and we thank her very much for her assistance with devising new Russian phrases. Please see here: Advanced "New Years" Phrases (Part 2) And: Standard "New Years" Phrases
We hope you also enjoy the new Lesson 10: Introduction to Russian Verbs.
In Melbourne, Lena and I recently attended the St. Vladimir's Grand Ball, celebrating the Bicentenary of Russian-Australian relations. It was a wonderful event at the beautiful Melbourne Town Hall ballroom, with over 600 Russians and Australians in attendance. Highlights included the Russian ballet, Cossack dancers, Russian singers and a Balalaika Orchestra (and the Stolichnaya vodka deserves an honourable mention!) A few photos from the Ball:
Sydney was also honoured to host the 2007 APEC meeting, which marked the first ever visit to Australia from a Russian Head-of-State. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, attended the conference, along with the President of the USA, George Bush, the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, and a host of other world leaders.
If you study Russian diligently, you could meet the President of Russia too! We hope to have more lessons online for you very soon. Jon.
June 10, 2007
The adjectives have landed! If you've got your head around the fact that nouns can be masculine, feminine or neuter, then the grammar rules for adjectives won't be too hard to understand. Of course there are some exceptions to the rules that are difficult to remember, but these will come with practice. We will add more adjectives over the coming month, but we would like to record and upload "Lesson 10 - Introduction to Verbs" as soon as possible. We hope you enjoy the new lesson, and if there is anything that is confusing then please contact us. Jon.
May 9, 2007
The day before Easter we received several requests for the Russian version of 'Happy Easter'. Unfortunately we didn't have time to make these new recordings so quickly, but they have now been created and uploaded to Lesson 5. Better late than never! :) "Lesson 9 - Introduction to Adjectives" is coming very soon! If you have any special requests for particular adjectives then please email us. Jon.
April 5 , 2007
We have finally uploaded Lesson 08, an exposé on the Russian soft-sign. Creating this lesson went way past the deadline for a few reasons, mainly because both Lena and I have recently started new jobs that demand a lot of time. And secondly, there aren't many resources available on the internet or in textbooks that could assist us to explain the nuances of correct soft-sign pronunciation. Despite what you might have been told, it isn't simply a matter of adding a small 'y' sound. Personally I talk to Russians everyday who correct me when I don't say words correctly, but to explain to Listen2Russian users how to position your tongue and produce new sounds is a real challenge. I hope I have been able to explain the procedures correctly and succinctly, and if they don't work for you then you might try something else to mimic the soft-sign combinations that you hear in the recordings. Personally I have had to adapt my own style to pronounce -рь correctly, so you may also find easier ways to make these soft-sign sounds. When I was initially learning the soft-sign I had great difficulty until I asked several of my friends to show me what they do with their tongue when they say these words. My Russian friends thought it was quite funny (and probably a bit odd :) when I asked to look in their mouths while they pronounced the soft-sign combinations :) So I've tried to accurately translate into words what I observed. If some of the instructions are hard to follow or if you need more clarification then please email us. Also, if you come across a soft-sign word that you would like to hear on Listen2Russian.com then let us know and we will endeavour to put it online for you. Have fun! Jon.
March 16, 2007
Following official feedback (well, actually, my mum logged onto the site and saw all the Google ads for Russian brides.... :) we have decided not to plaster the pages of Listen2Russian.com with Adsense ads. Not that I have got anything against Russian girls .. ! They truly are the most beautiful girls on the planet :) .. but the ads are an obstacle and distraction to a smooth learning experience, and interfere with our mission to make the site one of the best resources on the internet for learning Russian. To maintain a good relationship with Google (i.e., to make sure their crawler keeps visiting the site) we will keep one small Adsense ad on our links page where it is more appropriate. We hope you find the Google links are relevant and interesting. On another note, sorry for the delay in uploading new content .. we have the next 5 lessons planned already but just no time at the moment to do all the background work that goes into getting the sound samples from Russia to Australia and then onto the web. Please understand there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work involved in making everything look and sound nice. Thanks everyone for your feedback and I'll post again soon when the new lessons come online (hopefully around March 21). Da sveedania! Jon.
March 01, 2007
Listen2Russian.com site update:
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