10.04.2008
This Library resource is meant to give a brief overview of some the valuable sites and services the Internet has to help language learners augment their study and to help teachers make the subject come alive with pertinent and helpful materials. Your contributions and suggestions are welcome! Contact the author. 
Color Code: Red links are to sites only in Russian.
Gray links have English available. What is "The Library?" Contact the author 1. Basic Dictionaries report an error back to top Multitran is an online dictionary and a fantastic resource for those hard-to-find translations of abbreviations and technical terms as well a general dictionary. Search online in Russian or English or download the program for free. However, it sometimes strives to be too large, inserting strange and sometimes dated translations. Gramota.ru has an amazing Russian-Russian dictionary that has one feature many online dictionaries don't - the stress vowel is clearly marked in every word! Abbyy Lingvo is the dictionary we use most often at the School of Russian and Asian Studies. It costs about $20, and requires that you order it (for electronic download) off a Russian-language screen, but it is the most accurate and user-friendly dictionary we've ever found. Just highlight any text, press shift, c, c, and Abbyy automatically launches and translates all the highlighted words. Developed by a fast-growing Russian software company that developed one of the world's first electronic dictionaries! Rambler.ru, the popular Russian search engine, also hosts an online dictionary. Slovnyk.org has an online dictionary for Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian. 2. Specialty Dictionaries and Resources report an error back to top Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary is useful for more advanced speakers. Abby Lingvo has a "Dictionary of 'Languages of Russian Cities'" that offers lots of slang in Russian-Russian entries. Idioms.chat.ru offers a massive collection of Russian idioms with pictures and translations. Meat.ru offers an English-Russian dictionary for meat products. Click the animal you need! The National Corpus is a resource that allows users to search for words, morphology, and more. GAAP.ru provides a helpful English-Russian glossary of accounting terms. 3. Online Russian Lessons report an error back to top
Categories in this section are very loosely defined and there is a substantial amount of cross-over. Beginners are likely to find good material in the advanced section and teachers will likely be interested in all sections. These categories have been created only to allow users to find what will likely be the most helpful resources for their purposes the fastest. A. Must Sees report an error back to top Russnet.org offers interactive online lessons available after you create an account with them. Lingnet.org offers lots of free lessons in many languages, with no password necessary. Their Russian resources are mostly based on political and military topics - very relevant and useful. Alpha Dictionary offers an online, interactive reference for Russian grammar with clear explanations of complicated rules. Gramota.ru is a Russian language site aimed at improving the Russian spoken within Russia. Obviously its materials are intended for native speakers, but advanced students will find the games, dictionaries, and information listed here great! Featured: SRAS's Free Language Resources Image of the Month is a free series of interesting, contemporary images from Russia meant to help build vocabulary and cultural understanding. Russian Mini-Lessons focus on slang, jargon, and modern usage. Olga's Blog is a simplified and annotated Russian-language blog for intermediate to advanced students of Russian. The Newsletter includes a mini-lesson in Russian, most often focusing on upper-intermediate vocabulary and language-related cultural issues. In addition, it provides original articles and interviews, news and analysis, scholarships and programs. Contact SRAS to subscribe. |
Interlex offers a free flash-card program. Download it, enter your vocabulary lists, and quiz yourself until you know the words! See as well the vocabulary lists there on various topics - from body parts to Gogol's "The Nose." B. For Teachers & Adv. Students
report an error back to top Auburn University offers simple, free Russian exercises that also offer an easy way to improve Russian typing skills. Conradish.net hosts several twentieth and nineteenth century Russian classics in a unique format that allows you to translate each word by moving the cursor over the word. Molodets! is a free web resource of interactive materials authored by Russian professors. It's designed to give the user new exercises with every visit. Create an account to enter. Russian Language Learning on the Web from the University of Sussex and London School of Economics uses Golden and Silver Age classics with an interactive glossing system and audio. Clear.msu.edu offers more free modules for learning Russian, developed to be stand-alone lessons or supplemental course materials. Create an account to enter. MERLOT offers 67 sets of lessons, many of which are free. Quia offers several lessons, developed and uploaded mostly by teachers and professors. Cornell University offers many online materials. However, some use custom fonts that must be downloaded and installed first. UCLA's page offers several video clips and other useful material. It is organized according to how the material is actually used in UCLA Russian classes, so for independent users the site warrants a full exploration. Downloading can be a bit slow and temperamental. TeachRussian.org offers free lessons from basic to advanced, though most of the site is in Russian (with menus in English). Adv. Russian Through History is an interesting and interactive approach to both subjects and has a series of online exercises that are of use even without the textbook. C. Especially for Beginners report an error back to top Learn English has a series of vocabulary exercises online with Russian translation. It's done for those learning English, but beginning students of Russian will likely find it helpful as well. Language Guide offers lots of fun vocabulary pages with interactive audio. It's particularly useful - especially for visual learners. Russian from Scratch is a fun, free online course for beginners. LanguageLearningLibrary.org has an entry for Russian that offers a very quick overview of the language, with grammar and basic vocabulary. D. Other lists of links and resources report an error back to top Portland Community College offers an eclectic collection of links, organized by level according to the coursework at that college. CCPCR Database of Russian Texts is an extensive list of recommended books for use in Russian college programs. Eleaston offers a range of resources and links for students of many languages. 4. Russian Texts and Literature report an error back to top The People's Library offers a short-list of classic literature. The Annotated Afanas'ev Library presents several Russian texts with glosses for vocabulary, culture, and more. Diafilm was a cultural icon of the Soviet Union - a series of children's books produced as slide shows. This site reproduces some of those slide shows in flash format. Library.ru is the best organized and attractive and provides biographical information on each author. However, it's all Russian, and not quite as extensive as lib.ru. Lib.ru offers a staggering selection of materials on subjects ranging from computers to history to biology to literature. The site is all in Russian and a bit rag-tag in its appearance and organization, but it is the most comprehensive. Russkaya Fantastika is devoted to Russian fantasy and science fiction writers and their work. Blogs are becoming a very popular way to practice language skills because of their modern language usage and often opinionated, interesting subject matter. Find Russian blogs at Yandex and LiveJournal. SRAS also runs an annotated, simplified blog here. Comics from Russia offers comics based on Russian proverbs, fairy tales, and even Armenian history, as well as some popular comics from Russian periodicals. They even have a new service specifically for students of Russian. However, be warned that the site can get a bit racy. Electronic Library of Russian Literature and Folklore is a very good resource for those subjects. Klub Guzei Jokes: some can be a bit off-color, but many are actually funny. Palmpc.ru is a collection of Russian ebooks for the Palm platform. The site is, as of Aug, 2007 being reconstructed. Hopefully it will be running regularly soon. Also see: F. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, and A. Pushkin, these authors for young readers and these children's authors. English language sites providing Russian texts in translation include: www.bibliomania.com, www.online-literature.com, www.ipl.org, and www.gutenburg.net. 5. "Local" News in Russian report an error back to top
There are several newspapers focused on the Russian immigrants who live in English-speaking countries. Intermediate and advanced students will likely find these useful as practice to read local news - stories whose content they are likely already familiar with - in Russian. They also sometimes carry notification of local Russian-language and cultural events (which are likely more plentiful then you think). Also: Print Media
in Russia
Click on the image
of composer Shostakovich with Pravda for info on Russian journalism
and journalism
about Russia |
Novoe Ruskoe Slovo is a general-interest newspaper covering American and international news. Russian America offers online news for nearly every American city with a substantial Russian community - including Boston, LA, Chicago, NY, Cleaveland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Miami. BBCRussian.com presents interesting international news stories in simplified Russian. London-Info.org and RussianUK.com will also be of interest especially to students in England. Nasha Canada is a bilingual newspaper serving Canada. West-East Weekly covers America and Canadian news with a focus on commentary by and issues of interest to Russian immigrants. WebList.ru offers a massive and very unorganized list of Russian papers from around the world. There are also many print-only papers that serve local areas - there are several, for instance, around the Detroit, New York, Washington State, and Chicago areas. Try contacting the Russian Orthodox Church or local university Russian department to see if there is one near you. 5. Online Translators report an error back to top
Note: There are many, many translators out there as a search on Google for "Free Translation Russian" will show - these are just three of our favorites. Online translators can be most useful to understanding texts in a foreign language. Using them to translate publishable material, homework, or to study grammar is highly discouraged! IMTraslator purports to translate whole texts, with grammar constructions. While the technology is impressive and useful, we suggest you use it only as a tool - and not an actual translator! Computers still can't speak human, and likely won't be able to for sometime. Promt offers another translation service as well as some good tools for webmasters. Babelfish is another phrase translator. Useful, with same warnings as listed for IMTranslator. Also: Russian Music
Click Yulia Savicheva
(currently on Russia's pop charts) for more about Russian bands
and music. |
6. More Audio/Video report an error back to top
Many sites require Realplayer which is available for free download. RAILS is series of 30 Russian-language listening exercises developed in part by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Themes range from film to history to education in Russia. Russian Language Podcasts is a weekly service from UCLA bringing modern popular Russian music to your iPod (or computer). Inforvideo.ru is a new Russian webside featuring dozens of short instructional videos. Each is about 2-4 minutes long and features Russians performing practical actions (like cooking) and explaining, slowly and clearly, each step of the process. RadioVBC is a pop station that offers streaming broadcasts from Vladivostok, Russia. Avtorskoe Televidenie provides a large database of short video clips on a range of topics. You will also find resources like games and a Russian-language forum. Words and Images is for Russian beginners. It provides images, cultural information, and recorded sound for basic vocabulary. Cultu.ru broadcasts plays from Moscow theatres each Wednesday, often with English subtitles. Samsung Russia sponsors a legal MP3 website with relatively cheap downloads for Russian music. If you have a Samsung player, you get 250 MB free! Funding for
Study Abroad
Afraid that money will be an issue for your study abroad plans? You'll be surprised at the myriad of scholarships, work study, and other help that's out there! |
Новости недели на упрощённом русском языке delivers a survey of the previous week's news in simplified, slower Russian with textual redundancy. Russian Podcasting offers a list of Russian podcasts. Radio Kul'tura is essentially Russia's NPR with music, news, and other programming. The link opens directly to their live program stream. Voice of Russia Radio provides music, news, and literature from Russia in sound (broadband) and print. To listen, click on "live," then the speaker icon next to the program under "on the air." World Radio Network has several Russian-language channels online. We recommend "Talk and News" for Russian language practice. Echo Moskvy is one of Russia's most famous and respected talk-radio stations. RussianPoetry.net provides a considerable collection of recorded Russian poems and old songs from Lermontov to Pasternak! Golosa is a leading textbook - their website also provides lots of free material with listening exercises that can be used independently of the book. Anna.Ahmatova.Com offers poetry in print and recording from the poet herself. Spoonful of Russian is a podcast-blog run by a Russian immigrant to the US and two young American girls. TV For All provides a handful of online television stations, mostly education and news oriented. Not all are always available. Grani-TV offers interviews with prominent Russian intellectuals on various modern topics. Webtelek.com has several free stations as we as an affordable subscription service for high-quality, streaming online video. RussianTVonline.com offers several "preview videos" as well as an affordable subscription service. RussianInternet.com also offers several online television stations, including many that Russians themselves watch. Not all channels are always available. 7. Purchase Russian Books, DVDs, Audio, and TV report an error back to top
For Russian DVDs, we recommend playing them on your laptop with a free VLC Media Player. Moscow Flix offers Russian-language film rentals by mail. Russian DVD is a great media outlet that markets Russian media in America. The Russian Cinema Council runs an English-language website from which you can buy a wide selection of Russian and European DVDs and videos. MosVideoFilm also offers Russian DVDs, books, CDs, and other multimedia. Shop.russia-on-line offers lots of multimedia selections from books to maps to audio/video. Etv offers Russian-language programing from Russia's major television stations in an on-demand, subscription format. Glas publishes today's Russian writers in critically acclaimed English translations. They have distribution in America and Europe. Russian Punctuation & Related Symbols is a recommended book on the subject from Amazon. 8. Real, Interactive Experiences Near You! report an error back to top RosConcert.com lists Russian cultural events taking place in the US and even offers online ticket purchase. Only downside is that the site is a strange mix of English and Russian... Russian Meetup is a free service connecting speakers and students of Russian in local communities. The groups have grown to more than a few hundred in some cities. Meet More Russians! If you live near a major metropolitan area, finding Russians to talk to shouldn't be a problem as there are many forums for Russian immigrants. Try for instance: RussianAmerica.com, RussianNY.com, RussianNJ.com, RussianDC.com, RussianChicago.com, Russian-LosAngeles, Sandiagovka.com, RussianSeattle.com, or Privet.com. Mylanguageexchange.com offers free services in pairing members for language exchanges in a moderated electronic environment. Special services for teachers to use the site for students. (RELATED ARTICLE) Russian Tutoring Via Skype is a pay service out of Dnepetrovsk, Ukraine.
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