Sharing my Russian journey


A little page to tell you about my journey into learning Russian with resources if you also want to learn Russian.
I had a strange idea to keep me busy last year: learning Russian. I have always loved Russian, its culture, writing... I think it's wonderful the way words are pronounced. It is one of the most beautiful languages in the world!!
So I started Russian! It's simpler than you'd think, but very complex in some ways.

i. Alphabet and sounds


I started with learning the alphabet of course, to learn how to read and write.
As a French person, the alphabet is very confusing to learn, because many letters are similar. But I quickly got it. The trap is to write Russian with latin letters that do not exist in Russian!

If your native language is a latin language: if you learn the alphabet, learn the sounds at the same time! Otherwise you will not retain the Russian sounds and will stick to the sounds of your native language.

 Russian For Everyone
Nice alphabet lesson with sounds and handwriting

 The Russian Alphabet
From a native with many details

 Russian's ABC
With pronunciations and exemples

ii. Reading, writing


Then to learn how to read, I went around and read some children's books online, I read some articles in Russian... Even without understanding anything, it is important to know how to read Russian fluently before learning it otherwise you will lose a lot of time.
Now we have to write russian! I took a notebook that I dedicated to Russian. It is very important to organize your lessons! It helped me a lot.
I wrote some poems, some songs... When you know some words, try to make sentences with them.

 Red riding hood
Read a nice familiar story in russian

 Russian For Everyone
About reading syllables

 Vowel reduction
About the vowel reduction in russian

 Neat handwriting
Learn how to write russian

 Start reading russian words
With illustrations

iii. Vocabulary : listening, watching


For vocabulary, I learned a lot of songs and some word lists from the Internet. (You can sing them too, to improve your pronunciation!)
I also watched a lot of cartoons. There are recurring sentences that are easy to learn and spot!

 Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena
A very nice russian cartoon!!! I really love it

 Gena's Birthday Song
Song (from cartoon)

 Blue Railway
Song (from cartoon)

 Prostokvashino
Nice cartoon

 Zvezda
Song (slow, easy to learn)

 Outside and inside
Song (rock)

 Eternal youth
Song

 I am free
Song (rock)

 To you
Song

Now that you know how to read, write and have some vocabulary, you should try to speak Russian with someone. I personally found some nice Russian people on the video games. As you talk, many sentences and many words will come to your mind that you don't know. It is important to look up the translation to everything that comes to your mind and memorize it.

Now we have to keep going. Review the alphabet, read the sounds, pronounce the sounds, read things, recite them out loud, write, memorize, sing, listen, watch cartoons for children for example and above all SPEAK. The more Russian your environment is the more you will learn it. For example, use your usual softwares in Russian, join Russian video game servers...

That's it! I hope that this page has inspired you!
Currently, I still have an average level of Russian. I'll improve! I will update my level here!