The keyword mnemonics technique uses keywords and mental images to associate verbal material. For example, let’s say you want to memorize the French feminine noun affiche that means poster in English. For this, you could imagine a feminine looking fish attaching a poster to the wall. This technique has become increasingly popular lately. It is [...]
Visualisation is the process of creating mental images with a certain purpose. Top performers know very well the importance of picturing themselves succeeding in their minds before they do in reality. Michael Jordan always used to take a last shot in his mind before he took one in real life. Muhammad Ali always visualised knocking out [...]
Imagine you walk home after work. You probably spend this time thinking about your busy schedule, tomorrow’s meeting, the bills you have to pay etc. Instead of doing that, why don't you start a conversation with yourself loudly in Russian? Maybe you want to practise the days of the week, the verbs you learned yesterday, or talk [...]
I remember when I first came across the word ‘следовательно’: therefore. No matter how many times I tried to memorise it, I kept forgetting it! I realised I had to find a different way to get it into my head. 'It's a long word', I thought. 'Let's try to break it down to see what happens...' But, [...]
I was grateful to give a talk on how to learn Russian with effective techniques at Oxford University Russian Society a few weeks ago. Click here to watch on YouTube. Hope you enjoy it!
There is no language learning without actual communication with a native speaker. This is the ultimate goal of your learning: to be able to speak the language. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to wait until you speak perfectly. Start practising from day one! Italki is an online language learning service where you can find [...]
In Russian, nouns are assigned a gender; they can be masculine, feminine or neutral. It is very important to know the gender of the noun as it determines how the cases of the noun are formed. The rules are the following: Words like ‘father’, ‘mother’, ‘uncle’ etc. relate to physical gender. Hence, ‘father’ (папа) and ‘uncle’ [...]
Ready to learn Russian through Russian films? I learned Russian on my own watching Russian films. Learning through films is a powerful method as it involves images, sounds, and emotions. The visual content is engaging and helps comprehension. The audio content will help you develop a general sense of the language sounds and improve your [...]
The single most important element that someone needs to learn good Russian, or any language, is love. Do you get filled with joy when you listen to Russian? Do you want to listen to more Russian even if you don't understand a single word? Do you admire someone that speaks Russian? Do you listen to [...]
