Tik Tok By: @afedoor

“There are certain things in the movie that are very Russian that is difficult for an American audience to pick up on. Like when [Kirk and Sulu] freefall and I capture them and I say something in Russian….[says Russian phrase]…it means “Oh man!” basically, which is something I ad-libbed. Which goes back to what I was saying. Chekov never speaks Russian in the series, and that was Russian slang. And that that is something I decided to add just for the hell of it, because JJ [Abrams] said ‘throw in some Russian, let’s do it for fun.’ It was just a moment that needed some kind of reaction, and they loved it out there. It is one of those things that Russian people get. I think Russian people are very happy with Chekov because he is one of the few Russian characters in American pop culture history that is not the Red Dawn kind of Russians.” — Anton Yelchin

Hey, I thought I would compile a selection of different resources dedicated to learning the Russian language. Feel free to reblog and add your own

Information about the language

Russian Language on Wikipedia

Russian Language on BBC

Russian Language on Encyclopaedia Britannica 

Russian Language on Real Russia

Books

I have a masterlist of different Russian language textbooks for all levels, as well as general Russian literature and Russian magazines for reading practice. It contains over 60,000 books and over 4,000 magazines

Children’s Books in Russian

Project Gutenberg Free Russian Books

Courses - Note that not all of these courses are free. 

Lingvist (comes with a 2-week free trial, and by far my favourite course)

Duolingo  (Joining with this link automatically adds me as a friend)

Busuu 

I Kinda Like Languages Russian Course

Learn Russian with RT (The audio files no longer work but there’s a lot of great resources that work)

Live Lingua Russian Tutors (Not a course as such, but a way to get a Tutor. You can get a free hour lesson)

Russian for Everyone

Russian for Free 

RussianLessons

Russian Made Easy

Way To Russia 

Russky

Lingodeer

Между нами

MasterRussian

Я говорю по-русски/ I speak Russian

Русский как иностранный: B1+. Russian as a foreign language: B1+

Русский как иностранный: B1+. Часть 2. Russian as a foreign language. B1+. Part 2.

Русский как иностранный B2-1 / Russian As a Foreign Language B2-1

Русский язык как иностранный B2-2 / Russian as a Foreign Language B2-2

A1 Elementary Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

A2 Basic Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

B1 I Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

B2 II Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

C1 III Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

C2 IV Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

Beginner Russian Course / Курс России языка для начинающих

Intermediate Russian Course / Курс России языка среднего уровня

Russian Grammar Course / Курс грамматики России языка

Russian Course for Travelers / Курс России языка для путешественников

From Zero to Fluency Youtube Course

Start Speaking Russian Youtube Course

Russian Reading Youtube Course

Learn Russian Alphabet

Russian (Kazakhstan) Peace Corps Course

FSI Russian Course

Learn Russian

Yes Russian

Polymath

Learnalanguage

Ready Russian

Simplang

Russian Learning Reddit

Learn With Oliver

Memrise is a great resource as it has Memrise courses and user-created courses. These are the official Russian courses if you go through them one by one they amount to approximately 54 hours of content. The thing I like about Memrise is they test you on your pronunciation, and they have lots of videos by Russian native speakers. So it really tests you in all your skills.

Russian 1 by Memrise

Russian 2 by Memrise

Russian 3 by Memrise

Russian 4 by Memrise

Russian 5 by Memrise

Russian 6 by Memrise

Russian 7 by Memrise

These are some unofficial Russian Memrise courses you might like too. Although they tend to not have audio and they don’t have pronunciation tests or native speaker videos, they can still be a good resource.

Learn Basic Russian 

Top 10,000 words part one 

Top 10,000 words part two

Russian Grammar through Exercises

Assimil Russian

New Penguin Russian Course Vocabulary 

Vocabulary resources

Anki

Word Reference

Ba Ba Dum

L-Lingo

Russian Swadesh list

English terms derived from Russian

Wikipedia Russian Topics (Click on different topics then click on different words for their English translation and meaning)

Russian Idioms

Russian Proverbs

Russian Similies

20,000-word Frequency dictionary of the modern Russian language (the Russian National Corpus)

Russian spelling alphabet

Russian Frequency lists/1-1000

Russian Frequency lists/1001-2000

Russian Frequency lists/2001-3000

Russian Frequency lists/3001-4000

Russian Frequency lists/4001-5000

Russian Adjectives - Frequency List

Russian Nouns - Frequency List

Russian Verbs - Frequency List

Russian palindromes

Russian Pronouns

Alpha Dictionary

Dubbed Russian Songs (Russian songs with Russian lyrics alongside transliteration and English translation. They also accept requests)

Clozemaster (I’d say this is more for intermediate-advanced, but beginners might make use of this as well)

Vikida Children’s Encyclopedia (Entirely in Russian)

Russian for Children by Pushkin Institute (Entirely in Russian) This actually contains resources for 5+ to 18+ so it covers a broad range of levels

Slow Russian Podcast

Slow Russian Youtube

Beginning Russian through Film

Amazing Russian Youtube

Bab.La English - Russian Dictionary

Grammar

Grammar Exercises Youtube Playlist

MasterRussian

Online Interactive Grammar 

Learn Russian Grammar Tables

Russian Grammar Youtube

Russificate

Conjugation Tool

Russian Grammar

Russian News Sites

Russia Today (In Russian) / Russia Today (in English) (They also have a whole database of documentaries/shows/films that are in English or Russian. Just click on a show here and it’ll give you the option to watch in English or Russian) 

The Moscow Times (In Russian) / The Moscow Times (In English) (They have free English PDFs of past print publications too)

Tass Russian News Agency (In Russian) / Tass Russian News Agency (In English)

Moskovskij Komsomolets (Московский комсомолец) (only available in Russian)

Komsomolskaya Pravda (Комсомо́льская пра́вда) (only available in Russian)

Izvestia (ɪzˈvʲestʲɪjə) (Only available in Russian)

Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Российская газета) (Only available in Russian)

Kommersant (Коммерса́нтъ) (Only available in Russian)(There is also a UK news website entirely in Russian)

Trud (Tpyд) (Only available in Russian)

Moskovskiye Novosti (Московские новости) (Only available in Russian)

Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Независимая газета) (Only available in Russian)

Novye Izvestia (Новые Известия) (Only available in Russian)

Vedomosti (Ведомости) (Only available in Russian)

Pravda Правда (Only available in Russian)

Delovoy Peterburg Деловой Петербург (Only available in Russian)

RBC daily (Only available in Russian)

Sport Express (Спорт-Экспресс) (Only available in Russian)

Sovetsky Sport (Советский спорт) (Only available in Russian)

Russia Beyond The Headlines (In Russian) / Russia Beyond The Headlines (In English)

Krasnaya Zvezda (Кра́сная звезда́) (Only available in Russian)

Moskovskaya Pravda (Московская правда) (Only available in Russian)

Argumenty i Fakty (Аргументы и факты) (Only available in Russian)

Sovetsky Sakhalin (Советский Сахалин) (Only available in Russian)

Tyumenskaya Oblast Segodnya (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Murmansk (Вечерний Мурманск) (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Novosibirsk (Вечерний Новосибирск) (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Stavropol (Вечерний Ставрополь) (Only available in Russian)

Novaya Gazeta (Новая газета) (Only available in Russian)

Novgorod (Новгород) (Only available in Russian)

Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti (Санкт-Петербургские ведомости) (Only available in Russian)

Literaturnaya Gazeta (Литературная газета) (Only available in Russian)

Parlamentskaia Gazeta (Парламентская газета) (Оnly available in Russian)

Meduza (In Russian) / Meduza (In English)

Please note that sites listed do not equal an endorsement. I don’t know the political background or views of each of these publications. I’m merely compiling a variety I saw through various Russian news lists and search engine results. Content warnings may apply and not all content may be suitable for minors

Listening practice (Note, I may make another masterlist compiling various Russian podcasts and Youtube channels so I’m leaving them out of this section)

LibriVox

Listeningpractice.org

Slavic Languages and Cultures Department, University of Groningen Listen to the Slavic languages

Audio Lingua

Learn Russian with Peppa Pig

Forvo

StarMediaEN (Russian shows, documentaries etc with English subtitles)

Russian Films With English Subtitles Youtube Playlist

Alosha (Алёша Попович и Тугарин Змей) Children’s Film

Dobrynya and the Dragon (Добрыня Никитич и Змей Горыныч) Children’s Film

Ilya Muromets and Sparrow the Robber (Илья Муромец и Соловей Разбойник) Children’s film

How Not to Rescue a Princess (Три Богатыря и Шамаханская Царица) Children’s Film

Russian Animation (Mixture of dubbed content and subtitled content)

Киноконцерн “Мосфильм” (Moscow Film, only some of these are subtitled)

фильмы о Холмсе и Ватсоне (Movies about Sherlock Holmes with Russian audio and English subtitles)

Okay, so this list has gotten long enough lol. If you have any resources you feel should be added feel free to reblog and add them or message me and I’ll edit it in. If you have any requests for resource compilations that you want me to do (e.g. compiling Russian podcasts, general Russian websites, Russian YouTubers etc) please let me know. 

The magic of the language...

"Crocodile Gena" (1969) and "Cheburashka" (1971) are puppet cartoons, based on the book of Eduard Uspensky. Crocodile Gena works in a zoo as a crocodile. He is very lonely. Gena finally decides to make friends. Animals and people react to his announcement. Soon, Cheburashka comes to his place, and together they begin to do good things.

«Крокоди́л Ге́на»» (1969) и «Чебурáшка» (1971) - ку́кольные мультфи́льмы, сня́тые по моти́вам кни́ги Эдуа́рда Успе́нского. Крокоди́л Ге́на рабо́тает в зоопа́рке — крокоди́лом. Он о́чень одино́к. Наконе́ц Ге́на реша́ет завести́ себе́ друзе́й. На его объявле́ния отклика́ются зве́ри и люди. Вско́ре к нему́ прихо́дит Чебурáшка, и они́ вме́сте начина́ют де́лать до́брые дела.

Among his multiple talents, Gena plays accordion and sings. On a rainy day, which happens to be his birthday, he sings the following song:

Песня Крокодила Гены

Пусть бегут неуклюже,

Пешеходы по лужам,

А вода по асфальту рекой.

И неясно прохожим,

В этот день непогожий,

Почему я весёлый такой.

Я играю на гармошке,

У прохожих на виду,

К сожалению, день рожденья,

Только раз в году.

Прилетит вдруг волшебник,

В голубом вертолёте,

И бесплатно покажет кино,

С днём рожденья поздравит,

И, наверно, оставит,

Мне в подарок пятьсот эскимо.

Я играю на гармошке,

У прохожих на виду,

К сожалению, день рожденья,

Только раз в году.

Gena the Crocodile's Song

Never mind that the clumsy pedestrians

are jumping over rain puddles.

And that the water is streaming down the street.

And never mind that the passers-by can't make sense of

Why is it that I'm so happy on such a dreary day.

Yet I'm playing my accordion

In front of everyone on the street.

It's so sad that a birthday

Can only happen once a year.

A wizard will suddenly appear

In a blue whirlybird,

And will show me free movies.

He'll say Happy Birthday

And just before he flies away

He'll probably leave 500 ice cream cones for me.

Yet I'm playing my accordion

In front of everyone on the street.

It's so sad that a birthday

Can only happen once a year

(https://youtu.be/lUBNtYixTSs)

Russians use some phrases from this cartoon in speech:

Некоторые фразы из этого мультфильма русские используют в речи：

Мы строили, строили и наконец построили. Ура! (We built, built and finally finished. Hooray!)

Чебурашка, ты настоящий друг.(Cheburashka, you are true friend)

Опять чебурахнулся*. Ух ты, Чебурашка какой. (*ЧЕБУРÁХНУТЬСЯ - Упасть с шумом /this verb means to fall with a big noise. The name Чебурашка is derived from the verb чебурахнуться)

"In my language, we don't say 'I love you'. We just tag each other in memes and I think that's beautiful."

I’m honestly so glad that you love the Improvisation posts. I’m even more glad I have a lot of content to translate for you :) Hope you enjoy this bit!

*Alexander Nezlobin is a famous Russian comedian. **Sasha is short for Alexander. Don’t ask, I don’t get it either. There are a lot of instances where the short version of a Russian name sounds completely different from the name itself.

I’m sorry, but THIS. This is what great translation is. Simple, yet genius. Shield — щит (pronounced as ‘sheet’; masc., sing.) So yeah, in the Russian version of Free Guy, Chris Evans said both ‘what the shield’ and ‘what the shit’. The translators could have just put ‘Что за чёрт?’ in there (which is a standard way of translating ‘What the hell/shit/etc?’ in Russian), but they used this beautiful combination of circumstances to their advantage. As someone who’s majoring in translation, I just can’t get over how good this bit is. This joke got a lot of laughs in the movie theater I went to.

Slang Word of the Day: рукожоп

Рукожоп - literally, "ass-hand", "arms attached to the ass", somebody who can not do anything well, who makes everything very poorly, cannot fix anything, breaks everything, all-thumbs;

Какой рукожоп банку это приложение написал? What an idiot/all-thumbs made this app for my bank?

Is there a word for this in your mother-tongue?

You have no clue how happy I am to be able to translate Improvisation for you guys again! Here's another great episode.

Just a fun fact #2

In old Russian times, people used to say "спаси тебя бог" (spasi teb'a bokh), which literally means "God save you". But then, someone took the first and the last word from that sentence and put them together. This is how "спасибо" (spasibo) was created back in 17th century, and Russians use it as "thank you" nowadays.