Easy Russian for English Speakers Vol. 2: Speak Russian Like a Russian; Fly on a Russian Spaceship; Talk about planet Earth and listen to Yuri Gagarin, William Shakespeare and Anton Chekhov in Russian

ISBN  9780956116581

Second volume in the popular Easy Russian series offering Russian language learning in easy to absorb audio format, designed specifically for English speakers. Second volume features phonetics, elements of Russian grammar, rich cultural content and native Russian speakers. It can be used as a stand-alone course or in combination with other training materials.

Easy Russian 2 uncovers how Russians learn Russian language in Russia.  It includes basic and advanced coverage of Russian phonetics, how Russian consonants and vowels behave in different situations.  You will learn many useful action verbs such as TO BE, TO DO, TO GO, TO LISTEN, TO HEAR, TO SEE and an array of associated words and combinations. You will discover many similarities and differences between Russian and English which will make your learning much easier. After all, Russian is part of the same language family as English, so you might as well take advantage of this. You will be able to hear and more importantly understand live speech of Yuri Gagarin. You will listen to Chekhov story in the original and discover what Shakespeare sounds like in Russian. Each track represents self contained module with tuition, vocabulary, phraseology and Russian language content read by native speakers. Knowledge of other modules from Easy Russian 1 can be useful but is not a pre-requisite. Read more >

Track List

01 Introduction

02 Understanding Russian Names

Russian naming system; Use of formal and informal names;  Birthdays in Russia; Celebrating 2 birthdays; Unusual Names; Fun Names; Russian flying dragon – Zmej Gorynych; Download PDF >

03 Learning Russian Like a Native

Phonetics: One letter one sound rule; Length of Russian vowels;  Stress in Russian words;

How Russians learn Russian: Identifying roots of words in Russian;  Extensive use of prefixes in Russian;

TO DO and associated vocabulary clusters: to complete; to create; what are you doing; what have you done; to attach something; to go through a task; doing a job properly; to finish something; to complete work; Download PDF >

04 To Be Or Not To Be in Russian

TO BE and associated vocabulary clusters: not to be: I will; I was; to forget; to arrive; to extract;

TO LIVE and associated vocabulary clusters: life; to stay at someone’s place; to heal; to survive; to worry; the good life; live long and prosper; living standard; living organism;

Practice Listening Skills: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Russian. Download PDF >

05 Speak Russian Like a Russian

Phonetics: Aspiration in English; Voicing / De-voicing consonants in Russian;

How Russians learn Russian: pairs of Russian consonants; Download PDF >

06 Talking About Our Planet Earth in Russian

Planet Earth; soil; land; to land; landing; human; man; woman; satellite; life partner; how to find a life partner; ideal life partner; spaceship; boarding Soyuz spaceship; countdown; ignition; take-off;

TO GO and associated vocabulary clusters: to move over or run over; to move to a new place; to move around or go around; to stop by or pop in; to set off or begin a journey; to arrive to your destination; to move inside; to slide off something; let’s go;

Practice Listening Skills:  1) Yuri Gagarin about planet Earth in Russian; 2) Yuri Gagarin about his landing experience in Russian; Download PDF >

07 Reading Chekhov in Original

Phonetics: Reduction of vowels;

TO LOOK / TO SEE and associated word clusters: I am watching a film; to look at something; to consider; to look closely; to look through; to examine; I see; I don’t see; to spot something;

TO LISTEN / TO HEAR and associated word clusters: I am listening to the music; to hear something; to overhear something; to listen through something; to let someone finish talking; to listen very attentively; to pay attention;

Practice Listening Skills:  Anton Chekhov, The Man in A Case Read in Russian Download PDF >

08 Gagarin About Planet Earth

Yuri Gagarin About his flight into space and fist impressions of planet Earth.  Read in Russian. Visual Aids and Transcripts Download PDF >

09 Gagarin About Landing

Yuri Gagarin talking about his landing experience in 1961.  Russian language. Visual Aids and Transcripts Download PDF >

10 Shakespeare in Russian

William Shakespeare, From Hamlet’s monologue read in Russian. Download PDF >

11 Chekhov in Russian

Anton Chekhov. From The Man in A Case story.  Read in Russian. Download PDF >

About The Author

Max Bollinger is a Russian born British actor, producer and writer with credits including BBC’s Doctor Who, ITV’s Ghostboat TV film, Pan MacMillan’s Easy English for Busy People audio training, Short Stories by Anton Chekhov audio series, Mumu by Ivan Turgenev audio book.

Prior to establishing career in performing arts held management posts at The Cambridge University Local Examination Syndicate (now Cambridge Assessment), various management and consulting posts in British Telecommunications Plc (BT), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Max Bollinger about Easy Russian for English Speakers:

“When I learned English, I discovered that my teacher wasn’t only teaching us the language itself.  He would bring English literature, music, talk about English culture and this made a huge difference for all his students.  I would very much like to do the same with Easy Russian. In the first volume I included fragments of Pushkin poetry, important cultural concepts such as the Russian Soul and some basic informal and business etiquette.  The second volume includes live speech of Yuri Gagarin, Chekhov story in the original and even Shakespeare in Russian”

Reviews

This is a really helpful series starting with the alphabet and 'hello' (vol.1) and graduating to brief extracts from Chekhov and others (vol.2).  The 28 units are excellent not just for learning the subtleties of pronunciation, but for understanding how the Russian language and Russian minds work.  Rachel Redford (UK) more from Rachel Redford >

These audio lessons jumped right into learning the language and moved briskly. I also enjoyed the structure of the lessons and their thematic organization. Unlike other audio language learning tapes the tracks were engaging - my attention was kept and I felt like I was actually absorbing Russian. Overall, this audio training is excellent for those who need to learn Russian fast, or may only need to learn enough for a specific situation.

Kara Schimmelfing (USA)

Super. Often one is demotivated by legions of grammar to wade through before you get to saying 'hello', in some language guides. On the other hand this audio guide is going straight for useful phrases to get you by; to increase your motivation and to give you a taste of the language itself.

Stephen Dunne (Australia)

Great CD. Easy to pick up on Russian words pronunciation and also a little bit about Russian culture and the background behind certain phrases. Really interesting and informative.

Sara Georgieff (Canada)

Max Bollinger, a native Russian speaker has composed an excellent guide to learning basic Russian for your next trip. Everything from greetings to dating a Russian beauty. Like other language software it works by repeating the words then using them. However unlike other language programs that slow down the words so you can hear each syllable, Easy Russian for English Speakers keeps everything “live”. As an audio book you are able to transfer the tracks to a media player and learn on the go.

Jodie Clements (Canada)

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