Some approaches to learning a language, such as the communicative method, encourage teachers and students to only use the target language in the classroom. What do you do if you don’t understand what was just said or lack the vocabulary to ask the other person…

Have you ever struggled to pronounce these odd-looking one-letter prepositions in Russian? Especially if that letter was a consonant? The trick is to stop enunciating them and to attach them to the word that follows. Let’s break it down case by case.

«Именительный падеж» [nominative case] is a good case to use in the names of shops, cafes, movie theaters and restaurants, like this one on the picture above: «Ресторан Русь Великая» [Restaurant The Great Rus’]. Even though it is obvious to anyone who reads…

The graffiti on a wall above: «Я без тебя умру» [I will die without you] shows that after the preposition «без» [without] the noun is always in the genitive case because of the rule we’re going talk about today – genitive in sentences with negation!  Today…

I think - Я думаю 2. I believe - Мне кажется 3. I consider - Я считаю 4. From my point of view - С моей точки зрения 5. In my opinion - Лично я полагаю 6. From what I can tell - Насколько я могу судить 7. In my opinion - По моему мнению 8. Way I see it -…

And where might one find this bold statement made out of red metal on redwood pictured above? I found it in an old and forgotten «дом культуры» [‘house of culture’] in Krasnoyarsk in July 2005. What does it say, anyway? «Мир народам, власть советам» [“Peace…

🇷🇺 You can take trains from Moscow to all kinds of romantic sounding places; St Petersburg, Vladivostok, Beijing...Well I didn't do that, instead I chose to go to Saransk the capitol of the backwater republic of Mordovia. Yeah I have no idea why I did it…

I live 5 houses down from «начальная школа» [an elementary school]. It’s a pretty useless piece of trivia, except that every year since we moved into our house, I have had an acute case of «ностальгия» [nostalgia] at about this time of year. «Моя ностальгия…

You might not believe me but I am testament to the fact that if you want to learn Russian, throw away the grammar books and you'll make massive progress very quickly. Grammar holds you back in the beginning of your language journey so hold off until you are…