This site was created for beginners who want to Learn Russian!

It operates according to the following learning principles:

• Read
  
• Listen
  
• Understand
  
• Remember

However, if you have time, please read the information below about how to use the Russian Lessons.

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Learning Russian from textbooks provides a good foundation, but you may be surprised how little you can understand when someone speaks to you in normal-paced, native Russian. The way Russians speak on the street is significantly different to the ideal pronunciation presented in language books. The aim of this website is to help visitors to the Russian Federation understand Russian as it is naturally spoken.

AND BEST OF ALL IT'S FREE!!

The basic lessons are designed with the beginner in mind, especially those who are planning to travel to countries where Russian is spoken. We have tried to make learning as easy as possible via original sound recordings combined with the Russian text, English translations and phonetic transcriptions (guides to pronunciation). The focus is on building vocabulary, and, unlike other websites and textbooks, grammar is introduced very slowly.

We also offer a very inexpensive Russian language course for those who wish to take their learning to the next level. Learn Russian Step-by-step is a self-paced, online course designed for the home-study student, and features a multi-media textbook and 1000s of high quality audio recordings throughout the lessons.

Listening to Audio on Listen2Russian.com

To listen to the audio and see the navigation buttons on this website you need to have Flash Player Version 9 or above installed in your browser. However, we recommend all users upgrade to the latest version of Flash as there are several security issues with older versions.

Do you see a graphic just below this paragraph that says "Flash Player Detection"? If so, then note the version number of the Flash Player detected. If the version number is 9 or above then you will be able to listen to the audio on this website. If you do not see this graphic or receive an error then you will need to download and install the latest version of Flash Player available from Adobe. If you just see a big blank space below and are browsing with Internet Explorer then you may need to download the complete Flash re-installer here.

Format of the Lessons

Within each lesson, words and phrases are presented in the following format:

1. The English word or phrase.

For example: 'Did you know Maria Sharapova lives in Florida?'.

Where the literal, word-for-word meaning differs from the interpretation, the literal meaning is written in white, and the interpretation in green.

2. The Russian form of the word / phrase written in Russian script (Cyrillic).

For example, 'Вы знали, что Мария Шарапова живёт во Флориде?'.
The Russian script between the ' ... ' above should look like this

If the text doesn't match then you will need to adjust your browser settings to display Cyrillic. In Internet Explorer, go to the menu View / Encoding / and try 'Unicode (UTF-8)' or the different Cyrillic options.

3. The phonetic pronunciation of the Russian translation, with emphasis marked in CAPITALS or bold.

For example, 'vwei zna-li, shto ma-ree-ya sha-rah-pa-va zhi-vyot va fla-ree-dyeh'

4. Two sound recordings of the Russian translation spoken by a native Russian speaker. The first recording is spoken at normal speed, while the second recording is spoken at slow speed.

Press the buttons below to test your audio. Remember to turn-up the volume!

You knew, that Maria Sharapova lives in Florida? (Did you know Maria Sharapova lives in Florida?)

Вы знали, что Мария Шарапова живёт во Флориде?

vwei zna-li, shto ma-ree-ya sha-rah-pa-va zhi-vyot va fla-ree-dyeh

Let's Begin!

To begin, click the Let's Begin link below to start the Russian lessons:

We hope you enjoy learning Russian on Listen2Russian.com!

If you have any feedback or want to contribute to the website then please contact us.

Browser Specific Issues

Firefox: We recommend browsing Listen2Russian.com with Firefox 10. Please note that previous versions of Firefox (below Version 3) do not display Flash media correctly, and are therefore not compatible with our Russian lessons.

Internet Explorer: There appears to be an issue with Internet Explorer, Flash, and the little Moscow clock you see in the bottom-right corner. Clicking the Flash navigation buttons throughout this site do not update the clock to the correct time. As you browse through the site, click one of the white, text links in the top-right corner of any page to update the clock (or press the browser 'page refresh' button). If you are browsing with IE Version 6 or below, we strongly recommend you update to at least Version 7, and preferably Version 8

Opera: Opera used to have a problem playing multiple Flash audio buttons on a single page. We have reports that this issue hasn't been completely fixed yet, so we recommended you use one of the other browsers to view this website.