Nadezda Bragina

У Р А!
Р У Н
О С Г
К С Л
И К О
О Г
Г О
О В
О
Р
Я
Russian for
Щ
Speakers И
of English М
 is a short-term (30 academic
hours) course of Russian as a foreign language aimed at English-speaking students
learning the language from scratch in order to travel to Russia.
The course is based on the communicative approach to language teaching with
wide use of computer technologies, educational games and songs. The teaching
materials produced in a form of a manual, a student book and a CD are enriched with
interesting comparisons of Russian and British culture, customs and mentality. All
language material is thematically structured and covers the situations, vocabulary and
grammar required to enable the students to make basic conversations on everyday
topics.
Every unit begins with a text on Russian everyday culture to help the students
hese texts is
to prevent or to reduce cultural shock when the students find themselves in the new
country. The educational process goes from separate lexical items and grammar points
to their use in thematically-determined dialogues. New material is introduced with
multiple examples and pictures to ease the understanding, then it is drilled in simple
exercises. When the students feel comfortable with the material they can move to
dialogues which contain main lexical and grammar patterns of the unit. There is a list
of new words at the end of every unit and a cumulative Russian-English vocabulary at
the back of the book. Also at the end of the book there is a grammar summary which
presents all grammatical forms dealt with in the course. The recordings will not only
help the students with pronunciation but also develop oral and aural skills. The
symbol indicates which material is on the recordings.
This course has been successfully taught in Belfast Metropolitan College since
2009 and in Dundee Russian School since 2012.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Dr
Ludmila Kriuchkova for her eternal stream of interesting ideas; to John Langran and
Cheryl Johnston for proofreading the text of the book; to Dr Irina Koukoushkina for
being the first person who introduced me to the educational games and creative ways
of language teaching; to Dr Alexander Galkin for recording the dialogues and the
songs of the course with me; to my colleagues and friends who expressed their honest
opinion on the course; to my family for their love and support, and to the students of
Belfast Metropolitan College who were the first to study the language with the course
.
Dr Nadezda Bragina
May 2012

3
 ? Who is it?
About the Russian ?What is it?
1.Introduction
Language (ex.I,II) ... This is/these are... (ex. VII)
(ex.V)
Basic phrases and -
questions to introduce (ex.VII,VIII)
2.Getting to know each Social etiquette rules
yourself and get to know -Poem (ex.X)
other (ex.I, II)
someone -
(ex.IV, XIII, XIV, XVIII)

How to describe a
Housing in Russia house/a flat (ex.V,VII), a
3.My home
(ex.I,II) room (ex.VIII,X,XVI, (ex.XVIII)
XVII)
-How to speak about the
A day in the life of a things you usually do
4.My day Russian person (ex.XIV,XVI)
(ex.XI)
(ex.I,II) -How to tell the time
(ex.XIII)

How to ask for and give

5.In the town Moscow (ex.I,II) (ex.VI,VII)
directions(ex.X,XI)

-
How to order meals and
Russian cuisine and (ex.X)
6.In the restaurant drinks in a restaurant
feasting (ex.I,II) -
(ex.XII, XIII,XIV)
How to ask people how
About health they feel and say how you
7.Health
(ex.I,II) feel (ex.VII,VIIIb,
(ex.X)
X, XI,XII)

What a Russian person

How to describe people Song
8. How people look looks like
(ex.VI,VII,XI) (ex.XIII)
(ex.I,II)

The weather in Russia How to talk about the The weather forecast
9. The weather
(ex.I,II) weather (ex.VII,XII) (ex.VI)

-How to talk about your

family (ex.V,VI)
10.My family A Russian family (ex.I,II)
-When did you last...? (ex. VIIIa)
(ex.XIII)
-How to ask the price
Russian souvenirs (ex.VII)
11. In a souvenir shop
(ex.I,II) -Conversations in the (ex.IX)
shop (ex.XI)

How to request and give

Transport
12. Transport information about
(ex.I,II)
travelling(ex.VIII,X,IX)

Appendix 1 Grammar commentaries

Appendix 2 Dictionary
Appendix 3 Listening tasks (transcript)

4
 - Alphabet (ex.III,VII) -Absence of articles a/the (ex. V)
-International words -Genders of Russian nouns (ex.VI) 6
(ex. III,IV)
(ex. IV,VI,VII) -The nominative case of Russian nouns

-The a
-Reading rule (ex.III) -Jobs
present t
- the (ex. IX,X)
doctor - 14
- Countries
-The genitive case of Russian nouns
(ex.XVIII) (ex.XI - XV)
(ex.XIII, XIV)
-The possessive pronoun
- Rooms (ex.V,VI,VII,
/ / my (ex.XV)
XVIIIa)
- Reading rule (ex.IV) -The plural of Russian nouns (ex. XII-
-Furniture 23
-Memory game (ex.XVI) XIV)
(ex. VIII,IX,X,
- -
XVI,XVII)
- Verbs(ex.III,IV)
-
-Numbers from 1-12 -Personal pronouns
(ex.XI)
(ex.XII,XIII,XIV) (ex.VIII) 34
-
- Adverbs of frequency -The Present Tense (ex.V-IX)
(ex.XVI)
(ex. XV,XVI)

Things you can see in the The formation of the imperative

42
(ex.XI) town(ex.III-V) (ex.VIII,IX)

- -
Reading a menu Food and drink (ex.VI,VII)
50
ex.XIV) (ex.III-V) -The accusative case of Russian nouns
(ex.VIII,IX,XI)
- Parts of the body The constructions
(ex.III-VI) is hurting -
Visual game (ex.VI) 60
-Common /
diseases(ex.VIIIa) -
- Facial features(ex.III)
-Adjectives Adjectives
67
(ex.X) (ex.IV) (ex.IV,V)
-Clothes(ex.VIII,IX)
-Adverbs to describe the - The Future Tense of the verb to be -
weather like in different weather(ex.III,IV) (3rd person Sing.)
76
-Seasons(ex.IV,XI) (ex.Vb,VII)
(ex.Va) -Months (ex.X,XI) - Adverbs and adjectives (ex.VIII,IX)
-Family members
(ex.III,IV,VII)
-Adverbs to say when The Past Tense (ex.IX,X) 83
things happened
(ex.XI,XII)
-The demonstrative pronoun
- Souvenirs (ex.III)
/ / / this/these (ex.IV)
- Numbers from 1-20 90
(ex.X) - -
(ex.VI)
(ex.V)
- transport -
Means of transport (ex. V-VIII)
Guessing game (ex.VII) 97
(ex. III,IV) -The prepositional case of Russian nouns
(ex.V-VIII)
105
115
127

5
 -
-

-
-
-
-
-

When in Rome do as the Romans do -

1. Russian is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia. About 250 million
people speak Russian.
2. Russian belongs to the Germanic group of languages, as do English and
German.
3. There are numerous dialects of the Russian language. Thus people living in one
part of Russia can have problems in understanding their compatriots.
4. The Russian language, like English, has a Latin alphabet.
5. The English alphabet has fewer letters than the Russian alphabet.

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia. About 250

million people around the world speak Russian, including 180 million people in the
territory of the former USSR. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European
languages, the Slavic group, East Slavic branch. Its closest relatives are two East
Slavic languages: Ukrainian and Belorussian. Other relatives include Serbo-Croatian,
Macedonian and Bulgarian from the South Slavic branch, and Polish, Czech and
Slovak from the West Slavic branch. In the vast territory of Russia you will see almost
no dialectal divisions, almost all people speak the literary language. Only old people
may still use local dialects, which vary little from place to place.
The Russian alphabet, which is called Cyrillic, is based on the Greek alphabet. 24 out
of 33 letters in Russian came from the Greek alphabet. The rest of the letters were
especially created to show specific Slavonic sounds. The Russian alphabet may appear
strange at first, but you will quickly get used to it. A number of the letters are similar
in Russian and English (A, O and T). Other letters, although they may look the same,

6
are pronounced quite differently (the Russian is pronounced as the English V).
Some letters are specific to Russian but represent sounds which are familiar to English
speakers (the Russian is equivalent to the English P sound). Then there are some
letters which are peculiar to the Cyrillic script and have no English equivalents
( , , ).

a in car
o in folk

z in zoo

k in kitten
m in map
c in city
t in tip

ye in yet

oo in boot

v in vine
n in not
r in roll (roll your tongue
while pronouncing this letter)
ch in loch.

, , ,

7
 yo in yonder
ee in see
e in met
u in use
ya in yard
b in bit
g in go

d in do

l in lamp
p in pet

f in face

i in ill
g in genre, s in pleasure

y in boy

ts in cats
ch in chip
sh in shut
sh in sheer

8
 a sign which makes the -
preceding consonant hard -
-
a sign which makes the
preceding consonant soft

a in car p in pet
r in roll (roll your tongue
b in bit while pronouncing this
letter)
v in vine c in city
g in go t in tip

d in do oo in boot

ye in yet f in face

yo in yonder ch in loch.
g in genre, s in
ts in cats
pleasure

z in zoo ch in chip

ee in see sh in shut

y in boy sh in sheer
a sign which makes
k in kitten
preceding consonant hard
l in lamp i in ill
a sign which makes the
m in map
preceding consonant soft
n in not e in met
u in use
o in folk
ya in yard

9
 People are born unskilled -

1. zebra
2. president
3. guide
4. doctor
5. banana
6. vodka
7. businessman
8. vase
9. journalist
10. cafe
11. music
12. football
13. lamp
14. secretary
15. tourist
16. park
17. rose
18. computer
19. sportsman
20. bank

-
-

10
 -
-

11
 _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

- to read in Russian
- to ask the questions What is it? ? and Who is it? ?
and answer them using the construction This is/These are
- the Russian alphabet
- word stress
- some international words

12
- the absence of articles a/the
- the genders of Russian nouns (Masculine, Feminine, Neuter)
- the nominative case of Russian nouns

he office
she park
it passport
alphabet poem
airport president
bus printer
banana radio
bank rocket
bar restaurant
business rose
businessman robot
bomb salad
vase secretary
visa sport
vodka sportsman
volleyball soup
guide telephone
golf TV-set
dialogue tennis
doctor tiger
Europe toast
journalist tourist
journal university
zebra fax
Internet flag
Israel photo
yoga football
video camera ice hockey
casino cement
check
computer champagne
coffee chocolate
lamp exam
metro humour
meeting What is it?
music Who is it?
nose
opera

13
 -
-

-
-
-

When in Rome do as the Romans do -

1. Every full Russian name consists of three parts: a surname, first name and a

2. Only relatives and friends can address a person by his or her first name and
patronymic ( ).
3. the polite or

4. Russian people have a tradition of kissing new acquaintances after they have
introduced themselves.
5. According to the unwritten rules of social behaviour, the Russians always smile
when they first meet a person.

First Meeting
You have just introduced yourself to a Russian person for
the first time. What is going to follow this simple introduction? There is no doubt your
acquaintance will tell you his or her name.
Full Russian names consist of three components: a surname, a first name and a

Vladimirovich - surnames, unlike

English surnames, change according to gender and number. Thus if the man you have

whole family can be called the Petrovi family. The majority of Russian first names
have both full and short forms (e.g. Ivan Vanya) and lots of diminutive variants (e.g.
Vanechka, Vanyusha). These diminutive forms are informal ways of addressing
someone and are normally used by relatives and friends. If you speak to someone you
s
full name and patronymic (e.g. Ivan Vladimirovich). You also should address a person

14
by his or her full name and patronymic in any official situations and in order to
demonstrate your respect towards him or her.
Another linguistic manifestation of demonstrating respect in the Russian language is
the existence of two ways of addressing a person i.e two different versions of the

tors, teachers, sales-assistants and

When you and your new acquaintance have introduced yourselves you are very likely
to shake hands especially in formal situations. However, in the business environment
men who already know each other tend to shake hands as a way to say hello. When
relatives and friends meet they can hug, pat on the back or kiss each other.
At the first meeting with a Russian person you may notice there is no polite smile on

fact surprise or offend you. Russian people only smile to show emotion. They smile
when they are really happy or when they want to express gratitude or show their trust.
In the Russian culture smiling has nothing to do with social etiquette!

15
 , , , , , , , , ,
, ,

Илья

16
1. 2. 4.
3.

6. 7. 8.
5.

9. 10. 11. 12.

17
 .

1.
. 2.

3.
.
4.

5.
.
6.

7.
.
8.

. 9.

10.
.
11.

18
 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

1. _______________________________________________________________
2.___________________________________________________________________
3.___________________________________________________________________
4.___________________________________________________________________
5.___________________________________________________________________
6.___________________________________________________________________
7.___________________________________________________________________
8.___________________________________________________________________
9.___________________________________________________________________
10.__________________________________________________________________

-
-
-
- )

1.
2. 3. 4.

6. 7. 8.
5.

19