2 young girls from Austria have finished 2 week Intensive Russian course for beginners! Their teacher Olga has told: "They didn't know anything when they came to Petrozavodsk. In 2 weeks they can read in the Russian language and speak Russian little". The girls have been really happy to study in Petrozavodsk and promise to come back! 

Would you like to spend good time in Russia and start to speak Russian, join us!

Choose any Russian language course in Russia and make progress http://enjoyrussian.com/courses/standard/

WHAT IS SHASLIKI, HOT POTATO AND PIONEER BALL?

How to become a true Russian and learn language?  For sure, you need to taste shaslili, swim in the second biggest lake in Europe, play hot potato and pioneer ball!  On Tuesday, Enjoy Russian Language School decided going to sand beach of Petrovodsk for shasliki party. The weather was cool! +25 C.

Volunteers of Russian Language School Mane, Lilit, Ivan, Kristina, Diana and Vika helped students to order dishes and drinks in the cafe called “Fairytale” (Сказка). In this cafe, guests celebrated wedding day of new couple and shouted “ГОРЬКО! ГОРЬКО!”.  Our students asked what does it mean. Volunteers answered that it can be translated as “Bitter! Bitter! By shouting “ГОРЬКО!” the guests are saying that the alcohol is bitter, and the couple needs to start kissing to sweeten the drinks.

Our students, teachers and volunteers tasted shasliki. Shashlik or shashlyk is a dish of skewered and grilled cubes of meat popular in Iran, Eastern and Central Europe.  Shashlik (meaning skewered meat) was originally made of lamb. Nowadays it is also made of pork or beef depending on local preferences and religious observances. The skewers are either threaded with meat only, or with alternating pieces of meat, fat, and vegetables, such as bell pepper, onion, mushroom and tomato.

After that, our students from the Maldives, Ecuador, Belgium, Great Britain, Finland and volunteer from Russia decided to swim in Onego lake, second biggest lake in Europe!

During the evening, our students and volunteers also played pioneer ball and hot potato.  Who are pioneers? Read more here. These ball games were very common among schoolchildren, and the game of “potato” was a favorite, while “pioneer ball” was the official game. For both games you need at least 5-6 players and a volley ball. Read the rules of TOP popular USSA games here:  hot potato and pioneer ball.

http://enjoyrussian.com/shasliki-hot-potato-pioneer-ball/

You all know that Russian people do not smile to strangers, only to the friends. But maybe to understand Russians better it’s useful to know some social rules in order not to get into an awkward situation. So have a look at these tips and leave a comment if you know/experienced more:

YOU CAN’T:
– Smile at strangers (as I said, in Russia it’s not common to smile at someone you don’t know, otherwise people would think that you’re weird/stupid/crazy and dangerous);
– Say ПРИВЕТ and refer as ТЫ to people in the street, in a shop, at restaurants and etc. In Russia being formal with elderly or strangers or anyone apart from your friends and family is very important. You should say ЗДРАВСТВУЙТЕ, refer as ВЫ to an unfamiliar person, otherwise people would think that you are rude.
– Whistle inside the house or a shop/restaurant. It means you are “blowing out the money” of the people in this dwelling. It’s considered to be a bad omen and it’s just one of dozens Russian superstitions we believe at. Another one – never put an empty bottle on a table. Bad luck;)
– Ask very personal questions and teach Russians how they should do something, because that’s how they do in Europe / USA and etc. I think noone likes that:)
– Well, you can, but you really don’t have to DO A SMALL TALK. Russians don’t like to beat around the bush. If you have something to say – say it right away!

YOU CAN:
– Ask people in the street politely, if you get lost or want to know something. You should also ask for help if you need it. Russians are quite compassionate, especially if a foreigner is in trouble.
– Start a conversation with a person that is involved into the same activity as you or if you got into trouble together;) Russians like to share their negative feelings with others:)))
– Ask people about Russia, its customs and traditions. People love to talk about their motherland everywhere in the world.

Russians might seem unfriendly at first and keep their distance. But as soon as you become their friend, there is no people sweeter!!!
И добавь, пожалуйста, в раздел о том, что можно делать
– Talk about religion and politics. BUT CAREFULLY!:)

http://enjoyrussian.com/friendly-russians/

If you go to Russia make sure you know the numbers in the Russian language! There is not a calculator in an every shop in Russia, and most of the people don’t speak any English. So numbers – it’s a survival Russian every foreigner must know!

http://enjoyrussian.com/numbers/

СУЩЕСТВИТЕЛЬНОЕ, ПРИЛАГАТЕЛЬНОЕ, МЕСТОИМЕНИЕ… – JUST THE LONGEST RUSSIAN WORDS OR SOMETHING YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW?

When it comes up to the Russian language grammar most of the students are confused even before the teacher starts showing declinations of Russian words. The first thing that confuses is what’s существительное, прилагательное, местоимение, why do they have to decline differently in the Russian language?

Let’s see… Существительное (noun) is a word that identifies a person, a thing or a place. If you can put a question “What” or “Who” and get this word as an answer – that’s a noun (существительное)! For example, “Твоя чёрная сумка там” (Your black bag is there) –> What is there? –> bag. Bag is существительное (noun) in this sentence.

Прилагательное (adjective) is a word that describes, identifies or further defines a noun. For example, in the sentence above the adjective is чёрная: What kind (color) bag is there? –> black bag.

Pronouns in Russian fall into many groups. There are personal pronouns (я, ты, он, она, оно, мы, вы, они), possessive pronouns (мой, твой, наш, ваш, его, её, их), demonstrative pronouns (этот, тот). So, a pronoun is a word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g. я, ты) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g. этот). In our sentence the pronoun is твоя (your).

In Russian, adjectives and demonstrative / possessive pronouns must agree with a noun that they are describing. So, if the noun is in Genitive plural, adjectives and pronouns must be also in Genitive plural.

Look at the examples and analyze the changes of the pronouns, adjectives and nouns.

All in masculine (Nominative case): Мой телефон красивый. Моя телефон красивый. Моё телефон красивое.

All in feminine (Nominative case): Моя сумка красивая.

All in neuter (Nominative case): Моё пальто красивое.

All in plural (Nominative case): Мои книги красивые.

Nominative case: Это моя умная кошка. (It’s my smart cat)

Genitive case: У моей умной кошки красивые глаза. (My smart cat has beautiful eyes)

Dative case: Моей умной кошке 3 года. (My smart cat is 3 years old)

Accusative case: Я люблю мою умную кошку. (I love my smart cat)

Instrumental case: Я горжусь моей умной кошкой. (I am proud of my smart cat)

Prepositional case: Я много думаю  о моей умной кошке. (I think much about my smart cat)

http://enjoyrussian.com/category/rus/

In modern foreign language teaching process cards are MUST USE! Why?

1. You can see words clearly written on a piece of paper and easier focus on the word structure and spelling
2. Cards are small and convenient to take with you wherever you go (I’ve had some students who took cards with them everywhere and learned the new words in a bus on their way to the school)
3. You can analyze and understand the grammar easier with the cards, organizing them into groups depending on their gender, number, case and etc.
4. You can make cards with different endings and see how the words change by putting the endings on top, just the same way as our A1 students did today.

We worked on the Prepositional case and these are the steps we followed:

1. The students received a set of cards, including masculine nouns (проект, фильм, актёр, друг), pronouns (мой, твой, этот, тот) and adjectives (хороший, интересный, талантливый,…). They had to make phrases in which there had to be one noun, one pronoun and two adjectives, for example: Этот хороший талантливый актёр. After that we discussed possible endings of masculine nouns and adjectives in Nominative case.
2. We’ve done exactly the same thing with neuter and feminine nouns, pronouns and adjectives.
3. Then the students received 12 verbs or verb+noun combinations (думать, рассказывать, забыть, вспоминать, прочитать статью) and prepositions “о/об”. They had to match the verbs and phrases they’ve done before, like: ДУМАТЬ ОБ ЭТОТ ХОРОШИЙ ТАЛАНТЛИВЫЙ АКТЁР. But they asked me immediately: “Shouldn’t we change the endings of the pronouns, adjectives and nouns?”. Of course!
4. And this is what we’ve done at the end! The students got the cards with nouns’, pronouns’ and adjectives’ endings in Prepositional case: -е / -и (for nouns), -ом /ем(-ём) (for masculine and neuter pronouns and adjectives), -ой / -ей (for feminine pronouns and adjectives). They had to put the endings cards on the words to change them from Nominative to Prepositional case. In the photo on top is what we’ve got at the end.

The task was hard and time consuming, but this is a great way to visualize the grammar, to literally create it, see how it works. Would YOU like to try?

http://enjoyrussian.com/russian-language/

This Monday we were so glad to meet 10 new students in the School of Russian Language, here in Petrozavodsk!

Our students came from the USA, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Maldives, Belgium, Finland, Switzerland and Spain.

There are so many reasons why they choosed to study Russian language!

With the prevoius students we came to conclusion that no everyone studiss Russian language just for fun, like a hobby!

Among them we have our alumni Max Donoso from Spain while Eeva Nordstrom from Finland and Martina Prini from Italy won scholarship.

On Monday, we had a tea party with samovar where students shares their wishes to study Russian, met teachers and each others.

On Tuesday, most of students visited lecture about Karelia organized by our Program coordinator in the School.

Mohamed Shiyam from the Maldives: “It was my first time when I learnt new facts and features of Russia and Karelia as well. I live far away from Russia and all times I was interested about your country. So that I am so happy to be here to find it out! For example, what things unite people in your huge country and I heard the answer, finally!” 

On Wednesday, our students enjoyed the weather and excursion to the embankment of Petrozavodsk with volunteers.

Today, our students played board games in Russian speaking club.

Tomorrow, our students will go the Russian banya to become true Russian.

On weekends, they will visit waterfall Kivach and Kizhi island! Wish they good luck!

http://enjoyrussian.com/new-students-10-countries-expore-karelia/