Russian in Plain English Russian in Plain English enables complete beginners to acquire the skill of reading words written in Cyrillic independently, with no English transcription or imitated pronunciation, within a short period of time. This book introduces the Cyrillic alphabet gradually, feeding in the letters and their various pronunciation aspects one by one over its ten units, thus building a complete picture of the Russian sound and writing systems. It also highlights the interrelationship of the two systems and helps learners to see the logic behind the use of the Cyrillic alphabet. In addition, the book teaches learners to produce Russian word stress on a marked syllable, contributing to stress acquisition. Furthermore, the book explains the basic grammatical features of Russian words and the rules of how to put them into sentences, enabling learners to start saying things in Russian from Unit 1. It employs some findings of research in language processing, helping learners to start building their speaking and reading skills. This book is an essential guide for all beginners, including students and independent learners. Natalia V. Parker is a keen educator and language practitioner. Trained in foreign language teaching in Russia, she held a full-time teaching post at Tula University, which she left to set up one of the first non-state, non-profit schools implementing more up-to-date teaching. At the age of 27, she became a head of school. After moving to the UK, Natalia taught Russian for several years, developing a new teaching methodology. She returned to higher education in 2016, doing an MA in Applied Linguistics at the University of Sheffield. Her teaching experiment produced extremely successful results which enabled her to secure an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Studentship, awarded by the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH), for her PhD at the University of Leeds. In 2019 she presented the results of her research at the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL) Conference and at the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) Conference, among other forums. Currently, Natalia is running another pedagogical experiment on teaching Russian grammar. Russian in Plain English A Very Basic Russian Starter for Complete Beginners Natalia V. Parker First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Natalia V. Parker The right of Natalia V. Parker to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Parker, Natalia V., author. Title: Russian in plain English : a very basic Russian starter for complete beginners / Natalia V. Parker. Description: New York : Routledge, 2020. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019054394 (print) | LCCN 2019054395 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367415365 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367415402 (paperback) | ISBN 9780367815097 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Russian language—Textbooks for foreign speakers—English. | Russian language—Grammar. Classification: LCC PG2112 .P27 2020 (print) | LCC PG2112 (ebook) | DDC 491.78/0071—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054394 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054395 ISBN: 978-0-367-41536-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-41540-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-81509-7 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC To all those who want to learn and all those who support learning vii Contents Preface ix Preface for teachers xi Acknowledgements xiii First things first xv UNIT 1 Getting started 1 Something old, something new (revision of unit 1) 15 UNIT 2 Questions and answers 21 Something old, something new (revision of unit 2) 38 UNIT 3 Mine or yours? 47 Something old, something new (revision of unit 3) 65 UNIT 4 Excuse me. Have you got a pen? 73 Something old, something new (revision of unit 4) 94 UNIT 5 Say “please” 103 Something old, something new (revision of unit 5) 121 UNIT 6 Where are you? 129 Something old, something new (revision of unit 6) 145 UNIT 7 Work or play? 153 Something old, something new (revision of unit 7) 171 UNIT 8 Where do you live? 181 Something old, something new (revision of unit 8) 198 CONTENTS viii UNIT 9 Is red square big? 207 Something old, something new (revision of unit 9) 229 UNIT 10 What is he/she up to? 241 Final revision 259 Russian alphabet 271 Cultural and historical background 272 Dictionary 274 Grammar index 279 Pronunciation index, including letter-sound correspondences 282 ix Preface I’ll be your guide to Russian My name is Natalia, and I will be your guide for learning Russian from the very beginning. I am Russian myself, born and bred, in addition to being a language teacher. I lived in Russia for half of my life (well, a larger half ) but have been teaching Russian in the UK for the other half. This book was born out of the questions which my students have asked me, as well as my own questions which came up when I was trying to understand the difficulties that my students had in learning certain aspects of Russian. So, it looks like you have a fairly experi- enced guide. Throughout this book, I will do my best to explain the logic behind Russian words and sentences, giving you examples and providing you with lots of practice to apply this logic to your own reading and speaking. As your guide, I will be helping you navigate your way through Russian every step of the way: I will say hello at the start of units and good-bye at the end of them, give you tips and offer prompts, remind you of what is what and advise on how to move forward more effectively. I look forward to helping you learn and hope that you will be excited about turning each new page of this book. I love my country, its people and its language, and I will also tell you about them the way I seе them. I will introduce you to some people and places I know in Tula, the city where I come from, as well as the village where my grandmother lived. Thus, you will have glimpses of Russia outside Moscow and St. Petersburg. I sincerely hope that this book will help you start to know and love my language and my people too. Before you start In this book, we are not going to start with memorising all 33 Russian letters in one go or reciting them in alphabetical order. Instead, we will learn to handle the new letters in words in order to be able to read them without relying on knowing them or their English transcription.