Maria Bondarenko - Russian language teacher

Lately me and my students have been learning special Russian words that help express wishes, doubts, certainty, etc. Of course, this grammar topic is called something very fancy, but who cares. 😜 The main thing is that it is MUCH simpler than in English:

If you want to express a wish, use "бы" + Past Tense. If it is unreal, add "вот" or "хоть" (see the photo below). 😅🤣😬🙃

What is the key to the successful language learning? There are three simple hacks.

Don't miss lessons. Take notes at the lesson. Review the notes before each new lesson. These simple rules alone will constitute 80% of your success!

And the other 20%? Lift. It's your mental gym. You came to sweat and feel good afterwards. Say, make mistakes, correct, say again. And again, and again. The brain will get toned quicker than your body. I promise! 💪😘

You noticed that your Russian Google Translates are strange...? 😳😲 That has an explanation: various English verbs will be translated as only one, sometimes, unexpected, verb, into Russian. For example:

▪️To babysit - СИДЕТЬ с детьми
▪️To be locked up - СИДЕТЬ в тюрьме
▪️To go on a diet - СИДЕТЬ на диете
▪️To suit (you) - СИДЕТЬ на (тебе)

Don't panic. Once you know, it is hard to unknow. 😁👌

This is that time of the year when you need to know how to wish Happy Holidays, no matter where you are. So here is a little summary of how to go about it in Russian. Enjoy! ✨🎄🎉🥳
⠀
📣ENTRY PHRASE:
❤ Дорогая (fem)/дорогой (masc)/дорогие (plural) ... ! - Dear....!
❤️ Милая (fem)/милый (masc)/милые (plural)....! - Sweet...!
❤ Родная (fem)/родной (masc)/родные (plural)...! - Close to my heart...!
⠀
📣 CONGRATS
🔔Хочу поздравить тебя (вас/Вас)...- I'd like to congratulate you...
🔔Поздравляю тебя (вас/Вас)...- I'm congratulating you...
🔔От всей души поздравляю тебя...- From my soul I'm congratulating you...
🔔От всего сердца поздравляю тебя...- From the bottom of my heart I'm congratulating you...
⠀
❄С Новым годом! - ...on the New Year!
❄С наступающим Новым годом! - on the coming New Year!
❄С Рождеством! - on Christmas!
⠀
📣WISHES
🌚Я бы хотел(-а) пожелать тебе...- I'd like to wish you...
🌚Желаю тебе...- I'm wishing you...
🌚От всей души (сердца) желаю тебе...- from my soul (bottom of my heart) I'm wishing you...
⠀
🌞хорошего настроения - good mood
🌞радости - joy
🌞улыбок - smiles
🌞веселья - fun
🌞счастья - happiness
👌крепкого здоровья - strong health
👌успехов - achievements
👌новых впечатлений - new impressions

📣Пусть...⠀- Let...
🎅дед Мороз исполнит все твои (ваши) мечты - ...Father Frost (Santa Claus) make your dreams come true.
⠀
📣SIGNATURE
❤Я очень люблю тебя (вас/Вас)! - Love you very much!
❤Целую и обнимаю тебя (вас/Вас)! - Hugs and kisses!

What is the best motivation for learning? We thought: to be understood by other interesting people, share jokes, enjoy stories and discover new things, like Russian веник (see that bunch of green leafy branches?). 😄🍁🍻☀️ Last weekend we tested and tasted Russian food and Russian bath at https://www.facebook.com/Fibonacci.Tbilisi/.

Spain, Germany, Israel, Finland, USA, and Philippines, bonded and had a blast over a shot of vodka, borsch and pancakes.

Want to join us? Give me a shout! Next round is just round the corner! 🤗 By the way, you can still choose the topic: should it be toasts, proverbs and superstitions, crazy constructions or history? 😅😜👌

When you learn a foreign language, lots of work is done outside the class, right?! So, below I decided to assemble for you some online sources that is my personal choice when my students ask me for any online self-help. These websites will save you time and make the Russian language learning process much more effective and enjoyable! Let me know if you like them too!

"Forvo" is the platform where you can check pronunciation of Russian words, while playing with different dialects and listening to both, men and women: https://forvo.com/languages/ru/

Reverso is the platform where you can check conjugations of Russian verbs: https://conjugator.reverso.net/russian-conjugation-info-tips.html

"Multitran" is the Russian-English-Russian (and other languages!) online dictionary - this one provides not only all possible translations by categories, but also very good collocations: https://www.multitran.com/m.exe

"MezhduNami" ("Between Us") is an online course book, and one of the best I have ever come across! It is created by foreign students and not by professional teachers (bu-ha-ha!) thus it is simple and provides tables, podcasts, games and many more, in a clear and understandable manner: https://mezhdunami.org/

And finally, see the collection of short humorous videos from the Soviet Union called "Eralash" ("Mess"), they'll help you connect basic Russian phrases with emotional context: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAX_lbns4-D4DndQ-BtdqgNwWNHtazmb3

Multitran dictionary Multitran dictionary translates words and phases to dozens of languages and covers over 1000 subject areas

When I ask my students about Russian writers, they normally say, "Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov.."... Some might know Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn, too... But the above is a heavy read, not always resonating with our modern lives. 🤓

Let me introduce some more names. And the first one to open this series, will be Ivan Efremov, a brilliant writer, who was praised by Leo Tolstoy himself; a thinker, a philosopher and a genius scientist.

A man born in a Russian village in the early 20th century, a holder of the PhD in biology by the age of 34, a geologist who predicted and discovered the biggest disposition of the dinosaurs' remains on the planet, the man who described the hologram method prior to its invention, ...and so much more.

One of his greatest books "Туманность Андромеды" ("Andromeda's Nebula") talks about the evolution of the human and describes a lot of current events. As you can see from the excerpt below, his language is not too difficult, but the book is very interesting. My advice for any Russian fiction learners/readers, would be to know 1) verb prefixes 2) adjectives. Grammar-wise, it will be easy, but in order to enjoy of descriptions you will need the above.

Oh, by the way, days after Efremov's death, the authorities extracted most of his home archive...Some say, the authorities thought he was dangerous giving out too many scientific secrets in his books, but they did not dare touch him while he was alive. 😱😎👽

Is Russian phonetics difficult? No, seriously, is it? I thought not, because there are no muted letters (maybe except the one soft sign and its brother, hard sign, that are absent from this post, since the latter is rare 😅 and the former is obvious).

But apparently, not. Such words as: muschina (мужчина), evo (его), and schastie (счастье) throw people off 😐, and then they see.......... Ы. 🙈

I hope my students will forgive me, but I can easily give the prize of the most hated sound of October to it! 🙃🙃

Hey, guys, trust me: nothing opens the Throat Chakra, like the sound ....Ы. And I will teach you the best Ы out there, by far 😉👌😁.

Today I've been watching a short Russian video with one of my students and stumbled upon a phrase which was pretty informal. ✋ It's time for you to fear no more people - informal Russian is EASYYYY.: all the variants below (from the top down: very informal, informal and formal) mean the same thing: "here you go!". 😁😅

Привет всем! Do confess, you must have been putting off learning Russian, because you have been expecting the worst? 😉 All these cases....verbs of movement....😅? Чушь! (Nonesense!) I am here to simplify it and explain so that you struggle no more! Come on, it's hot outside! 😁🥳🌦️

Classic Russian teachers (I mean tutors of various subjects coming from the Russian pedagogical tradition) are always very serious and official. They keep distance and never allow friendship. I have always wondered, why. Does the student's respect depends on how serious you are? Hmmmm 🤔

Having worked and studied abroad, I came to a different conclusion: the most stimulating learning atmosphere is when you feel that the tutor is your FRIEND. A more knowledgeable in the subject you're learning, yes, but definitely in the same team as you. You feel relaxed and safe to ask stupid questions, as they mag be. This approach does not cancel deeper connections between the student and the teacher, but rather reinforces the trust the student has for the teacher.

I am truly blessed by the brilliant people who came to me as students, but became my friends. ❤️ I can tell you, I have learnt from them as much as they have learnt from me. And to practice Russian language outside the classroom, is double fun, for sure! 😉😁🥳

📣 I still HAVE THREE PLACES to fill on my Russian course this autumn. Make sure you book one, if you are ready to explore one of the most widely spoken languages and practice it with me on various adventures that I organise for my students and friends!

Russian language is one of the few that drops...active verbs, and still makes sense! 😳 At least if you are living in the "now" (of course if you refer to the past or future, things always get more complicated).

It is a great blessing (forget complicated English tense construction! 😅 😜) buuuut....then intonation and punctuation is the salt of the joke!

I bet many of you know the word "все" [vsyo] 👇👇 but how would you understand the phrase below???

🔥 The person with the most original translation will get a free lesson of Russian from me!! Comment below! 📣