привет!

[thegeneralx.livejournal.com]

I am in the first part of two beginning summer Russian courses at my university. This is my third week. I am wondering if someone can explain the difference in usage between:

она / oн

and

её / его 

The course I am taking is taught with the Начало text which can be a bit frustrating at times because it doesn't explain all the words it uses.

Also, any tips about learning Russian? I hope to get a pen-pal/chat thing going on sometime later in the year when I can actually say more than a few sentences but mostly I am pretty bad at pronunciation. The course moves really fast (one Начало chapter a week out of seven that comprise the book) and sometimes I'll only hear a word spoken by the professor once--in passing-- if it is not on the CDs that accompy the book.

Are there any good russian dictionaries with audio online?

спасибо!

Comments

[cherity.livejournal.com]

It's very simple
она = she, он = he
ее = her, его = his(him)

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

It is "she" and "he" and "hers" and "his" respectively.

"Ona sidit tam" (she sits there, she is sitting there), and "ego kofe" (his coffee).

[skolzyshelk.livejournal.com]

One can use words он and она both for animate and inanimate things. For example:
Where is your pen? - Где твоя ручка?
I don't know where it is. - Я не знаю, где она.

What a lovely girl your sister is.
Yeah, she is very beautiful. - Да, она очень красивая.

[oryx_and_crake]

I second this.

Grammatical gender is a very important issue in Russian language. Inanimate things have gender too, and it is not always possible to tell by a given noun whether it is feminine or masculine. Usually the nouns ending in -a, -я are feminine, -o, -e - neuter, and those ending with a consonant are masculine. But this is not a complete picture, and there are many exceptions. The meaning of the word is usually inconsequential. For example, a microbe (микроб) is masculine and a bacteria (бактерия) is feminine. A pen (ручка) is feminine, and a pencil (карандаш) is masculine.

[dinasty.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid there are no russian dictionaries with audio in the net.
But you can always use skype :) There is a top post of this community with contacts of the people who can help.

[moonbathe.livejournal.com]

I started learning Russian last year with the nachala text as well! It is a bit frustrating, indeed; my teacher decided to not completely follow the text book for that reason. If you need any help I can skype sometime. :) sometimes it helps to discuss the language with a non-native speaker as well!
tips: just keep practicing. read everything you can find in Russian, even if you don't understand - reading skills are important! join some russian communities and listen to russian music, etc. all of that with your courses helps significantly!

[thegeneralx.livejournal.com]

I should really get a camera/mic for my laptop because I think skype would help--remember who I am in a few weeks if I do! Especially because you're familiar with Nachala!

I think my reading skills are better than my speaking or writing skills at this point but today was the 10th class session we've had so I don't know how much I should read into this-- but my professor doesn't test us on speaking...

Do you have any links to music/communities/reading that you'd recommend? I've wanted to learn russian for a few years now but actually taking these intensive summer courses has left me with little inspiration.

[moonbathe.livejournal.com]

I will. :) just send me a message and I'll add you! even without a mic, chatting helps too.
where are your summer classes, if you don't mind me asking? sort of odd that you wouldn't be tested on speaking..but maybe that's just because I'm used to my teacher putting so much emphasis on it. :P

hmm...let me think. for communities, if you search any of your interests you could find a russian community on the topic (usually called something like ru_(topic)). That's how I find a lot of the ones I lurk. Here are some random other ones:
velik_moguch this one seems to be about typos/mistakes in random things. I've only understood a few, but I've learned a lot of new words from there. XD
soviet_life
moscow_walks
speak_russian
en_ru_idioma - that one is very interesting! they discuss idioms in english and russian, and it makes me think about the english language too. =P sometimes, oddly enough, it helps me learn if I do it from the other way around, if that makes sense. So this community, where a lot of people ask what different english phrases mean is neat to me..
if none of those interest you, just click around random russian users' profiles and see what communities they're in!
for music, it depends on what you're into..what kind of music do you like? there's always t.A.T.u. :P or leningrad, which is basically like russian ska. there's a whole lot out there so if you tell me what genres you like I could recommend some better ones..or someone else could, too!

[thegeneralx.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all the links! I don't know if I can take in extra vocabulary while I am in these intensive classes but I really like seeing the culture-oriented ones.

I am taking the classes at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. We speak in class but there are no speaking sections on the exams and I am not sure why. Hopefully this isn't stunting my growth because I already find it difficult to summon sentences in my head while I can usually write just fine. This might be natural at the beginning level, though?

Hmmm...as far as music goes, I like pop-rock. Ben Folds, Guster etc. Is there a Russian Ben Folds?

[moonbathe.livejournal.com]

understandable. :) I recently finished a month-long intensive language course in Moscow, and my head was spinning enough just from class!

that is completely natural. From a native english speaker's point, you have to understand the grammar completely before you can really form sentences. it still trips me up a lot. But once you get the cases down and your vocabulary grows, it'll get easier. It's definitely a difficult language to learn!
hm...not sure. =/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvyFxxZbOns
kino, perhaps? it's a really famous 80s band..I will have to look into more russian music though.

[http://users.livejournal.com/neo____________/]

[POST]
I would recommend you this group(i think they have great poetry) http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT - its Russian rock.
And this is "best song's" album http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B0
(..about this POST tags its some lame error by livejournal that was not allowing me to post this message)
[/POST]

[thegeneralx.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation! I will definitely check them out!

[http://users.livejournal.com/neo____________/]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=EN&hl=en&v=iOVbDHk7-yg - Что такое осень :)

[moonbathe.livejournal.com]

oh, also! I commented about this site to someone else earlier..it's really great - http://transparent.com/
sign up for the russian word of the day, it gets sent right to your email. :)

[thegeneralx.livejournal.com]

Thanks everyone! Evidently I have a hard time remembering little things.

[thegeneralx.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the lang-8.com site-- it looks very helpful!

[moai-s.livejournal.com]

Please make use of Multitran Dictionary (Russ-Engl & Engl-Russ) http://multitran.ru/c/m.exe?a=1&SHL=1

[gioia-m.livejournal.com]

Russian language in Skype.

Native speaker, explanation in English.

-audio podcasts
-lively conversation
-grammar aspects

Free trial session. Reasonable prices.

email: lessononline@yandex.ru
skype: lessononline