People often think that in order to learn a language, they have to go abroad and spend time with native speakers. But it’s not true in reality. In this age of technology and social media, the internet has made it possible to learn any language of the word online while staying at home. The same is true with the Russian language. There are many resources available for those looking for Russian listening practice.
This article will share some of the best resources out there, including YouTube videos, podcasts on iTunes, and free online lessons. These will improve your Russian listening comprehension. But before moving to the listening resources, let’s find out why listening to Russian is important and how it can enhance your Russian language ability.
Why listening practice is important to learning the Russian language?
When it comes to learning a new language, one of the most difficult things for people to do is understand the other person’s accent. If you learn Russian by watching TV shows or movies with subtitles, you are not able to imitate the accent well or even understand it. When learning Russian, you need to learn the language as it is spoken by native speakers so that you can pick up their intonation and pronunciation style. So this can be done by only hearing the native Russian speakers and imitating their style. The following are some benefits of the listening practice of Russian.
- A lot of people assume that they already know how to listen in a language because most times they read it before hearing it or vice versa; however if you want to be an expert in a language, listening is as important as speaking and writing.
- Listening to the Russian language helps you absorb, understand and retain new information faster.
- By listening to the Russian language, you are able to build your vocabulary and improve your pronunciation.
- Listening practice can also help develop your skills of understanding spoken Russian.
- It will help you in improving your Russian speaking and accent.
- Listening to the Russian language helps you be immersed in the culture and context of using certain words and phrases.
- In addition to being good for enhancing your learning of the Russian language, listening is also a really fun way of building vocabulary. Make it a competition with your friends on who can find the most words in a foreign language video or movie. Also, you can find songs in Russian that are appropriate for your level.
Now that you have a better understanding of why it is so important to learn the language using listening resources, let’s move on to the best audio resources available online.
- Russian music
- Podcasts
- Youtube
- Netflix
- audiobooks
Russian Music for listening practice:
Music is a great way of learning a foreign language. Russian music is one of the best resources for those looking to learn the Russian language. Since listening to songs or music can be more engaging, people are able to retain more information while having fun at the same time. This section will talk about some of the Russian songs you can listen to so that you can improve your Russian language.
- Russian Musicbox – This website is a great resource for those looking to find songs in Russian. They have a large collection of Russian music. People can find a wide range of genres to suit their taste in music. You can find the latest hits of the year. It is basically an entertainment industry website where you can find the latest songs, popular Russian songs of all time as well as interviews, films, and much more. You can select songs for the categories of Top 40 hits, Euro top20, 15! Real hit parade, leading stars and others. Therefore, if you are looking for some latest hits in the Russian language then do visit Russian Musicbox.
- Station.ru– This is a music platform where you can find music from different artists. It has over 100,000 songs in its collection. The platform features various genres of music including rock, rap, hip hop, trance, and others. You don’t need anything special to listen to these Russian songs available on the website. You can access the website from your phone and improve your Russian language by listening to Russian songs.
It is highly recommended that you also read song lyrics before or after enjoying the song if you are a beginner or intermediate learner.
Podcasts for Russian listening practice:
Podcasts are a great way to listen to Russian. For those who don’t have that much time to listen and watch Russian movies, podcasts are a good option. Busy professionals can also take advantage of these podcasts as they don’t have much time to practice speaking and listening to the Russian language with native speakers.
- Podcasts are basically audio or video contents available for free on the internet or iTunes which can be downloaded by anyone across the world. There is a wide range of podcasts in different genres that one can listen to improve their Russian language. You can find and select according to your taste and liking. The following are three podcasts that are really popular and have been designed specifically for beginner lever, intermediate-level, and advanced-level learners, respectively.
- RussianPod101 – For beginner level learners
- News in slow Russian – for intermediate level learners
- In Russian Terms – for advance learners
- RussianPod101: RussianPod101 is a great podcast for those who are learning the basics of the Russian language. This free website has various podcasts available in the Russian language. These podcasts are useful because they are divided according to different levels, so anyone can listen to them accordingly. The topics for these podcasts include phrases, grammar structures, collocations, idioms, pronunciation, vocabulary, verb conjugations, and much more.
- News in slow Russian : This is the best podcast for those who want to improve their Russian language by listening to news stories in the Russian language. The podcast was launched with the purpose of helping people learn basic phrases quickly. There are fun exercises given at the end of the podcast where the listeners can test their knowledge.
- In Russian Terms : This podcast is for advanced learners of the Russian language who want to improve their vocabulary skills. This podcast is on the topics related to Americans in Russian and vice versa. This podcast aims at improving your conversational level of Russian to debating Russian level. Therefore, for advanced students of the Russian language, this podcast is best to listen to.
Youtube for Russian listening practice:
Everyone knows about youtube. And it’s one of the best sources for finding some good Russian videos. YouTube is where you can find all types of videos, from music to TV shows and movies. You just need to search for your topic on YouTube and it will give you many options related to that particular topic. Youtube is the best option to practice your Russian language listening skills as compared to other resources i.e. podcasts, radio, audiobooks and etc. This is because the audiovisual effect keeps you engaging. So you can watch and listen to the following over youtube to improve your Russian listening skills.
- Watch Russian movies with Russian subtitles and English subtitles.
- Watch Russian news channels.
- Russian music with lyrics will also improve your listening abilities.
- Listen to current radio shows in the Russian language.
- Watch YouTube videos with subtitles, both original and translated into English or another language.
- Subscribe to a Russian language learning channel and learn from the lessons available there.
There are many Russian language channels you can find on YouTube, so it could be an effective way to improve your listening skill through multiple video channels. The following are some of them.
- Real Russian Club:
Real Russian Club is a great YouTube channel for those who are learning the basics of the Russian language. This channel has basic Russian lessons which clear all your doubts. It also provides videos on various day-to-day subjects like how to deal with taxi drivers, tipping in Russia, the health care system, what to say at the customs, and much more.
- Cafe Russian:
CafeRussian is a perfect channel for those learning the basic concepts of the Russian language. This channel covers all the things you need to know about Russia and its people. Another great feature of this channel is that it provides very simple explanations of various phrases and words in Russian with English subtitles.
Netflix:
Netflix is a company that offers on-demand streaming of TV shows and movies to its members. The site’s library is divided into sections like drama, comedy, action, etc. Netflix also produces original content like “House of Cards” and “Stranger Things.”
Netflix is an excellent resource for learning the Russian language because it has a huge collection of Russian movies, documentaries, and TV shows. The quality of the site’s videos is great and subtitles in English are available in most videos. This makes it easier for beginners to learn by watching these videos with subtitles in their native language.
This will not only allow them to practice their Russian listening skills but also improve their vocabulary and grammar. The following are some of the best Russian hits on Netflix.
- Silver Spoon
- Sparta
- Better than us
- Fartsa
- Chernobyl 1986
- Masha and the bear
- Major Grome: Plague doctor
Audiobooks:
Audiobooks are a good resource to use for engaging in Russian listening practice because it’s much easier to listen to audiobooks than reading books. You can listen to it anywhere, whether you’re driving or cooking. Audiobooks are especially helpful when you’re following along with the content. For example, if you’re learning about Russia and its people, then listening to an audiobook version of the “Cafe Russian” channel on YouTube will provide great content in an engaging manner.
The following are some useful audiobook platforms where you can find your favorite Russian books in audio form.
Loyal Books offer various audiobooks in the Russian language. These audiobooks are read by professional voice actors and they come with amazing sound quality. You can listen to these audiobooks on your computer or mobile phone through LoyalBooks’ free app.
Bookmate has a collection of 90,000+ audiobooks in over 20 languages. It has a premium service, which allows you to access the full collection of audiobooks, without any ads. You can listen to these audiobooks on Bookmate’s website or use its mobile app on your smartphone.
Amazon has a huge collection of audiobooks. These books are available in different languages and formats. Amazon also provides a one-month free trial for its premium service, which allows you to listen to audiobooks in their full form without any ads. After the expiry of this one-month period, you can continue listening to them by buying.
Conclusion:
Russian is a great language to learn for those who’re looking to connect with the people of Eastern Europe. There are many resources available online, which allow you to engage in Russian listening practice and improve your Russian speaking skills. Some of these resources include YouTube channels, audiobooks, and free online lessons. With the help of these resources, learning the Russian language doesn’t have to be an uphill task anymore.
To learn more about how you can engage in effective, useful, and fun Russian learning practice check out some of our other articles on the blog!
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