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Level: Introduction

Your best friend in Russia has invited you to her house for a party this weekend. She thinks it will give you a chance to get to know some people in Russia a little better. You are a little excited and nervous at the same time. You have been learning to speak Russian for a while now though, so you head out to the party feeling fairly confident. When you arrive at the house, a jubilant Russian partygoer opens the door and asks you in Russian, “how are you?” Excited that you recognize this Russian phrase and anxious to make some friends, you dive right into a twenty-minute explanation of what has happened to you in Russia for the past week! Stunned by your long-winded answer, and unfortunately for you, he is making his way through the crowd right now to warn the other Russian partygoers not to make the same mistake! Learning Russian with RussianPod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Russian! This Russian Beginner lesson will teach you how to say, “how are you” in Russian. We will also talk about how to you can tell the difference between Russian neuter, feminine, and masculine nouns. Finally, we will tell you just how much information Russians expect to receive when they ask you how you are doing!


Choose from over 35 languages at InnovativeLanguage.com!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Introduction . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

25 Responses to “Introduction #1 - A Great Russian Conversation Starter: “How Are You?””

RussianPod101.com says:


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Aliya says:

Как вы себя чувствуете?

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Randy S says:

In the expansion page I saw:
Он хорошо говорит по-русски.
“He speaks Russian well.”

I was wondering about по-русски. Using the translator I saw that русский means Russian. I was wondering what does the “prefix” по- mean? Is that used in other instances?

Thanks!

Randy

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Rene S says:

The “prefix” по- means “according to”, “in the … way”
So, Он говорит по-русски = He speaks in the Russian way = He speaks Russian.

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genevieve says:

:grin: lovely lesson.When i’ll get myself organised, i’llsign up.

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Sim says:

:lol: Hi, where can I find how the Russian alphabets are written and sound like?

I am a complete beginner.

Thanks.

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Peyton says:

Hi Sim,Thank you for your comment, and welcome to RussianPod101.com!

You can find more about the alphabet here: http://www.russianpod101.com/learningcenter/reference/alphabet

Thanks again, Peyton

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Rodrigo says:

Hello!

I’m starting to learn russin here. I don’t know much so I’m starting from the introduction level. After this lesson, I have a few questions:

1) The lesson notes state: “Nouns in Russian usually do not have endings”.
I think it is actually trying to say that is does not end with a vowel, right?

2) Also, I happen to know that “chair” is “стул”. On the pdf I found that we add “-и”, “-ы” or “-я” to form plural. How come the plural of “стул” is “стулья”? Why the soft sign was added there? Is it some sort of rule?

I just started to use the site. So, i’m not sure I understood how it works. Should I be worried about plural at this point? Im not sure at how to say the other words on the pdf (tables, chairs, women, etc.). Is there any audio file for those words available?

Well, I really liked the site and the material you provide. The audio lesson is very fun to listen.

Thanks!

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yilmaz says:

hi my name is yilmaz i am from Turkey i want to learn Russian i am a beginner my skype id: yilmaz_1888

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seano says:

Hi:

My name is Sean. I studied Russian for three years in college and decided to look at it again after two decades. I really enjoy this method of learning.

I’m interested in the background of the instructors. Is there a bio section on this site? I couldn’t find any and if you click on their pictures it just takes you to the lesson.

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RussianPod101 says:

@Rodrigo
Thank you very much for your support!!!
Since the cases (grammatical term to indicate a change in the ending of a noun, adjective, or pronoun) is one of the most difficult aspects of Russian grammar, and plural cases even change depending on the number it is used with, we humbly advice you not to learn the plural form for each case at the same time as the singular form, wait to be at ease with the singular form first. :wink:
But, if you’re eager, you can check out the Forming Plurals lesson by RussianLessons.net (http://www.russianlessons.net/lessons/lesson11_main.php). :wink:

Regarding audio for each vocabulary, we do have “Vocabulary List with Audio” and sample sentences with Audio available in each lessons, they are specially made for our Premium Members, so feel free to subscribe and enjoy our services :grin:

@yilmaz
Welcome to our site! I hope your Russian is progressing well!! :grin:

@ Seano
Welcome back to the Russian language! And thank you very much for choosing us to help you regain your Russian skills! :mrgreen:
To read the background of the instructors, you can go to Member Introduction under “About Us” at the bottom of the site. :grin: (http://www.russianpod101.com/about-us/member-introduction)

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Tim says:

Has anyone had trouble opening up “my flashcards”? I can’t ope anything on this feature. I have sent several inquiries to Inovative Language, but have had no response.

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RussianPod101.com says:

Hello Tim,

Thank you for letting us know the issue, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience that you had.

Could you try to open the flashcard in different setting? It can happen if the system setting of the current web-browser is not right.

If you still have the problem in a different setting, please leave a comment here with your browser name, the version and the operation system, so that we can help you fix the problem.

Thank You.

- Jay / RussianPod101.com

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zeinab says:

:lol: hi thank you very very much this website it is very useful specially chinesepod . this is the perfect course. thank you .

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RussianPod101.com says:

Hi zeinab,
Thank you for your comment! It’s great to know that you enjoy our website!
Are you studying Chinese and Russian?

Please keep tuned that every week we have new lessons for you!

Cheers,
Paloma/RussianPod101.com

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Eric says:

Privet Russian Pod 101:

What’s the difference between the following informal “How are you?”:
Kak dela?
Kak požyivaješ?

The following formal “How are you?”:
Kak vaši dela?
Kak požyvajete?
Kak u vas dela?

I have learned that the second group is more polite than the first, but what are the differences and do I have any missing? Or did I make a mistake?

Spasibo!

Paka,
Eric

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RussianPod101.com says:

Hello Eric,
Thank you for your question. It is true, its hard to recognize the difference especially if the translation in English for both phrases is the same. But here is the difference. In the first sentence “Kak dela” we skip the pronoun “Tvoi” which means your (singular). So the whole phrase would be “Kak tvoi dela?” which is very casual and informal.
To build the formal sentence we need to use the pronoun “you” but PLURAL, “Kak Vashi Dela?”. In the sentence “Kak pozhivaete” we also skip the pronoun “you”. the original phrase would be “Kak vi pozhivaete?”. Again the pronoun “You” is used in its plural form. And, as you might know, by changing the pronoun we need to conjugate the verb also.
So there two things you need to remember:
1. in informal sentence we use the pronoun “you”-singular; in formal - “you” plural
2. we need to conjugate the verbs accordingly

hope it was helpful.
Good luck
Svetlana/RussianPod.101

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Jim says:

:mrgreen:

I’m learning but it is slow.
I have a hearing problem, so getting the enunciation is harder.
I will take longer, but at least after the first day I did remember some of the words.

I’ve lived in New Mexico and still don’t speak Spanish, just know a few words.
Languages are not my cup of tea.
I want to learn Russian so I can talk to a lady I am corresponding with. She will learn English, and I am working on Russian

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RussianPod101.com says:

Hello Jim,

Take your time, study everyday and stay motivated. It would not be that difficult. :smile: Practice makes perfect!
I wish you all the luck and hope you learn Russian soon.

If you ever have any questions, remember we’re here to help you.

Cheers,
Neha
Team RussianPod101.com

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Willie says:

Hello Russianpod101.com

I have just signed up and started with the introduction. I have basic knowledge of Russian but want to start from scratch and want to be able to use all the learning tools.

However, you appear to have a technical problem with the Writting Questions. When you write in the answers to the questions it does not recognise the answers and shows up as being wrong each time. Can yu help with this problem?

They are great lessons by the way.

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RussianPod101.com says:

Hi Willie,
Did you answered the questions using Roman alphabet or the Russian alphabet?
We tested the Writing Questions using the Russian alphabet and it worked just fine.

If you don’t have the Russian keyboard, instead of installing an input system, it might be faster to go to this page:
http://translate.google.com/#ru/en/

Here, you can select the target language as Russian, then click the keyboard icon on the bottom. Here you have the correct Keyboard layout for Russian.

Please let me know if it helps with your issue.

Regards,
Paloma / Team RussianPod101

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Willie says:

Paloma,

Sorry for the late reply. I will try google translate from now on. I was not too sure if I could have used the English equivelent or not.

Many thanks.

Willie

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RussianPod101.com says:

Hello Willie,

Thank you for the reply. Please do let us know if you have any questions in future too :smile:

Cheers,
Neha
Team RussianPod101.com

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Paula says:

How do I activate the Cyrillic keyboard so that I can answer the questions in proper Russian?

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RussianPod101.com says:

Hi Paula,

Thank you for your comment.

If you don’t have the Russian keyboard, instead of installing an input system, it might be faster to go to this page:
http://translate.google.com/#ru/en/

Here, you can select the target language as Russian, then click the keyboard icon on the bottom. Here you have the correct Keyboard layout for Russian.

Please let us know if you have any other question or comments!

Regards,
Paloma
Team RussianPod101

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