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Online German Courses
Learning Russian Online: Hints and Tips
I’ve been learning Russian for many years now, and although it’s true to say that I learn something new every day (whether it’s a nuance conveyed by a suffix or preposition, or one of those delightfully creative though “not to be repeated to my mother” slang obscenities), it was really a simple discovery that has made the most difference to my Russian progress.
The thing is, I had decided to take online Russian lessons to substitute my main studies. However studying Russian online isn’t the same as studying online French courses or online Spanish courses because I didn’t actually know how to enter any data to aid my studies. I didn’t know how to type using the Russian keyboard or the Cyrillic alphabet! Although online German courses, for instance, require some characters that aren’t used in English, it’s a totally different kettle of fish in Russian!
The Cyrillic alphabet has 33 letters, plus two extra symbols (hard sign and soft sign) that indicate the pronunciation. Needless to say, the letters on a Russian keyboard don’t correspond to those on an English keyboard! At first, I was writing in Russian on my computer with the very tedious method of going into the “insert special character” option on Microsoft Word and pointing and clicking for each letter that I needed. I’ve since found online a few handy Russian keyboard emulators and also a company that offers the very simple solution of Russian keyboard stickers. Why didn’t I think of that!?! The stickers come in many colours, designed to suit any keyword, and you just stick them on yourself. This is a great way to practise your typing in Russian and it really makes all the difference for students who wish to perfect their Russian with the intention of studying in Russia or working in Russia.