Learning Russian

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three (or, according to some authorities, four) living members of the East Slavic languages, the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn, often considered a dialect of Ukrainian).

While there are several Russian language web sites, books and software packages available we have listed a few here that our host families have reported having good experience with. If you have a different tool that has worked well for you, please let us know and we'll add a link to it here! 
(webmaster@ccpkids.org)
     Common Russian Phrase Lists (all documents are in Adobe Acrobat format, .pdf's)     
Title    Notes
Notes from Father Alex    In case you missed Father Alex's Russian lesson class this year, we have posted scanned copies of his handouts here.
Coming Soon
CCP Family Notes    A CCP host family gave us a collection of pages from various books that they found to be very helpful. We have scanned these pages here in Adobe Acrobat format.
Click Here to Download

     Web Sites and other Software Translation Tools     
Yahoo Babel Fish    http://babelfish.yahoo.com/
Use this site to translate a block of text or an entire website.
Microsoft Word 2007    If you have Microsoft Word 2007 installed, you can use the translation feature within Word. Type a string of text, then press Shift and F7 together and then select "Translate".

     Structured Lessons     
Rosetta Stone    http://www.rosettastone.com
One of the best software packages available for learning Russian (or any other language). Rosetta Stone uses a unique combination of images, sound and text that, in their words, "teaches you the natural way". Only downside is that is is one of the more expensive packages.
Pimsleur Language Programs 
(by SimonSays.com)    http://www.simonsays.com
Pimsleur uses an audio only approach to teach Russian. One of the advantages to this system is portability; you can listen in your car, at the gym or while working around the house. Another plus is the price, this is a very affordable package.