Russian
This page contains links to cultural resources in Russian.
Ads
- A searchable database of ads from around the world, including Russia (search by country, industry, media/type of ad--audio/print/video, etc.)
Audio
- Links to culturally authentic materials in a variety of languages, including Russian
- Searchable collection of audiobooks in a variety of languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
- A crowd-sourced collection of texts in Russian, shared by language learners who found them helpful or interesting. The site allows you to search by categories (fiction, non-fiction, conversations, songs, and others) and to build a list of texts, a word list, and flashcards based on what you have read (if you are signed in).
Children's Literature
- Collection of videos in which native speakers narrate animated children's stories in Russian. The words appear on the screen as subtitles that are highlighted as they are spoken. Not all stories shared are culturally authentic.
The lyrics from a beautiful popular song in Russian entitled "The World is Full of Fairy Tales" that discusses why we cannot be without them
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Very clever version of "The World is Full of Fairy Tales" that uses photos of real children reading books embedded in pop-ups from various fairy tales, intermixed with images on computer screens
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The song "The World is Full of Fairy Tales," accompanied by images from various fairy tales
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Diaspora Kids - A podcast containing a collection of children's stories read aloud in Russian
- Searchable database of children's books in a wide variety of languages (including Arabic, Chinese, Croation, Farsi, Filipino, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Mongolian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, & Thai), categorized by age, color of cover, genre, length, topic, etc., that can be read online
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- High quality video in Russian with subtitles in English (you could cover them)
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- An annotated list (in English) of children's books by famous Russian authors. You can then do separate searches to find the actual text
Comics
- A collection of comics in Russian
Cultural Comparisons
Dollar Street - Use the dropdown menus on this incredible site to choose countries and topics for comparison based on socioeconomic level. Your selections will bring up photos of whatever you chose from the countries you selected. The site contains many common everyday objects, people, and situations (e.g., adding spices to food while cooking, alarm clocks, answering phones, arm watches, armchairs, backyards, bathrooms, bedrooms, beds, bikes, boats, books, bowls, brushing hair, brushing teeth, car keys, carrying water, cars, ceilings, chickens, child rooms, chopping food, cleaning equipment, cleaning floors, closing the front door, computers, cooking, cooking pots, cooking utensils, cups, cutlery, diapers, dinner guests, disability aid, dish brushes, dish racks, dishwashing soaps, dishwashers, doing dishes, drinking water, drying clothes, drying dishes, earings, eating, everyday shoes, families, family snapshots, favorite home decorations, favorite items in kitchen, floors, freezers, get water, glasses, go through mail, goats, grains, guest beds, hairbrushes, hallways, handwashing, hands, and so forth.
Documentaries
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Born in the U.S.S.R. - This documentary, in Russian, follows 20 people born in 1983 and checks in with them at ages 7, 14, 21, and 28.
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Images
- A database of culturally authentic Creative Commons images in Russian and other languages, organized by language and topic
- Hundreds of free images related to Russian culture
- Searchable database of high quality, professional, royalty-free images including many culturally authentic images from Japan
- Culturally authentic images related to Russian culture
Infographics
- Infographics in Russian on public and environmental health
- Collection of infographics in Russian
Infographics for World Languages: Russian - A Pinterest collection of infographics in Russian from Leslie Grahn
- Flickr collection of infographics in Russian from a famous, Russian graphic designer who works for The Moscow News
- A blog post in English which highlights the work of several Russian infographic designers. Although the post is in English, most of the infographics are in Russian
Informational Texts
- Magazine and newspaper sites, categorized by country and topic, from 200 countries around the world
- A collection of front pages from today's newspapers from around the world
- A map that plots the locations of newspapers from around the world--can be filtered by language (Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish)
TEDx Talks in Russian - Links to 5 different TEDx talks in Russian on YouTube
Interviews
Cultural Interviews with International Business Executives - A collection of interviews in Russian about business negotiation tactics (similar collections are also available in Chinese, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, & Turkish). Bonus interviews include information on a host cultural topics from daily life.
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- An "interview" conducted in Russian with the Coronavirus personified by the Moscow Times (unfortunately subtitled in English)
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- Interview with Maria Sharapova in Russian after the 3rd round of the U.S. Open in 2010
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- "The View from Below" - Funny interviews between a TV show host and young children in Russian about random topics (see more like this here)
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Literature (See also Children's Literature)
- Free audiotexts in the public domain that are available in Russian in both text and audio formats
- Links to numerous culturally authentic texts in Russian, sorted by genre
- A collection of books, e-books, and other texts in a wide variety of languages. Use the advanced search feature to find texts in Japanese
Magazines
- Magazine and newspaper sites, categorized by country and topic, from 200 countries around the world
- Online magazine in Russian that addresses topics such as animals, cars, food, history, photo of the day, science, travel, etc.
Music
- Culturally authentic songs in Japanese, as well as other languages (organized by continent, country, holidays, and language)
News
- A collection of front pages from today's newspapers from around the world
- A map that plots the locations of newspapers from around the world--can be filtered by language (Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish)
Poetry
- Alphabetical listing of poems in Russian. Many can be listened to online as well.
Database of poems in a wide variety of languages (including Russian) that can be filtered by country, language, or poet. Each poem is read aloud and accompanied by biographical information about the author.
13 best poems for children in Russian
-Extensive list of poems in Russian
Posters, Realia, & Signs
- Vintage propaganda posters from Russia
- Collection of posters from the Soviet era curated by Swarthmore
- A collection of posters in Russian
- Collection of vintage posters in Russian from World War II
Resources & Other Texts in Russian
- A collection of books, e-books, and other texts in a wide variety of languages, including Russian.
Songs
Video showing little kids doing a dance recital type activity holding books as the song plays
Videos
ЕРАЛАШ Серия 281 Селфи, Колдунья, Не бойся – мы с тобой!, Чего хочет женщина, Классное видео - 16 minute video about a little girl who likes to take selfies--even at school; another episode about a family that goes to the doctor, but it turns out that the father is the one who is scared to go; another about a boy who likes a mean little girl who doesn't like him back
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- A Dad unpacks a soap-making set for his 2-year-old daughter and names each character, all of the items (including colors) in Russian, and carries on a running dialogue with the little girl in Russian as they make the craft together
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- An animated short in Russian that chronicles 20 years in the life of an orphan from Russia
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- A silly video in which a mother and her son have a variety of experiences all illustrated with balloon creations (in Russian)
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Story of a young girl who waits for the mail every day
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Pedagogical Resources
Blogs
Phenomenal site filled with creative, practical, proficiency-oriented ideas for world language teaching and learning
Excellent resources for building, tracking, and assessing proficiency
Excellent materials for building, assessing, and tracking proficiency from Alyssa Villareal
Materials grounded in the CI approach.
Information
Handouts from an ACTFL 2010 presentation that contain a comic analysis worksheet form, a comic creation worksheet that asks students to analyze complementarity, contrast, and redundant relationships among images and text, lesson plans, project rubrics, and more
- A PowerPoint presentation from an ACTFL session that contains loads of great examples for engaging students with culturally authentic texts in pedagogically sound ways
Instructional Materials
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- Magazine available in English and the language of your choice. Each issue is organized around a conceptual theme. Excellent visuals make great bulletin board material if you buy these in your local bookstore instead of viewing online. CAUTION: Much of the material in these magazines is NOT appropriate for classroom use, so teachers should preview and select carefully.
- Site offers weekly news podcasts in Russian. Each one comes with transcripts of the various news stories, targeted grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation exercises, and quizzes. Some of the content is free, but a paid subscription is required to access the full content from the site
- Live world statistics on a whole host of issues in Russian
- Search for educational videos in Russian