Marie, An American Who Fell In Love With Russia

24 Dec

Buryat woman and baby

How Long Is International Women’s Day In Russia?

8 Mar

Listen for the 15 missing vocabulary items in this text. They are all short, but even so, you may need to listen several times to be able to write them all. Yeah, (1) ________ a little story about my first … Read More »

What Does Pektopah Mean?

14 Nov

This song is based on a true story. It’s probably not very funny unless you’ve been to Russia, or Ukraine, or other former Soviet countries. If you want to do a quick language activity, listen to the “Brief -LY Clip” … Read More »

The Slavic Influence On American Music

14 Nov

There are American songs that nearly everyone in Russia (and in countries of the former USSR) seems to know, songs like “Summertime”, and “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” But not everybody knows that the composers of these very American-sounding songs had … Read More »

How Do You Say Remont?

15 Oct

If you live in a country where everyone knows the word remont, start off with these questions for pairs or small groups: 1. What are your associations with the word remont? Is it positive, neutral, or negative? 2. Think of your … Read More »