Я изучаю русский язык

As you may or may not have determined from the title of this piece, I have started to learn Russian. Why? Well, primarily it is because I encouraged my son Alistair to take up Russian at school (he is 25% Polish, but the school does not teach Polish) and I thought I may be able to help him at some stage. The reverse is of course much more likely. First hurdle is the Cyrillic Alphabet named after St. Cyril a 9th century monk. It certainly helps to have had exposure to the Greek alphabet either through studying the sciences or island hopping.

I'd recommend the following book for beginners:-
Teach Yourself. Beginners Russian. 2 CDs.
Rachel Farmer does her best to play down the horrors of Russian Grammar and offers some very useful simplifications.

Here is the link for details of the evening classes in Bristol

The text used on this course has 2 CDs included and can be found below. Daphne goes into more depth than Rachel and has an unhidden affection for Russian grammar.



The class teacher is Galya Ransome, who just happens to be the wife of Alistair's Russian teacher at school. The classes are conducted with a healthy level of participation which more than compensates for the unreasonable feats of memory which seem to be expected.

до свидания! (Dasvidanya)