Russian Short Stories: 11 Simple Stories for Beginners Who Want to Learn Russian in Less Time While Also Having Fun

By Simple Language Learning

If you want to learn Russian in less time while also enjoying yourself, then keep reading...

The experience of reading a story allows us to escape our lives for a moment, and so this is a perfect way to start learning a language. Reading a story activates your brain and imagination, thus increasing the chance to learn easily and not quit.
Often, people start learning a new language only to give up after a couple of weeks.
This is not due to the complexity of the language but because they become disheartened as the method they are using does not give the right motivation. This is much less likely to happen if your tool is short stories!
In Russian Short Stories: 11 Simple Stories for Beginners Who Want to Learn Russian in Less Time While Also Having Fun, you will encounter rich and new but not too complex vocabulary, which is translated at the end of the chapter, avoiding the hassle of having to stop the reading rhythm to look up every word in the dictionary. Every paragraph is translated, as well as the summary of the story, thus providing a clearer comprehension of each sentence, while trying to prevent the temptation that the reader might have, if discouraged, of giving up and reading the whole story in English.
After each chapter, there is a question section, which aims to test the reader's overall understanding of the story, containing both open-ended and multiple-choice questions. The solved questions are provided at the end, enabling you to check your own answers and, consequently, develop your skills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simple Language Learning
• Release date: Jun 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393463702

Book preview

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Introduction

Reading and a Foreign Language

Any person studying a foreign language usually deals with four necessary elements: Listening, Speaking, Writing, and Reading. They are the keystones of language learning as they constitute all the necessary language skills. Yet, in addition to being a keystone, reading may also be a lot of fun.

It is a very intense activity—while reading, you can simultaneously learn grammar concepts as well as new vocabulary and idiomatic expressions—all in one pack. The best part is that sometimes you don’t even have to study all of these things specifically—they often become clear from the context, and you can easily memorize them without additional efforts. Reading illustrates and provides very useful insights into the things you have studied in a grammar book. If you manage to find a really interesting and captivating text that is suitable for your level, not only will you get the grammar and vocabulary almost automatically, but you will also have a great time and learn something new about the world. Also, reading is very a comfortable way of learning as you can do it at your own pace and return to especially tricky abstracts as many times as you need. Moreover, using modern technologies, you can also combine reading and listening aspects, complementing them both. 

Hints and Tips for Reading

Here are some hints and tips that will help you make reading a pleasant activity.

First of all, try to find a text that really interests you. Texts should correspond to your language level and be connected with a topic or a subject you really love. One of the ways to level up your reading skill is to read—in the foreign language you are studying—your favorite book, the one you have already read in your language and thus know well. A well-known book is usually available in many languages, and you will probably find the translation in your target language. It may be your favorite children’s book for a start as the language is usually simpler, and later on, you may begin reading something more complicated. Also, with today’s technologies, you can easily use the Internet to find various reading materials that catch your attention. Many articles, reviews, discussions, and descriptions are usually available for almost any topic in any language, and you can choose whatever your heart desires.

While making this book, the aim was to make it a source of fun for you, not only to learn some language stuff but also to have a good time and learn some things about Russian culture and Russian people. 

Next, while reading a text in a foreign language, you shouldn’t be intimidated by new vocabulary and grammar. Remember: you can have it at your own pace! You don’t have to look up every new word or unknown expression in the dictionary or grammar book as soon as you encounter it. Although it is highly recommendable to use a good dictionary and a grammar reference when reading, the main thing for a beginner is to get the gist. You can return to a tricky word later, or you can get its meaning from the context of the story—it’ll be even better as it gets stuck in your memory much more effectively this way. While reading something big, e.g., a novel, it is recommended that you look up a word if it is really essential for grasping the meaning, or otherwise, if you, say, have encountered this same word more than three times. The same principle works for grammar as well—very often, you can get the idea from the context.

In this book, the list of the key vocabulary for every text is provided, so you can use the items from the list as the stepping stones and later on study other new words in detail. Also, you will find a very close, almost word-for-word English translation for every paragraph that will help if you have any difficulties with grasping the meaning. 

Hints and Tips for Reading in Russian

The first good news is that the reading rules in Russian are very simple—nearly all the letters are tightly connected with the sounds they represent. Of course, there are some spelling rules and exceptions, but in most cases, if you know the Russian alphabet and the basics of reading and pronunciation, you can read in Russian with ease.

While reading in Russian, remember that, unlike English, Russian word order isn’t fixed. Surely, there are some set sentence patterns, but usually, you can easily reorganize the words. Reorganizing may change the emphasis and some stylistic aspects in a sentence, but the basic meaning will not change. So, do not be surprised by the word order and concentrate on the meaning no matter in what combination the words are used.

While reading in Russian, you will inevitably encounter the great and terrifying Russian grammar. It is considered—and justifiably so—to be quite complicated. Unlike English, which is primarily an analytic language and relies heavily on the word order and some special words, Russian is a synthetic language—it uses many inflections or word endings to express grammar and syntactic relationships. Yet, here is some more good news—while reading, you can often get the idea without knowing all the grammatical nuances. Later on, you can return to the grammar concepts that puzzled you and study them more thoroughly. There are a lot of confusing endings—for various grammar cases, genders, plural and singular forms—, but fortunately, you don’t have to know all of them to understand a beginner text.

Reading this Particular Book

This book was created to be interesting as well as useful, so here you’ll find some texts that have a dynamic plot and provide you with some information about Russian culture and customs.

The texts contain some simple grammar. The grammar isn’t the main focus here, but you will learn many helpful grammar aspects in the context—while reading. Also, every text emphasizes some particular grammar issue, e.g., a grammar case, a verb aspect, etc.—and you will see a very brief grammar note under every text explaining it. So, use the grammar notes as a guide to the grammatical element.

There is a close translation into English after every paragraph, so you can check the meaning any time you want. It is not recommended to look at the translation all the time—do it only when you are experiencing some difficulties with understanding. There is also a summary below every text for you to get the main idea.

Vocabulary lists with the key vocabulary items for every text are also provided. You’ll see some particular grammar tags used for the items, i.e., (masc. gender)/(fem. gender)/(neut. gender)—for every noun to explain its grammatical gender; (imperfect)/(perfect)—for every verb to explain its grammatical aspect. All the vocabulary items are, of course, listed in their nominative/infinitive/etc., i.e., their initial form.

Every text contains a small bonus—one idiomatic expression, which is specifically marked in the vocabulary list. Idiomatic expressions are an integral part of any language, and they are great fun to learn as you can study some amusing and unique images and associations connected with the Russian language and culture. Moreover, later on, you can use them in your speech, making it more natural and colorful and impressing your dialogue partners.

It is time to start! Good

Reviews for Russian Short Stories

[Marius Armalis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good material for those learning Russian. The texts are of medium level and interesting. Only the book could be longer.