Learning Russian as a native English speaker is a major undertaking. 

Before learning Russian, I had so much experience in learning other European languages like French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Irish and Portuguese but Russian … it was way harder for me!

Here are 4 language learning products that I’ve used personally to help me not just learn Russian but also Romanian, Ukrainian and Belarusian for my escapades across Eastern Europe.

iTalki

iTalki is a language tutor platform. It’s perfect for helping you to find language tutors from all over the former Soviet Union and beyond. 

My advice is to set up bi-weekly one-hour classes or 30-minute classes x4 per week to give yourself solid consistency over the long term. Also choose a teacher that motivates you to come back for the next class rather than a teacher that is technically the best teacher. You will need the long term motivation much more in order to follow through and learn Russian properly. 

You can click through to there site here and claim a US$10 bonus for your first lesson.

LanguageBoost

When you start learning Russian, I always recommend focussing more on vocabulary than grammar. I’m no grammar Nazi for sure! 

In order to help you learn your first 500 words in Russian (or in Ukrainian), LanguageBoost run by my friends, Jan and Lucas, have designed Vocabooster. Moreover, they have also created JumpStart Russian to help beginners get started with their Russian endeavors.

Go and look at JumpStart Russian here!

Glossika

Glossika have their own method based on building your knowledge of Russian through transformation and substitution drills. Moreover, their program utilizes spaced repetition learning and tests your reading, written and aural skills.  

Even better, their program offers not just Russian but also Ukrainian, Belarusian and Romanian, amongst many other languages so it definitely is a terrific resource for Eastern Europe language travel overall. 

Here’s the link to the Glossika website!

LingQ

Steve Kaufmann is a phenomenal language learning guru and he has harnassed the power of Stephen Krashen’s concept of ‘comprehensible input’ for his LingQ program.

You can go link yourself to LingQ here!

So whether you’re concentrating on nailing your Russian for now or have already expanded your options for Eastern European linguistic mischief to Romanian, Ukrainian or Belarusian, with these 4 resources, you’ll be good to go!