Russian (русский) - Duolingo Project

(Group 5 - Caryn, Jasmine, Tiffany)

1. Introduction
Привет! That means hello. Today, my friends and I from group 5 will be introducing you all to the
Russian language (or русский, as the Russians call it)! Russian is an East Slavic language spoken mainly in
Russia and many other countries by over 260 million people, 150 million of whom are native speakers.
Russian is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as in several other
countries, territories, and international organizations, including Tajikistan, Moldova, Gagauzia, Abkhazia,
South Ossetia, Transnistria, and the United Nations. It is also recognized as a minority language in Romania,
Finland, Norway, Armenia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The history of the USSR makes Russian still the language widely spoken in Eastern Europe. Therefore,
it is possible to travel to many countries, speaking only one language, especially among the older generation.
One of the advantages of learning Russian is that it is for the most part a standardized language. Russia is a
vast country, the largest in the world, but the same language is spoken all over, albeit with some regional
accents.
Currently, it is a highly sought-after language to learn. One reason why it is is that Russian is often
described as a language of great political and cultural relevance. Due to the power and influence of the
Russian Federation, their language has played a key role in some of humanity's most innovative advances.
There is always a plethora of reasons that students like us have for learning Russian. Most of them
simply pick it because it looks interesting and proved to be a fun challenge. Others go down the literature
route1. Russian literature is known to be important in the literary world as classical Russian writers are
known to write true-to-life stories about the values and truths of life and this world.
Surely, people of all ages can learn Russian, no one is too old nor too young to learn a new language.
All it takes is just a little bit of determination and anyone can master it. These days, people around the age 14
to early 20s seem keen on learning this language. Most of them study Russian due to its literary roots. The
reason why adults often do not learn a new language is since they are not making the necessary sustained
effort. Nonetheless, anyone can learn the language as long as they have the will to do so.
Our group made the collective decision to study Russian - which is widely known to be a difficult
language - to challenge ourselves to the limit. Also, compared to the other language courses offered by the
Duolingo application, Russian seemed to be the most intriguing. Besides, being able to communicate in
Russian is pretty cool, no?

2. Method
Now, onto the methodology surrounding this project. For this language-learning assignment, we were
given approximately a month to learn Russian and analyze the language. During this period, we used a
variety of different sources to aid us in learning Russian. The main application that we used for the project is
Duolingo, followed by online sources from Google.
Duolingo is a free application found in the Google play store and Appstore where anyone can learn new
languages through quick and short lessons. The app helps people practice their speaking, reading, listening,
and writing to build greater vocabulary and grammar skills. It was designed by language experts and loved
by hundreds of millions of learners around the world, including us! Whether you are learning languages for
travel, school, career, family, and friends, or your brain, you will love learning with Duolingo 2.
Although Duolingo is a good stepping-stone for language learning, one cannot simply expect to become
fluent just by learning from the app itself. To be fluent in the desired language, you must apply your skills in
your daily life and try to speak and listen to as much of the language of your choice as possible. Besides that,

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 you must have a good teacher, practice a lot of pronunciation, and completely surround yourself with the said
language. Only then can you be fluent in a language.
Besides Duolingo, we studied from multiple sources in Google as there are dozens of free information
that we can get online. We mainly use Google for things that are not taught or not explained clearly enough
in Duolingo. An example of this is when we practiced pronouncing the alphabets.
Grouping system:
2.1 Caryn
Usually, I studied for this project around 5-10 minutes at busy times and around 20-30 minutes at spare
times. Sometimes I skip a couple of days, but I try to catch up the day after.
2.2 Jasmine
During the month-long learning period, I studied approximately 10-15 minutes per day. This number
would add up to around 70-105 minutes every week. Every time I use the app, I finish around 4-5
lessons at a time. By the end of the month, I finished checkpoint 1 and am currently on my way to finish
checkpoint 2.
2.3 Tiffany
After months of learning the Russian language, I can conclude that I studied for more or less around 5-
20 minutes a day. It depends on whether I have the time or not. Mostly, I have other homework to
finish, so I could only accomplish around 2-3 lessons in the Duolingo App. However, when I am free
from those assignments, I could do over five lessons.

3. Findings
There are many differences between these two European languages. However, we will only present the main
differences that we found, specifically the difference in alphabets, nouns, and grammar.
3.1 Alphabets
Russian alphabets are very different compared to English alphabets. This is because Russian uses
Cyrillic alphabets while English uses Latin alphabets. In the language, there are 33 letters compared to
the 26 that we have in English.

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З

И Й К Л М Н О П P

C T У Ф X Ц Ч Ш Щ

Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

3.1.1 Some Russian letters has similar look and same sounds as to English letters

Alphabet Pronunciation

A Father

M Mike

O Core

T Tom

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 3.1.2 Some have the same look but different sound, and some Russian letters do not have any
equivalent to English.

Alphabet Pronunciation

B Victory

H Note

P Run

C Sun

X Loch

3.1.3 Other Russian alphabets look and sound nothing like English.

Б В Г Д Ё Ж З И Й

К Л П У Ф Ц Ч Ш Щ

Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

3.2 Noun
Russian is considered to be a gendered language, which means that nouns can be classified into three
genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter3. Thus, you will often hear Russians refer to inanimate objects
as him or her. English used to have grammatical genders, but it was removed sometime around the 11th
century. We can identify one’s gender by looking at the end of each word.
3.2.1 Masculine
Masculine nouns in Russian ends with a consonant:
Example:
дом, журнал, парк, Иван
(dom, zhurnal, park, Ivan)
3.2.2 Feminine
Feminine nouns in Russian ends with a vowel (-а or -я):
Example:
газета, квартира, Нина, Анна, тётя
(gazeta, kvartira, Nina, Anna, totya)
3.2.3 Neuter
Neuter nouns in Russian end in -o or -e:
Example:
письмо, здание, радио
(pis'mo, zdaniye, radio)
3.2.4 Exceptions
There are some important exceptions, these occur mainly because of physical gender.
Example:
Папа (papa) – Masculine
Дядя (dyadya) – Masculine

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 Дедушка (dedushka) – Masculine
Мужчина (Muzhchina) – Masculine

3.3 Grammar
3.3.1 Verbs/Tenses
There are only three main tenses in the Russian language: present, past and future. Russian and
English convey meaning differently through verb systems. The Russian system is based on the
concept of an aspect: actions are either completed or not completed 4. Aspects are used to
indicate if an action was completed successfully or is ongoing. To do this in English we use
extra verbs like “had” and “have”. For example, in the phrase “I ate.”, the action is completed.
However, in a phrase like “I have been eating”, it is implied that action is not yet completed.
Aspects are used to illustrate this difference.
a. Imperfective aspect: Incomplete, ongoing, interrupted or repeated actions.
b. Perfective aspect: Successfully completed actions.
3.3.2 Articles
Articles are special modifiers that come before a noun or noun phrase. Like other adjectives,
they help explain the meaning of the noun in your sentence. Some examples of articles in
english are: a, an, the. The Russian language does not use articles. This makes the language
much harder, as articles are very important when it comes to grammar.
Example:
English: “I am an actor”
Russian: “Я актер” which translates to “I actor”
(ya akter)
3.3.3 Auxiliary verbs
When making sentences, Russians rarely ever use auxiliary verbs. The English verbal system,
on the contrary, has progressive and perfect tense forms, and uses auxiliaries to form them.
Example:
English: “Where is she?”
Russian: “где она?” which translates to “where she?”
(gde ona)
3.3.4 Sentence structure
Unlike English, Russian has a very flexible word order. In English we follow the usual Subject-
Verb-Object sentence order, In Russian you can place an object both before and after the verb.
Example:
1. “Я не знаю его” (I do not know him)
(ya ne znayu yego)
Here “Его” (him) is an object. It can be placed before or after the verb and even in the very
beginning of the sentence.
a. After verb: “Я не знаю его.” (ya ne znayu yego)
b. Before verb: “Я его не знаю.” (ya yego ne znayu)
c. Beginning: “Его я не знаю.” (yego ya ne znayu)
2. “Кошка поймала мышь” (A cat caught a mouse)
(koshka poymala mysh')
Here “Кошка” (cat) is the subject. Its position can vary, depending on the location of the
obeject (мышь ). It can be placed in the beginning/end of the sentence
a. End: “Мышь поймала кошка.” (mysh’ poymala koshka)
b. Beginning: “Кошка мышь поймала.” (koshka poymala mysh’)

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 All these sentences would be perfectly grammatically correct and would mean the same exact
thing.
3.3.5 Cases
In Russian, the relationships between words are shown by word endings. These endings are
divided into 6 cases to build different word forms. In each case, words have a form for singular
and a form for plural. In conclusion, Russian nouns decline depending on these cases.
3.3.5.1 Nominative
Example:
“Студент говорит.” (student govorit)
(The student is speaking.)
The word Студент (student) is the subject doing the action. It is in nominative case
form in this sentence.
3.3.5.2 Genitive
Example:
“Работа студента очень интересная.” (rabota studenta ochen' interesnaya)
(The work of the student is very interesting.)
The word студента is the genitive case form of the word студент (student) and it
shows that the work belongs to this student.
3.3.5.3 Dative
Example:
“Студент пишет письмо сестре.” (Student pishet pis'mo sestre)
(The student is writing a letter to his sister.)
The word сестре (to the sister) marks the receiver of the action. It is the dative case
form of the word сестра (sister).
3.3.5.4 Accusative
Example:
“Студент читает книгу.” (student chitet knigu)
(The student is reading a book.)
The word книгу (book) denotes an object of action. This is the accusative form of the
word книга (book).
3.3.5.5 Instrumental
Example:
“Студент пишет ручкой.” (student pishet ruchkoy)
(The student is writing with a pen.)
The word ручкой (with a pen) denotes an object of action. It is the instrumental case
form of the word ручка (pen)
3.3.5.6 Prepositional
Example:
“Студент живет в Москве.” (student zhivet v moskve)
(The student lives in Moscow.)
The word Москве (Moscow), together with preposition в (in), marks the location of the
action. Москве is the prepositional case form of the word Москва (Moscow).

4. Discussion/Reflection
With that, we conclude our findings regarding the differences and similarities between Russian and English.
Now, each and every one of us will be sharing our respective experiences after learning Russian for a whole
month.

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 4.1 Caryn
When I first knew that this project required us to study a new language that we chose (which is
Russian) every day, I was kinda upset. Because spending 15 minutes every day to learn a new language
needs consistency, which is hard for me. But I got the hang of it by setting my mindset that during the
struggles in the process of learning, I will get new experiences that are priceless and do not rule out the
possibility to be useful in the future. That mindset helped me very much to be consistent in learning this
language and now I know that spending a small amount of my time to learn Russian every day is not as
hard as I thought.
Other than that, I learned so much about Russian. From learning the alphabets to phrases. And
in my opinion, the main difficulties of learning Russian are the pronunciation and alphabets. Because
Russian uses cyrillic alphabets that are very unfamiliar and completely new to me. Furthermore, this
language assigned every noun with a gender which I found hard to determine each gender. Even though
I found it difficult in some parts, I enjoyed the process of learning this language and grateful for the new
experience and lessons that I got.

4.2 Jasmine
After learning Russian for the past month, I must admit that my progress is not the best out
there. Prior to learning the language, my group and I originally wanted to choose Chinese. However, we
finally decided on Russian to challenge ourselves. Little did we know that this decision would later
come back and bite us on the bum. If you do a quick research online about how long it takes to fluently
speak Russian, you will get an estimate that ranges from 1 to 10 years. From there on, I immediately
knew that 1 month was not going to be enough and that we chose the wrong language to analyze.
Honestly, there have been countless times when I just wanted to give up on learning, as it was a
challenge. One of the biggest obstacles I had to face was the reading. The more I read, the more the
words would blur from each other, and I did not quite understand where one sentence would end and
where the next sentence would begin. However, I could not let my friends down as I know they must
have gone through the same thing that I did. In the end, I strived and finished the month-long learning
period.
Alas, my efforts did not go to waste and I can safely say that I am not completely illiterate when
it comes to reading Russian texts. Knowing that I have only been surrounded by Latin alphabets since
young, being able to read the Cyrillic alphabets in Russian is quite the feat itself. I also take pride in my
ability to construct simple sentences, like greetings and how to introduce myself. All things considered,
learning the Russian language was a roller coaster ride for me. There were better times, and there were
definitely hard times. But, I enjoyed the whole experience altogether, as it gave me the challenge that I
looked for when first choosing a language with my group.

4.3 Tiffany
After a couple of months of learning the Russian language, I was able to get the hang of most of
the primary words. It was hard at first because most of the vocabulary is still new to me. However, the
more time I practice, the more things I would be able to memorize. I have learned and known other
languages, but this language is far out to me. It took me time to be able to differentiate and pronounce
the alphabet. However, even if it took so much time, I had a lot of fun. I enjoy studying this new
language because I even consider learning this language for more than 15 minutes per day. I feel that it
is quite exciting to be able to learn something completely different.
However, after a week since I started learning this language, I felt that I could not get this
language anymore because it was too hard. I discovered that it was not as simple as I thought it would
be. It was so confusing, especially the gender noun. But, I am grateful that I have friends who could

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 help to explain these things to me. It was full of difficulty but a new experience, so I am thankful for
this opportunity. Also, even if I only achieve so little, I am still happy about it, because I was able to at
least understand some sentence that is usually used in Europe.

5. Conclusion
In conclusion, we can all safely agree that Russian is a difficult language to master, especially not within 1
month. It takes a lot of determination to even get a grasp of the language, particularly for us English
speakers. Being so used to the Latin alphabets, Russian’s Cyrillic alphabets will definitely confuse us.
Besides that, the specific spellings and gendered nouns accompanied with the very different rules in grammar
will make us want to give up almost immediately. However, once you do master the language of the soviets,
it will prove to be very rewarding. So, if you are interested in learning Russian, do not falter so easily! Just
like what Leo Tolstoy once said: “We lost because we told ourselves we lost.” If we believe we can do it,
then we can.

Citations
1. Shcherbakov, S. (2018, December 7). Russian rising: the global demand to learn the language of
Tolstoy. Euronews. https://www.euronews.com/2018/12/07/russian-rising-the-global-demand-to-
learn-the-language-of-tolstoy

2. Duolingo - Language Lessons. (2012, November 12). App Store.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/duolingo-language-lessons/id570060128
3. Darya Gunay (ExpressRussian.com). (2020, July 24). Main differences between Russian and
English. Learn Russian Online. https://expressrussian.com/main-differences-between-russian-and-
english-languages/
4. Shoebottom, P. (n.d.). Language differences: English - Russian. 2001, Paul Shoebottom.
http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/russian.htm