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Languages After 60

Russian · 4 beginner lessons

Start speaking Russian, four phrases at a time

Every phrase here is one you would actually use in a first conversation. Read it, hear it, say it aloud, then check yourself.

Audio practice

Listen & Repeat

Play Russian phrases automatically and practice without pressing Play each time.

Open Listen & Repeat

Course progress

4 lessons

Progress is saved in this browser only, separately for each language. There is no account, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Lesson 1 of 4

Hello, Russia

Four phrases that carry a first exchange: a greeting, a question, an answer, and a thank you.

Reading the guide: syllables are separated by hyphens, and the STRESSED syllable is capitalised. Russian stress changes how the surrounding vowels sound, so it is worth learning with the word.

  • Привет!

    Hi

    Pronunciation: pree-VYET

    Informal — friends, family, people your own age. For strangers and anyone older or senior to you, use «Здравствуйте».

  • Как дела?

    How are you?

    Pronunciation: kak dee-LA

    Literally “how are the affairs?”. Unlike the English version, it's a real question and expects a real answer.

  • Хорошо!

    Good

    Pronunciation: kha-ra-SHO

    Written with three о's, but only the stressed one sounds like “oh”. The other two relax toward “ah”. This reduction is the core habit of Russian pronunciation.

  • Спасибо!

    Thank you

    Pronunciation: spa-SEE-ba

    The final о is unstressed, so it lands closer to “ba” than “bo”.

Knowledge check

Someone greets you and says «Как дела?». What are they asking?

Someone greets you and says «Как дела?». What are they asking?

Mission 1

Stay in the Conversation

You can try this mission now. It uses phrases from Lessons 1–4.

Start Mission 1

Audio practice

Listen & Repeat

Hear each Russian phrase and say it aloud, up to five times, without pressing Play each time.

Open Listen & Repeat

Why Russian

A language that resets everything I thought I knew about learning

Spanish was reachable. The alphabet was familiar, the vocabulary shared roots with English, and the grammar bent in directions I could anticipate. Russian offers none of that comfort. A new alphabet, a case system, and consonant clusters that take real physical practice to produce.

That is the point. Learning something genuinely unfamiliar after 60 is a different exercise from getting better at something I already do. These lessons are deliberately small: four phrases at a time, learned properly, with the stress in the right place. A handful of phrases said well are worth more than a hundred recognised on a screen and forgotten.

The lessons are written by a learner, not a certified instructor. They record what is working, in the order it worked. What Spanish taught me explains why I am building the practice this way. If you would rather start somewhere with no alphabet to learn at all, Mandarin begins here.