[Course Forum] Russian 1 - 7 by Memrise

@pavel70 Thank you for changing it :slight_smile:

I am having difficulty in review because I find it very hard to tell ‘болеть’ and ‘болит’ apart when I am asked to select the correct audio. They sound so similar I can scarcely tell which is which.

Is this a common difficulty, or is it just me?

Not sur eif it’s been reported or not but the word “light blue” is with a typo in the Russian 1 - Level 7 course about colours. It’s spelled as “light bue”.

@littlebluesylph, thank you for flagging this. It has been corrected now. All the best, Pavel.

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@alareikhsgothemund,
Unfortunately, this is a common problem with Russian in the beginning, many vowels sound too similar for a foreign ear. Try to find the difference between soft t’ in болеть and hard t in болит. That may help in the future. Best of luck, Pavel.

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Perfect, thank you, Pavel! :wink:

I’m a premium account and my native videos doesn’t work, even though is on

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I suppose this is the Russian Memrise course you are talking about. Which level?
I’ll move/copy your post to the thread discussing those Russian courses by Memrise, since that has a people looking at it answering questions and so.

Hi @ElitKrasnostavsky86, please specify which level you are at. Sometimes you need to learn more new words to get the Learn with Locals videos for them. Thanks. Pavel

I’m level 8

Beginning Russian student here. Your course only accepts “спасибо, нет” not “нет, спасибо.” My Russian native speaker friend couldn’t figure out why. Google says “нет, спасибо” is used 40 times more than the alternative. One website (Russian Stack Exchange) stated, “Спасибо, нет” typically shows that the speaker is actually not too grateful for the suggestion. The version “Нет, спасибо” is a neutral to polite refusal.
So okay, you are teaching the version with more sass. But maybe tell us that? And maybe don’t mark the alternative wrong? I’m more likely to say the polite one than the sassy one most of the time!

Hi @ElizabethLilly10. Thank you for the comment. You made a valuable point - both versions can be used depending on the context, although the app format does not allow us to teach you every possible variation of a phrase (no matter how much we would like to do it). But you are absolutely right, the alternative answer should be accepted as correct. This has been adjusted and you may see it if you log out and log in back into the app. Hope you are enjoing the course and please feel free to contact us with any further comments or suggestions. Best regards, Pavel.

Thank you so much for your reply, Pavel!

I didn’t actually expect I would get an answer. I really appreciate your incorporating my feedback.

I love the course. I have lots of experience learning languages, and Memrise has many features that I love.

Ещё раз спасибо!

Елизавета

I think it would be more helpful when reviewing words and phrases to have the basic translations and literal translations always visible together. Right now, when learning a new word or phrase it shows the translation and the literal translation, but when the review shows the English version and I’m supposed to recall the Russian phrase or word it’s difficult to recall the right words because I’m trying to memorize the phrase and its literal and basic translation. It seems to me, it would be beneficial to always include the literal translation when the basic translation is being displayed. That way I can learn and memorize the literal meanings of each word.

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Hello all!

I finished Russian 1 and Russian 2.
Russian 3 surprises me. A lot of words are repeated from Russian 1 and Russian 2. Also the speakers are speaking way slower, as if I would be a new Russian learner. Any clue why this is?

Hi @chrispaans97 :slight_smile:

Earlier this year, Memrise began renewing its official courses. They started with course 1 & 2 for the courses mentioned in the announcement of the beginning of the year (link here), and are gradually renewing for others. They also reported that courses 3 onwards will be renewed in the future, but they did not give a date.

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Dear @chrispaans97, thank you for the review. We have started the process of updating our courses, for now we have course 1 & 2 updated, and the rest are to come. Indeed, some items may be repeated on this stage but as they are used in a different context we decided to keep them in the course. As for the native speakers - all they are real people recorded on the streets of Moscow, they haven’e been instructed to speak slower or in any other particular way. That’s just the way they speak :slight_smile: Hope you are enjoying the course. Best regards, Pavel.

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translation mistake: Course Russ. 3 German Level 7 In geheimem Auftrag

блондин blond (not adjektiv) - but blond male

Dear @wbuerst, thank you for the comment. We have amended the translation. Best of luck with your studies. Pavel.

@pavel70: There doesn’t seem to be a separate thread for the German-Russian course, so I’ll post this here.

Level 4:

  • говорите помедленнее, пожалуйста - “können Sie bitte ein bisschen langsamer sprechen?”
    I’d wager that there is also a more polite version in Russian (i. e. можно ли …). The Russian here I’d rather translate with “Sprechen Sie bitte langsamer.” instead. Any insight appreciated.

Level 10:

  • никогда в жизни! - nie und nimmer!
    You might want to add “nie im Leben”. I would claim that the latter is being used far more widely.

Level 11:

  • он между кухней и гостиной - sie ist zwischen der Küche und dem Wohnzimmer
    This should be either “es ist …” or “она́” instead of “он”.

Level 12:

  • обними меня - nimm mich mal in die Arme
    I’ve recently made the first-hand experience that this is nothing you’d say between casual friends (such as man-man) - I’ve had a few guys laughing when I said that. :rofl:
    I’ve then been told that you really only use this between lovers. I’d appreciate any insight.
    (EN: ~ give me a hug.)

Level 13:

  • килограмм - Kilo
    Better: “Kilogramm”

Level 24:

  • июнь - Juni
    The speaker is definitely saying июль instead.

Level 25:

  • на себя - ziehen (auf Türen)
  • от себя - drücken (auf Türen)
    I was pretty stumped when I saw these first. But after some research I noticed that it’s rather meant to illustrate what’s being printed on doors, i. e. “pull/push (to open)”, so this really is an imperative which always omits the exclamation mark. I’d thus replace “(auf Türen)” with “(Beschriftung auf Türen)” to make this clearer. It would also help to add the literal translations “zu dir” (“to you”) and “von dir (weg)” (“from you”).