Study by subject
Russian
In Russian you memorise the Cyrillic alphabet, vocabulary, cases and verbs of motion. Lumi asks them back until the right form comes on its own, before your trip or your exam.
How to turn this subject into cards
First make one card per Cyrillic letter with its sound, focusing on those that look like Latin letters but are read differently. Then make one card per word with the gender and the stressed syllable, because stress changes pronunciation. For cases, one card per ending with a full sentence. The trap is reading Cyrillic slowly letter by letter without ever pulling it from memory. With Lumi you answer before seeing the solution, and retrieving fixes more than rereading (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). Review a little at a time but often, because spacing lengthens the memory (Cepeda et al., 2006). Add to each card an example from your own life, which makes the answer easier to find again.
What you need to know by heart
- The Cyrillic letters, their sound and the ones that mislead you next to the Latin alphabet.
- Basic vocabulary with the gender and the stressed syllable.
- The six cases and the ending of each for nouns.
- Verbs in two aspects, imperfective and perfective.
- Verbs of motion such as идти and ехать, and their prefixes.
It depends on the country
Russian has a recognised language test, the TORFL, which assesses reading, listening, writing and speaking at several levels. The cards of Cyrillic, vocabulary and cases that you make with Lumi help you prepare for it. You pick the level you are aiming for, then write the cards that match what the test covers.
How Lumi helps you remember it
You teach your Russian cards to Lumi, letters, words, cases, verbs. It forgets over time, like you do, then quizzes you right before you would forget. As your exam or trip approaches, the Mist settles over what you know less well and Lumi asks that first. You arrive able to read Cyrillic and produce the right ending, not only to recognise it.
Example cards
Three cards the way you would write them, with the answer Lumi expects.
How do you say hello in Russian?
Здравствуйте (zdravstvuyte).
What does вода mean?
Water (voda).
What do да and нет mean?
Yes and no (da, net).
Example card
Try it, Lumi turns it into fill in the blank questions in your browser.
Russian · teach this card to Lumi
The Russian Cyrillic alphabet has thirty-three letters. The word спасибо (spasibo) means thank you. The letter Р is read r and the letter Н is read n. Russian has no articles, so книга (kniga) means a book or the book.
Lumi’s question
The Russian Cyrillic alphabet has _____ letters.
Pick the missing word
Answer right to light Lumi up
Its lamp fades when a fact slips away.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Cyrillic take long to learn?
- Many letters already look familiar, so progress is quick. Make a card for the tricky ones, Р, Н, В, С, and let Lumi ask them back.
- How do I remember Russian cases?
- One card per case, with the question it answers and three example endings. Complete the sentence from memory rather than rereading the table (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006).
- Should I mark the stress on my cards?
- Yes, at least at the start. Stress changes the pronunciation of many words and everyday texts do not mark it.
Read next
Sources
- Roediger, Karpicke (2006). Test-enhanced learning. Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3). doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
- Cepeda, Pashler, Vul, Wixted, Rohrer (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks. A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3). doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
Teach this to Lumi
Give Lumi your russian notes, it gives them back as questions at the right moment.