RusMate.co.uk

New Polish app available!

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:46:33 +0000

Polish learners can now join RusMate users improving their Russian, Gaelic, Norwegian, Greek and Japanese with RusMate apps. That’s because can now improve your Polish with our brand new Polish Vocabulary Builder app, available for just 59p from the iTunes App Store! Learn scores of words and phrases with the familiar tap-to-flip flashcard system avaiable in our Norwegian, Japanese and Scottish Gaelic and Greek apps. Practise your Polish in three interactive games to consolidate your new knowledge. Click this link to view the Polish Vocabulary Builder for iPhone and iPod Touch in the App Store!

One of the interactive activities in the Polish Vocabulary Builder app

New Greek app available!

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:17:33 +0000

Greek learners need no longer be jealous of RusMate users improving their Russian, Gaelic, Norwegian or Japanese with RusMate apps. That’s because can now improve your Greek with our brand new Greek Vocabulary Builder app, available for just 59p from the iTunes App Store! Learn scores of words and phrases with the familiar tap-to-flip flashcard system avaiable in our Norwegian, Japanese and Scottish Gaelic apps. Practise your Greek in three interactive games to consolidate your new knowledge. Click this link to view the Greek Vocabulary Builder for iPhone and iPod Touch in the App Store!

Sample activity from the Greek Vocabulary Builder app for iPhone and iPod Touch

Russian Verb Blitz and Scottish Gaelic app updated!

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:00:56 +0000

You can now practise even more verbs with the Russian Verb Blitz app, which has been updated to contain almost a hundred imperfective present / perfective future conjugations. Download the app here.

Likewise, our Scottish Gaelic app has been updated with new topics and some improvements to the activities. Download the app here.

Note that existing users simply need to update their apps in iTunes to get the updated versions for free.

Quick and easy Russian keyboard

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:20:20 +0000

Ever needed to type something quickly in Russian, but don’t have access to a Russian keyboard layout? Just call up Google Translate, and type your Russian in phonentic Roman characters for instant transliteration! It’s not only great if you don’t have a Russian keyboard layout handy, but also great if you don’t have time to learn how the keys are mapped to Russian letters on a standard Russian keyboard. Ask any non-Russian who’s had to learn to type on a Russian keyboard, and they’ll no doubt bemoan the fact that the sounds are in completely different places to a standard UK / US keyboard. If you need to type in Russian straight away, then using the phonetic input system on Google Translate is a real time saver. Words appear in Russian script after you type each word into the text field. Type in sobaka and it will instantly become собака as you press space to begin the next word. After you’ve finished, just copy and paste the russified text into your document / email.

If you do want to know the real thing and move on to learning the bona fide Russian keys, then Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on keyboard layouts at this link. It’s usually quite easy to add a foreign keyboard option in the main operating systems – find details in the following links for Windows, Mac OS and Ubuntu (Linux).

Incidentally, Google Translate is a great machine translation tool too! Only don’t use it to write your homework for you – your teacher will know!

Excellent podcast for intermediate Russianists

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:32:18 +0000

In case you’ve missed this one, here’s a tip for a great podcast to improve your Russian skills if you’re at an intermediate level. The podcast is by govoriporusski.com (Говори по-русски), and features short dialogues and discussions on the topics, vocbularies and structures they touch upon. It really is an excellent free resource, including transcripts of the dialogues, although it can be a little challenging – but is ideal for pushing your Russian even further.

The dialogues cover topics from office chit-chat to current affairs (there was an excellent one some weeks ago on the volcanic ash problem), so the podcasts are packed with useful terms you can pick up and use straight away. Thoroughly recommended!

Click here to visit the Говори по-русски website. You can also search for, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

For learners of other levels, the excellent RussianPod101.com is highly recommended, with podcasts available from iTunes, and supplementary premium content available on their website. Visit RussianPod101.com for more details.

RusMate 1.4 released!

admin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:23:15 +0000

The latest version of RusMate Russian Vocabulary Booster has been released, including brand new topics, new words for existing topics, and a whole new tracking system so you can keep tabs on what you’ve been learning and how well you’ve done in the exercises. As always, full native speaker support is provided for the words.

The update is free for existing users of the app, and otherwise available for the same great price of £2.39 from the iTunes App Store at this link.

Scottish Gaelic Vocab Booster now available!

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 08:13:29 +0000

We are pleased to announce that Scottish Gaelic learners can now enjoy a version of our flashcard learning and consolidating tool, the Scottish Gaelic Vocab Booster. Learn scores of new words across a variety of topics from the everyday to the fantastical.

Click here to visit Scottish Gaelic Vocab Booster in the iTunes App Store!

The new app extends Rusmate’s app range to cover Russian, Norwegian, Japanese and now Scottish Gaelic. Have fun learning!

Free audiobooks in Russian

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:32:02 +0000

If you’re looking for some more challenging listening material, it’s worth visiting the free audiobook site LibriVox.org, which offers audiobooks in a variety of languages – including Russian. Visit the site at this link. On the homepage, click the link for the online catalogue, then More Search Options on the search page. The expanded search page gives you the option to search for audiobooks by language – simply select Russian, search, and you get a list of downloadable files. Currently there is a range of material, including poetry, prose and even a selection of Aesop’s fables in Russian – all great for listening practice. And remember, even if you don’t understand everything, listening for gist – even the odd word – is an important skill in language learning. And just the fact that you’re listening to native speaker Russian will help your ear atune to the sound of the language.

Click here to visit LibriVox!

Taking Russian vocab further offline

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:17:37 +0000

If you’ve exhausted the vocab in our iPhone app, then there’s a fantastic book we recommend for taking your vocabulary skills even further in Russian. It’s Using Russian Vocabulary by the late and brilliant Terence Wade, and is available from Amazon. It covers all sorts of topics from basic to advanced, and breaks each section into manageable levels so you can pace your learning. Highly recommended!

Happy Holidays!

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:21:51 +0000

Happy Holidays to all Rusmate app users and their family and friends. We have lots of developments planned for 2010 – stay tuned for more news!

Our popular Russian Verb App is no longer free, but stilll a great bargain at just 59p / US$0.99 / 0,79 € for a brilliant learning app to perfect your conjugation expertise in Russian.

Keep your suggestions coming in as they really help us to improve the apps!

Happy holidays one and all,

The RusMate Team