Russian Language Classes
Pasadena Language Center offers Russian lessons for adults at all levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced and conversation. Learn Russian in a comfortable, casual environment and make it a fun, enriching experience! We serve the areas of Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Arcadia, Alhambra, San Gabriel, South Arroyo, Altadena, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, Glendale, Burbank, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, La Cañada, Montrose, La Crescenta & Sun Valley.
About the Russian Language
Russian is spoken across the vast country of Russia, and in the ex Soviet Republics. Of the more than 150 million, 120 million people are native Russian and other 25 million live in the states that were part of the Soviet Union. Russian is the most important of the Slavic languages, a branch of Indo-European family. It is written in Cyrillic alphabet, which is based largely on the Greek, and named after a Greek scholar and missionary named Cyril.
Curriculum and Structure
The Russian weekly classes are structured into three levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced. Each level is divided into four sub-levels: A, B, C, and D.
For Beginner levels, we use "Russian Complete Course: the Basics" by Living Language.
Beginner A (Units 1 - 3)
Topics: talking about yourself and making introductions, food, family and the home
Grammar: singular and plural pronouns, gender, omission of to be in present tense, formal and informal greetings and commands, asking questions, introduction to cases, the adverb too, numbers 1-100, past tense of to be, the basic plural of nouns, verbs: conjugation I, the prepositional case (singular), conjugation of the verbs to drink, to eat, to want, There is / 'There are, the past tense of to eat and to drink, the accusative case, conjugation II verbs, the future tense of to be, the demonstrative pronoun this, conjunctions, singular possessive pronouns, the genitive case (singular), counting years, prepositional phrases with rooms of the house, the instrumental case, the dative case, personal pronouns in the genitive and expressing possession, negation, reflexive verbs, instrumental case of personal pronouns, instrumental case of adjectives, genitive of origin, etc.
Beginner B (Units 4 - 6)
Topics: everyday life, health and the human body, talking on the phone
Grammar: imperfective and perfective verbs, seasons and months, the verbs to buy, days of the week, verbs of motion, the genitive case (plural), telling time, the accusative of duration, numbers 100-1,000 and ordinal numbers, expressing likes and dislikes, the verbs to study and to play, body parts and the plural of neuter nouns, the verb to be sick, the verb to hurt, expressing ailments, the imperfective verbs to seem and to feel, modal verbs, irregular genitive plurals, something and anything, negative pronouns and adjectives, the accusative of personal pronouns, perfective aspect in negative sentences, imperatives, imperfective and perfective aspect in imeratives, to speak and to listen, expressing friendship in Russian, Russian time expressions, irregular prepositional endings, the perfective motion verbs, let's, subjectless genitive of negation, telephone grammar, short participles, comparatives, aspect and context, etc.
Beginner C (Units 7-8)
Topics: getting around town, shopping
Grammar: prefixes, the noun side, expressing consecutiveness, prepositions, more on asking directions, more on comparatives, review of imperatives, the preposition пo + dative, expressing need with нужно and надо, the verb оказаться, subjectless sentences, the universal possessive pronoun, asking permission, describing color, the expressions nominative + идёт and подходит к + dative, the prefix пo- with comparatives, the expressions носить + accusative and быть в + prepositional, expressing size, elliptic sentences with dative + infinitive, demonstrative вoт and вoн, making general statements, expressing to have enough, to borrow, and to lend, the preposition у + personal pronoun in the genitive, future tense in the conditional, etc.
Beginner D (Units 9 -10)
Topics: at the restaurant, school, work and leisure
Grammar: more on the instrumental case, expressing abstract quantity, the prepositions без and с, restaurant grammar, the subjunctive, the genitive partitive and more on the genitive, more on possession, more on the Rule of Numbers, making requests, talking about school, talking about free time, expressing to study in Russian, a review of verbs expressing to like, expressing whether or not, the use of это + adverb, sequence of tenses, expressing so, all, some, many, none, and every, expressing since and no longer, the verb хотеть and perfective infinitives, etc.
For Intermediate and Advanced levels, the material varies.
The Russian conversation classes cover different topics: news, economy, science, health, politics, entertainment, culture, travel, sports. The students are asked to prepare a newspaper or internet article on a topic of their choice. They will present it in front of the class, providing the list of new vocabulary words found in the article. The discussion will then follow and each student will take a turn on presenting an article.
For Beginner levels, we use "Russian Complete Course: the Basics" by Living Language.
Beginner A (Units 1 - 3)
Topics: talking about yourself and making introductions, food, family and the home
Grammar: singular and plural pronouns, gender, omission of to be in present tense, formal and informal greetings and commands, asking questions, introduction to cases, the adverb too, numbers 1-100, past tense of to be, the basic plural of nouns, verbs: conjugation I, the prepositional case (singular), conjugation of the verbs to drink, to eat, to want, There is / 'There are, the past tense of to eat and to drink, the accusative case, conjugation II verbs, the future tense of to be, the demonstrative pronoun this, conjunctions, singular possessive pronouns, the genitive case (singular), counting years, prepositional phrases with rooms of the house, the instrumental case, the dative case, personal pronouns in the genitive and expressing possession, negation, reflexive verbs, instrumental case of personal pronouns, instrumental case of adjectives, genitive of origin, etc.
Beginner B (Units 4 - 6)
Topics: everyday life, health and the human body, talking on the phone
Grammar: imperfective and perfective verbs, seasons and months, the verbs to buy, days of the week, verbs of motion, the genitive case (plural), telling time, the accusative of duration, numbers 100-1,000 and ordinal numbers, expressing likes and dislikes, the verbs to study and to play, body parts and the plural of neuter nouns, the verb to be sick, the verb to hurt, expressing ailments, the imperfective verbs to seem and to feel, modal verbs, irregular genitive plurals, something and anything, negative pronouns and adjectives, the accusative of personal pronouns, perfective aspect in negative sentences, imperatives, imperfective and perfective aspect in imeratives, to speak and to listen, expressing friendship in Russian, Russian time expressions, irregular prepositional endings, the perfective motion verbs, let's, subjectless genitive of negation, telephone grammar, short participles, comparatives, aspect and context, etc.
Beginner C (Units 7-8)
Topics: getting around town, shopping
Grammar: prefixes, the noun side, expressing consecutiveness, prepositions, more on asking directions, more on comparatives, review of imperatives, the preposition пo + dative, expressing need with нужно and надо, the verb оказаться, subjectless sentences, the universal possessive pronoun, asking permission, describing color, the expressions nominative + идёт and подходит к + dative, the prefix пo- with comparatives, the expressions носить + accusative and быть в + prepositional, expressing size, elliptic sentences with dative + infinitive, demonstrative вoт and вoн, making general statements, expressing to have enough, to borrow, and to lend, the preposition у + personal pronoun in the genitive, future tense in the conditional, etc.
Beginner D (Units 9 -10)
Topics: at the restaurant, school, work and leisure
Grammar: more on the instrumental case, expressing abstract quantity, the prepositions без and с, restaurant grammar, the subjunctive, the genitive partitive and more on the genitive, more on possession, more on the Rule of Numbers, making requests, talking about school, talking about free time, expressing to study in Russian, a review of verbs expressing to like, expressing whether or not, the use of это + adverb, sequence of tenses, expressing so, all, some, many, none, and every, expressing since and no longer, the verb хотеть and perfective infinitives, etc.
For Intermediate and Advanced levels, the material varies.
The Russian conversation classes cover different topics: news, economy, science, health, politics, entertainment, culture, travel, sports. The students are asked to prepare a newspaper or internet article on a topic of their choice. They will present it in front of the class, providing the list of new vocabulary words found in the article. The discussion will then follow and each student will take a turn on presenting an article.