Russian "Hook" summary

[Lisa A. Frumkes]

A few weeks ago, I sent a query to SEELANGS, LCTL-T and FLTEACH asking the
following:

"Does anyone know of any materials (written, audio, video, multimedia,
web-based, whatever) which could be used to "hook" students whom one is
trying to "lure" towards the study of Russian?"

I got more than two dozen responses, which I summarize here, identifying
sources with their contributions; quite a few people asked for a summary,
so I thought it made sense to post it to the lists as well.

This is a rather lengthy document, so if you're not interested, prepare
your deletion finger *now*.

I hope this information is useful to some of you out there, and thanks a
million to everyone who sent me suggestions!

Lisa

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Printed Materials

Genevra Gerhart suggested her book A Russian's World (for more
information, point your web browser to http://www.wolfe.net/~ggerhart/) as
a hook.

Rosa-Maria Moreno (Cormanick) passed on to me some cute flyers which could
be posted around campus for advertising Russian courses, including an
amusing version of "The top 10 reasons to study Russian."

Markell R West suggested:  "Maybe the book A CLOCKWORK ORANGE would appeal
to some; they based their slang on Russian."

Markell R West also suggested that "the magazine RUSSIAN LIFE (North
American magazine) is interesting, and it has a language column which is
in English but talked about some Russian words, or some Russian words as
English-speakers used them."

Steve Blackwell provided a "large and growing list of cognates (around two
hundred)" which he is "using in an effort to break down the "fear" barrier
and market Russian
as an accessible, not so difficult language."  He formats it with "some
jazzy fonts" and warns us that "the transliteration is inconsistent; I've
done this in an effort
to anticipate the way the non-Russian-Speaker will most naturally read the
letters."

What Russian Words do You Already Know? More than you think!
Below is a list of over 200 transliterated Russian words you can already
easily understand. And there are many more.  The spellings are slightly
adjusted for ease of recognition.


mama
papa
act
kot
orkestr
text
lampa
tom
stool
telefon
televizor
brat
sestra
actor
artist
balet
journal
gazeta
computer
monetka
concentratsia
revolutsia
communicatsia
ingener
biznismen
narkoman
militsia
nos
avtobus
dog
buldog
rekomendatsia
park
organizatsia
meeting
sportsmen
student
shkola
universitet
luna
auditoriia
stop
test
repetitsia
menu
vodka
voda
kurs
klass
kaseta
film
bomba
futbol
basketbol
hokkey
badminton
volleybol
materiia
katastrofa
ocean
kompetentny
dama
muzika
guitara
appetit
arest
advokat
karikatura
ataka
atmosfera
atlas
atlet
genii
muzei
geografiia
master
medik
nimfa
fanatik
familiia
elektrichestvo
ekonomika
huligan
politika
campania
religiia
rezultat
talant
disk
printer
portfel
statuya
blank
opera
bank
produkt
bluzka
rukzak
bootsy
kepka
player
video
polemika
argument
fakt
implicatsia
imperia
imperator
tsar
incognito
import
impulse
monarch
pianino
shtorm
revolver
cort
treiner
monument
istoriya
golf
attraction
assistent
utopia
aphorism
budget
burokrat
vacuum
kosmos
kultura
globus
realia
professor
doktor
major
leitenant
general
maskarad
karnival
simvol
simfonia
sistema
skeptik
skelet
deklamatsia
binokl
interes
logika
favoritizm
protest
oliva
naturalist
dektektiv
jeansy
taxi
tabletka
folklore
exotica
echo
ceremonia
cement
centr
mentor
drifter
asphalt
presentatsia
manager
complect
corpus
block
jungly
divan
balkony
invalid
coordinator
conflikt
conformism
passivny
passagir
universal
factor
evangelia
hallucinatsia
dictator
gigant
motor
grammatika
dogma
koketka
pedant
radical
seria
separatizm
objectivnost
ovatsia
liquor
analiz
lift
yachta
jurist
humor
era
fenomen
specialist
discriminatsia
dissident
bar
cafe
restoran
accent
academic
ambitsiozny
canoe
maximum
kapitalizm!!

Video

The videotape which accompanies the first lesson of _Nachalo_ might
attract some students. Jerry Ervin writes:  "forgive me for mentioning
it--you might consider showing to that audience the videotape of the first
lesson of _Nachalo_ (publ. McGraw-Hill); it shows contemporary, urban
Russia and young and older Russians (not stereotyped KGB-types and
peasants) with a Russian voice-over and English subtitles.  We
(admittedly, I am one of the authors of the textbook) think it makes a
nice "hook," whether or not you decide to use that actual text.

Supplementary courses:

Many folks associated with the Ohio State University (Adonica A Sendelbach
, Rosa-Maria Moreno (Cormanick) and Jerry Ervin) mentioned the Sampler
Class Program.  An article on the subject by Adonica Sendelbach appeared
in the November 1995 AATSEEL Newsletter.  Such sampler classes "most
likely should be offered on some sort of regular basis (i.e., we have
Russian 101 offered every quarter here [at Ohio State], so the sampler
classes should be offered every quarter).  A colleague in North Carolina
said he tried it and served Ben and Jerry's White Russian ice cream as the
treat!"

Other outreach courses, are of course, possible and were mentioned by
several people: culture, literature and history in translation, for
example.  Special lectures including guest lectures in linguistics or
history classes, either by Russians or merely on Russian topics , might
also be another idea.

Human resources:

Sheila M. McCarthy suggests that "recent grads who are working/studying in
Russia are a good "hook" if you can get them to write a paragraph about
what they are doing."  At her institution, they print up this information
in a departmental newsletter and post it on a bulletin board (both
physical and electronic bulletin boards might be useful here).  "The aim
is to show that there are employment opportunities for Russian."  She also
mentions that "when students return from study in Russia, we have a coffee
hour for all interested students."

Computer-based resources:

Betty Lou Leaver suggested a CD-ROM called A Touch of Russia is ready for
distribution.  She is not sure whether or not it is available yet, but it
is apparently from Analysas Corporation.  Agora Language Marketplace
listed their phone number as 800-401-5664.

Web-based resources

Tom Beyer wrote "I hope to put up on the web in the next few days a page
called Russia Today it will have one hundred Russian signs of familiar
images such as Koka Kola , Pepsi, MakDonalds etc.  I also hope to put up
lots of scans of Russian artifacts-lottery tickets, theater tickets, metro
maps, Russian currency, stamps, postcards, etc."
http://www.middlebury.edu/~beyer

TennesseeBob (a.k.a. Robert D. Peckham) passed along his latest set of
Russian links, which I've not had the time to look at, but those who are
familiar with TBob are aware of the great service he provides to language
teachers in his relentless perusal of the web in search of new web sites.
His list follows:

Russia and the Soviet Union: RUSSIA-NET at BIBLE.ACU.EDU ("Russian and
Ukranian Evangelism")
RUSSIAN at ASUACAD ("Russian Language Issues")English & romanized Russian.
rustex-l at UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU ("Russian TeX & Cyrillic text processing
list") In Eng.
RAMIT-L at MITVMA.BITNET   It would be a LISTSERV list ("Russian Club at MIT
Discussion List")
SUEARN-L at UBVM ("Connecting the USSR to Internet") In English.
FRIENDS at APRIL.IBPM.SERPUKHOV.SU ("U.S.-Russia Friends & Partners
Distribution
        List") About WWW networking for US, Russia, & ex-USSR.
INFO-RUSS at SMARTY.ECE.JHU.EDU News for Russian emigres, in Russian & Eng.
        Subscription requests to INFO-RUSS-REQUEST, not LISTSERV.
SOVOKINFORM at DRFMC.CENG.CEA.FR CIS news, events, general information; in
English
        & Russian. Subscription requests to BURKOV, not LISTSERV.
OKAZIYA at MITVMA ("Offers/requests to carry mail/docs/etc to/from Russia")
H-RUSSIA at UICVM ("H-Net Russian History list") Discussion in English.
RUSHIST at CSEARN ("RusHist - Russian History Forum")Discussion in English.

Russian Mailing Lists (Yamada Language Center, U of Oregon):
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/lists/russian.html

E-mail Discussion Groups for people interested in Russian (CUNY):
http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/pages/ruslists.htm

Re: surfing the web in/for f (russian live link list):
http://arachne.acs.uci.edu:1080/w3m3/flasc-l/msg00076.html

[Russian Software]:
http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~banerjee/russlist.html

RUSAG Weekly News Updates (The Russian Agricultural ListServ):
http://csde.aces.k12.ct.us/friends/science/agriculture/master.html

Russian Mailing Lists (Yamada Language Center, U of Oregon):
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/lists/russian.html

E-mail Discussion Groups for people interested in Russian (CUNY):
http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/pages/ruslists.htm

Russian Legal Server - News and Listserv:
http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~nikforov/news/news.html

FPLEGA   Subscribe to   listproc at solar.rtd.utk.edu  (help legal
practioners
and scholars, as well as
businessmen and other interested people share information concerning the
new
Russian (plus CIS and U.S.-Russian) Laws and Regulations)

REESWeb: Russian and East European Studies Internet Resources - Listserv
Discussion Groups

(The World-Wide Web Virtual Library) - tons of listservs, etc with the
right addresses:
http://crichton.nis.pitt.edu/~cjp/rslist.html

T I L E . N E T / L I S T S - Russia:
http://tile.net/lists/russia.html

RUSSIAN (and some Slavic) LISTSERV WWW SITES

Department of German and Russian-U. of North Carolina at Greenboro:
(link-rich, worth the trip for the radio-TV sites or the 16 newspapers):
http://www.uncg.edu/~lixlpurc/german.html

INSTITUTIONS IN RUSSIA (WWW Virtual Library: Sociology):
http://syy.oulu.fi/sos/instruss.html

Russian Language Resources on the Internet:
http://elaine.teleport.com/~rawdirt/russian.html

Russian.html:
http://www.alaska.net/~whisper/russian..html#anchor421994

Educational Projects & Programs in Russia
http://aie.riis.ru/english/projects/index.html

The New Russia
http://www.interknowledge.com/russia/

Images of Irkutsk (Russia)
http://ripley.ece.uiuc.edu/~vfridman/irkutsk2.html

Faces of Russian Rock
http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~bilona/rusrock/

Index of Russian Lyric (Rock)
http://www.serve.com/andrey/russian/music/rock.htm

RUSCOM's Audio Collection of Russian Rock (WAVE (PCM) format)
http://www.maths.monash.edu.au/~kig/ruscom/waves/

Maximov's Registry of Music Resources (Russian classical and rock)
http://www.maximov.com/Resources/music.html

Dancing in Russia Homepage (English or Russian)
http://sunny.aha.ru/~irnpaul/

Welcome to Ekskursii!:
http://users.aimnet.com/~ksyrah/ekskurs/eks.html

RUSSIA Homepage:
http://www.asialink.com/russia.htm

WIRE - Emerging Markets: Russia & the N.I.S.
http://wire.co.uk/examples/finance/russia.htm

English-russian russian-english dictionary (interactive form):
http://www.elvis.msk.su/cgi-bin/mtrans

Russian home pages
http://donkey.cs.arizona.edu:1994/~paul/russia.html

[Open Radio] 22 - FM 102.5 MHz (Russia):
http://2x2radio.rinet.ru/

RUSSIA BED & BREAKFAST HOMESTAY:
http://pomo.nbn.com/home/homestayrussia/russiahomestay.html

[Russia On-line Services] - all cyrillic:
http://koi.www.online.ru/rrol/rservices.xhtml

Information about RUSSIA and the Former USSR:
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~mes/russia.html

All Regions of Russia by Pictures, copyright (hundreds of photos):
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~mes/russia/photo.html

Statistics for "All Regions of Russia by Pictures
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~mes/russia/usage/count.html

Russia on the Net:
http://www.ru/

FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, MOSCOW  (need to select Russian encoding):
http://www.ru/fns/

RUSSIA:
http://widget.ecn.purdue.edu/~fyodorow/russia.html

Russian Studies on the Web (an alia for Russian and Slavic Departments):
http://www.cs.ut.ee/~roman_l/rusweb.html

or mirror

http://ash.swarthmore.edu/slavic/rusweb/html

Roy's Russian Resource:
http://www.clark.net/pub/royfc/roy1page.html

Selected Russian Rock Bands
http://charon.nmsu.edu/~akravtso/rus_rock.html

Slavic Review (2 post-print issues):
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/slavrev/slavrev.html

Window to Russia:
http://www.kiae.su/www/wtr/

World-Wide-Web servers in Russia:
http://sunsite.sut.ac.jp/asia/russia/russia.html

Russia On-Line: Culture and Art:
http://koi.www.online.ru/emain/eart/

Univ. of Pittsburgh Russian and East European Studies
http://www.pitt.edu/~cjp/rees.html/

REESweb: Russian and East European Studies Internet Resources-Language and
Literature:
http://www.pitt.edu/~cjp/rslang.html

Info-Press (Russian-language iformation agency of America):
http://www.pacificnet.net/~infopress/

Commercial Companies In Russia:
http://garant.msu.ru/info/internet/commerce.html

St. Petersburg Press (in English):
http://www.spb.su/sppress/

ITAR-TASS Russian News Agency
http://www.trib.com/NEWS/tass.html

Russian Daily News:
http://sunsite.oit.unc.edu/sergei/Daily/Daily.html

Simbirsk Telecom
http://www.stc.simbirsk.su/

Saint-Petersburg
http://www.spb.su/

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE BOOKS:
http://www.wor.com/books/russianb.html

Other various suggestions

Distributing information via posters or flyers about current events
Puzzles which involve Cyrillic
Film festivals
Pictures of famous Russians (ballet stars, athletes, actors, musicians,
etc.)
Distribution of znachki or other Russian trinkets (like at freshman
orientation)
Lisa's idea:  get a singing and/or dancing troupe together to serenade new
students arriving on campus with Russian culture--once the attention of
the students has been attracted, hand 'em a flyer.  It takes getting a
group of semi-talented people together, but I think some campuses might be
able to manage it.

Thanks again to everyone who made suggestions:  I hope this compilation is
of use to some of you!


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                           Lisa A. Frumkes
               Assistant Director, CTW Mellon Project
                   Language Laboratory, Fisk Hall
                         Wesleyan University
                           262 High Street
                        Middletown, CT 06459
              (860) 347-8791 (please leave voice mail)
                        lfrumkes at wesleyan.edu

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              *     CTW Mellon Project Home Page:     *
              *   http://www.wesleyan.edu/CTWMellon/  *
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