Russian Language

Russian Program Overview

The RC Russian Program is one of the Residential College's intensive language programs. Like the others, it teaches Russian as a language you use rather than just study, in small classes with a lot of contact time and steady practice outside the classroom. It's led by Alina Makin (resco@umich.edu), the program's head and primary instructor.

Courses & Activities | Faculty

Russian Immersion Overview

Learning Russian in today’s world offers numerous benefits, making it an excellent choice for college freshmen, even those without prior experience. With over 260 million speakers, Russian is one of the most widely spoken languages globally and serves as an official language of the United Nations. This significance means that proficiency in Russian can enhance one's ability to engage in international diplomacy and understand global affairs.

Moreover, the Russian language opens up a treasure trove of cultural insights. Russian literature, music, and art have profoundly influenced global culture. By learning the language, students can appreciate the works of great authors like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Pushkin and explore modern Russian cinema and music in their original context.

From a career perspective, knowing Russian can be a valuable asset across various fields. In international relations and diplomacy, for instance, understanding Russian politics, history, and culture is crucial for navigating the complexities of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In business, Russian is essential for engaging with one of the key players in global markets. Additionally, government agencies, NGOs, and private security firms actively seek individuals fluent in Russian for roles in intelligence and security, where analyzing information and conducting operations in Russian-speaking regions is often necessary. The demand for skilled translators and interpreters in legal, technical, and literary fields also continues to grow, providing further career opportunities.

Academically, learning Russian enriches studies in multiple disciplines. Students pursuing political science can benefit from a deeper understanding of Russian politics and its global impact. History and Eastern European studies majors will find that knowledge of Russian history is essential for grasping pivotal events that shaped the world. Additionally, literature and cultural studies students can explore the rich tradition of Russian literature and its context in more profound ways. Even those studying linguistics will gain insights from learning a Slavic language, allowing for enhanced linguistic skills and cross-linguistic comparisons.

Courses & Activities

To fulfill the RC Language Requirement with Russian, you complete RCLANG 193 (Intensive Russian I) and RCLANG 293 (Intensive Russian II), each eight credits, or place out by demonstrating equivalent skill. You then pass a proficiency exam and take the Russian readings course (RCLANG 323). Passing the readings course completes the requirement.

Outside of class, there's a lot of Russian to step into. A daily lunch table and a weekly Russian Tea in the Greene Lounge give you regular conversation practice, and the Benzinger Library keeps a Russian collection of films, journals, and other published materials. The program also stages Russian-language theater productions, with students involved in every part of the performance.

Courses

RCLANG 193: Intensive Russian I

This course is designed to introduce students to Russian language and culture through a variety of reading, listening, writing and speaking activities, all aimed at the development of intermediate communicative competence. It provides students with a basic, but solid knowledge of grammar and syntax, a functional vocabulary, familiarity with basic intonational patterns and pronunciation, and practice in speaking, reading, writing, listening, as well as an elementary knowledge of Russian culture.

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: understand simple written texts or short spoken passages without the aid of a dictionary; satisfy most immediate writing needs in the form of notes and brief personal correspondence; and carry on a short, elementary conversation, dealing with survival situations, asking and answering questions, speaking in complete sentences, and creating with the language (Intermediate Low proficiency on the ACTFL scale). The socio-cultural knowledge acquired should enable students to function successfully in Russian printed and spoken language.

RCLANG 293: Intensive Russian II

In the second part of a two-semester sequence of Intensive Russian, the goal of the course will shift from covering the basic grammar and syntax to expanding vocabulary and developing fluency and accuracy in all four skills to the level of competency required to pass a proficiency examination (Intermediate Mid or above on the ACTFL scale). This entails developing the ability to communicate with some ease with a native speaker in spoken and written language.

As a part of a comprehensive program aimed at the development of all four language skills, students will practice speaking (monologue and dialogue), reading, writing and listening in proficiency-oriented environment, as well as expand their inventory of writing, listening and readings strategies that will enable them to communicate and comprehend more effectively any general/literary texts of non-technical nature without a dictionary and produce coherent/extended discourse in speaking and writing.

RCLANG 323: Russian Readings

As ever, Russia comes to the European table late but its contribution to the world arts is extraordinary.

In the last 200 years Russia has given the world striking modernist pictorial works (think Shagal, Kandinsky, Malevich), astonishing ballet (think Dyagilev and Pavlova); amazing symphonic and operatic music (think Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich); world-famous performers and stage directors (think halyapin, Rostropovich, Stanislavsky and Meyerhold); and leading contributions to the most significant movements in modern art (think the avant-garde, socialist realism, sots-art and postmodernism). Yet before the18 th century Russia’s art was exclusively religious (think Rublyov, Russian icons, church music and architecture). How did it happen? Who/what brought secular art to Russia? How did it manage to raise a whole pantheon of artists in such a short time?

This course will survey the history and development of Russian visual, performing and decorative arts, paying particular attention in the last three centuries to its major cultural and artistic figures, masterpieces, museums, and collections.

The goal of this course is to use and advance language skills by researching in depth a Russian cultural topic through course readings, video viewings, class discussions, and writing short academic essays and giving presentations, all in Russian.

Faculty