Happy end of January! 🙂

If you haven’t outlined your language goals for 2016 yet, here’s a good idea: The One-Page Language Plan. I’d come up with a semi-official ‘Russian Study Plan’ in November (below) and then got distracted in December. Oops. That One-Page Language Plan is looking like a tempting fresh start…

But even without a formal study plan, here are 4 easy ways for you to start improving your Russian right now 🙂

1) Make a new playlist

I can’t- absolutely cannot- stop listening to this song. Help!

Then there’s:

• this list of music videos from the 90s in Russia
• all the songs you never wanted to hear about Vladimir Putin (except I missed this Ukrainian song)
• and a ton of rap battles featuring famous faces under the title Неебический Рэп Баттл.

2) Learn a new word: зараза

зара́за = infection, communicable disease, or someone you can’t get rid of. It’s not exactly a polite word when used to describe a person… but it’s not as impolite as certain, uh, other words. Take a look at how it’s used:

From this article about a man hospitalized in Texas:

From this article about military policies:

And there’s also “Вот зараза”, an expression used when you’re frustrated about something (or someone) who won’t go away.

3) Read something about / in your target language

Article: Lack of Russia experts has some in U.S. worried. Enter this extremely awkward picture:

How much do you know about Крещение, a holiday celebrated on January 19th? Here’s a short article from Russian Teacher Valentina: 19 января – Крещение Господне.

Check out 10 examples that prove a year can change everything: 10 примеров, доказывающих, что год может изменить все.

4) Or just listen to Leonardo DiCaprio tell a story about Russia

И это все!

I hope you found a few interesting links here to explore 🙂

How are your Russian studies going? What cool links have you encountered this month?