Russian II

This course is the second in a series of first-year courses in the traditional track, continuation of Russian I. The course continues to develop competence in speaking, reading, writing, and understanding contemporary Russian. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking cultures around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with native speakers. Class work emphasizes development of communicative competence in real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, pair and group work and is conducted almost entirely in Russian. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations in Russian on many topics in informal and some formal contexts concerning your daily life. You will be able to talk in detail about your interests, study habits and daily schedule, plans for the future, food preferences and health and compare these with practices common in the target cultures. You will also be able to write longer personalized messages in Russian.