When you travel to Russia and you purchase a bus ticket, search for accommodation, or have a normal conversation, you learn to communicate in Russian.
However, while learning abroad do not forget that writing is an important part of communication: at least for the Instagram or WhatsApp.
Here are some tips to improve your written Russian.
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“That’s too obvious,” you think. Do not rush to draw conclusions!
Reading really helps to improve writing skills, so good literature should not be avoided when you want to study Russian language properly. For the best result, try to mix genres: non-fiction, blogs, news, magazines or articles. It will be a good addition to your intensive Russian language course.
Get rid of parasite words
If you study Russian abroad, you will catch up many parasite words. Try to use the filler words as rarely as possible. They are useless and only clutter up the text. How to understand whether they are needed or not? If the meaning does not change, it means that the word is useless.
Use the dictionary
Your new best friend during your Russian courses, the dictionary, comes into play. Use it to replace words that you say or write too often with more interesting alternatives. Avoid common or too simple ones. However, do not overdo it! When you travel to Saint Petersburg, local people would not understand your fancy newly learnt word if it is out of use. Everything that you say or write should be natural and fit the chosen theme in style.
Use and notice idioms and collocations
Collocations are phrases that have simple words always used together. They will make your written Russian more natural. Improve your Russian in Saint Petersburg by talking to local people. Be careful while using these collocations in written speech, as they may not always be appropriate.
Stick to the style
Remember, you use one writing style for your resume, the other for your essay or blog article. Written Russian language in Russia is divided into several styles. The texts have different features according to the style.
Official texts are:
• harder with longer sentences and more open topics;
• less emotional;
• do not contain abbreviations, all words are written in full.
Blog or personal letter texts are characterized by:
• simpler language and short sentences;
• abbreviations;
• spoken language;
• emotional expressions.
Ask for feedback
Always ask to write comments about your texts. Being a student at a Russian language school in Russia, you must have many friends who learn Russian as well. Good proofreaders are native speakers who are interested in what you write, or not native speakers with a good level of Russian.
To study overseas is a perfect chance to gain speaking skills. As for written Russian language, all students should pay more attention to it and put a bigger effort. If you travel to Russia to study Russian language, don’t forget to find an interesting book for you to read and improve your skills not only by attending the best courses to study abroad!
