"To speak Russian is to speak the language of czars, fortresses, and borscht; of space stations, ballet, theater, athletics, and chess; of very old literature about ancient heroes and fairy tales-- the language of a sentimental, generous, and sharing people whose home is Mother Russia." —seen on a t-shirt

Добро пожаловать! Welcome to Mansfield Russian!

Russian in Mansfield began four years ago. In Spring 2004, about two dozen students went through our first-ever Russian 1 class at Mansfield High School. Now Russian courses are available to all high school students in the Mansfield Independent School District; beginning next school year, Russian 1, 2, 3, Pre-AP 3 and 4 courses will be offered at Ben Barber Career and Technical Academy. These classes are taught by E.B. Holschuh. First-year students have opportunities to practice their Russian in a variety of ways; here students are playing the Russian version of a board game favorite, Monopoly (Монополия). Hopefully, you've found this page for one of three reasons: 1) you're curious about Russian (good for you!) and/or are considering signing up for it (do it!), 2) you've already signed up for it (yea for you!) and want to learn more about what you're getting into, or 3) you're wondering why in the world Russian is offered in a place like Mansfield, Texas! The goals of our one-semester Russian 1 course are to provide the students with a working vocabulary of about 500 words (adequate for the presentation of the grammar), not including the many western cognates now a part of contemporary Russian; student participation in practical conversations taken from ordinary situations of daily life; student mastery of the writing system as quickly as possible (including how to type on a phonetic Russian keyboard); to give the students the confidence and ability to continue with Russian (reading, in particular) after course completion; and to provide the students with an overview of Russian history, culture, and geography.

Get a free copy of Russian Life
Russian Life is a bi-monthly, English-language magazine about Russian culture, history, business, and travel that offers "an objective, insightful trip into Russian reality." Current and recent issues are available fo the taking-- for free-- on a first-come, first-serve basis. Stop by R13 and find out more about Russian Life!

Free Sample of Russian!
"The Story of Eric" is a short, entertaining story to give you a taste of Russian! Read the text silently as you listen to the recording. The Russian words in context will help you match up the Russian letters with their sounds:

Эрик Кац was born in Даллас in the штат of Техас, but after high школа, he became a студент in a small колледж in Нью-Йорк. His main интерес was Russian area studies, and he was fascinated by everything having to do with Россия: as a freshman, he signed up for курсы in русская литература, история, политология, география, философия, музыка, and культура. He read all the Russian классики: Пушкин, Достоевский, Толстой, and Чехов.

Эрик also took courses in русский язык. To practice his русский язык, Эрик visited all sorts of русские вебсайты on the Интернет. There he read русские журналы and газеты, listened to русское радио and watched русское телевидение. He also rented lots of русские видеофильмы.

Эрик was especially interested in русская история, from the time of the all-powerful цари, like Пётр I through the период of коммунизм under Soviet rulers such as Ленин, Сталин, Хрущёв, and Брежнев to those under whom Россия moved towards the West: Горбачёв, Ельцин, and Путин.

In his senior year, Эрик traveled to Россия and spent the семестр in Москва, Санкт-Петербург, Волгоград, and Воронеж. After the spring семестр ended in май, Эрик left Россия and spent all summer - all июнь, июль, and август traveling around Центральная Азия. In countries as remote as Казахстан, Узбекистан, Таджикистан, and even far-off Кыргызстан, Эрик found that he could communicate with just about everyone using his русский язык.

Before leaving Россия, Эрик invited his new friend Анна to visit him in Америка. Эрик wanted Анна to see Даллас, where his мама, папа, and сестра lived. And of course, Анна wanted to travel all around the США: from Бостон to Вашингтон, from Чикаго to Атланта and Майами, and then on to Хьюстон, Лос-Анджелес, Сан-Франциско, and Сиэтл.

After returning to Америка, and after Анна came to visit, Эрик finished his studies and considered a future карьера, perhaps as a журналист or a профессор or as a бизнес-консультант for firms dealing with Россия and Центральная Азия. With his solid knowledge of русский язык and русская культура, Эрик knew that he would find many opportunities.

[Thanks to the George Washington University German & Slavic Dept.
Story used by permission.]

BBC Russia
интернет-портал Русской службы Би-би-си

Click the above image to visit the BBC's video page, where you can hear the latest news clips in Russian and see an accompanying Russian text synopsis of the content.

Voice of America
«ГОЛОС АМЕРИКИ» ▪ Надежный источник новостей и информации

Click the above image to view the Voice of America's "Video Express" daily news capsules in Russian.

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