Intensive Russian
RUSS 002
Swarthmore College, Spring 2025
MWF 11:30-12:20, Kohlberg 318
T/Th 9:55-11:10, Kohlberg 318

Sibelan Forrester
Kohlberg 340
610-328-8162
e-mail sforres1@swarthmore.edu
Office hours:
M 11:00-12:00
T 11:30-12:30
Th 1:00-2:00
…and by appointment

Tsvetelina Yordanova
Kohlberg 303
610-328-8506
e-mail tyordan1@swarthmore.edu
Office hours:
W 8:30-9:25
…and by appointment

Prerequisites: RUSS 001 or equivalent knowledge of the language

Course goals:
> The Russian language sequence at Swarthmore is designed to bring students in two years at least to the intermediate-mid level in all four modalities (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Upon completing the first year, students will be able to:

• Understand simple conversations on predictable topics, such as daily routine, family, school and work; understand simple announcements, brief news items, and radio and TV advertisements.
• Express immediate needs and interests in complete sentences; hold a conversation about daily routine, family, school and work; discuss basic likes and dislikes; ask for directions; manage simple transactions in stores, museums, post offices, libraries, dormitories, restaurants, etc.
• Read signs and public notices; understand printed advertisements and announcements; get the gist of brief articles, news reports, weather reports; understand longer articles and texts, given time and a dictionary.
• Handwrite and type in Russian; write short notes to acquaintances, including invitations, thank-you notes, and simple directions; write letters and short essays about oneself, daily routine, home, family, school and work.

Success in this course requires:

• Daily homework
• Daily memorization of words and grammatical structures
• Commitment to a daily study routine
• Writing Russian in cursive script
• Typing in Russian
• Willingness to make mistakes and take risks as you speak and write
• A positive attitude about error correction (you get points for self-correction!)
• Cooperation in maintaining an all-Russian in-class environment.

Required Materials for the course:

• We will continue using Beginner’s Russian, second edition, by Kudyma, Miller, Kagan, and Lavery.
• We recommend a notebook (or loose paper), or laptop or tablet to take notes.
• A 3-ring binder or a folder for handouts. You will receive a number of handouts during the semester; you should have these handy when you are in class. Also a great place to keep corrected tests
• A pencil allows easier erasure and correction in handwritten work. (Though to be honest a pen – especially a gel, rollerball or fountain pen that won’t force you to cramp down as a ballpoint pen can – makes it easier to write cursive beautifully.) In any case, bring something to write with in class.
• Some word processing software will show when you have a mistake in Russian; this means faster correction than we can give you, so feel free to take advantage of it. Use it to learn by thinking: why did this need to be corrected?
• Internet access to do your on-line homework. If coverage is spotty in your dorm, or your computer is not up to speed, find an alternate, reliable location to do complete your homework such as the LRC or a library.
• A set of Cyrillic keyboard stickers will make typing easier if you've decided to use the Russian keyboard layout rather than the transliterated one. Let us know if you need to know how to get some.
• A Russian-English dictionary. A physical dictionary is really handy, although you should also explore online dictionaries.

COURSE GRADING CRITERIA:

• Attendance and Participation: 25%
• Homework: 25%
• Daily Quizzes: 10%
• Weekly Tests: 20%
• Final Examination: 15%

Attendance and participation are crucial to success in this course. Chronic tardiness will severely impact your grade. We expect you to be present at every class session this semester. Your attendance grade will be affected if it becomes a problem, and excessive absence or lateness will obviously impact your participation. If you cannot attend class for whatever reason, please be courteous and email your instructor as soon as possible. If you know in advance that you will be absent, do your best to complete homework in advance.
As for participation: speak up in class. You learn by taking risks; don’t fear looking foolish. Speak in complete phrases and sentences rather than a simple “yes” or “no.” The more you speak, the more you learn; it's how humans are made.

ACCOMMODATIONS STATEMENT:

If you believe you need accommodations for a disability or a chronic medical condition, please contact Student Disability Services (Parrish 113W, 123W) via e-mail at studentdisabilityservices@swarthmore.edu to arrange an appointment to discuss your needs. As appropriate, the office will issue students with documented disabilities or medical conditions a formal Accommodations Letter. Since accommodations require early planning and are not retroactive, please contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible. For details about the accommodations process, visit the Student Disability Services website at www.swarthmore.edu/office-academic-success/welcome-to-student-disability-services. You are also welcome to contact us (Forrester and/or Yordanova) privately to discuss your academic needs. However, all disability-related accommodations must be arranged, in advance, through Student Disability Services.

All-Russian Atmosphere:

Our course attempts to immerse you in Russian in the classroom. The more Russian you hear and speak in class, the more you will learn. Your participation grade thus includes a good faith attempt to maintain the all-Russian atmosphere. This means:

• no speaking in English without requestings permission from the instructor,
• using circumlocution, gestures and facial expressions to make yourself understood,
• no casual English conversations between students during class,
• if you must curse, use your Russian,
• try to avoid detailed, divergent or distracting questions in English about grammar, phonetics, culture, etc. Save these questions for after class or come ask during office hours,
• make it clear to your instructors (in Russian) when you are hopelessly lost,
• make a conscious choice to help maintain this atmosphere.

Homework and other assignments with deadlines are posted in nauseating detail on our course Moodle page. You will have homework for this course almost daily, in a variety of formats. Keep up with daily assignments and meet other deadlines! If you do fall behind, please let us know when you make up the work so we know to check for it. Excessively late homework will not be graded.
We know that occasionally the BR online exercises fail to work; if that happens, let us know (and don't keep trying if you can too it's not working).

Written Compositions

You will write a composition for almost every unit of Beginner’s Russian. These will be graded on the 5-point Russian (and European) scale (A=5 B=4 C=3 D=2). We will ask you to correct your written compositions so you learn from any errors. Keep a copy of your compositions, as you will be revising them for both unit tests and the final examination. Once we see you writing legibly and comfortably in Russian, we will be glad to have you type your compositions (which makes correction easier).

Daily Quizzes; weekly tests

At the beginning of nearly every class period you will take a short quiz or write a dictation. Our class tests will be on Fridays; plan ahead if you know you'll have to miss a Friday class (especially right before spring break!).

Russian Table and Other Events

You are highly encouraged to attend Russian Table, which meets on Monday every week, as well as other events sponsored or co-sponsored by the Russian Club (is there a Russian Club right now?) and the Russian Section.

Tutoring is available on request, at no cost to you. If you feel you would benefit from one-on-one tutoring by an advanced student of Russian, please let Prof. Forrester know and we will make arrangements to match you with an appropriate tutor. The Dean’s Office supports ten half-hour tutoring sessions per semester; perhaps in future you may work as a tutor (it's paid work!).

Policy on Religious Holidays

If you will be observing any religious holidays this semester which will prevent you from attending a regularly scheduled class or interfere with fulfilling any course requirement, notify us of the dates as soon as you know them so we can make arrangements to help you make up the class or the coursework.

РАСПИСАНИЕ

Неделя 1 - 21-24 января
Повторение

Неделя 2 - 27-31 января
Глава 13: Как мы выглядим?

Неделя 3 - 3-7 февраля
Глва 14: Какие мы?

Неделя 4 - 10-14 февраля
Глава 15: Что у вас болит?

Неделя 5 - 17-21 феваля
Глава 16: Каждый день...

Неделя 6 - 24-28 февраля
Глава 17: Чем вы интересуетесь?

Неделя 7 - 3-7 марта
Глава 18: В городе

9–17 марта – Весенний перерыв!!!!

Неделя 8 - 17-21 марта
Глава 19: Как доехать?

Неделя 9 - 24-28 марта
Глава 20: География

Неделя 10 - 31 марта-4 апреля
Глава 21: Путешествие по России

Неделя 11 - 7-12 апреля
Глава 22: Погода

Неделя 12 - 14-18 апреля
Глава 23: Поздравляю с праздником!

Неделя 13 - 21-25 апреля
Глава 24: Каникулы

Неделя 14 - 28 апреля - 2 мая
Повторение и окончание

Окончательный устный экзамен будет по договору. Окончательный письменный экзамен будет по расписанию. Когда мы узнаем, мы поставим число и время.