A1 · Start here
8 units that carry you from saying hello to getting by when you do not understand. One neighbourhood, one continuous story, and an explicit outcome at the end of every unit.
Free to start · No card required · First steps toward A1
Route / ru-A1
Finding your feet in a new neighbourhood
The whole path
Finding your feet in a new neighbourhood. Each unit has one outcome, three scenes that build it, and a checkpoint where you meet a scene you have not rehearsed. Nothing asks you to use grammar you have not already heard.
Unit 01
Greet someone, say your name, and say where you are from
Unit 02
Order something simple and ask what it costs
Unit 03
Ask where a place is and understand the answer
Unit 04
Say what you have and ask for what you need
Unit 05
Say what you do during the day, and when
Unit 06
Talk about the people close to you and what you like
Unit 07
Arrange to meet someone at a time that works for you both
Unit 08
Ask someone to repeat or slow down when you do not understand
Every lesson is free to read. The first 2 episodes also translate every line, and they cover the whole outcome of Unit 1.
Start with Unit 1Inside a lesson
Every episode runs the same four moves in the same order, so the only thing you have to decide is whether to start. One unit is three episodes plus a checkpoint.
Hear the scene while you follow the words. Meaning and sound arrive together, which is why nothing here needs translating first.
5 minRepeat the useful lines out loud while the audio keeps going. You copy the rhythm of a whole phrase instead of assembling it word by word.
7 minRebuild the lines you just heard from their pieces. This is where a phrase stops being something you recognise and becomes something you can produce.
5 minRetrieve what the scene contained, without looking back. Forgetting once and recalling is what makes the next unit easier.
3 minThe checkpoint that closes each unit is different on purpose: an unseen scene, no scaffold, and no build the sentence step — you cannot rehearse it, you sit it. That is how you find out whether the unit's outcome actually survived.
The honest answer
Free · every lesson to read · full support in Episodes 1–2
First lines you will say
Premium · added support, not extra lessons
No timer on the free part. Read all 32 lessons at your own pace; Premium adds support around them, never the lessons themselves.
When you finish
The path ends on "Get help": ask someone to repeat or slow down when you do not understand. From there the same listen-read-speak loop continues on longer Russian stories, with wider vocabulary and less scaffolding.
Unit 01 · first episode
Dima has boxes, a locked door and no door code — until a neighbour comes out.
Language note
Saying your name
меня зовут + имя
Answers
Direct answers about the Russian Foundations sequence, the free boundary, and what happens after Unit 8.
8 units of four lessons each — 32 lessons of about 20 minutes. That is roughly 11 hours of lessons, before whatever you replay. Most learners take one lesson a day rather than racing the whole path.
Yes — every lesson in the path is free to read, with no countdown and no card needed to start. The first 2 episodes also come with full reading support, every line translated, and they cover the whole outcome of Unit 1. From Unit 1 Episode 3 onward the first line of each lesson is translated for free; Premium adds every line translation, unlimited word help and stories written from your own life.
No. Unit 1 opens with Меня зовут Анна, where a woman meets a new neighbour on the stairs and has to say something. The first line you read is a greeting.
Both. It is a course built from one continuous story: you follow the same neighbourhood across all 8 units, so the language arrives inside situations instead of in lists. Unit 1 is "Recognize and introduce" — greet someone, say your name, and say where you are from. Unit 8 is "Get help" — ask someone to repeat or slow down when you do not understand.
"Меня зовут Анна" asks you to greet a neighbour and give your name; "Это мой друг" asks you to introduce a friend and ask someone's name. Together those 2 episodes cover the full Unit 1 outcome, so the fully supported start finishes something real rather than stopping mid-sentence.
Unit 8 ends with "ask someone to repeat or slow down when you do not understand". From there you move into level-matched Russian stories at A2 and up, with the same listen-read-speak loop on longer texts.
Start at the beginning
Open the app and the path picks up mid-scene — Меня зовут Анна, dima has boxes, a locked door and no door code — until a neighbour comes out. Every lesson is free to read.
Review these words right before you would forget them
A1 · Start here