I’d like to share with you some of my favorite channels on Youtube that have helped him get through the elementary level or that I wish I had known about when I was an elementary learner.
Many of these channels have video lessons at various levels, for absolute beginners, for upper-elementary learners, and even for intermediate learners. I encourage you to check out the sample videos below and to click on each channel’s title or YouTube icon to go and check out these fine creators’ catalogs of lessons.
Let us know in the comments what you think or if there are other similar channels you would like to recommend.
Table of Contents
Olga Jarrell is a Russian language instructor located at Utah Valley University (Orem, Utah, USA). She has an AMAZING collection of video lessons on her YouTube channel, very professionally done, with clear distinctions whether each lesson is for beginning or intermediate students.
Fyodor offers short, bite-sized lessons for lower-elementary learners. He teaches useful words and expressions and how to use them with lots of examples. He also has great videos for listening practice with slow mini-stories. He often uses the first minute of so of each video to plug his paid online courses, so you may want to skip forward when this becomes repetitive.
This is an excellent channel from the famous podcast of the same name. They have a wide range of videos, but most notably they have common words and expressions with example sentences and translations, excellent for listening while driving or exercising.
Anna is a Russian language teacher living in New York. Although she doesn’t seem to be actively making new videos these days, she has an extensive library of lessons on her channel which I highly recommend. Anna either speaks in English in her videos or in very slow and controlled Russian, excellent for lower-elementary learners (at the A1 level).
Irina offers several types of videos on her channel, including • Grammar lessons in English • Vocabulary lessons on various topics • listening practice with monologues and conversations entirely in Russian.
Alfia offers lots of useful lessons on her YouTube channel, explaining everything in English for elementary learners. She has grammar lessons. But most notably, she has excellent lessons teaching vocabulary by topic, including • body parts and verbs of senses •fruits, vegetables, and nuts • travel and directions • days of the week.
Kris (from Saint Petersburg) has many video lessons on the differences between confusing words in Russian and how to use them correctly, as well as videos with tips on how to learn Russian faster and more efficiently.
Nastya gives us lots of lessons with high-frequency vocabulary lists, Russian slang, and common mistakes learners make in Russian.
Elena, likewise, is no longer active on her channel but has an excellent collection of video lessons for learners. Her older videos are largely explanations of things and places in slow Russian–great listening practice–while her more recent videos feature a “Mindset Mondays” series in English with tips and motivation for keeping up with your Russian studies.
Ксения most notably has a series of 100 common verbs with conjugations and example sentences. Great listening while exercising or walking, in my experience.
Natasha speaks in clear, slow Russian, often repeating herself even more slowly to allow you to repeat after her, while she gives example sentences on various themes, focusing on vocabulary and listening skills.
Daria has an excellent channel for elementary-level learners. Her lessons are on phrases, stories, and she introduces us to her hometown, Moscow.
Natasha created her channel in an attempt to teach Russian to her husband, who appears in many of the videos. In my favorite video of hers, above, she teaches the verbs for ‘sit,’ ‘stand,’ and ‘lie’ in Russian.
A bit advanced for elementary learners, with many videos aimed at intermediate learners. I recommend this channel as a stepping stone between the elementary and intermediate levels.
Top 10 YouTube Channels for Learning Russian (Intermediate)
Here are my recommendations for channels from amazing content creators on YouTube that are ideal for intermediate-level (B1-B2) students.
