Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

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verdastelo
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Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

Postby verdastelo » Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:37 pm

The course Русский язык как иностранный (научный стиль речи) on OpenEdu.Ru might be of interest to those intermediate speakers of Russian who love science and have a desire to read scientific texts in Russian.

The 10-week course introduces the student to the structural patterns of written scientific Russian. I'm studying the lectures 3.1 and 3.2 and find the course well-designed. The first lesson teaches eight patterns to write definitions:

  • Что — это что (I)
  • Что есть что (I)
  • Что представляет собой что (IV)
  • Что является чем (V)
  • Чем называется что (I)
  • Чем называют что (IV)
  • Что (I) относится к чему
  • Что (IV) относят к чему

The Roman numbers represent the case. I is nominative, II is genitive, III is dative, IV is accusative, V is instrumental, and VI is prepositional.

In the second week, you learn how to describe X consists of Y or Y is made up of X.

  • Что состоит из чего (II): Атом состоит из протонов, электронов и нейтронов.
  • Что включает в себя что (IV): Атом включает в себя протоны, электроны и нейтроны.
  • Что содержит что (IV): Атом содержит протоны, электроны и нейтроны.
  • Что входит в состав чего (II): Протоны, электроны и нейтроны входят в состав атома.
  • Что является составной частью чего (II): Протоны, электроны и нейтроны являются составной частью атома.
  • Что содержится где (VI): Протоны, электроны и нейтроны содержатся в атоме.

The course ends on 31 January, 2021. You still have over two months.

For those who see this post after January, 2021, these books mentioned in the Recommended Literature section of the course might be of some use:

  1. Аросева Т.Е., Рогова Л.Г., Сафьянова Н.Ф. Научный стиль речи: технический профиль: пособие по русскому языку для иностранных студентов. М.: Русский язык. Курсы, 2015.
  2. Петрова Г.М. Русский язык в техническом вузе: учебное пособие для иностранных учащихся. М.: Русский язык. Курсы, 2015.
  3. Соловьева Е.В., Арбатская О.А., Середина Н.П. Спектр: пособие по чтению и развитию речи для иностранных учащихся технических вузов. М.: Русский язык курсы, 2013.
  4. Соляник О.Е. Вектор: учебное пособие по русскому языку для иностранных учащихся технических вузов. М.: Русский язык. Курсы, 2014
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Re: Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

Postby IronMike » Wed Feb 10, 2021 2:23 pm

How was the course?
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Re: Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

Postby verdastelo » Fri Feb 12, 2021 3:28 pm

IronMike wrote:How was the course?


The course was great and just at the right level for me. I watched all the lectures, did all the exercises, and practiced reading random passages from the Soviet science books. As a result, style is less of a problem now in reading popular science and academic texts. The main challenge is vocabulary.

Some texts, such as the next snippet from Физика для всех, are relatively easier to parse. Even unknown words can be deduced from context. донельзя in на первый взгляд донельзя странными must be "incredulously" or "to the point of disbelief"?

Image

But others can be impossible to read because of the novelty of the subject matter and vocabulary. The first sentence from Самый быстрый рак on Наука и жизнь illustrates the point.

Одна из передних лапок у самцов рачка-бокоплава Dulichiella cf. appendiculata превращена в огромную клешню – её масса составляет треть от массы всего рачка.

I was never good at biology, which shows in the sheer number of unknown terms: передние лапи (?), рачка-бокоплава, Dulichiella cf. appendiculata, клешня (?), рачок.

PS. If you are interested, try out the course. It starts again in a few days. I finished mine today by sitting in the proctoring exam. The results are expected next week.
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Re: Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

Postby IronMike » Fri Feb 12, 2021 3:50 pm

Awesome, thanks for the review. Without looking anything up, I'm going to guess those words before a native speaker shows up and tells us what they are.

передние лапи: one of their claws maybe, лапа I think being a paw of a dog. Maybe the big claw if it is one of those crabs that has one big claw and one small one?

рачка-бокоплава: Hmm...I see possible roots here like рак > рачка, so small crab? бок being the side or hip or something, and плава related to swimming, so maybe crabs have something on their sides to help them swim? I also don't know much about biology, so....guesses.

Dulichiella cf. appendiculata: well this one of course is Latin and is not fair. ;)

клешня: Damn this looks so familiar. It's gonna kill me when someone pipes up.

рачок: gen pl of the cute little crab name above?
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Re: Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

Postby verdastelo » Fri Mar 26, 2021 4:15 pm

I wanted to share with you all that I got my certificate today. I'm glad and dancing!

Image

Image
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Re: Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

Postby Iversen » Fri Mar 26, 2021 7:16 pm

I don't use the site as a course - it doesn't lok like a course if you use Verdastelos's link (congrats, by the way) - but it contains some short and simple articles about interesting subjects, so now I know something about not only fast shrimps, but also fast spiders, and I have marked it as a source for more study texts later on.
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Re: Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

Postby IronMike » Fri Mar 26, 2021 11:11 pm

verdastelo wrote:I wanted to share with you all that I got my certificate today. I'm glad and dancing!

Поздравляю!
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Re: Scientific Russian for Foreigners (MOOC)

Postby verdastelo » Sat Mar 27, 2021 1:36 am

Iversen wrote:I don't use the site as a course - it doesn't lok like a course if you use Verdastelos's link (congrats, by the way) - but it contains some short and simple articles about interesting subjects, so now I know something about not only fast shrimps, but also fast spiders, and I have marked it as a source for more study texts later on.


Aha! There are two links in the thread. The one that you clicked is most likely to Наука и жизнь, a popular science magazine from Russia. The other link (shared in the first message of this thread) takes you to the course, Русский язык как иностранный (научный стиль речи).
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