День 2 из 37: Кто там? Кот!
📚 Слова́ дня · Words of the day: 12 – кто, кот, ма́ма, тут, там, как, так, кака́о, тома́т, э́то, да, нет.
🔤 Бу́квы дня · Letters of the day: 6 – А К М О Т Е. They look like English letters – today you read your first Russian words.
⏱ Part 1 = 15 minutes – everybody finishes it. Part 2 = more, only if you want. · 🗺️ All days
Stand up! Yesterday's homework: wave and say ПРИВЕ́Т 👋 – then point to your chest: Я … (your name) 👉
Now three of yesterday's words with their gestures: КО́ФЕ ☕ · МЕТРО́ 🚇 · ПАРИ́Ж 🗼
You remembered them – that is your first win today.
- Don't read anything yet. Watch what Natasha's hands do and listen. 🚪✊ Тук-тук!
- Tap the words above to hear them.
Say every word aloud and show it – the gesture is under the picture. The movement falls on the loud syllable: МА-ма – you rock the baby on МА; ка-КА-о – you sip on КА; то-МАТ – the tomato goes up on МАТ.
Tap a word or its picture – the dictionary opens. 🔊 = listen (when Natasha has recorded it).
🧠 A word you say and act out with your own hands stays in your memory much longer than a word you only hear. Feels silly? Do it anyway! 😄
- ТУТ, Э́ТО, ДА, НЕТ – and in the story НЕ, ВОТ, ТУК-ТУК – have letters you don't know yet. Today they are picture words, like ПРИВЕ́Т yesterday.
- Six letters. They look like English letters and sound almost the same: a, k, m, o, t.
- One small trap: Е says ye, as in yes. КОМЕ́ТА = ko-MYE-ta.
- Small letters look the same, only smaller: а к м о т е.
- Now look at today's words again: КОТ, КТО, ТАМ, ТАК, КАК, МА́МА, КАКА́О, ТОМА́Т – you can read them all! 🎉
- ✍️ Пиши́те! Write them by hand: А · К · М · О · Т · Е – how each letter is written, and a sheet to print.
👂 Listen first, don't read yet. Point at each thing; shake your head on «нет». 👉 Nobody asks you to speak – just listen, point and laugh.
- Ната́ша: Э́то кот. 👉🐈 —
Ска́ффлз: Кот! — Ната́ша: Да, кот. - Ната́ша: Э́то тома́т. 🍅 — Ска́ффлз: Кот! — Ната́ша: Нет! Тома́т.
- Ната́ша: Э́то ма́ма. 🖼️ — Ска́ффлз: Кот?! — Ната́ша: Нет, нет! Ма́ма! 😄
Сли́нки: Тома́т! Ма́ма! Кот! 😺 — Ната́ша: Да! Так!- Ри́чард: А кто э́то? 👉 — Сли́нки: Э́то Ска́ффлз! — Ска́ффлз: Р-р-р…
Now read it! 📖 You know the letters of every word here – except the names and the growl. 🌱 The seed of the day: «Э́то кот» – This is a cat. Just «э́то» + the thing – no is, no a. (Scuffles got it wrong – you never will.)
Say the story aloud, with the actions. Then play: do the action – say the word. Mix them up!
Кот – так? 🙃 – Не так!
Как? Так? – Не так!
Вот так? – Так! Вот так! 👍
Кака́о? – Кака́о! ☕
Тук-тук! Кто там? … 🤷
Ком… комо́к!
А вот мото́к! 🧶
Мото́к тут. Комо́к тут.
Коме́та! Коме́та! ☄️
… 😮
Мото́к там… – Ата́ка!
Комо́к там… – Ска́ффлз! 👂 listen – say it only if you like: Не сиди́ сложа́ ру́ки! – Ата́ка!
Там кот! 🐈 Кто там? – Кот!
- Hold a picture or a book upside down. Ask: Так? – Не так! Turn it… Вот так? – Так! 👍
- Knock on the door: Кто там? Answer yourself: Кот! 😄
- Point at three things: Э́то кот. Э́то тома́т. Э́то кака́о. 👉
- Speaking is optional – listening and doing count too.
Can you do it without the video? – Молоде́ц! Go to the tap quiz.
Guess, then tap. A wrong tap is not a mistake – it is a guess. 😊
Хорошо́! Молоде́ц! Two small things left – two minutes.
In English, t and k come with a little puff of air: t·h·op, k·h·at. Russian Т and К have no puff.
- Hold today's sheet of paper 📄 in front of your mouth. Say English cat – the paper moves. Now say кот – the paper should stay still.
- Try: кот · кто · так · там · как · тома́т. Paper still? Молоде́ц! 🎉
- 30 seconds, every day. Lips and tongue are muscles – this is aerobics.
Tomorrow morning knock on a door ✊🚪 and ask: «Кто там?» Answer yourself: «Кот!» 🐈 Then point at three things: «Э́то кот. Э́то тома́т. Э́то кака́о.» (a cat or a cushion, anything round and red, a cup 😄)
That is the first minute of День 3. You already know it – so День 3 starts with a win.
You may stop here – see you tomorrow: День 3 · Торт – в рот?! Р-р-р! ▶
- Gesture → word. Don't look at the cards. Make a gesture – say the word. Mixed order: 🔭 · ☕ · 🤷 · 🍅 · 🚪 · 👌 · 👇 · 🖼️ · ↕️ · 🐈 · ↔️ · 👆
- Word → gesture. Say a word – your friend (or your cat) shows the gesture. No friend? Say it, then show it yourself.
- Yesterday comes back. Mix in four words from День 1: приве́т 👋 · я 👉 · ко́фе ☕ · метро́ 🚇. Careful – ко́фе and кака́о are both cups! Coffee: one hand, a quick sip. Cocoa: both hands round the cup.
Remembering a word from the gesture works better than reading it again.
People 1: Who is it? – Ка́тя, Андре́й, О́льга, Макси́м: a girl, a boy, a young woman, a young man.
Today's question Кто э́то? – and «Э́то Ка́тя», no is, like «Э́то кот». Tap the title – the page opens; the bar at its top brings you back here.
Who is it? What is it? – Natasha shows her cat, her sofa, her tea and her family album.
Кто for a person or a cat, что for a thing – today's two questions. «Э́то кот» – no is. Tap the title – the page opens; the bar at its top brings you back here.
Only the six letters you know. Read the word aloud, then tap it to check.
🐈 КОТ · КТО · ТАМ · ТАК · КАК
☄️ КОМ · КОМО́К · МОТО́К · КОМЕ́ТА · АТА́КА · А́ТОМ
☕ КАКА́О · МО́ККО · ТОМА́Т · КЕ́ТА · МАК
👩 МА́МА · ТЕ́МА · МЕ́ККА
- Write three words in big letters: КОТ, ТОМА́Т, АТА́КА. Say them.
Don't sit with your arms folded – don't just sit there, do something! The English say: Don't sit on your hands.
Slinky jumps at the wool – ата́ка! Scuffles sits with her paws folded. Natasha: «Ска́ффлз! Не сиди́ сложа́ ру́ки!» It is the call of our aerobics: stand up and move. 🤸 Gesture: fold your arms – then throw them open and stand up.
🔊 Sound, meaning, word by word: tap the proverb – it opens its own page.
Кот – так? – Не так! Как? Так? – Не так! Вот так? – Так! Вот так! Кака́о? – Кака́о! Тук-тук! Кто там? … Ком… комо́к! А вот мото́к! Мото́к тут. Комо́к тут. Коме́та! Коме́та! … Мото́к там… – Ата́ка! Комо́к там… – Ска́ффлз! Не сиди́ сложа́ ру́ки! – Ата́ка! Там кот! Кто там? – Кот! Молоде́ц! Пока́!
The cat – like this? – Not like this! How? Like this? – Not like this! Like this? – Yes, like this! Cocoa? – Cocoa! Knock-knock! Who's there? … A lump… a little ball! And here is a ball of wool! The wool is here. The paper ball is here. A comet! A comet! … The wool is there… – Attack! The paper ball is there… – Scuffles! Don't sit on your hands! – Attack! There is a cat! Who's there? – A cat! Well done! Bye!
- А К М О Т – like English a k m o t. Е – ye as in yes: коме́та.
- «Э́то кот» = This is a cat. Just «э́то» + the thing – no is, no a. Like «Я Ната́ша» yesterday.
- ТУТ, Э́ТО, ДА, НЕТ, НЕ, ВОТ – picture words for now: you know them before their letters.
- Tap a new word or its picture – the dictionary opens 📖. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
ударе́ние – stress – shows the syllable you say louder and longer, just like in English: LUN-dun (London), TEL-ih-fohn (telephone).
ЛО́НДОН – the stress is on the first syllable, as in English. But Russians say a real, round о: LON-d’n, not LUN-dun. The second о comes after the stress, so it is short and weak (like the a in sofa).
ТЕЛЕФО́Н – not like the English TEL-ih-fohn: the stress is on the last syllable: ti-li-FON (е without stress sounds like a short и). That is why we mark the stress.
🎯 Why does о sound like а?
КОТ looks like English cot – a baby's bed. Picture a cat asleep in a cot: a кот in a cot! 🐈🛏️
ТОМА́Т – loud in the middle, like English to-MA-to. 🍅
🔬 Почему́ так · Why this way
- A win in the first minute – yesterday's homework. Remembering yesterday's words without looking is one of the best-proven tools – 50 classroom experiments: Agarwal · Nunes · Blunt 2021.
- 15 minutes a day, not one long lesson. Short daily sessions beat one long one: 35 min × 6 days scored 83 vs 70 for one 3.5-hour lesson. Study with adults – Stoltzfus · Sukseemuang 2018; gaps of 1–4 days work best – Rogers · Nakata · Chiu 2025.
- Six easy letters first. They look and sound like English, so on your first letter day you read real words. The US Foreign Service Institute Russian course starts the same way (FSI FAST Russian, lesson 1).
- Letters, then real words at once. Adults learning Russian letters one by one, and reading them straight away in real words, matched letters to sounds best. Study with adults – Brennan · Booth 2015.
- Say it and show it. A word said with a matching gesture, made by the learner, stays in memory far longer than a word only heard. Study with adults – Macedonia · Knösche 2011 (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig); adults who acted out Russian words remembered far more than adults who only listened – Asher 1968.
- The action on the loud syllable. A hand beat on the stressed syllable helps adults pronounce new words. Studies with adults – Prieto's group, Barcelona.
- Words come back. A word met four times over several days is remembered far better than four times in a row (84 % vs 63 %, Wegener et al. 2023). So тома́т comes back later in тома́тный сок – and one day you meet its everyday twin, помидо́р.
- The proverb lives in Part 2. Interesting extras inside the core lesson lower learning of the main thing (Mayer, seductive details). Heard today, read on День 10 – an idiom learned with its picture and story is remembered better than with a bare translation (Boers 2001).
- The cat makes the mistakes. Nobody corrects the student. The student laughs, points and is never the one who is wrong.
- Our own method. Natasha's Language Aerobics – tested for many years with her students.
- Videos needed
- Russian кто
- Russian кот
- Russian мама
- Russian тут
- Russian там
- Russian как
- Russian так
- Russian какао
- Russian томат
- Russian это
- Russian да
- Russian нет
- Russian не
- Russian вот
- Russian комета
- Russian атака
- Russian ком
- Russian комок
- Russian моток
- Russian атом
- Russian мокко
- Russian кета
- Russian мак
- Russian тема
- Russian Мекка