How to Talk About Studying Like a Russian

How to Talk About Studying Like a Russian Posted by yelena on Sep 17, 2013 in Uncategorized

The first thing a visitor to my old school saw upon entering the massive front doors was the famous quote Учиться, учиться и учиться (To study, to study and to study). Bonus point if you know whose quote it is. The quote was in large gilded letters which, by the time I reached high school, lost their shine. This seemed fitting as that was the time when most of the students in my класс (grade) were getting fed up with классы (lessons). Ironically, we all had plans to apply to университет (university) or институт (institute), where, if accepted, we would had to учиться (study) five more years. But, as some wisecracks pointed out, one должен учиться, учиться, и учиться, особенно если не хочется работать, работать и работать (must study, study, study, especially if one doesn’t want to work, work, work).

So in honor of my old school (pictured above), today’s word is учиться (to study). First thing first, the person who учится (studies) is ученик (a pupil). In works of literature you might sometimes come across the word школяр which sounds very similar to “scholar” and means a person who goes to school and studies:

Говорили, что в молодости Долговязый Джон Сильвер был школяром – They said, in his youth Long John Silver was a student.

Another word you might come across, both in literary works and in real life, is неуч – someone who не учится (does not study). This poorly performing student might also be a неслух (literally, someone who не слушает, doesn’t listen). As a result, the most frequent оценка (mark) he receives in class is неуд, short for не удовлетворительно (unsatisfactory).

Remember, schools in Russia use the 1-5 system for grading with 5 meaning отлично (excellent), 4 meaning хорошо (good), 3 – удовлетворительно (satisfactory) or посредственно (average), and 2 and 1 – the marks of плохо (poor) or неудовлетворительно (unsatisfactory). And now, armed with this knowledge, you can translate the title of this painting Опять двойка.

Speaking of underperforming students, another word with the уч root is недоучка. Here again there is the negative prefix не-, but it is followed by another prefix, до-. Let’s see if you can figure this one out. Here’s a hint: доучиться is a verb that means “to complete one’s study”.

On the other hand, someone who studies hard might become ученый (a scientist) like Mikhail Lomonosov, Dmitri Mendeleyev or Ludvig Nobel (Alfred’s older and vastly richer brother). And, speaking of Lomonosov, he was the classic example of someone known as самоучка (self-taught learner), another good уч word. But in order to be like Lomonosov, you must грызть гранит науки (to study hard, literally to gnaw the granite of science). You will need to корпеть над учебниками (to plod away over the textbooks). And sooner or later you will need to have good учителя (teachers).

The person who учит (teaches) students is known as учитель (a teacher), but typically only school teachers are called that. A university instructor is called преподаватель or, somewhat disrespectfully, препод for short.

Я до сих пор помню свою первую школьную учительницу – I still remember my first school teacher.

Наш препод – просто зверь, требует, чтобы мы ходили на все лекции – Our instructor is a real monster, requires us to attend all the lectures.

Of course, some say that жизнь – лучший учитель (life is the best teacher) and that мы лучше всего учимся на своих ошибках (we learn best from our own mistakes). Which brings to mind the maxim дурак не учится, умный учится на своих ошибках, мудрец – на ошибках других (a fool doesn’t learn; a smart person learns from his own mistakes; a wise person learns from the mistakes of others).

And now, here are some practice sentences for you on when to use the verb учить (to teach, to study) and учиться (to study, to learn). Choose the correct verb:

Учитель учит/учиться ученика – A teacher is teaching a pupil

Ученик учит/учится у учителя – A pupil is learning from a teacher

Я учу/учусь математику – I am studying math

Я учу/учусь на математика – I am studying to be a mathematician

Ты должен учить/учиться уроки – You must do your homework

Ты должен учить/учиться на отлично – You must study so that you can be a straight A student

Не учите/учитесь меня жить – Don’t teach me how to live my life

Не учите/учитесь у меня дурным привычкам – Do not learn bad habits from me

Не хочу учить/учиться грамматику – I don’t want to study grammar

Не хочу учить/учиться, а хочу жениться – I don’t want to study, I want to get married

And, if all this was too easy, here’s a much harder one:

What’s the difference between я учу русский язык на выходных and я учу русскому языку на выходных? Which one is correct?

If you get frustrated, check the answers below and remember ученье – свет, а неученье – тьма (knowledge is light; lack of it is darkness).

Answers (with brief explanation):

Учить is used with a direct object as in учить ребенка (to teach a child), учить английский (to study English), учить стихотворение (to learn (by heart) a poem).

Учиться is used when talking about where and how you study and also what you study for as in учиться в школе (study at a secondary school), учиться на отлично (to get straight As in one’s studying), учиться у знаменитого доктора (to learn from a famous doctor), учиться на доктора (to study to be a doctor).