Archive for November, 2010
Russian Chemistry for Muggles Posted by yelena on Nov 30, 2010
It’s been a while since we had our last guest post, but today is the day! Our guest writer today is Rob whom many of you know from the comments on the posts and invaluable contributions to our Fanpage discussions. Rob is what we, in Russia, call «эрудит» [a polymath] aka «ходячая энциклопедия» [a walking encyclopedia]…
Feodor Chaliapin Posted by Natalie on Nov 29, 2010
Who is singing in this video, and what is he singing? Read on to find out. «Дорогие читатели!» [Dear readers!] «Как прошли выходные?» [How was your weekend?] Mine was quite lovely–I went to a bookstore, read a book «о Сталине» [about Stalin], and drank «какао» [cocoa, hot chocolate]. And yes, I know Stalin is not…
Uglich Posted by Natalie on Nov 26, 2010
For those of you who don’t know, I have three main passions in life: «история, классическая музыка и литература» [history, classical music, and literature]. And, I suppose, there is a fourth one as well: writing about those three main topics, especially in relation to Russia. So today, we are going to learn «об Угличе» [about…
Reading “Мастер и Маргарита”: Chapter 19 Posted by yelena on Nov 25, 2010
For those of the blog readers who’ve taken up our challenge to read «Мастер и Маргарита» [Master and Margarita] «по-русски» [in Russian], congratulations! We are now officially done with «часть первая» [part one] of the novel and are moving on into a very exciting «часть вторая» [part two]. It is only here, in Chapter 19…
Russian Greetings are Fun Posted by yelena on Nov 19, 2010
You’ve all likely heard an expression “nature abhors vacuum”. You can translate it into Russian quite literally as «природа не терпит пустоты» or more figuratively as «свято место пусто не бывает» [lit: the holy place is never empty]. This last one is especially appropriate when talking about people. And so now we have a new…
Здравствуйте! [Hello!] Posted by Natalie on Nov 18, 2010
«Дорогие читатели!» [Dear readers!] As you can probably see from the author name on this post, there is a new blogger here on Russian Blog: me. «Чуть-чуть обо мне:» [A little bit about me:] «Меня зовут Наталия.» [My name is Natalie.] «Я студентка и я занимаюсь историей и русским языком.» [I’m a student and…
Same-Same but Different IV: Paronyms Posted by yelena on Nov 17, 2010
Quick grammar check: what’s the right way of saying this – “Девушки одели платья в горошек” or “Девушки надели платья в горошек”? If you’re not sure, then read on. Sometimes I set out to write a post about one thing, but life gets in the way and I end up writing about something totally different…