Russian Language Blog

With just a few more days до конца года (left in the year), this is a good time for обзор проделанной работы (review of the work done). So how do you feel about your progress with learning Russian?

This might sound strange, but I certainly feel that my Russian has improved since I started writing for this blog. Even though Russian is мой родной язык (my native language), I do have a hard time with some of the more obscure or complicated rules of it. And so do most Russian speakers, I assure you.

But enough о себе (about me). Let’s talk о вас (about you) and what you want to read and learn about. There are a couple of ways you can let me know what you want to see on this blog:

Оставьте комментарий с пожеланием в конце любого поста (Leave a comment with your request at the bottom of any post) or

Оставьте сообщение на нашей страничке в Фейсбуке (leave a message on our Facebook page)

Without any of this, all I have to go by are the numbers. And according to the number of views and the number of comments on posts on this blog, it looks like I should be writing more about

• Russian social networks, such as Vkontakte.ru, as well as about Russian communities on international networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter;
• Must-know Russian phrases and strange Russian expressions for anyone who plans on traveling to Russia some day;
• Everyday Russian expressions, such as спасибо (thank you) and я застрял в пробке (I got stuck in traffic);
• Russian grammar and its peculiarities, starting with the basics. The post about noun genders generated 98 comments, the record on this blog, and that’s including posts with give-aways.
• Russian last names, possibly, since the two posts about Russian first names and Russian names for pets have been popular.
• Anything Russian as long as the word секс (sex) is in the title or at least implied;
• Besides, I still owe you a post about curse words, don’t I?

Now, someone who is just starting to learn Russian, asked me today, what would be a good resource to learn some basic household Russian phrases so that he can talk to his wife and child. So he wants to learn to say things like “we are out of milk” and “please pick up your toys”. I am wondering, how many of you are interested in something like this? Please, let me know in the comments.

At the same time, we have lots of readers here who are either native speakers or very fluent. And I’d love to do something together with you guys and gals, like maybe have a book club or a movie club once a month. Again, let me know in the comments.

Finally, here’s something that occurred to me as I was writing about declensions a few weeks ago – I have a native speaker’s perspective on a lot of the grammar issues. This can be both helpful and not so helpful as I try to explain things. If you are an advanced learner of Russian and would like to share your experience, let me know (in the comments), so we can either collaborate on a post or you can write a guest post on the subject of your choice.

And with that, I am wishing you весело встретить Новый год (merrily greet the New Year) since как год встретишь, так его и проведёшь (how you greet the year is how you will spend it). С Новым годом, с новым счастьем! (Happy New Year!)

If you celebrate Christmas and New Year, then you have already украсили ёлку (decorated the Christmas tree). Still, there’s always room for just one more ornament, isn’t there? That’s why today я научу вас (I will teach you) how to make a very simple украшение (an ornament) that even children can make за несколько минут (in just a few minutes).

Actually, I’m going to show it with a video. Yep, this is something new I’m trying for the blog. This way you get to hear the Russian words as well as read them.

Now, since this is my first ever video, not just for this blog, but like for everything, it is not very fancy. «Эмми» за него я не получу (I will not be getting an Emmy for it). But as simple as it is, it was quite a challenge снимать (here: to shoot).

First, it was hard придумать (to think of) something for a video. Thankfully, one of the blog readers, Rob, gave me an idea when he sent me сценарий (a script) for an origami how-to video (awesome script and I do hope Rob makes a video with it).

Then I had to go through close to дюжина дублей (a dozen takes) before getting it almost right. On the first try, my видеокамера (video camera) fell down in the middle of all the folding and creasing action. In several takes I held the materials either слишком высоко (too high) or not in the center of the screen. In one of the takes I started заикаться (to stutter). And in one otherwise perfect take I completely blanked out on how to say “to eyeball it” in Russian.

Now, you notice that I said everything in the video is “almost right”. Yes, there’s one little thing in it… Try to spot it (hint: it has to do with how counting in Russian).

Oh, and the ornament you will be making or at least watching me make is called фонарик (a lantern) in Russian. So сделайте мне одолжение (do me a favor), watch this video and tell me what can I do better next time. And if you make фонарик (a lantern) or even a whole гирлянда (a string) of them, I’d love to see the pictures!

Finally, to all the readers who are getting ready to celebrate Рождество (Christmas) this Sunday – Merry Christmas!

I don’t know about you, but конец декабря (the end of December) is always the busiest time for me. It’s all about getting ready for Новый Год (the New Year), мой любимый праздник (my favorite holiday).

At first I wasn’t going to write about празднование Нового Года (celebrating the New Year) since we already covered it on this blog several times. We wrote about some of the новогодние традиции* (New Year customs) associated with this праздник (holiday) as well as some useful Russian phrases for gift-giving and receiving. And last year we explained how to celebrate a truly Russian New Year.

What’s left to talk about then? Quite a few things, as it turns out. For example, we never really concentrated on новогодняя ёлка (the New Year tree). The other day I was asked a question about traditional Russian tree decorations. And since I am going to buy my tree later today, that’s what the post is about.

Growing up, we would go покупать ёлку (buy a fir tree) just a couple of days before the holiday and decorated it either on December 30^th or 31^st. Most of my friends and neighbors did the same thing. It was rather необычно (uncommon) to put up a tree a week or more before the holiday. Personally, I think it kept up ощущение праздника (a sense of celebration) since ёлка не успевала приесться (there was not enough time to get used to the fir tree).

Once the tree was installed in its подставка (stand), first up went электрические гирлянды (string lights). This was also the most frustrating part of the process since all the wires перепутывались (would get tangled up). Besides, всегда хотя бы одну лампочку, да приходилось менять (there was always at least one light bulb that needed to be replaced).

Next we would get our most treasured ёлочные украшения (ornaments) out, including стеклянные шары (glass orbs), usually красные с белым узором (red with a pattern of white); стеклянные шишки (glass pinecones); стеклянные сосульки (glass icicles); фигурки сказочных персонажей из дутого стекла (blown-glass ornaments in the shapes of fairy tale creatures).

As with many other things, our ornaments were much the same as the ones on our friends’ trees or other trees around the country since they were all made on the same фабрика ёлочных украшений «Ёлочка» (“Yolochka”, the Russian ornaments’ factory). The factory, by the way, is still open and is cranking out new ornaments.

After the fancy glass ornaments that families берегли как зеницу ока (saved as the apple of one’s eye) and передавали из поколения в поколение (passed from generation to generation), it was the turn of the simple самодельные игрушки (hand-made ornaments). Various фонарики (lanterns), коробочки (tiny boxes), бумажные цепи (paper chains), and such were made out of картон (cardboard), цветная бумага (colored paper), and фольга (foil). Sometimes we would get a chance to make an ornament out of an egg by making the holes in it, blowing the egg white and yolk out, and then decorating the whole egg shell.

After that it was time to decorate with бусы (strings of beads) and гирлянды (garlands) that weren’t электрические гирлянды (string lights), but made out of стеклянные бусины (glass beads). Then the tree topper, верхушка, would be placed on top of the tree by an adult and kids would take handfuls of дождик and мишура (tinsel) and hang all around the tree. In the end, the tree would be so covered in the shroud of tinsel that it was hard to see its branches.

The final touch was to wrap a white bed sheet around the tree stand and place пластмассовый Дед Мороз (plastic Father Frost) under the tree.

Do you celebrate New Year? Do you decorate a fir tree for it? What is your favorite ornament? Do you make your own ornaments? You can take a picture of it and share with us on our Facebook page.

*Here’s something that I just found in Google Translate – the phrase “новогодние традиции” is translated into Russian as Christmas traditions while “новогоднии традиции” is translated as New Year’s traditions. Interesting…