Archive for January, 2009
Why, oh Why? [Почему, ах, Зачем?] Posted by josefina on Jan 31, 2009
Да! Yes! Today is the day! Today is the day for the long-awaited post about the difference between «почему» [why] and «зачем» [why; what for]. As you probably notice I’ve taken my time to figure out this, but I think I get it now (наконец-то! [at last, finally]). For a long time I have asked…
Почему изучать русский язык? [or The Best Reasons to Study Russian!] Posted by josefina on Jan 21, 2009
Here are a couple of the best reasons for studying Russian that I found on the web. My best reasons is of course «прочитать «Преступление и наказание» Ф. М. Достоевского в подлиннике» [to read F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” in the original], which I also did (yes!), but what’s yours? Here are few to…
«Средь бела дня» – ‘In Broad Day Light’ Posted by josefina on Jan 20, 2009
«Дрессировке не поддаётся!» [Doesn’t succumb to taming (or training; teaching)] – I saw this splendid advertisement for «Новая газета» [‘New Paper’] in Yekaterinburg in early January, and had planned on using it for a post on the dative case with the words ‘Anna Politovskaya Would’ve Been Proud”, but yesterday’s events caused me to think it…
The Splendor of Russian Proverbs! [Пословицы!] Posted by josefina on Jan 17, 2009
The ‘Word of the Week’ that we’ve had here on this blog for a while now is a very good thing (it proved especially good when that “word” was «Барак Обама»), but what about making some changes in the new year and try ‘Proverb of the Week’ instead? If you really want to get to…
Russian Favorite Word Continued: «Отстой» Posted by josefina on Jan 12, 2009
Never mind the swastika someone painted on this poster (honestly, I didn’t even notice it was there when taking the picture so please forgive me this stupid mistake!) but let’s instead try to focus on two other things present there: 1. “the Soviet poster revived in the 21st century”, and 2. poetry about a bank…
What’s Your Favorite Russian Word? Posted by josefina on Jan 5, 2009
Not very often do we think about what are favorite words are. Not in our native languages, neither in the foreign languages we speak. I didn’t really think much about which Russian word I preferred for a long time. My American classmate here in Yekaterinburg told me a couple of weeks ago that her favorite…
С Наступившим! [Happy Not-so-New-Anymore Year!] Posted by josefina on Jan 2, 2009
In Russia «Новый Год» [New Year] is the BIG holiday of the year, it is to one sixth of our planet Earth’s spacious land what Christmas is to most of the Western world. So if you’re in Russian between, let’s say when the first colorful lights start blinking, sparkling, glittering and the stores put up…