Archive for June, 2010
Reading “The Master & Margarita”: Chapter 4 Posted by josefina on Jun 30, 2010
In chapter 3 of «Мастер и Маргарита» [”The Master & Margarita”] we read about how «Берлиоз» [Berlioz] lost his head and died as a result. Chapter 4 is called «Погоня» [1. pursuit, chase; 2. pursuers] (think of the verb «гонять» which is the imperfective and indeterminate ‘friend’ of the verb «гнать» meaning ‘to drive; to…
Summer – Perfect Time for Russian Grammar Posted by yelena on Jun 29, 2010
Do you play lottery? I don’t. But I love imagining would it’d be like if I did play and, most importantly, if I won big. My dreams always include extensive travel although destinations vary depending on the day, time of the year, and the mood I’m in. Right now with the outside temperature in…
Meet the Verb: «собираться»! Posted by josefina on Jun 25, 2010
Maybe somewhere in between all the recent posts by Yelena on our blog – as well as Vickie’s excellent guest post two days ago – you might have asked yourselves: «А где же Джозефина?!» [“But where is Josefina?!”] I know there’s been a significant gap without me posting here about the wondrous world of Russian…
Summer Weekends, Russian Style Posted by yelena on Jun 23, 2010
I’m going to let you in on a secret… Move closer to the screen… Closer… Even though we just posted our guest blogger invite, we (Josefina and I) have been mulling over this idea for some time. We just needed a willing test subject (aka a guinea pig). Somehow our choice fell on Vicki, quite…
Open Invitation to the Russian Blog Posted by yelena on Jun 22, 2010
«Заходите к нам на огонек!» [Drop in for some company!] Wait, if you’re reading this, then you’re already here, wherever this “here” is for you. So assuming that you’ve made yourself comfortable and poured yourself «стакан кваса» [a glass of kvass] or «кружка холодного пива» [a mug of cold beer] or, for our friends in…
Reading: Master and Margarita – Chapter 3 Posted by yelena on Jun 19, 2010
Weekend is a great time for catching up on our big summer reading project – Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. Guess what, we are on Chapter 3 already! But before we dive into the review, let’s do the Readers’ Mail (look at me, I sound like a real National Public Radio show host!). So…
World Cup 2010 Without Russia Posted by yelena on Jun 16, 2010
By now even people who don’t watch TV (count me in), don’t listen to the radio (me again), and donate unopened and unread sports sections of newspapers to local pet shelters (well, I compost mine, but you get the idea) have heard of «чемпионат мира по футболу» [the World Cup]. To my great surprise…