Archive for March, 2014
Работа не волк, or talking about work Posted by Maria on Mar 31, 2014
Work is a place where we spend at least 8 hours a day, so it can never hurt to learn to talk about it in Russian. By the way, the title literally means, “work is not a wolf (and will not run into the woods),” meaning that you shouldn’t work too hard or too much…
5 Most Common Russian Gestures Posted by Jenya on Mar 25, 2014
When you are lost for words, especially if we are talking about foreign words, it is pretty common to resort to gestures. With this in mind, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to shed some light on the most common Russian gestures. The information on their origin seems to be pretty conflicting. However…
Comparative Degree in Russian Sayings Posted by Maria on Mar 24, 2014
Within the larger subject of degrees of comparison, I would like to concentrate on the smaller group of adjectives and adverbs that form their comparative form with the -ше suffix. As you remember, the more prevalent pattern for forming the comparative is the -ней/нее suffix, such as холодно – холоднее. However, a number of high-frequency…
Word Order and Logical Emphasis Posted by Maria on Mar 20, 2014
One of the first things a learner of Russian hears about the Russian sentence structure is that, unlike in English, the word order (порядок слов) is relatively free. While understandably daunting for the beginner, this order not only allows for greater flexibility, but also helps with the logical emphasis in the sentence. What does that…
Russian Verb Conjugations: Oh, Brother!.. Posted by Jenya on Mar 19, 2014
We all know that the way we learn our native tongue is very different from the way we learn a second language. A lot of research has been done in an attempt to make foreign language learning feel more natural, more enjoyable. The reason I am telling you this, as we approach the subject of…
A Typical American VS a Typical Russian: Where Does the Money Go? Posted by Jenya on Mar 18, 2014
When dealing with foreign culture, a lot us of frequently make the mistake of assuming that things are the same way there as they are in their own country. Even after years of living in US, I find myself falling into this trap time and time again. You won’t be able to completely escape…
University system in Russia Posted by Maria on Mar 13, 2014
Education is a funny subject to talk about. One the one hand, it’s one of the first things we learn about in our first year or so. On the other hand, because the emphasis is usually on talking about our experiences as a student, we may never learn much about the educational system of the…