Archive for April, 2015
Learning Russian After Spanish Posted by Maria on Apr 27, 2015
I’ve often heard that after learning one foreign language every additional language becomes progressively easier. I suppose there may be truth to it in that you internalize certain principles common to many languages and develop good study and research habits. However, your first foreign language can also mislead you in your efforts to learn…
These Six English Loanwords Don’t Mean What You Think in Russian Posted by Jenya on Apr 22, 2015
The fact that loan words are present in nearly every language is well-known to most people. It is fairly clear that Russian language has been affected by this practice more than some other languages. Whether certain rulers of the past, certain technologies of the present, or globalization are to blame is a topic of…
Why Won’t Russians Answer Me In Russian? (Part II) Posted by Maria on Apr 20, 2015
We are continuing from last week’s post on why some Russians will seemingly give you the cold shoulder and won’t answer you in Russian. We looked at how certain pronunciation gaffes can obscure understanding. There are also social and interpersonal reasons for the person’s reluctance to respond to you in Russian. Hungry for Practice As…
Why Won’t Russians Answer Me In Russian? (Part I) Posted by Maria on Apr 16, 2015
So we’ve all probably been there. You spend a lot of time learning a language and finally get to a point where you can understand some spoken phrases and form coherent responses. You run into a native speaker and happily start talking Russian (or whatever language you’re learning) to them — only to get a blank…
Economic Struggles of Russian People Posted by Jenya on Apr 15, 2015
Try to imagine this scenario: the price of many goods and services you’ve come to depend on have increased by at least a third, food costs in many cases have doubled, while your salary has stayed the same; there is talk at work of going to a three-day work week or closing down all together. For…
Married With Children: Family in Russia Posted by Maria on Apr 13, 2015
Family is one of these things that we often assume to be universal all around the world. Especially thinking about industrialis/zed countries like Russia, people from other such nations expect a typical family to be similar to what they are used to. This, of course, may not be true in all cases. It is hard to…
Russians VS Americans in the Battle of Sauerkraut, Pancakes, Sandwiches, Dumplings, and Hot Dogs. Posted by Jenya on Apr 8, 2015
Warm sauerkraut and kielbasa, a hot dog on a steamed bun with all the fixings, holiday ham straight from the oven, fluffy pancakes with syrup – there is definitely a certain way we eat these foods here in America. The way people eat the very same foods elsewhere can be vastly different. Is it any…