Archive for January, 2016
Act A Fool: Proverbs With Дурак In Russian Posted by Maria on Jan 25, 2016
As the famous saying goes, «В Росси́и две пробле́мы: дураки́ и доро́ги» (“Russia has two problems – fools and bad roads”). There is a wealth of proverbs for a variety of occasions talking about fools. Дурака́м зако́н не пи́сан This literally means “There’s no law written for fools.” What’s implied is that the person…
10 Ways To Say You Don’t Care In Russian – Part II Posted by Maria on Jan 18, 2016
Last week, we looked at some colloquial ways of saying you don’t care about something. We listed five, but that’s not all! Let us continue the list. 6. до ла́мпочки Лампа is the diminutive of ла́мпа (lamp) and usually means “light bulb.” [Noun/pronoun in dative] + до ла́мпочки is yet another synonym of “I…
10 Ways To Say You Don’t Care In Russian – Part I Posted by Maria on Jan 14, 2016
Read Part II here. Russian has many ways to say you don’t care about something. They range from neutral to decidedly low-register to downright vulgar. In this post, I would like to cover some colloquial ways of expressing indifference. Let’s start with the basics. Normally, we say “[adjective/noun in the dative case] + всё равно́”…
Russian Writers Read Their Works Posted by Maria on Jan 11, 2016
We often think of the “greats” of the past as something almost legendary, something we can only access through their books and memoirs. However, we are lucky to have some recordings of a few Russians writers and poets reading their own work. Listening to their voices reminded me that they were living people and somehow…
3 Affordable Ways To Surround Yourself With Russian Media Posted by Maria on Jan 5, 2016
I was going to start Netflix on my “smart” TV when I saw a banner inviting me to install a TV Rain (Дождь) app. For those of you who may not know this, TV Rain is an independent TV station in Russia. This inspired me to write about the ways someone living outside Russia…