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News: US visas for Russian citizens Posted by bota on May 13, 2021
Originally, I had a Радо́ница (Radonitsa) blog for today and if I had to write about visas, this is the type of embassy-themed blog I would rather be writing right now, but alas. Russia and US relations like to frequent major headlines and while it’s not a surprise that the two got caught in the…
DIY ideas for Paskha Posted by bota on May 4, 2021
Правосла́вная Па́сха вы́пала на второе ма́я в э́том го́ду. (Orthodox Easter fell on May 2nd this year) and I wanted to share как мы с брати́шкой и сестрёнкой первый раз кра́сили яйца (how I and my siblings dyed eggs for the first time) и как мы пригото́вили па́сху (and how we made a paskha). My…
April fun with paronyms Posted by bota on Apr 23, 2021
What better month than April to cover a few words that confuse even native Russian speakers? Ведь не даром говорят, «Непостоя́нен обма́нщик-апре́ль: на дню семь пого́д». (There is a good reason people say that “April-liar is fickle because it changes the weather seven times per day”.) Here are a few trickster paronyms, one pair for…
Family recipe for Kvashennaya Kapusta Posted by bota on Apr 15, 2021
Kvashennaya Kapusta is known as sauerkraut or pickled cabbage in the US and was mentioned on this channel before. Today, I’ll be sharing my family’s recipe for квашенная капуста (kvashennaya kapusta) with you. Ингредиенты (Ingredients) To make six 2-liter jars 3 cabbages (8kg total) – 3 кочана капусты (белокочанная капуста) 2 kg of carrots –…
Are conjunctions necessary? Part II Posted by bota on Apr 5, 2021
We’ve talked about Russian sentences without conjunctions before, but we’ve yet to discuss my favorite Russian punctuation sign “тире́” (dash) and its role in these бессою́зных предложе́ниях (sentences without conjunctions). There are six instances where you can use “тире́” (dash; typed as an m-dash sign) in place of a conjunction. I’ll provide examples for each…
Are conjunctions necessary? Posted by bota on Mar 23, 2021
Если… а… но… Three perhaps most commonly used сою́зов в ру́сском языке́ (conjunctions in Russian), aside from “и”, and exactly how much I got to say as a kid when trying to convince my parents to get me дома́шнего пито́мца (a pet). It usually went like this: Since then, some things stayed the same – my parents…
The A-Z of the Russian Banya Posted by bota on Mar 15, 2021
A trip to ру́сская ба́ня (Russian banya/ Russian sauna) is a healing cultural experience for your mind and body. Many Russians have a баня (banya) on their dachas and might be enjoying the “jumping in the snow after banya” in their backyards with the last of this winter’s snow. Tips for Russian sauna: Avoid drinking…