Archive by Author
Reading Poetry in Russian Posted by Maria on Jun 11, 2015
A couple of weeks ago we read famous passages from Russian literature (see Part I and Part II here). These works were mostly realist novels written by male authors well known abroad. I would like to wrap up this series with something a little different — poetry by authors lesser known internationally, one of whom…
Dance Like A Russian Posted by Maria on Jun 4, 2015
Let’s turn to something you may do occasionally or regularly, but each of us has come in contact with at some point — dancing. Russians may not all be good dancers, but there are many social situations where dancing does come up. “To dance” is, of course, танцева́ть. Note the suffix change for present tense…
Read Famous Opening Lines in Russian – Part II Posted by Maria on May 28, 2015
We are continuing from last week’s post on reading famous Russian book beginnings. This time, let’s look at books likely to be known by Russian literature aficionados. Eugene Onegin (Евге́ний Оне́гин) Eugene Onegin is a famous rhymed novel by Alexander Pushkin (Алекса́ндр Пу́шкин). Several English translations have been done. While Pushkin tends to trail Tolstoy and Dostoevsky…
Read Famous Opening Lines in Russian – Part I Posted by Maria on May 21, 2015
I’m sure a few of our readers became interested in Russian thanks to their love of Russian literature. Whenever Russian literature comes up, people immediately respond with the name of their favo(u)rite Tolsotyesky 😉 book. At the same time, very few of these Russian lit buffs have read these books in Russian. This is understandable — fiction…
Russian for Travel Posted by Maria on May 18, 2015
With the summer upon us, many of our readers may be making travel plans. Perhaps some are going to Russia or the region for a study abroad or on business. This experience can be overwhelming on its own, and limited Russian skills may add to the stress. To make the process smoother, I would…
Using Cell Phones in Russia Posted by Maria on May 11, 2015
If you are traveling to Russia or staying there for a long time, you probably want to keep in touch with your friends back home. Besides Skype and other similar programs, cell phones are an important tool for staying in touch. No Strings Attached Almost everyone in (urban) Russia has a mobile phone (моби́льный…
Learning Russian After English Posted by Maria on May 4, 2015
We are continuing last week’s discussion of how learning a different second language first may have helped — or impeded — you in learning Russian. Since English is the most commonly studied foreign language, it’s only natural we discuss it next. I would guess for speakers of other European languages Russian may seem infinitely more…