Archive by Author
Ivan the Fool of Our Times Posted by yelena on Aug 21, 2012
Today let’s watch one of the best, most beloved Soviet comedies, The Diamond Arm. Almost every single line uttered by the all-star cast became a source of one-liners, анекдоты (jokes), крылатые выражения (catch phrases). The movie was so successful and entered быт (everyday life) so firmly, that it is still frequently quoted and referenced. The…
Filler Is Like Filler Does Posted by yelena on Aug 14, 2012
It occurred to me the other day that one of the (many) subjects we haven’t discussed on the Russian blog is the subject of fillers. Somehow we have been, like, totally overlooking the lorem ipsum of Russian language and it’s basically time to, you know, just do it. Here’s the first thing you need to…
I Am In It to Win It Posted by yelena on Aug 9, 2012
The Olympic Games are not over yet. There are still a few medals to win. Yesterday was a particularly good day for российские атлеты (Russian athletes) who won четыре медали (four medals). So let’s talk about why спортсмены со всего мира (athletes from around the world) train so hard; let’s talk about the two…
7 Minutes of Terror Posted by yelena on Aug 7, 2012
As I’m writing this, I’m basically засыпаю на ходу (falling asleep; lit: falling asleep while walking) so, прошу прощения за возможные опечатки (pardon me for possible typos). I stayed up very late last night (ok, now that you’re reading it, it was 2 night ago) watching… не Олимпийские игры (not the Olympic Games), but the…
Let’s Fake It Until We Make It Posted by yelena on Jul 23, 2012
(If you don’t feel like reading the entire post, skip to the end for a fun challenge) Writing for the Russian blog is, without any doubt, one of the most interesting and rewarding things I’ve done up until now. Not only do I get to better my English (how else would I learn the difference between…
Ennunciation Matters Posted by yelena on Jul 19, 2012
The person in the above video does not pronounce one of the letters, the Russian letter Р. But it doesn’t stop him since, as he points out, there are 32 other letters to work with. Don’t worry if you don’t understand most of what he says. He speaks so fast that even native speakers of…
If You Don’t Have Ozhegov Posted by yelena on Jul 17, 2012
A few days ago I was at a weekly чаепитие (tea party) with my Russian friends when the conversation turned to Russian books. After discussing how difficult and expensive it is to buy интересные и качественно изданные книги (interesting high quality of print books), we talked about books we all brought with us years ago…