Archive for 'Culture'
Saying “Goodbye” Posted by bota on Jul 27, 2022
My dear readers, Goodbyes are tricky, aren’t they? Maybe that’s why the majority of Russian speakers hang up the phone by saying «Давай, пока» or sometimes just the “Давай”. I wish I could do the same, but unfortunately, this will be my final blog here. I do not want our goodbye to be a sad…
Шестеро на диване, or What would you do to win a brand new couch? Posted by ryan on Jun 30, 2022
I recently stumbled across an article on Афиша.ру, a popular Russian website, with the following headline: В Бе́лгороде провели́ соревнова́ние по са́мому до́лгому сиде́нию на дива́не The headline was intriguing because, well, it makes you ask, заче́м? The tough конкурс contest began on June 24 and lasted 4 days, finishing on June 28. From this…
Russian hocus-pocus Posted by bota on Jun 24, 2022
This title is just one of the combinations I used trying to search for the name of the super-duper fascinating language thing we are about to discuss. Would you like to guess what it is? An itsy-bitsy guess? I cannot give you another clue, but I will say this: googling ‘Russian hanky-panky’ will NOT take…
Monasteries, eyeliner, and poverty Posted by bota on May 18, 2022
Today is a deep dive into one Russian verb. Recently one of my students and I were casually talking about ways to express in English that you “подвёл кого–то” (as in ‘to let someone down’) when it dawned on me that I don’t know why we use “подводить” in that sense in Russian. What I…
Stars of the stage: Russian opera through several interpretations Posted by ryan on May 11, 2022
Russian opera is and has been legendary for well over a century. In invite you to get acquainted with some legendary известные ру́сские о́перные исполни́тели through some of the roles they are most known for: А́нна Нетре́бко – «Русла́н и Людми́ла» Михаи́ла Гли́нки Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) was the first Russian composer to gain notoriety at…
A very polite hedgehog Posted by bota on Apr 19, 2022
If you are новичок, this blog is for you. If you are an advanced student or a native Russian speaker, this blog is also for you. How? Simple. The answer is ёжик. Или точнее, очень вежливый ёжик. As Russians like to say “Повторение — мать учения“.. For those of you new to Russian language, use…
A bridge between cultures in a time of war? Posted by ryan on Mar 25, 2022
The life of Серге́й Параджа́нов Sergei Parajanov, an infamous director who lived and worked in the Soviet Union, would have made a plot worthy of a movie in itself: ethnically Armenian, he was born in Tbilisi, now Georgia, in 1924, quit engineering school to study voice in the conservatory, then later, enchanted by the world…