Archive for 'Culture'
Dramatic poetry reading: «Багаж» (“Luggage”) Posted by Rob on Aug 29, 2012
I’ve been wanting for a while to make a video for the blog, but it took me a while to get over my camera-shyness — not to mention, fix some technical problems with my camcorder and figure out how to (sorta) use video-editing software. As my debut ролик (“video clip”) for the blog, I decided…
It Is Always Timely to Sing About Hares Posted by yelena on Aug 23, 2012
Have you had a chance to watch Бриллиантовая рука (The Diamond Arm) yet? Since the first post about it, I got to watch it again AND I watched a documentary called Бриллиантовая рука 2. It was fascinating and full of interesting trivia. If you like trivia, love the original movie and want to challenge your…
“Didja hear the one about…?” (Some Russian анекдоты) Posted by Rob on Aug 22, 2012
Russian анекдоты are not only a fascinating source of insight into Russian culture, but often provide a great opportunity to learn some important grammar and vocabulary. Here are just a few examples I’ve collected from the Internet — hover your cursor over the yellow-highlighted terms for some additional commentary on word usage. Political humor, of…
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…
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…
Лгун (“The Liar”) — a VERY short fairy tale! Posted by Rob on Aug 6, 2012
I’ve mentioned before that I’m captivated by сказки (fairytales). So, let’s start out this week with a “short and sweet” example of Armenian origin. I chose this one not only because it’s so short, but also because it features an unexpected twist. The plot involves a poor person outwitting a rich and powerful person, which…