Archive for 'Culture'
Declension of Russian Last Names Posted by Natalie on Dec 15, 2010
Whoever said «Русский язык–великий и могучий» [the Russian language is great and mighty] wasn’t kidding. Nothing illustrates this more than склонение фамилий [declension of last names]. There are complicated rules and just when you think you’ve got it, you find out there are a couple of exceptions. Russian last names typically end in «ов» [ov]…
Make Every Single Word Count Posted by yelena on Dec 9, 2010
My aunt is visiting from Russia «через пару недель» [in just a couple of weeks] and I’m seriously contemplating asking her to bring me a pair of «валенки», the traditional Russian felt boots. «Зима!» [It’s winter!] «Подмораживает» [It’s getting frosty]. One of the beautiful things about Russian language is that you can build a…
Kiev, Beautiful Kiev Posted by Natalie on Dec 8, 2010
In case you haven’t noticed, «дорогие друзья» [dear friends], «я люблю путешествовать» [I love to travel]. «К сожалению» [Unfortunately], traveling can be quite expensive (which is why I’m not eager to buy my plane ticket back to England in January). But never mind that: let’s talk «о Киеве» [about Kiev], one of my favorite…
“Котлета” – It is What Hamburger Always Wanted to Be Posted by yelena on Dec 2, 2010
Do you love Russian language? Of course or else why would you be reading this blog, right? Do you also love «готовить еду» [to cook] or «читать о еде» [to read about food]? Then «я настоятельно рекоммендую» [I strongly recommend] to immediately get a copy of a wonderful book called «Книга о вкусной и здоровой…
Russian Proverbs and Sayings Posted by Natalie on Dec 1, 2010
«Дорогие читатели!» [Dear readers!] Today we are going to talk about «русские пословицы и поговорки» [Russian proverbs and sayings]. Every language has its peculiar turns of the phrase and we cannot hope to know them all–there are many sayings in English that I have never heard–but Russian in particular seems to have some very true…
Feodor Chaliapin Posted by Natalie on Nov 29, 2010
Who is singing in this video, and what is he singing? Read on to find out. «Дорогие читатели!» [Dear readers!] «Как прошли выходные?» [How was your weekend?] Mine was quite lovely–I went to a bookstore, read a book «о Сталине» [about Stalin], and drank «какао» [cocoa, hot chocolate]. And yes, I know Stalin is not…
Uglich Posted by Natalie on Nov 26, 2010
For those of you who don’t know, I have three main passions in life: «история, классическая музыка и литература» [history, classical music, and literature]. And, I suppose, there is a fourth one as well: writing about those three main topics, especially in relation to Russia. So today, we are going to learn «об Угличе» [about…