Archive for 'Culture'
Russian Holiday: «С международным женским днём!» [Happy International Women’s Day!] Posted by josefina on Mar 8, 2009
On this beautifulholiday, alsocalled«праздниквесны»[‘spring holiday’] in Russia, there are two ways you could congratulate the fairer sex: «Поздравляемвсехженщинс 8 (восьмым) марта!» [(We) congratulate all women with the 8th of March!] or «Смеждународнымженскимднёмвас/тебя!» [Happy International Women’s day to you!]. Once again it is that time of the year in Russia – the time to give flowers…
Reading Russian literature: А. П. Чехов «Человек в футляре» Posted by josefina on Feb 18, 2009
Today is the day I share with you – long overdue, of which I am aware – my post on how to read a Russian short story in the original. For a long time I pondered on exactly what short story to choose for today’s post, as there is an abundance of great short stories…
Everybody loves борщ [borscht]! Posted by josefina on Feb 7, 2009
There comes a time in everybody’s life when you need to get a little Russia into your everyday existence. Especially if you’re not currently in Russia, but constantly finding yourself outside of the Russian Federation, and thus persistently living without interacting with Russian culture on a day to day basis. Particularly will you suddenly find…
С Наступившим! [Happy Not-so-New-Anymore Year!] Posted by josefina on Jan 2, 2009
In Russia «Новый Год» [New Year] is the BIG holiday of the year, it is to one sixth of our planet Earth’s spacious land what Christmas is to most of the Western world. So if you’re in Russian between, let’s say when the first colorful lights start blinking, sparkling, glittering and the stores put up…
«С Рождеством с Урала!» [Merry Christmas from the Urals!] Posted by josefina on Dec 24, 2008
«С Рождеством с Урала!» This Christmas card is old – from 2006, when I had just moved to Yekaterinburg, and there’s a mistake in it (guess where?). When I sent it out to friends and family that year it caused a sensation because of its… well, partly because of its portrait of Russian contemporary society…
В моем иглу [in my igloo], or The Weather Forecast for Next Week Posted by josefina on Dec 21, 2008
This is the weather forecast for next week in my corner (read ‘igloo’) of the planet Earth. In Russia igloo is «иглу». This is not a Russian word, even though Russia is a cold country. One knows that some words are not Russian words by the way they’re written. If a word ends on an…
While In Russia Beware of… Windows? Posted by josefina on Nov 21, 2008
In the world of silly/strange/solicitous statistics, apparently, Russia is – rather unexpectedly, I must admit – the leader when it comes to the number of people that fall out of windows on a daily basis. In Russia 17 people fall out of windows daily. I had almost forgot how to smile, let alone laugh, at…