Archive for 'Culture'
The «Русский Паспорт» vs. My Swedish Passport Posted by josefina on Nov 14, 2008
Some things happen for a reason. Other things happen for other reasons. Yesterday my wallet, my cell phone and my friend’s memory card (that she naively enough trusted me with) were stolen «среди белого дня» [‘in bright daylight’] from my backpack during lunch break at the university. Yes, I can think of funnier things to…
Word of the Week: Барак Обама [Barack Obama] Posted by josefina on Nov 7, 2008
While the world is still dizzy with joy and full of metaphysical expectations after Barack Obama won the elections in USA this Tuesday, my mind is, though not far from a cry of happiness, also filled with other reflections. One of these is how to deal with the new president’s name in Russian. With George…
«Право на радость» [Entitlement to Joy] Posted by josefina on Sep 7, 2008
The success of Russian soccer players in early summer revealed to Дума [the Duma] the hitherto practically unknown problem of the average Russian Ivan being prohibited by law to wave the flag of the Russian Federation in any way he or she might see fit. During June this year, millions of Russians took to the…
Learning ‘Conversational Russian’ Posted by josefina on Sep 2, 2008
A good textbook often reads just like a novel. One excellent example of this is Helen Yakobson’s “Conversational Russian: An Intermediate Course” from 1985 [при The George Washington University]. Earlier this summer I found it in a box up in my mother’s attic marked “Russian books”, this pale orange and tattered little book of no…
Is The Russian Tradition «идти в гости» Dying? Posted by josefina on Aug 29, 2008
My last post may or may not have been a little too optimistic [the comparative got me carried away there for a moment], something I intend to make up for today with a more serious post on a gloomier subject. As I have to read my favorite Russian paper online these days, I stumbled on…
Dictionary Must-Have: Толковый Словарь Русского Языка Posted by josefina on Aug 20, 2008
Wisdom is meant to be shared with others. No piece of advice given to me proved to be so wise in regards to learning Russian as the one I am about to share with you today. Back in the days when I was biding my time in Sweden after studying one semester in Saint Petersburg…
The Difference Between Being «Русский» And Being A «Россиянин» Posted by josefina on Jul 3, 2008
In the light of the discussion that arised around my last post, I thought I might take today to clear a few things up as well as explain some linguistic peculiarities. After four years in Russia I’ve seen and heard a great deal of things, not all of them have made me happy and proud…