Archive for 'language'
This Weekend It’s All About Her, in Russia Posted by Jenya on Mar 4, 2015
Despite all the political chaos that Russia seems to be afflicted with right now, most Russians will turn their attention away from politics this coming weekend. In Russia, March 8th , which falls on a Sunday this year, is International Women’s Day. If you are not familiar with the origins of this holiday, I recommend searching…
Learning Russian through Music Posted by Jenya on Feb 25, 2015
When I was in the earlier stages of learning English, before I moved to the United States, finding easier ways to learn new words and phrases was pretty important. One of those ways was learning through music. When you hear a song you like, you can listen to it over and over again; at a…
Pet Peeves in Russian Posted by Maria on Feb 2, 2015
Many of us have turns of phrase in our language that give us rage. In English, some examples would be “irregardless,” “I could care less,” and other things people consider redundant, incorrect, or plain inane. Russian has such phrases, too, so let’s look at what many Russians find infuriating. I’ll use examples from the spoken subcorpus…
How Dare You Speak a Foreign Language! Posted by Jenya on Jan 27, 2015
Lets imagine that you get invited to dinner at the home of a Russian couple and you don’t speak Russian. Would you find it rude if they occasionally spoke Russian in front of you? How about if they translated it so you could understand it? We all know what it feels like to be around…
Etymology of Russian Fruit and Vegetable Names Posted by Maria on Jan 19, 2015
I have recently read an article about different words for oranges in Spanish. According to the article, the word for an orange in the Dominican Republic is china because Spanish settlers of the country were aware of its Chinese origins. This made me think about the Russian word for “orange” which reflects the same thing. I…
Christmas is not Russia’s Main Winter Holiday Posted by Jenya on Dec 10, 2014
Since the beginning of December every minute of every hour brings us closer to the crazy, stressful, yet long anticipated, and magical winter holidays. Some of you may think I am being politically correct by not saying “Christmas” and using “winter holidays” instead. Let me assure you this is not the case. A lot of…
Why You Shouldn’t Rely On Other Slavic Languages to Understand Russian Posted by Maria on Nov 10, 2014
Russian is a Slavic language, so it shares some of its grammar and vocabulary with other languages from that family. Much as we like to rely on similarities among languages to expand our knowledge, I would like to warn you against using your knowledge of Russian to communicate with speakers of other Slavic languages —…