Archive for 'Uncategorized'
What Panama Hat? Headwear in Russian Posted by Maria on Apr 14, 2016
Many of you have heard about the recent “Panama Papers” (#panamapapers) scandal, where several celebrities, state officials, and business owners were revealed to have had assets in offshore companies. One of Vladimir Putin’s friends also featured in the leak, prompting satirical posters depicting the Russian president wearing a Panama hat and asking “Кака́я Пана́ма?” (“What Panama…
TED Talks in Russian: “People Are Conformists By Nature” Posted by Maria on Feb 22, 2016
Many of our readers will be familiar with TED Talks, short inspiring presentations given in different subjects. Did you know that TEDx (independently organized) events were held all around the world in many languages, including Russian? You can browse talks by languages and watch talks in Russian given in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and any…
On Time and Space: Key Physics Concepts in Russian Posted by Maria on Feb 8, 2016
Last time, we looked at some top chemistry concepts in Russian. We are continuing our science streak — this time, with physics. Just like in the case of chemistry, physics vocabulary is vast and could not possibly fit into one blog post. Feel free to add other important concepts in the comments! To start, it’s…
Wanted Dead Or Alive: Noun Animacy in Russian Posted by Maria on Dec 24, 2015
You might have learned at some point that all nouns in Russian are either animate (одушевле́нные) or inanimate (неодушевле́нные). Roughly speaking, living things are animate and/or sentient: студе́нт, ко́шка, де́ти; and non-living things are inanimate: стена́, телефо́н, письмо́. This subject has been covered on this blog before. As it turns out, determining whether a…
10 Most Popular Russian Posts of 2015 Posted by Maria on Dec 21, 2015
As we wrap up the year 2015, let us look at the most popular posts from 2015. Some of these were written before 2015 but they continue to remain at the top of the list. 10. Russian Names for Pets Have you ever wondered what name you should give your Russian pet? Look no further than…
Knowledge Transfer: Verbs With The Root -вещ- Posted by Maria on Nov 26, 2015
I thought it may be interesting to look at a “family” of words related by a shared root. One such family refers to all things knowledge and knowledge transfer. Knowledge The basic form is ве́дать, a bookish/archaic way of saying “to know.” Он не ве́дает, что твори́т. (He knows not what he’s doing.) The word…
Reading Russian Press: Russians’ Fear of Uncomfortable Literature – Part II Posted by Maria on Nov 12, 2015
We are continuing last week’s discussion of some Russians’ reaction to the Belorussian writer Svetlana Alexievich receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature. Critics have voiced their concern that the award is becoming more political and that non-fiction, documentary writing is less deserving of this award. Let us continue looking at quotes from the article we…