«Дорогие читатели!» [Dear readers!] As you can probably see from the author name on this post, there is a new blogger here on Russian Blog: me.

«Чуть-чуть обо мне:» [A little bit about me:] «Меня зовут Наталия.» [My name is Natalie.] «Я студентка и я занимаюсь историей и русским языком.» [I’m a student and I study history and the Russian language.] This year, I am studying «в Оксфордском университете» [at Oxford University]. In my free time, I like to read «романы» [novels] and «играть на скрипке» [play the violin]. «Меня интересуют история, политика, литература, музыка и языки.» [I’m interested in history, politics, literature, music, and languages.]

How did I get interested in the Russian language and Russia in general? «Когда мне было одиннадцать лет, я прочитала книгу о Романовых.» [When I was eleven years old, I read a book about the Romanovs.] It was a work of historical fiction focusing on Anastasia Romanova, the youngest of the Grand Duchesses. The epilogue contained information about what happened to the ill-fated Romanovs and also a bit about the Russian language. I was intrigued.

Fast forward several years. «Я начала заниматься русским языком в университете.» [I started studying Russian at university.] «Я очень люблю русский язык» [I love the Russian language], which is a good mentality for a Russian language blogger, right?

What sort of topics to expect in the future? «Я люблю историю» [I love history], so some discussion about Russian history is definitely in order. «Каждый день я читаю новости на русском» [I read the news in Russian every day], so current events and politics will be featured as well (in fact, I found an amusing video while reading «РИА Новости» [RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency] today that I plan to write about). And, of course, we mustn’t forget «грамматика» [grammar]. It’s the grammar that truly makes the Russian language «великий и могучий» [great and mighty], if you ask me.