Do You Speak Runglish? Posted by yelena on Sep 4, 2012
If you are to search Google for a phrase “на каком языке говорит эта женщина” (what language does this woman speak), you will get более шестисот тысяч результатов (over six hundred thousand results). The above video will be at the top of the search results followed closely by articles and forum discussions, many – highly…
Dramatic poetry reading: «Багаж» (“Luggage”) Posted by Rob on Aug 29, 2012
I’ve been wanting for a while to make a video for the blog, but it took me a while to get over my camera-shyness — not to mention, fix some technical problems with my camcorder and figure out how to (sorta) use video-editing software. As my debut ролик (“video clip”) for the blog, I decided…
Time to Lighten Up Posted by yelena on Aug 28, 2012
What can be easier that learning Russian verbs? Russian adjectives, of course! And to switch gears, let’s choose лёгкое слово (easy word). In fact, why not talk about this exact adjective – лёгкий. To begin with, лёгкий might describe an object that is light as in Лёгкий танк весит меньше, а двигается быстрее, чем тяжёлый…
An irregular verb that keeps on giving… Posted by Rob on Aug 27, 2012
According to a lot of grammarians, the Russian language has only FOUR basic verbs with “irregular conjugations.” Students of Russian may be skeptical of this. And it’s frankly hard to believe that a verb as wacky as (for example) лечь, “to lie down,” is by any stretch of the imagination regular! After all — just…
It Is Always Timely to Sing About Hares Posted by yelena on Aug 23, 2012
Have you had a chance to watch Бриллиантовая рука (The Diamond Arm) yet? Since the first post about it, I got to watch it again AND I watched a documentary called Бриллиантовая рука 2. It was fascinating and full of interesting trivia. If you like trivia, love the original movie and want to challenge your…
“Didja hear the one about…?” (Some Russian анекдоты) Posted by Rob on Aug 22, 2012
Russian анекдоты are not only a fascinating source of insight into Russian culture, but often provide a great opportunity to learn some important grammar and vocabulary. Here are just a few examples I’ve collected from the Internet — hover your cursor over the yellow-highlighted terms for some additional commentary on word usage. Political humor, of…
Ivan the Fool of Our Times Posted by yelena on Aug 21, 2012
Today let’s watch one of the best, most beloved Soviet comedies, The Diamond Arm. Almost every single line uttered by the all-star cast became a source of one-liners, анекдоты (jokes), крылатые выражения (catch phrases). The movie was so successful and entered быт (everyday life) so firmly, that it is still frequently quoted and referenced. The…