“Котлета” – It is What Hamburger Always Wanted to Be Posted by yelena on Dec 2, 2010
Do you love Russian language? Of course or else why would you be reading this blog, right? Do you also love «готовить еду» [to cook] or «читать о еде» [to read about food]? Then «я настоятельно рекоммендую» [I strongly recommend] to immediately get a copy of a wonderful book called «Книга о вкусной и здоровой…
Russian Proverbs and Sayings Posted by Natalie on Dec 1, 2010
«Дорогие читатели!» [Dear readers!] Today we are going to talk about «русские пословицы и поговорки» [Russian proverbs and sayings]. Every language has its peculiar turns of the phrase and we cannot hope to know them all–there are many sayings in English that I have never heard–but Russian in particular seems to have some very true…
Russian Chemistry for Muggles Posted by yelena on Nov 30, 2010
It’s been a while since we had our last guest post, but today is the day! Our guest writer today is Rob whom many of you know from the comments on the posts and invaluable contributions to our Fanpage discussions. Rob is what we, in Russia, call «эрудит» [a polymath] aka «ходячая энциклопедия» [a walking encyclopedia]…
Feodor Chaliapin Posted by Natalie on Nov 29, 2010
Who is singing in this video, and what is he singing? Read on to find out. «Дорогие читатели!» [Dear readers!] «Как прошли выходные?» [How was your weekend?] Mine was quite lovely–I went to a bookstore, read a book «о Сталине» [about Stalin], and drank «какао» [cocoa, hot chocolate]. And yes, I know Stalin is not…
Uglich Posted by Natalie on Nov 26, 2010
For those of you who don’t know, I have three main passions in life: «история, классическая музыка и литература» [history, classical music, and literature]. And, I suppose, there is a fourth one as well: writing about those three main topics, especially in relation to Russia. So today, we are going to learn «об Угличе» [about…
Reading “Мастер и Маргарита”: Chapter 19 Posted by yelena on Nov 25, 2010
For those of the blog readers who’ve taken up our challenge to read «Мастер и Маргарита» [Master and Margarita] «по-русски» [in Russian], congratulations! We are now officially done with «часть первая» [part one] of the novel and are moving on into a very exciting «часть вторая» [part two]. It is only here, in Chapter 19…
Russian Greetings are Fun Posted by yelena on Nov 19, 2010
You’ve all likely heard an expression “nature abhors vacuum”. You can translate it into Russian quite literally as «природа не терпит пустоты» or more figuratively as «свято место пусто не бывает» [lit: the holy place is never empty]. This last one is especially appropriate when talking about people. And so now we have a new…