С днём защитника Отечества! [Happy Defender of the Fatherland Day!] Posted by josefina on Feb 23, 2009
It is THE holiday season in Russia right now: On the 14th of February it’s«Деньвсехвлюблённых» [The Day of Everybody in Love], then on the 23rd it’s «ДеньзащитникаОтечества» [Defender of the Fatherland Day], wrapping up on the 8th of March with «Международныйженскийдень» [International Women’s Day]. Out of these three holidays – on all of which it…
Word of the Week: «Ли» Posted by josefina on Feb 22, 2009
«Поздравляем сильную половину человечества с Днём защитника Отечества!» [(We) congratulate the strong half of humanity with Defender of the Fatherland Day!]. Coming across this home-made poster on the first floor of my dormitory, I could have used the marvelous little word «ли» to pose a direct question like: «Являются ли мужчины сильной половиной человечества?» [Are…
Reading Russian literature: А. П. Чехов «Человек в футляре» Posted by josefina on Feb 18, 2009
Today is the day I share with you – long overdue, of which I am aware – my post on how to read a Russian short story in the original. For a long time I pondered on exactly what short story to choose for today’s post, as there is an abundance of great short stories…
«Летать Аэрофлотом» [Flying Aeroflot] Posted by josefina on Feb 10, 2009
Once onboard a «Аэрофлот» plane, as I clearly was when I took this picture a couple of days ago, there’s no turning back. One can only hope the pilot’s sober and that it won’t come tumbling down or, «шутки в сторону» [joking aside], down some whiskey and enjoy the ride… (Внимание! [Attention!] This post does…
Everybody loves борщ [borscht]! Posted by josefina on Feb 7, 2009
There comes a time in everybody’s life when you need to get a little Russia into your everyday existence. Especially if you’re not currently in Russia, but constantly finding yourself outside of the Russian Federation, and thus persistently living without interacting with Russian culture on a day to day basis. Particularly will you suddenly find…
Why, oh Why? [Почему, ах, Зачем?] Posted by josefina on Jan 31, 2009
Да! Yes! Today is the day! Today is the day for the long-awaited post about the difference between «почему» [why] and «зачем» [why; what for]. As you probably notice I’ve taken my time to figure out this, but I think I get it now (наконец-то! [at last, finally]). For a long time I have asked…
Почему изучать русский язык? [or The Best Reasons to Study Russian!] Posted by josefina on Jan 21, 2009
Here are a couple of the best reasons for studying Russian that I found on the web. My best reasons is of course «прочитать «Преступление и наказание» Ф. М. Достоевского в подлиннике» [to read F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” in the original], which I also did (yes!), but what’s yours? Here are few to…