There’s Something Right About This Picture… Posted by josefina on Nov 3, 2008
By the time everyone guessed right – to which I must say «молодцы!» – my Korean roommate counted just how many new words she’s been learning a week, and fixed it in the following manner: «160 (сто шестдесять) новых слов за неделю!» [160 new words a week!]. Now is there anyone out there prepared to…
What’s wrong with this picture? Posted by josefina on Nov 1, 2008
My Korean roommate put up this piece of paper on our wall about a month ago. Only a few days ago did I realize that it is not a correct message in Russian grammatically speaking; no matter how great and ambitious it may be generally speaking. And so I was forced to accept the bitter facts…
Word of the Week: пить [to drink] Posted by josefina on Oct 29, 2008
The word of the week today is a part of a delicate subject. I know. But this is Russian language and since some people tend to consider this language to have as many words for sipping drinks as the Eskimos do for snow, then I would like to set the record straight and clear up…
Проблема с iPod…ом? [Problem with the iPod?] Posted by josefina on Oct 26, 2008
It was my favorite case already from the start. And no other case has ever been able to take its place as number one in my heart. Yes, I’m talking about «творительный падеж» [instrumental case]. Back when I first made my acquaintance with the six splendid cases of Russian language – yes, let’s all repeat…
Who Was Sverdlov? and what’s with his statue still standing? Posted by josefina on Oct 23, 2008
Seemingly a day like any other, today I was present during a literary seminary at my university dealing with the heroic and historic short novel «Тарас Бульба» [“Taras Bulba”] by everyone’s favorite Николай Гоголь [Nikolay Gogol’]. After about thirty minutes of pure literary theoretic discussion, all of the sudden the professor – the sweetest пушкиновед…
“Happiness in a time of Crisis” or «Крисиз как источник счастья» Posted by josefina on Oct 21, 2008
It is my favorite word in any language, but especially I love the sound of it in Russian – «счастье» [1. happiness, 2. (good) luck, (good) fortune]. I love how the two first letters «сч» together are pronounced like a «щ» making it «щастье»; an all together soft and pleasing, lovable little part of speech…
Word of the Week: «Учиться» Posted by josefina on Oct 15, 2008
The word of this week is a verb (do note the «ь» [‘soft sign’] right after the «т», as that is a sure sign of the verb being in infinitiv, oh and don’t forget to pay attention to the «ся», because if you fail to do so, then you will not be aware of the…