Linguistic Riddles: Жалоба Or Жалованье? Posted by josefina on Jul 12, 2008
Some things are easy. When it comes to the verb «любить» [to love] it is no surprise that the noun to go with is no other than «любовь» [love]. Other things – not so much. It is not always uncomplicated to figure out which noun goes with which verb, and sometimes guessing is not recommended…
Learning Russian In The News Posted by josefina on Jul 9, 2008
Learning Russian is no walk in Gorky Park, something I suppose most of you are already more than well aware of. Often we talk about the difficulties of this language, we try to sort out verbs of motions and what not, but when was the last time you heard someone talk about how much fun…
Test Your Russian! Posted by josefina on Jul 7, 2008
One of our readers, who signs his comments here as Stas, sent me a mail with the following link today: “Тест: Знаете ли вы русский язык?” [Test: Do You Know Russian Language?] He told me that he scored 7 out of the 8 questions right, something that, according to statistics, only 15% of Russians are…
The Difference Between Being «Русский» And Being A «Россиянин» Posted by josefina on Jul 3, 2008
In the light of the discussion that arised around my last post, I thought I might take today to clear a few things up as well as explain some linguistic peculiarities. After four years in Russia I’ve seen and heard a great deal of things, not all of them have made me happy and proud…
The Russian Motion, As Expressed By Its Verb Posted by josefina on Jun 26, 2008
Since today is THE day of Russia’s big soccer match against Spain [in a matter of hours!], while 20 times more Russian flags are being sold than usually at this time of the year, I thought we should start our discussion about «глаголы движения» [verbs of motion] with one of the more appropriate verbs: «бежать»…
The Russians Are Coming! Posted by josefina on Jun 23, 2008
[Sometimes I write witty articles about Russia for the biggest daily paper in my hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden. I thought I’d share a translation of my latest one with you.] In the middle of a hot June night I woke up from my innocent Swedish sleep to see the Ural Mountains on fire. Inhuman screaming…
Moscow, baby! Posted by josefina on Jun 19, 2008
Yesterday I got back from Moscow, after spending four turbulent days in the capitol of the Russian Federation, and I’m very sorry for not having blogged while being there. In general I’m sorry for not blogging lately, but I promise to redeem myself very soon. I wanted to blog while in Moscow, because it…