How To Argue on Russian Sites Posted by Maria on Feb 19, 2015
I have noticed some passionate opinions in comments to some of the posts on this blog. This blog is not unique in this respect; many websites are home to heated debates. So I thought it might be interesting to learn to navigate online arguments in Russian. 1. Learn the etiquette First of all, you want to follow the…
Inherently Russian Behaviors Posted by Jenya on Feb 17, 2015
If there are Russian people among your friends or family, some of the things they do may seem puzzling to you. Chances are they are thinking the same thing about you. You see, a lot of things we do on a day-to-day basis are inherently cultural. We, Russians, are certainly no exception. With that…
Three Iconic Russian Love Stories Posted by Maria on Feb 12, 2015
As Valentine’s Day is approaching, I was thinking about the archetypal love stories — you know, the Romeo and Juliet (Роме́о и Джулье́тта) tales that are immediately recognizable and referenced whenever people want to evoke love. What follows is not complete or representative by any means, and I encourage you to share more examples in comments. However…
Digital Russian: How To View and Input Russian Text Posted by Maria on Feb 9, 2015
As we are irreversibly living in a digital age, it is no longer possible to stick to books and handwritten letters in learning and practicing languages. Russian is no exception to this, and even beginners soon encounter Russian websites, social networks, and other digital content. However, many learners, especially those from Anglophone countries, often have limited…
Famous Athletes from the Former Soviet Union Posted by Jenya on Feb 4, 2015
So many athletes from around the world are famous. Believe it or not, some of the world’s top athletes hail from Russia. In researching this topic, I had a very large number of people to choose from; many of them were tennis and hockey players. Selecting only a few from a list of hundreds was…
They Were Russian? Posted by Jenya on Feb 3, 2015
If you were to stop people on the streets of New York, London, Paris, or any other major metropolitan area and ask them to list some famous Russian people, I bet you’d never hear these names. Some of these names may even surprise a Russian citizen – they did me :-). Abraham Zapruder Whether or…
Pet Peeves in Russian Posted by Maria on Feb 2, 2015
Many of us have turns of phrase in our language that give us rage. In English, some examples would be “irregardless,” “I could care less,” and other things people consider redundant, incorrect, or plain inane. Russian has such phrases, too, so let’s look at what many Russians find infuriating. I’ll use examples from the spoken subcorpus…