Fall Clothes, Foul Weather Posted by yelena on Oct 23, 2012
It is definitely autumn now. The nights are finally довольно холодные (pretty cold) and the days are chilly too. And it is starting to rain more often. So it is time to put away летняя одежда (summer clothing) and get out… what? Well, it’s not quite cold enough for зимняя одежда (winter clothing) such as…
Presidential Debates in Russian Posted by yelena on Oct 18, 2012
First, a disclaimer is in order – this is NOT a post about politics, but about how to talk about politics. Of course, as the saying goes, приличные люди о политике не говорят (well-mannered people do not discuss politics). Then again, rules change. It used to be that разговоры о сексе (conversations about sex) were…
There’s a chill in the air… Posted by Rob on Oct 15, 2012
Осень пришла (“fall has arrived”), at least officially, and at least for those of us на северном полушарии (“in the Northern hemisphere”). Двадцать второго сентября было равноденствие (“The 22nd of September was the equinox”). Cмотря где живёшь, ещё не очень холодно днём. (“Depending on where you live, it’s still not very cold during the day.”)…
Watching a Movie – Falcon Posted by yelena on Oct 12, 2012
In my previous post about Georgia (and why we, the students of the Russian language and culture should care about Georgia), I promised that come weekend we’ll be watching a movie and gave you a few hints as to which one. The famous Georgian director, Георгий Данелия (Georgiy Danelia), directed and the famous Georgian…
“Dreamin’ is free…” Posted by Rob on Oct 10, 2012
So goes a line from an old Blondie song — you could translate it as можно видеть сны бесплатно (“one pays nothing to dream”). And “dreams” are the theme for today, because позавчера мне снился странный-престранный сон. (“The day before yesterday I had an oh-so-strange dream.”) Although maybe кошмар, “nightmare,” would be more apt! Во…
More About Georgia Posted by yelena on Oct 9, 2012
While the recent парламентские выборы (Parliamentary elections) in Georgia are still fresh in our minds thanks to Natalie’s recent post, let’s talk some more about this country. But wait, Georgia is not Russia! Russian is not its official language. It seems that unless you are interested in geopolitics, Georgia is outside of the scope of…
Прогулка по лесу (or, “A bit o’ botany”) Posted by Rob on Oct 8, 2012
На прошлой неделе, я сидел с племянником (“Last week, I was babysitting my nephew”) and since the weather was nice, he wanted to прогуляться в лесу (“to go for a stroll in the forest”). And a прогулка по лесу (“walk through the woods”) actually offers a great opportunity for Russian vocabulary practice: not only learning…