Top 5 Russian Blog Posts of 2019 Posted by Maria on Dec 30, 2019 in Uncategorized
I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas or other holidays in December had a great time with their loved ones. As we near the end of 2019, I would like to look back and share our top five most popular posts.
Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash
Back in the USSR?
The first post talks about a survey that discovered that many Russian miss the days of the Soviet Union (Сове́тский Сою́з). This finding may sound unsettling, but it makes sense if you think about how older people may long for the days of their youth, when they were happy, and that many people lost their savings and social safety network during the abrupt, and some might say poorly managed, transition to a market economy.
Survival Russian
Another popular post shared some phrases (фразы) that can help you get an explanation if you heard a word you didn’t understand or if you didn’t catch what the other person was saying. Ask people to repeat, speak slowly, or explain things in English with the help of this “cheat sheet” post.
Forever Young
This article talks about different words you can use to describe young people (молоды́е лю́ди). From the neutral to the informal, this post will give you several words to choose from.
Long Story Short
What do you do if a long Russian word won’t fit on your sign or if your note taking skills can’t keep with the lecturer’s enthusiasm? This post looks at some principles for abbreviating long words and some common shortened forms.
Can’t We Just Speak English?
The final entry on this list talks about Russians’ lackluster foreign language skills. Seven in ten respondents said they didn’t speak any languages other than Russian. Most people in Russia don’t speak other languages fluently because languages are taught inadequately, you can get by without knowing another language, and many people rarely leave the country. All the more reason for you to pick up some basic Russian if you are planning to visit. 🙂
Are there any other stories published on our blog in 2019 that you would like to see on this list? What was the biggest story for you?
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About the Author: Maria
Maria is a Russian-born translator from Western New York. She is excited to share her fascination with all things Russian on this blog. Maria's professional updates are available in English on her website and Twitter and in Russian on Telegram.