Learn Russian - Blog Posts

My boyfriend woke up from a nightmare last night, got up from our bed, took his laptop and launched chess. Half asleep, he was silent the whole time, thinking of his moves. When he finally won against the computer he calmed down and explained with relief: "I saw a dream where I became dumb..."

Source: https://vk.com/pn6

“Back in my art school, I had a nasty and strict professor who would comment on every bad work of mine with “What is that? Even dolphins would do a better job!” Even though he would often be extremely annoying and piss me off, he still was a great teacher, so right after I graduated I gave him two tickets to a dolphinarium and saw his smile for the first time.” Source: vk.com/pn6

Hello everyone!

This post is a little late, but I wanted to thank you all for 500 followers!

Though sometimes I make some grammar mistakes in my posts, I really hope that I am making learning Russian a little more fun to you guys. I intent to improve my content and keep sharing some cool stuff about the Russian language.

You are the best 💜

This is my favorite TED talk by Mikhail Kazinik called “The school is dead, long live the school”. 

The point of his TED talk is that the school system is not teaching the right way anymore. The school used to teach to create the image of the world, but it now teaches the subjects without associative thinking.

“We shove information into our poor children like bags […] and where do we put the bags after that? To the junkyard. Because the school’s task is to ignite, and not to shove information.”

The poems Mikhail quoted in this bit: http://www.pushkins-poems.com/Yev704.htm https://ruverses.com/fyodor-tyutchev/we-can-not-divine/8632/

The original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gt6m7RwlYk&t=924s

I’m not gonna lie, this is probably my favourite episode from Evening Urgant. This is a bit from the interview with Stephen Colbert.

What are they talking about? Stephen and Ivan are referring to the so called ‘White Nights’ (Белые ночи), which Saint-Petersburg is famous for. It’s a night when it is never properly dark. The White Nights’ season usually takes place from June 11th to July 2nd. By ‘the bridges’ Ivan meant the Palace Bridge, which draws at 1:10 AM and 3:10 AM.

A picture from Wikipedia taken in Saint-Petersburg. June 23rd, 2009, 11:49 PM

The Palace Bridge during White Nights

The original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT3VFQ8wYZg The cut version they showed at Stephen’s show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWnVV3-0wgw

Hey, thank you so much for the feedback on my previous post! I’m so glad you liked it! This time, I translated a scene from ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’. Random facts: English: gills + weed = gillyweed Russian: жабры (plur., gills) + водоросли (plur., seaweed) = жабросли In Russian, instead of calling You-Know-Who ‘Voldemort’, all the characters in the HP universe call him Волан-де-морт (Volan-de-mort). Yeah, I don’t get it either. Snape’s ‘don’t lie to me’ line has been a huge meme among Russians for years now. Russian Harry Potter YTP was the thing that started it. What movie scene should I translate next? Do you have any suggestions?

So I wanted to do something different and translate a scene from the Russian version of Howl’s moving castle! Hope you enjoy the voice acting just as much as I do.  *Бабка, бабки (babka sing., babki plur.) — rude way of saying ‘old woman’.  Бабушка, бабушки (babushka sing., babushki plur.) — neutral/polite way of saying ‘old woman’ or ‘grandmother’. Баба, бабы (baba sing., baby plur.) can refer to a grandma you already know (in this case the grandmas name is usually followed) or a woman (in a rude way). All the nouns are feminine.

Me in a restaurant

Waiter: here's your glass Me: oh, thank you Waiter: *puts the glass down* Me: thank you Waiter: *fills the glass with water* Me: thank you Waiter: I'll bring your order soon Me: thank you

Some cat vocabulary ^^

Another funny moment from Evening Urgant! This is an old interview with Milla Jovovich. What is Milla talking about? There are tons of Russian fairy tales about baby goats and wolves. One of the most popular ones is “The wolf and the seven baby goats” (Волк и семеро козлят). However, the one Milla is talking about must be a fairy tale called “Grandmother once had a grey baby goat...” (Жил-был у бабушки серенький козлик...).  Here’s the link. It doesn’t have an English translation, but I can try and translate it if you’re interested.  https://stihi.ru/2012/08/15/7403 Useful words from this video: Страшный (m.), страшная (f.), страшное (n.), страшные (plur.) - scary; Сказка, сказки (f.) - fairy tale, fairy tales; Лес, леса (m.) - forest, forests; Конец, концы (m.) - end, ends; Сильный (m.), сильная (f.), сильное (n.), сильные (plur.) - strong Interesting fact: Last month, Milla made a video of her reading one of the most well-known Russian fairy tales “Fly Tsokotuha” (Муха-Цокотуха). And again, unfortunately, I could not find the English version of this fairy tale. I can try and translate it, but I cannot guarantee my version won’t be cringeworthy. Here’s the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a69FMum_nnM&t=249s

I was watching Evening Urgant as usual and I just couldn’t resist translating this funny bit for you. What is Ivan talking about? Беляш, беляши — bel’ash (sing.), bel’ashi (plur.) Bel’ash is a dish of Kazakh, Bashkir and Tatar cuisine. It’s practically the same as a regular pirozhok with meat. Except the recipes and the forms of the dishes are a bit different.

P. S. Please let me know if you want me to keep tranlsating fun parts from Russian TV shows and wether or not the Russian subtitles above the screen are comfortable for you to watch/are necessary. Thanks for reading my little blog :)

Just wanted to let you know that English speaking people aren’t the only people who have problems with the word ‘pregnant’. This is Milla Jovovich trying to say the word ‘забеременела’ on a local Russian TV show. The original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AATwZGHgn24&t=229s

“I want to invite you to the skating rink*” *Каток (katok) - a word that means both “skating rink” and “road-roller”

Носóк (nosok) - sock

Just a fun fact #7

The origin of the Russian (and English) word ‘робот’ (robot) comes from Czech’s ‘robota’, which translates to ‘forced labour’. From this word also comes Russian’s ‘работа’, which means ‘work’.

So I was innocently watching a stand up about Russian language and found this comment. Even though it includes a lot of swear words, I thought it would be useful to people who have trouble remembering some Russian words. The stand up I was watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtMd6PbscwE&t=14s

"Внимание!

Мокрый пол"

=

"Attention!

Wet floor"

The magic of the language...

The LITTLE BIG moment that had me shook

LITTLE BIG music videos are unique and interesting to Russians not only because of all this crazy stuff they always come up with, but also because these guys invite tons of Russian YouTubers to every music video. I might even write a list of people who have been invited so far, if Russian YouTube is interesting to you.

But my favorite cameo happened in their “I’M OK” music video. 

You see, the character on the left is Arseniy Popov. He’s one of the actors in Russian TV show “Improvisation” (pretty much the Russian version of “Whose line is it anyway?”). The thing is, there is an inside joke in the show about Arseniy being homosexual.

In the LITTLE BIG's music video Arseniy Popov not only appeared as the first TV celebrity, but the band kept the inside joke that they were clearly aware of. 

As a big fan of both “Improvisation” and LITTLE BIG, I was absolutely thrilled. 

"trying to pronounce мягкий знак (ь)

(didn't succeed)"

I was just serfing the net and came across this video. I really love old educational videos for Russian learners, so I thought I’d share it. (I don’t know why I find the last conversation so funny, but it is)

Just a fun fact #6

Some more slang!

"Mi mi mi" (Ми-ми-ми) is used to describe something incredibly cute.

Example:

Этот котенок просто ми-ми-ми! - This kitten is just so mi mi mi!

Fun facts:

A Russian late night talk show 'Evening Urgant' has a rubric called 'mi mi mi', where the host of the show 'interviews' cute animals.

'Mi Mi Mi' is a song by the Russian band Serebro. You must have heard it. The thing is, sometimes online lyrics sites write 'mi' as 'me', which is obviously incorrect. But now you know :)

Just a fun fact #5

There are very, VERY few words that begin with "Й". The only ones that exist (or the ones that are at least used commonly) are:

Йод - iodine

Йогурт - yogurt

Йога - yoga

Йоркшир - yorkshire

Maybe there are more words, but those are the only ones that I know and use on a daily basis.

Just a fun fact #4

It's time for some slang!

Sometimes, when we want to say "___ is not the same now" ("___ уже не тот"), we say "___ is not a cake now" ("___ уже не торт"), because I guess "тот" and "торт" sound similar. Plus, by comparing the object with cake we express our disappointment that it is not as sweet and good as it used to be.

Examples:

"Шерлок" уже не торт - "Sherlock" is not a cake now

Мне раньше нравилась эта группа, но сейчас она уже не торт - I used to like this band, but it's not a cake now

Я подписалась на этот канал ради обзоров мемов, но сейчас он уже не торт - I subscribed to this channel for meme reviews, but it's not a cake now

Hey guys! Here's a quick tip on how to start to write in Russian cursive right away! I hope it was useful! Have a nice day! 💜

"In my language, we don't say 'I love you'. We just tag each other in memes and I think that's beautiful."

Guys, don't worry. Sometimes we're not sure either.

Just a fun fact #3

The phrase “peace to the world” in Russian may sound funny at first, as it translates to “миру — мир”. But this is because the word “мир” in Russian means both “peace” and “world”. I’m personally really amazed by this fact.

However, this may lead to confusion sometimes. For example, the name of the famous Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” can be misunderstood by Russians for this reason. And I’m not embarassed to admit that I used to be one of those poeple.

But regardless, миру — мир! <3

— Why do you always put parentheses in messages? — I feel more comfortable with them)) — What do you mean? — Parentheses look like they are hugging words and they become kinder))