Yes, if you've checked in here lately and wondered what's up with the lack of updates recently, then I have news for you - our beloved Russian blog is moving to Wordpress! Follow this link and you will come to know the reason for this picture being posted today:

The success of Russian soccer players in early summer revealed to Дума [the Duma] the hitherto practically unknown problem of the average Russian Ivan being prohibited by law to wave the flag of the Russian Federation in any way he or she might see fit. During June this year, millions of Russians took to the streets dressed in huge white-blue-red flags as a way of showing patriotism. Little did they, or even the police keeping the streets safe as the nation watched Spain beat them, know that they were breaking the law. But that was June, this is September, and now there’s a new law which gives everyone the right to show their patriotism with the beloved tricolor in, perhaps not everyway they’d like, but a lot of ways. As always, I’ll translate a little bit of the article, but for those interested in finding out and reading more, you can always read the whole article «Право на радость» [Entitlement to Joy] .

Continue reading "«Право на радость» [Entitlement to Joy] " »

A good textbook often reads just like a novel. One excellent example of this is Helen Yakobson’s “Conversational Russian: An Intermediate Course” from 1985 [при The George Washington University]. Earlier this summer I found it in a box up in my mother’s attic marked “Russian books”, this pale orange and tattered little book of no more than 223 pages. I bought it in a used bookstore in Key West back in 2003, and brought it with me as a constant companion during my first two years in Russia. It never failed me, not when it came to come up with a good expression to survive a road trip in Ukraine (who knew «Бог простит!» would go down so well with the road police?), nor when I needed to spice my homework with fascinating phrases («ходить в лес за грибами» translated as ‘to go mushroom hunting’ might have fascinated me more than the Russian version). Since there isn’t much information available on the internet about this wonderful little book, I thought I’d give you a quick tour of the main goodies it has to offer. But beware – it is not recommended reading for anyone who has yet to learn how to distance oneself enough from the Soviet Union to crack a smile about it once in a while. Of course, considering we might be heading toward another «холодная война» [cold war], something that Medvedev claims to be unafraid of, it is perhaps politically incorrect to enjoy this trip down memory lane too much… But this isn’t just fun or simply sweet, it is an important document of times gone by. Through all its fifteen units the textbook follows a red line of dialogue between the USA and the USSR. Rather impressive, I’d say!

Continue reading "Learning ‘Conversational Russian’" »

Though I'm sure that most of you have already heard about, or perhaps even seen, this video before, I decided to opt for something a little bit easier as I did the first video post ever on this blog (and incidentially, also my first video post ever!). The other day, while browsing Siberian Light, I came across a post of theirs with a couple of videos called "A musical tribute to Russia's leaders" and it all came back to me - I remember first hearing this song sometime during last spring. Of course it is hard for anyone who a) is not a woman or b) nor a Russian and c) do not have a thing for blonde stern-looking men in sharp suits who like to do sports and fix up rough economies to understand this appeal of Владимир Владимирович. I can't say I'm behind him politically, but I blame the fact that I wouldn't mind having him around the house once in a while to screw in lightbulbes and such on being part of the 'weaker' sex...

Here are the lyrics in Russian as well as English.