Posted by Josefina
Getting married is, as it should be, a big deal in any country in the world. Russia is not an exception to this rule, even though in Russia the wedding is a big deal but marriage not as much, because of the simple reason that getting married in here involves two days of drinking and eating and dancing and enjoying life. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get hitched when it involves wearing a white dress or a or a nice costume, taking pictures at every single monument in town and gathering family and friends around a big table for two whole days? Plus, financial matters are rarely considered before hand, if ever even later. Most Russians don’t have much money anyway, despite the ruble ever rising with the oil price, and probably even less after the party is over and married life begins…
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Posted by Josefina
There’s something about Russia which cannot be experienced during those hot, sunny months of continental summer. There’s something about Russia which only comes out with the first snowfall, something that can only be seen when those first, fragile white flakes start to fall. As the ground gets covered, more and more, minute by minute, by a layer of glittering frost, that something about Russia becomes a reality. Russia is at its best during the winter. And lucky for Russia winter here is not a brief period that is over before it has even begun, but at least four months long. In some places it is shorter, in the Caucasus for example, in other places it is longer, such as in northern Siberia and northern Far East. Winter is what makes Russia another world.
During the other three seasons of the year Russia and Russians look like most people in most countries; they wear jeans and t-shirts and sneakers. Not until that one sacred season starts, not until those dark and cold months begin, not until then do they go all out fashion wise and not only show but also prove that they are another people, with an utterly different culture. Fur-spotting could and should be considered an official sport for foreigners here. Anything and everything is either entirely made out of fur or has fur trimming or other kinds of fur details. Men and women who respect themselves greatly wear fur hats twice the size of their heads. This can cause a problem when getting in and out of buildings and public transport since removing headwear outside in Russia is considered to get you a cold within five seconds and therefore not an option. Men and women who respect themselves to a lesser degree wear fur hats of smaller size. The same rule also applies when it comes to fur coats – the more respect one has for oneself [or the more money one has in one’s pocket], the bigger and longer and fluffier is the coat. However, all of the above have one thing in common – they are made out of real fur.
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Posted by Josefina
As opposed to many languages, such as, for example, my native language of Swedish and the world language of English, Russian language regards diseases as something coming from the outside the organism, not from inside. The vocabulary used for talking about ailments in Russian clearly points out that not only is the sick person in no way responsible for being unwell, but also that there’s nothing he or she that can do to improve the situation. This might explain why Russian hospitals tend to want to keep patients suffering from anything from cancer to tick bites there for at least a month.
For example, if you’re feeling sick to your stomach or nauseous, you might think that using the verb тошнить in first person would be normal, such as: «Я тошню». Don’t even dare! It is one of the very common impersonal Russian verbs that can only be used with dative, or, like in this case, with the accusative. The correct use would be: «Меня тошнит» [I’m nauseous/ I feel sick to my stomach] and there you go – all of the sudden you yourself are not to responsible for anything. The same goes for the synonym «Меня мутит» [I’m feeling nauseous].
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Posted by Josefina
Of course, as a student of Russian literature, I would have like to take this moment to convince as many people as possible that the thing to read when in Russia is Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Gogol, Akhmatova and Lyudmila Ulitskaya – in that very same order. But today I will put aside my higher aspiration to bless the world with the works of Great Russian Writers in order to talk about another kind of reading. Reading newspapers. Keeping up with current events. Finding out what’s going on out there in the world’s biggest country. When you arrive as a newbie in Russia, without sufficient knowledge of the language to understand what the fuss is all about with all those newsstands on every street corner, there is little or no choice at all when it comes to what to read. If you live in Saint Petersburg you can pick up a free copy of the English language newspaper The Saint Petersburg Times all over the city, same thing in Moscow, except that it is, logically and everything, called The Moscow Times there. Both of these newspapers [which could be considered to be one and the same since they are owned by the same company, deal with almost the same issues and publish articles written from almost identical points of views] are short, simple and sweet. They succeed in covering the basic needs in general news for any given foreigner struggling through every day life in both of these cities. In addition to this they manage to also criticize rather than only summarize political, economical and cultural events.
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Posted by Josefina
Господин, товарищ – молодой человек?
It’s that old dilemma again – how do you approach a Russian in a courteous and politically correct manner? Saying ‘comrade’ to anyone anywhere after 1992 without feeling a tinge of irony is impossible, and even though the titles used before the October Revolution, such as «господин» [mister] and «госпожа» [miss, mrs], have started their return back into society, they have yet to shed that touch of sarcasm against the upper-class so common during 70 years of Soviet Union. Anyone who has survived at least a slender course of the basics in Russian language can’t spend a month in Russia without coming face to face with this dilemma. For example: you ask a male stranger standing with his back turned against you what the time is by using the common phrase: «Молодой человек, вы мне не подскажете, который час?» [Young man, won’t you tell me what time it is?] The “young man” turns around and it becomes clear that when he actually was a “young man” the standard phrase used for talking to strangers was indeed товарищ. You smile an awkward smile as if you meant it as a compliment while he tells you, as if nothing happened, that it’s a quarter past five. While shopping over the counter in smaller grocery shops the very same thing will happen – with the opposite sex. The first couple of times when you direct the question: «Девушка, сколько стоит вон та шоколадка?» [Girl, how much does that chocolate bar over there cost?] to a woman clearly long since ready to retire may be uncomfortable and sometimes you might almost want to say «женщина» [woman] instead. This is, however, not to be recommended. Either you accept that in public every Russian citizen has the right to be eternally young, or you switch to using the more suitable, from a Western point of view, phrase for opening a conversation: «Извините…» [Excuse me…].
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I was just commenting on the fact that the term itself is a problematic one, in the context of what I said about Jews reading the Christian Bible. Sorry if I was unclear."
