Posts under "Other Blogs"

Wolverines, Elks and Amur Tigers

Posted by yelena 7 Comments
Jan 27 2012

What does this wood goblin have to do with the forest animals in the title of the post? Keep reading and you will find out the connection and the goblin’s name in Russian. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

This post was going to be about Russian grammar. However, after having our regular чаепитие (tea time) with моя хорошая подруга (my good friend) earlier today, I radically changed my mind for two reasons:

She shared three beautiful LiveJournal blogs with me by Russian фотографы-натуралисты (nature photographers) and I want to share those with you. Besides, it’s Friday, a day when we should probably prepare to ease ourselves into the upcoming weekend.

First, a few words about the LiveJournal blogging platform. In Russia it is known as Живой Журнал (lit: Live Journal) or simply ЖЖ. It seems to be the most popular блог-платформа (blogging platform) in Russia. Thanks to its community sharing and following features it also acts as a popular социальная сеть (social network). In the last few months, it’s started getting upstaged in this role by Facebook, which наконец-то набрал обороты и в России (finally shifted into a high gear in Russia as well).

I will do a tour of ЖЖ some other time. Meanwhile, here’s the link to дайджест (a digest) of the Russian ЖЖ so you can start exploring, reading and learning some великий могучий русский блоггерский язык (the great and mighty Russian language of the bloggers).

And now for the wonderful nature blogs my friend shared with me:

The first blog is authored by Игорь Шпилёнок (Igor Shpilenok), a nature photographer who splits his time between государственный природный заповедник «Брянский лес» (State nature reserve “Bryansk Forest”) in the Western Russian and Кроноцкий заповедник (Kronotzky nature reserve) on Камчатка (Kamchatka), a peninsula in the Russian Far East.

It is mostly pictures accompanied by short stories explaining what’s going on or why the author chose to post each picture. That’s if you want to take it easy and just relax looking at the beautiful photos of Russian wildlife. For those wanting to dig deeper, there are Дальше… (Read more…; lit: beyond, further) links to more detailed stories and even more photos. Igor doesn’t limit himself to just the wildlife though as you can see from this poignant post about his tiny village of Чухраи (Chukhrai):

В одном из самых глухих уголков юга Брянской области, в десятке километров от границы с Украиной, рядом с заповедником «Брянский лес» затерялась деревенька в пятнадцать жителей – Чухраи…

(In one of the most remote corners of the south of the Bryansk region, a dozen (lit: ten) kilometers from the border with Ukraine, near the nature reserve “Bryansk Forest” is hiding a village of fifteen people – Chukhrai…)

The second blog is by Василий Солкин (Vasiliy Solkin). He blogs from Владивосток (Vladivostok), the administrative center and the largest city in Приморский край (Primorsky Krai) in the south corner of the Russian Far East. Plus he keeps up a fantastic website Зов тайги (Call of the Taiga) that is, in his own words, журнал для тех, кто не спешит на Гавайи (a magazine for those who are not in a hurry to get to Hawaii).

Before you start browsing through this blog, I strongly urge you to follow Vasily’s advice:

Дорогой ты мой новый читатель! Добро пожаловать в журнал, главные герои которого – амурский тигр и дальневосточный леопард. Чтобы понять, куда и к кому ты попал, необходимо и достаточно пробежать глазами два сериала: «Плюс радификация всех зверей» и «Леопарды, с которыми лично знаком».

(My dear new reader! Welcome to the magazine where the main characters are the Amur tiger and the Amur (lit. Far Eastern) leopard. To better understand where you are and whom you found, it is necessary and sufficient to skim through the two series of posts: “Plus the radio tagging of all animals” and “Leopards with whom I am personally acquainted”.)

The third and final blog is by Александр Левашов (Alexandr Levashov) whose LJ alias is lev_leshii. By the way, леший (wood goblin) in Russian folklore is хозяин леса (the master of the forest) who lives in the darkest and oldest part of it and keeps it safe. So a леший helps good folks and punishes those who are trying to do harm to its keep.

Alexandr is from Рыбинск (Ribinsk) in Ярославская область (Yaroslavl region). A couple of примечательные особенности (notable features) of the town’s location are that it is located at the northernmost point of Волга (the Volga river) and is situated on условная линия (an imaginary line) dividing зона смешанных лесов (broadleaf or mixed forest zone) from тайга (taiga).

In addition to photos, Alexandr also posts some moving short stories on his blog. After browsing just a bit, I found this one titled Барсучий городок (The Town of Badgers). Enjoy!

I hope you will enjoy these three blogs for both their stunning photography and their beautiful stories about Russian nature. If natural history and conservation appeal to you, this will be a very enjoyable way to improve your Russian language skills as well. Хороших вам выходных! (Have a good weekend!)

The Rule of Three

Posted by yelena 20 Comments
Jun 21 2011

The Soviet-era propaganda poster reads “Glory to Marxism-Leninism!”.

Have you ever heard of «тройное правило» [the Rule of Three]? Of course, you have! But if you are still not sure «о чём идёт речь» [what I’m talking about], here’s a quick link to a Wikipedia entry.

Ok, so as you can see, the rule of three is «всеобъемлющее» [universal]. By the way, if you are wondering, the gender of «правило» [rule] is neuter which explains the ending of the adjective “universal”.

I came across the explanation of this rule by way of a post titled “Linguistic Threesomes” on The Book of Three blog. As I read through numerous examples of three-word «выражения» [expressions] commonly used «в английском языке» [in English language], I couldn’t help but wonder «работает ли это правило в русском языке» [whether this rule works for Russian language].

Sure, one of the «часто используемых слов» [frequently used words] in spoken Russian language «состоит из трёх букв» [has three letters]. In fact, «воспитанные люди» [well-mannered people] refer to it as «слово из трёх букв» [the three-letter word].

Then there are all the literary and historical and cultural examples – «три богатыря» [three heroes (of Russian folklore)], «три девицы под окном» [the three maidens by the window], «Братья Карамазовы» [the Brothers Karamazov (there were three of them)], «три танкиста» [three tank crewmen (from a song)], «три основоположника марксизма-ленинизма» [three founders of the Marxism-Leninism], «третий Рим» [the third Rome], «сообразить на троих» [to share 0.5L of vodka between 3 people] and many more (feel free to add examples in the comments or on the Facebook page)

There are also plenty of three-word phrases, including

  • «Пошёл к чёрту» [Go to hell]
  • «Дети – цветы жизни» [Children are the flowers of life]
  • «Старость не радость» [Old age is no joy]
  • «Семья – ячейка общества» [Family is the building block of a society]
  • «Учиться, учиться и учиться!» [To study, to study and to study!] – ok, this does have 4 words, but there are 3 repetitions of the key word, so I say it counts.
  • «Будете проезжать, проезжайте» [If you are passing by, do pass by]
  • «Казнить нельзя помиловать» – depending on where a comma is placed, the meaning of this phrase changes between “execute, do not pardon” and “pardon, do not execute”. (Credit for remembering this phrase goes to our reader, Rob, who talked about this example in one of his extensive and helpful comments)
  • «Богатые тоже плачут» [Rich also cry] – this was a title of a hugely popular soap opera and the phrase «прочно вошла» [became deeply embedded] in Russian language

What three-word Russian phrases can you add to this list? Do you think the linguistic rule of three holds for the Russian language? Or should it be replaced with the rule of four… or more?

Finally, here’s a quick marketing quiz for you. As you know, European and American brands made quick inroads into Russian markets. So «Макдоналдс», «Пицца Хат», «Проктэр энд Гэмбл», «ИКЕА» and many-many other global companies had to not just translate, but localize their marketing messages to the Russian audience. Can you match brands to their slogans (some slogans are specific to particular makes/models/products):

  1. «Просто сделай это»
  2. «Думай иначе!»
  3. «Вот что я люблю»
  4. «Пауза, которая освежает»
  5. «Будь собой. Не дай себе засохнуть»
  6. «Всё будет в шоколаде»
  7. «Качество меняет всё»

a)      Ford

b)      Nike

c)      Sprite

d)     Mars

e)      Apple

f)       Coca-cola

g)      McDonalds

Do It With Us!

Posted by yelena 5 Comments
Jun 5 2010

YouTube Preview Image

How awesome that you can now watch Master and Margarita on YouTube (ok, parts of it)!

«Делай с нами! Делай, как мы! Делай лучше нас!» [Do it with us! Do it like we do! Do it better than us!].

I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but this was an actual title of an East German children’s show that was popular in the USSR in the 70’s and 80’s. Ever since then «делай с нами» [do it with us] is widely used by lazy or unimaginative reporters when they write about children’s sporting events.

And since I’m not lazy or unimaginative, I’m going to come up with my own «призыв» [slogan, call to action]:

«Читай с нами! Читай, как мы! Читай лучше нас!» [Read with us! Read like we do! Read better than us!]

As you know, this month we’re reading (or re-reading) Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. I’ve just finished (on June 5) the tragic «третья глава первой части» [chapter 3 of part 1] now. And where in the story are you?

But I was going to write about someone who’s not just reading with us, but it seems to me, reading better than us (or at least tracking his reading progress better than us).

«Барабанную дробь, пожалуйста» [drum roll please] for I am about to introduce someone who’s taking our little challenge to heart…

If you follow our Facebook discussions (and if not, join us right away), you undoubtedly know Rob McGee for his seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of etymology of Russian words and phrases as well as for his very helpful pronunciation guides to our words of the day (he is always ready to clarify where «удар’е’ние» [stress] falls in a word].

But enough with the introductions, let’s get down to business. For the last few days Rob has been busy with his new project, a «Браво, Бегемот!» [Bravo, Behemoth!] blog that’s all Master and Margarita.

In Rob’s own words:

“I decided to create a blog to which I will be uploading chapter-by-chapter the full Russian text of “МиМ” from lib.ru, so that I can add my own annotations/glosses in English as I read the Russian, and also hyperlinks to useful sources (such as the wikipedia summary of the Faust legend, for example, or to blog entries on Transparent Language where the language and culture of “МиМ” are being discussed).”

Rob came up with a system where he highlights parts of text that are of interest to him. Yellow highlights are linguistic commentaries. Pink is for general cultural background. Green means there’s a hyperlink to an external source. And blue will be Rob’s notes to himself and also various trivia. So, when you see highlighted text, simply hover your mouse over it to read the commentary.

Rob adds that

“Although there’s not a practical way for users to add their own highlighting to the blog, I do have comments enabled, so if readers have questions about how to translate a sentence with tricky grammar, for instance, they could ask the question in a comment and then I could provide the answer as a highlighted annotation.”

That’s pretty awesome, not to mention very handy for those who haven’t yet acquired a Russian-language copy of the novel. We haven’t even thought of doing something like this (we’ll definitely keep this idea for the future, maybe when we all decide to read War and Peace).

«Роб – молодец!» [Well done, Rob!]

Russian Craftsman

Posted by yelena 6 Comments
May 12 2010

Lovable muts, a pair of old felt boots, an accordeon-playing old man in an intricately decorated room of a small village house can only mean one thing - this is a Russian craftsman.

If you are interested in all things Russian (and since you’re reading our blog, I guess you are), then it’s likely you regularly read (or rather, view) the posts from EnglishRussia.com. If you do, then you likely have seen this post about an old craftsman who takes the meaning of «жить по-царски» [to live like a tsar] quite literally. I was amazed to see the kind of work this man’s done using old-fashioned simple tools. Which got me thinking…

It seems that Russians have a complicated and very contradictory view of Russian workmanship. Sure, there’s undoubtedly lots of pride in Russian ingenuity, inventiveness and ability to create state-of-the-art end results on decidedly shoe-string budget.

As the saying goes, «голь на выдумку хитра» [lit.: poor folks have a knack for inventions; necessity is the mother of invention].

The quintessential story of a Russian «мастеровой» [artisan, craftsman] is Nikolai Leskov’s «Левша», or “A Story of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea”.

The story, written at the end of the 19th century, is one of the mandatory readings for all Russian schoolchildren. The plot revolves around a competition of a sort, between English craftsmen who made a tiny mechanical flea and a lonely Russian craftsman who one-upped them by putting tiny horse shoes on each of the flea’s legs.

If you’ve ever been puzzled over Russian desire «показать Западу кузькину мать» [to teach the West what’s what] and its constant obsession-bordering competition with the West (think space exploration and Olympic Games), I urge you to read the story (in Russian, if at all possible).

It has all the essential elements:

Russian master craftsman is most likely self-taught and from a humble background.  Russian air and soil, the innate Russian-ness of the countryside and its people (kind of like terroir effect on wine) and not fancy university degrees are the fundamental ingredients of a true craftsman.

Russian craftsman is unappreciated, neglected or even purposefully «притесняется» [oppressed] by the government to whose very might and glory he strives to contribute.

Russian craftsman is driven by his love of work and a sense of duty and does not even think about financial rewards. (Nice contrast to Western materialism here)

Russian craftsman, poor and neglected as he usually is, has to make do with the most basic tools and scrounge the materials. His Western counterparts, on the other hand, have top-of-the-line equipment and access to any and all resources.

But when it comes to competing with the West, Russian craftsman, when he puts his mind to it (or when he is “persuaded” by the government), always wins.

These are the fundamentals that combine in the archetypal «мастеровой» [craftsman]. Don’t believe me? Consider this modern-day Levsha’s work and his life story:

Nikolai Aldunin was born in a small township; worked as a machinist and lathe operator – neither of the jobs requiring a college degree; became interested in whether it was really possible to «подковать блоху» [put shoes on a flea] and learned the secrets of the craft on his own.

Unlike the original Levsha, he does have a bit of a support from the government in the form of periodic newspaper articles and unending promises to open a museum of his work.

You see, all the elements are still present, over a hundred years after the original Levsha was written.

With so much emphasis on unbeatable Russian craftsmanship, it seems weird that «Сделано в СССР» [Made in the USSR] and, later on, «Сделано в России» [Made in Russia] wasn’t exactly the mark of quality. Unlike American jeans, Finnish furniture, South Korean electronics or even Chinese thermoses, «отечественные товары» [domestic goods] were not something desirable and did not inspire pride. Ok, there was an exception as the song goes: «в области балета мы впереди планеты всей» [when it comes to ballet, we are ahead of the entire planet].

From the Soviet times, anything «сделано в России» [made in Russia] had a «реноме» [reputation] of being unreliable and requiring frequent repairs.

Even when foreign companies started bringing their technologies, production equipment and spare parts to assemble them in Russia, it was reported that «после того как та или иная марка начинает производиться в России, качество её меняется нередко не в лучшую сторону» [once a brand starts being manufactured in Russia, its quality oftentimes changes and not for the best].

Don’t you think it’s a paradox worth thinking about? Have you bought something “Made in Russia” recently? Please share your experience.

Test Your Russia IQ!

Posted by josefina 6 Comments
May 16 2009

This is interesting: the travel site Travel all Russia has a timed test you can take to find out just how well you know everybody’s favorite “Родина Мать” [Motherland]: Russia IQ test – how much do you know about Russia? All you need to do in order to take it and try your knowledge about this mysterious yet adorable country is to enter your first name, last name and e-mail. Don’t forget that the test is timed! Yes, that means you won’t have any opportunity to google the questions! I did it and even though I shouldn’t be too proud of the results, I still am. A little bit. After all, the questions aren’t too easy (not all of them, some are though):

Total number of questions: 20
Correct answers: 18
Your Russia IQ is close to perfect: 126
Level: Ph Russia
Your command of Russian history, traditions and its culture is impressive. You probably know that word borsch does not suppose to have t at the end. You probably agree with us that claims in the news that Russia is a petro-dictatorship are a long-shot. For your remarkable expertise, we award you an official degree of Doctor of Russia! PS: You can tell your friends to call you Doctor now.

I think I just might try and make my friends call me Doctor now!

What results did you get? What do you think about the test? Too easy or far too difficult?
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