Posts tagged with "русский язык"

Meet Michael McFaul, the New US Ambassador to Russia

Posted by Natalie 2 Comments
Jan 30 2012

In case you did not know, «я американка» [I'm American]. I grew up here and I go to university here, and I tend to look at foreign affairs through an American lens. I realize that a large portion of our readers are not American, so this post may not be as relevant or apt to you. However, the American ambassador to Russia was recently in the news and I thought it would be interesting to write about him. I present, without further ado, a post about ambassadors and other diplomatic-related vocabulary. In the photo: «посольство Российской Федерации в Лондоне» [embassy of the Russian Federation in London].

The new United States ambassador to Russia is named Michael McFaul (his name is transliterated into Cyrillic as «Майкл Макфол»). «Он работал профессором в Стэнфордском университете» [He worked as a professor at Stanford University]. As ambassador he lives in «Спасо-хаус» [Spaso House], the official residence of the United States ambassador in Russia.

There has been controversy ever since McFaul arrived in Russia because he met with some opposition leaders. Plus, he was involved in the «перезагрузка» [reset] policy with Russia that does not seem to have been entirely successful. McFaul does not speak Russian as well as his «предшественник» [predecessor], John Beyrle. «Байерли свободно говорит по-русски» [Beyrle speaks Russian fluently]. (Seriously, Beyrle’s Russian is amazing. Listen to an interview with him sometime.)

Some more general vocabulary: in Russian, ambassador is «посол», so it is pretty logical that «посольство» is embassy. «Консульство» is consulate. (And remember, the two are different! In general, embassies are usually larger and are led by an ambassador, whereas consulates are led by a «консул» [consul].) «Дипломат» [diplomat] is nice and easy to remember. «Паспорт» [passport] and «виза» [visa] are also nice cognates.

What do you think of the new United States ambassador? Do you have any questions about diplomatic-related vocabulary? Let me know in the comments!

Reading the News – In Russian

Posted by Natalie 1 Comment
Jan 23 2012

«Добрый вечер, дорогие читатели!» [Good evening, dear readers!] Today I want to share with you a technique I have used for learning Russian that has helped me immensely: reading the news. «Я люблю читать новости и по-английски, и по-русски» [I love reading the news in both English and Russian]. It is always interesting to read what is going on «в мире» [in the world], and what better way to learn about this than in Russian. «Давайте читать!» [Let's read!]

The article I am referencing can be read here (but don’t worry, I will be quoting from it right on this blog, so you do not need to worry about click the link to read it). It is called «Путин предложил организовать в интернете дискуссию о будущей госструктуре по нацполитике» [Putin has proposed organizing an online discussion about the future state agency for national policy].

«Премьер-министр РФ Владимир Путин предложил развернуть дискуссию в интернете о том, какую организационно-правовую форму придать будущей госструктуре по вопросам национального развития и межнационального благополучия, о создании которой он написал в своей программной статье.» That sentence is long and looks intimidating, but we can easily break it down and translate it: The prime minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has proposed developing a discussion on the internet about which organizational and legal form the future state agency on national growth and interethnic welfare will take. He wrote about creating this in his {election} program article. Yes, I know the original Russian is one long sentence, but the grammar stickler in me will not let me translate that into a run-on sentence in English!

To continue: «Путин, баллотирующийся в президенты РФ, в статье, размещённой в понедельник в “Независимой газете”, в частности, предложил создать в РФ госструктуру по вопросам нацполитики, ужесточить правила регистрации мигрантов и санкции за их нарушение, а также обязать мигрантов сдавать экзамены по русскому языку и основам права.» [Putin, who is running for president of RF (Russian Federation), in the article published on Monday in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, in part proposed to create in Russia a state agency for {working on} the question of national policy, toughening the laws of migrant registration and sanctions for transgression, and also requiring migrants to take exams on Russian language and fundamentals of law.]

«Выступая на Форуме народов юга России в Кисловодске в понедельник, Путин отметил, что, “к сожалению, мало внимания уделяется работе по межнациональным и межконфессиональным отношениям, она у нас на втором плане”. “Но это не должно быть простым бюрократическим образованием”, – сказал Путин о новой госструктуре.» [Speaking at a forum in southern Russia in Kislovodsk on Monday, Putin noted that "unfortunately, little attention has been given to work on inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations. It is for us in second place (i.e. not the first priority). But this should not be a simply bureaucratic entity," Putin said about the new state agency.]

This was how I used to learn Russian vocabulary, my friends: I would slog through news articles, looking up every word I did not know (and there were quite a lot!). Also, my translation is not so polished – I tried to stick to a fairly literal one, because I feel that helps the most while learning.

Let’s Learn the Learning Verbs

Posted by Natalie 7 Comments
Nov 22 2011


Well, I think it’s finally autumn. For a while, the weather was quite warm, but recently, whenever I walk outside, «мне холодно» [I am cold]. This means I have to wear my «пальто, сапоги, и шапка» [coat, boots, and hat]. And I try not to forget «перчатки» [gloves] either! In the photo: birches near Novosibirsk in autumn. Do you know how to say “birch” in Russian?

The learning verbs in Russian are very, very complicated. I’m in an advanced Russian class and we just went over them, so I thought I would post a little bit about these verbs, including some example sentences, so you can see how they are used.

«Учиться» means to learn and is usually used with general knowledge, such as «учиться писать» [to learn to write] or «учиться музыке» [to learn music]. If you learn from someone specific, use «у кого», such as «Я учился терпению у отца» [I learned patience from my father]. This is the verb you usually use when saying that you study at school or university: «Я учусь в университете» [I study at university]. You can also be more specific and say «Я учусь в МГУ» [I study at MGU (Moscow State University)].

By contrast, if you want to say that you study something specific, one of the verbs you can use is «изучать». You usually use a specific field with «изучать», such as: «историю, английский язык, физику» [history, English language, physics]. The imperfective of this verb is «изучить» and has a slightly different meaning: it means that you have mastered whatever it is that you are studying, whereas «изучать» does not imply that.

«Заниматься» is sort of like «изучать» in that you can use it to say that you study a certain field, but it is not always used in the same way. When people ask me what I study at university, they can say: «Чем ты занимаешься?» [What do you study?] and I answer: «Я занимаюсь историей и русским языком» [I study history and Russian language]. «Заниматься» can also be used in more of a general study sense, such as: «Я занимаюсь обычно дома» [I usually study at home].

I hope this provides somewhat of an introduction to the learning verbs. I have not covered everything by far, but hopefully this is somewhere to get you started.

Questions? Comments? Let me know below!

By the way: birch in Russian is «берёза», in case you were wondering.

Russian Holidays: День народного единства

Posted by Natalie 5 Comments
Nov 9 2011

A funny experience happened in my Russian class today, «дорогие друзья» [dear friends]. We are reading «Дама с собачкой» [The Lady with the Lapdog]. My professor said of the main character, «Гуров» [Gurov], «Он верен своей жене?» [Is he faithful to his wife?] I smiled and gave a resounding «Да, конечно» [yes, of course]. Unfortunately, that was wrong. I misread the bit where it says that «Гуров» is unfaithful to his wife: «Изменять ей он начал уже давно…» [He had started to be unfaithful to her a while ago]. And here I was thinking that meant she had perceived him to be a changed person or something like that, which admittedly did not make much sense in context. It just goes to show you: you learn something new every day! In the photo: «памятник Минину и Пожарскому» [the monument to Minin and Pozharsky (two commanders who defeated Polish-Lithuanian forces)].

I want to talk about a Russian holiday, «День народного единства» [Day of People's Unity] that was recently on November 4. I am always interested to learn about foreign countries’ holidays, so I was reading about this one a little bit last week.

«День народного единства» is a recent holiday. It is observed on November 4, «начиная с 2005 (две тысячи пятого) года» [beginning with 2005] and is «нерабочий день» [a non-working day]. And even though it is recent, its history actually dates back pretty far. «27 (двадцать седьмого) октября 1612 (тысяча шестьсот двенадцатого) года гарнизон в Москве сдался» [On October 27, 1612, a garrison in Moscow was surrendered]. One year later, «земский собор избрал новым царём Михаила Романова» [the Zemsky Sobor chose Mikhail Romanov as the new tsar]. This ended the Time of Troubles and began the new Romanov dynasty.

«С 1649 (тысяча шестьсот сорок девятого) года до 1917 (тысяча девятьсот семнадцатого) года» [From 1649 to 1917] November 4 was a holiday because it marked the liberation of Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian force.

There has been controversy about the holiday because of groups espousing «национализм и ксенофобия» [nationalism and xenophobia] demonstrating on this day, like in the photo below:

The banner says «Вернём Россию русским!» [We will return Russia to the Russians!] This is a reference to some people’s dislike of immigrants from certain regions to Russia. It is an important issue today and there are quite a few politicians in Russia who say some pretty crazy things on this matter.

Let’s Unite and Learn Russian Grammar!

Posted by Natalie 4 Comments
Oct 21 2011

I am back, «дорогие читатели» [dear readers], ready to explain obscure points of Russian grammar to you. What have I been doing in the past weeks? Many things, all of which relate to school. I am writing «тезис» [a thesis] on a famous Soviet leader and just generally studying for exams (I just took three exams in a week-and-a-half span). Today, I am ready to teach you about a group of Russian verbs that are all translated into English as “to unite”. How do they differ? Read on! In the photo: the eighth party congress of «Единая Россия» [United Russia], Russia’s ruling party, from here.

In my Russian class, we have to report on the news every day («конечно, по-русски» [of course, in Russian]). Today I reported that «Евразийское экономическое сообщество» [the Eurasian Economic Community] discussed «присоединение Киргизии к таможенному союзу» [Kyrgyzstan's joining the customs union]. The word «присоединение» made me think. It comes from the verb «присоединяться/присоединиться», which is often translated as “to unite”. But so are the verbs «объединяться/объединиться» and «соединяться/соединиться». I have never been clear how to use these three verb pairs, so I said to my professor: «Существует ли разница между этими словами?» [Is there a difference between these words?] He answered: «Конечно» [Of course] and proceeded to explain.

The verb pair «объединяться/объединиться» refers to a few things (states, political parties, etc.) all coming together at once. So, in reference to that customs union Kyrgyzstan wants to join, you could say: «Россия, Белоруссия и Казахстан объединились» [Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan united]. Or like this strange headline from 23 August of this year says: «”Справедливая Россия” предложила КПРФ объединиться на выборах» [A Just Russia (a political party) has proposed to KPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) that they unite in the elections].

Let’s say that A Just Russia did unite with the communists and that after this union, suddenly «Правое дело» [Right Cause] wanted to join, too. Then we would say that «Партия “Правое дело” хочет присоединиться к группе» [The party "Right Cause" wants to join the group]. If there is an already-existing union, then you use «присоединяться/присоединиться». It might make more sense to think about this verb pair as meaning “to join”.

The verb pair «соединяться/соединиться» simply means “to unite” and is the most neutral. When I search it on Google (Google can be a great language learning tool, my friends), I see it often used in relation with technology, such as: «Не могу соединиться с сервером» [I can't connect to the server].

Any comments about these verbs? Please leave them below!

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