Posts tagged w/ Russian culture

Word of the Week: «Время» [Time]

Posted by Josefina
Sep
4
2009

Sometimes Russian Blog’s Word of the Week is solely grammatically interesting, sometimes purely culturally or historically fascinating. Seldom can our Russian word of the week be both. But this week’s word is actually both! The Russian word «время» [time] is grammatically interesting because it is a neuter noun despite ending on «я» [ya] (which is usually the marker for feminine nouns) and has a highly intriguing declension in the six cases (just wait for it!) that might confuse you the first time but is well worth learning by heart. The Russian concept «время» [time] is culturally and historically fascinating since Russia is an enormous country with a total of eleven time zones. And that’s even though the entire «европейская часть России» [European part of Russia (that's all of Russia in front of the Ural Mountains)] has one and the same time - colloquially as well as officially known as «московское время» [Moscow time]. Historically the time in Moscow has been more important than the time in the rest of the ten Russian time zones; for example, all train times are according to «московское время». Though on your train tickets you’ll see that this is written as «время московское» [the change would make it correct to translate as ‘the time is Moscow time']. On plane tickets, however, the time marked for take-off and landing is always «время местное» [local time]. In Russia one often meets Moscow time on TV (news are often broadcast according to the capital), and also on the radio - yet after a while you will have learned to ignore it and apprehend that the popular provincial saying from the Soviet times: «Что Москва? Москва далеко» [What about Moscow? Moscow's far away], is very true indeed.

If you don’t live in Moscow and listen to the radio «в провинции» [in the province] you might hear the following: «Сейчас два часа дня по Москве». Probably you understand the part about ‘now it is two o’clock [p.m.]‘ but what does «по Москве» mean? Clearly not “on Moscow”. It is actually short for «по московскому времени» [according to Moscow time].

When talking about «время» [time] in Russian language and culture we could also bring up the Russian approach to time. What makes the Russian approach different from our own (now I mean to compare mostly with European or Western approach to time, since that’s closest to home for me)? Is it simply prejudice to say that «русские всегда опаздывают» [Russians are always late] or is there some truth to it? Speaking from my own personal experience I have to admit that it’s more than just a little bit true; even though one should always keep in mind that «все русские разные» [all Russians are different]. During five years in Russia I’ve learned that it is best to tell Russians to be somewhere at 11.30, for example, if you want to be sure that they’ll have arrived in time for 12.00. I don’t know why a majority of Russians can never be on time - is it because their lives are so full of stress? That they have too much to do? Or is it due to those «бесконечные пробки на улицах» [endless trafficjams on the streets] which we cannot even imagine before we’ve seen them (not to speak of getting stuck in one of them!)? When I discussed this with one of my professors in Yekaterinburg she said that before, «в советские времена» [in Soviet times], people weren’t at all late as often as they are now. She said it’s mostly «молодёжь» [young people; youth] that is never on time in Russia today. I couldn’t argue with her, obviously, since I’ve never lived in the Soviet Union due to being born in the beginning of «перестройка» ['perestroika' - or, more correctly translated as reconstruction; conversion; realignment; alteration]. That’s why I don’t know what kind of approach the average «гражданин Советского союза» [citizen of the Soviet Union] had. Maybe someone of you readers know more about this? Maybe someone has seen ‘time’ in both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation?

Okay, enough with the cultural ponderings - let’s decline this noun!

A good way of showing what happens to «время» [time] in the six cases depending on whether it’s SINGULAR or PLURAL («времена» [times] - did you see how the stress just jumped from being on the first vowel in singular to the last in plural? Now that’s confusing to me!) is to give twelve sentences in which this word is portrayed in all of its twelve forms. Okay? Let’s do it then!

«ЕДИНСТВЕННОЕ ЧИСЛО» [SINGULAR]:

Nominative: «Время - деньги» - [Time is money].

Genitive: «У меня нет времени» - [I don't have the time].

Dative: «Поезд придёт в Иркутск в пять часов утра по местному времени» - [The train arrives in Irkutsk at five in the morning according to local time].

Accusative: «Какое время года ты любишь?» - [What time of the year do you love?]

Locative: «Он не ориентируется во времени и пространстве» - [He doesn't orientate himself in time and space].

Instrumental: «Со временем ты меня поймёшь» - [With time you'll understand me].

«МНОЖЕСТВЕННОЕ ЧИСЛО» [PLURAL]:

Nominative: «Что за новые времена!» - [What kind of new times are these!]

Genitive: «Кто сейчас помнит нравы старых времён?» - [Who remembers the manners of old times now?]

Dative: «А ты скучаешь по старым временам?» - [(But) do you miss the old times?]

Accusative: «Я-то стараюсь забыть старые времена!» - [I for one try to forget the old times!]

Locative: «Не будем говорить о старых временах тогда» - [Let's not talk about the old times then].

Instrumental: «Всё изменится с новыми временами» - [Everything will change with the new times].

I hope that you found these twelve sentences to be helpful and that you’ll be able to forgive me for only using the word combinations «новые времена» [new times] and «старые времена» [old times] in plural. Suddenly, while writing this post, I came to suffer from instant brain freeze and couldn’t come up with any other combinations in which you use the word ‘time’ in plural in Russian. If anyone else out there has a clue, please leave it in a comment! I love to read your comments; they help me make this blog better. And I really want this blog to be the best - the best for learning Russian and keeping one’s affectionate feelings for Russian culture in the best of shapes.

 
Posted under Culture, Soviet Union, Traditions, language
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Everybody loves борщ [borscht]!

Posted by Josefina
Feb
7
2009

There comes a time in everybody’s life when you need to get a little Russia into your everyday existence. Especially if you’re not currently in Russia, but constantly finding yourself outside of the Russian Federation, and thus persistently living without interacting with Russian culture on a day to day basis. Particularly will you suddenly find yourself craving Russian food. This problem is, however, easy to solve. «А как?» [But how?] you might wonder, and the answer to that question is even easier than the solution - throw a Russian style dinner party! Once again the question «как?» arises, but worry not, dear readers, because today I will show you an uncomplicated trick and at the end of this post you will inevitably exclaim «вот так!» [like that!]. Call some close friends and invite them over for dinner, but tell them only that you plan on cooking «борщ» [borscht], nothing else. The rest will be a pleasant surprise, and - as I would like to call it - the shortest visa-less trip ever possible to the great Eastern Motherland! What you need to create that special Eastern European coziness in the comfort of your own home (kitchen, of course!) isn’t very much, and if you’ve got a Russian store in your neighborhood it is even less. I decided to throw my own Russian style dinner party on my last Saturday at home in Gothenburg, Sweden (I’m currently back in the Urals) and lucky for me, Gothenburg has a Russian store called «Бабушка» ['Grandmother'] where I could acquire the two essentials - «приправа для борща» [seasoning; flavoring for borscht] and «сметана» [Russian sour crème; ‘smetana']. The recipe I’m about to share with you is for vegetarian borscht, though real Russian borscht (or Ukrainian borscht, for that matter) is made with meat, as I am well aware of. But I’m a vegetarian, so this is the only way I cook it. Probably many of you have your own special way of preparing borscht, and the way I make is in no way the only ‘canonical’ way of making it. Yet I must take some pride because the borscht I make is to die for. «Обещаю!» [I promise!]

I bought two packages of «приправа для борща», one of them I used to make «бульон» [broth; consommé; bouillon] mixing it with one litre of boiling water. This I used as the ‘foundation’ for the soup; if you make it with meat, then you’ll use the water you cooked the meat in for this. When you make vegetarian borscht it is important to remember two things - to use more spices and more fat, which isn’t needed with meat, since there’s enough spice and fat in meat as it is.

This recipe is enough for six people to get two servings each (it is both Swedish and Russian custom to fill up your guests to the top). You’ll need «два или три большие картошки» [two or three big potatoes], «пятьсот граммов капусты» [500 grams of cabbage], «четыре или пять свёкл» [four beets] to start with.

The first thing to do is to cut «один лук» [one onion] and «четыре лодки чеснока» [four garlic ‘boats' - don't know the word for it in English, but you know what I mean!] into very fine small pieces and fry them in a big pot. I used over 1 decilitre of olive oil, and I don’t recommend using any less.

All the vegetables need to be cut into small squares, including «одна морковка» [one carrot] and as is the thumb rule in cooking Russian food - when you’re cutting things into tiny pieces, you know you’re on the right track! I would recommend slicing the cabbage with a ‘cheese slicer’ (as seen on the picture above next to the cabbage), though I know that’s an eccentric tool used primarily in Sweden. You could also chop it up with a knife, of course.

Then you put all of the ingredients into the pot, plus some more water, and let it boil for a little while, then putting down the heat and adding some more spices (like salt, pepper, «укроп» [dill] and «петрушка» [parsley] for example). Add about 2 decilitres of tomato paste to make it even fuller and ‘foodier’. Now the only thing left to do while the soup cooks - 30 minutes is minimum, but an hour or two only makes it even tastier - is to set the table. To create that exceptional Russian atmosphere in your own home all you really need to do is to set the table with a red tablecloth (I used a regular sheet for effect), a flag in the window, a couple of Russian books on the window sill, a knitted scarf over one chair, a Russian army jacket over another, a magnet with Medvedev and Russian modern art on the fridge, plus three glasses - for vodka, beer (or wine) and water. The vodka should be Russian, but the beer could be Czech or Polish, and the wine… anything red will do!

Of course there’s no real borscht experience without «сметана»! Start the meal by making a toast with ice-cold «водка» (put it in the freezer for an hour first) and then biting it off with some «огурчики» [salted cucumber]. A good choice for background music is the Russian Army Choir, which has made some excellent discs. The first song to play should of course be the Russian national anthem…

…and then your guests are ready to enjoy your borscht - but don’t forget the bread! It should be «серый или чёрный хлеб» ['grey' or 'black' bread; in other words whole-wheat], white bread in this context is a big no-no.

Incidentally, my dear mother also blogged about this our ‘borscht-experience’ - this is for those of your who are fluent in Swedish, or those who are just curious to see just what kind of outfits is appropriate for such a dinner party as the one suggested above.

 
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