Posts tagged with "Russian words"

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.

From Exasperating to Unobtrusive – Customer Service Words

Posted by yelena 16 Comments
Dec 9 2011

Hello! Boy, am I happy to be back! I apologize for such a long absence from the blog. In case you have been wondering, I am not trekking across Siberia nor is my time taken up by re-reading “War and Peace” for the umpteenth time. I have been stranded без ноутбука (without a laptop) or rather without a working one for a whole week.

And so for the last six days or so I’ve been busy watching lots of телек (informal: TV), going to bed early, and obsessing over уровень обслуживания клиентов (customer service level) at the company whose laptop I bought some time ago.

Have you ever wondered how to talk about such an experience – обслуживание клиентов (customer service) and поддержка клиентов (customer support) – in Russian?

Let’s say, you need to make a phone call to one of these services to resolve an issue. First, you must позвонить по бесплатному номеру (call a toll-free number) only to be put through to автоответчик (answering machine). It admits that ваш звонок очень важен для нас! (your call is very important to us) gives you choices that use up all the кнопки телефона (phone buttons), from единичка (one) to девятка (nine), including решётка (pound key) and звёздочка (star key).

Whatever choice you make, you have to spend endless time в ожидании (on hold) since все операторы заняты (all representatives are busy) due to большое число звонков (large volume of calls).

So by the time you get to a real person, especially if this is a pressing matter, you are готовы взорваться (ready to explode), you are доводён до белого каления (exasperated) and require significant усилие воли (effort) to вежливо разговаривать (speak politely). What can you say, it’s simply a нервотрёпка (a trying experience).

There are some notable exceptions to this torturous process, including an online retailer who will have a support person call you within seconds of your online запрос (request).

To give credit when credit is due, I have never encountered a genuine хамство (offensive  behavior) from any of the customer service reps. Considering the number of сердитые (angry), грубые (rude), раздражённые (irritated), огорчённые (upset), возмущённые (outraged) and otherwise эмоциональные (emotional) people they have to deal with daily, this is quite a достижение (achievement).

The most you get is безразличие (indifference), равнодушие (half-heartedness) and невнимательность (inattention). Still, it is a lot to take, especially if the issue you are trying to resolve is неотложное (urgent) and важное (important).

Back in the Soviet and early post-Soviet days the level of customer service (or any service) in Russia was frequently described as ненавязчивый сервис. The adjective ненавязчивый can mean a few things, depending on the noun it’s paired with. For example, ненавязчивая реклама means “soft sell”; ненавязчивая музыка is “light music”; ненавязчивая элегантность is “quiet elegance”. So far so good, right? But ненавязчивый сервис is nothing to be proud of. In fact, it means “support that’s not there”. It’s unobtrusive (another meaning of ненавязчивый) to the point of nonexistence.

This is probably marginally better from a so-terrible-it’s-comical смех сквозь слёзы (laughter through tears) service experience. For example, when a waitress at an otherwise excellent Russian restaurant on Brighton Beach tells you (me): Перестаньте меню читать. Вы же не читать пришли, а есть. Вот закажите, а потом уже читайте. (Stop reading the menu. You came here not to read, but to eat. Order first then keep reading.)

Getting back to the exasperating experience, hopefully your проблема (problem) is resolved, you get возврат денег (refund) back to your кредитная карточка (credit card) or your банковская карточка (debit card). Or you might be asked to вернуть неисправный товар (return the malfunctioning item) back to продавец (a seller). Or you might get nothing of the kind. No matter the outcome, you will be left with a polite всего доброго! (have a nice day!).

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.

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!

One Hard-Working Russian Word

Posted by yelena 18 Comments
Oct 18 2011

Do you know that in Russia the expression “birthday suit” translates as «костюм Адама»  if talking about a male and «костюм Евы» if talking about a woman. But «фиговый листок» means exactly the same thing, a fig leaf, in its proverbial sense. Just be careful with the stress or you end up saying “worthless leaf” which, come to think of it, is exactly what this proverbial leaf was.

I know, I know, I am expected to write a post about Russian curse words. I do have a couple of really good excuses for not having it ready just yet. But it is in the works. In the mean time, consider this an introduction into the world of Russian words not usually found in textbooks.

The words «фиг» and «фига», in their meaning of “the bird” aka “the highway salute” aka “the finger” aka “f***k off” gave rise to countless words and expressions that are, in themselves, a study in the richness, complexity and flexibility of the Russian language.

At a glance these words seem to be related to a fig tree. If that was the case, «фиговое дерево» [fig tree], and not birch, would be a Russian national tree (on the basis of linguistic influence). However, it doesn’t seem to be related to the words I’m going to talk about. Besides, «фиговое дерево» is not even the most popular translation. Instead, it is «инжир» or «смоква». Note the stress is on the first vowel. But more on this in just a little bit.

As for the «показать фигу» [to flip a finger] gesture, it’s not done using just the middle finger. Instead, the whole hand is made into a fist with the thumb tucked in between the pointing finger and the middle finger. Would it surprise you to learn that this gesture has more than one name – «фига», «кукиш», «дуля», and «шиш».

The expression «фиг тебе» really means “you won’t get anything from me”. So it’s not nearly as obscene as “f***k off” translation that it sometimes gets. The gesture and the words, although not nice, are mild enough to be used even by women and children such as in phrases:

«Смотришь в книгу, видишь фигу» [Looking at the book and seeing nothing] – an expression favored by teachers and mothers.

«Фигу тебе с маслом!» [lit. You get a nothing with butter on it] – innocent enough that elementary school-aged children use it freely.

«Иди на фиг!» [Go to hell!] – acceptable even around youngsters, although not exactly the best way to handle things.

But let’s move on from the basics to some more advanced words. One of the most useful words in Russian language is «фигня» which can mean a nothing, a trifle, nonsense, stuff and a range of other things.

An amusing article with a title «Фигня как социальное явление» [Фигня as a social phenomenon] classifies «фигня» into two broad categories of «абстрактная» [here: transcendental] and «конкретная» [specific].

So basically, you can use this one word to describe pretty much everything going on around you or with you. In fact, have you ever read a book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff – and it’s all small stuff”? I think, if it ever were to print in Russian, a perfect title would be «Не страдай фигнёй; а кстати, всё – фигня».

This brings us to two popular phrases in the “verb + «фигня»” format:

«Страдать фигнёй» also «маяться фигнёй» also «заниматься фигнёй» – to waste time doing something or obsessing over something that’s small, meaningless, useless, etc. Also, to procrastinate as in «С понедельника перестаю страдать фигнёй и начинаю искать работу» [On Monday, I will stop procrastinating and will start looking for a job]

«Пороть фигню» – to talk nonsense as in «От стеснения он сбился с мысли и начал пороть фигню» [He felt so ill at ease, that he lost his thought and started talking nonsense]

But let’s move on to bigger and more complicated words. The noun «фигня» can be used to create all sorts of fantastic and highly useful words, such as

«Фиговина» [a thing, an object] – if you find yourself in an informal setting and desperate to remember a Russian word for some (any) object, you can use this word instead. For example, «Саша, ты вчера эту фиговину искал?» [Sasha, were you looking for this thing yesterday?]

«Фиговый» [worthless, rotten] – stress is the key here. When «и» is stressed, the adjective has a meaning of “of a fig tree”. When «о» is stressed, the meaning changes dramatically – «фиговая жизнь» [lousy life], «фиговое качество» [poor quality], «фиговый помошник» [worthless helper].

«Офигеть» [to flip over, to freak] – this verb can also be used as an exclamation. The emotions covered by «офигеть» can be either positive or negative.

  • «Я офигел, когда официантка принесла счёт» [I freaked out when the waitress brought over the check].
  • «Концерт был – офигеть!» [The show was awesome!]
  • «Офигеть как холодно!» [It’s freakishly cold!]

«Офигенный» [unbelievable] – do not confuse with «фиговый» (bad) since «офигенный» is usually a good thing, except when it’s not.

  • «Концерт был просто офигенный» [The show was simply unbelievable].
  • «За билетами на концерт была офигенная очередь» [The line for the tickets to the show was unbelievable]

“Пофиг» also «пофигу» [screw it] – when you just don’t care about something. For example, «мне обычно эти концерты вообще пофигу» [usually I don’t care a bit about these shows].

«Пофигист» – if you are a laid-back person who doesn’t really care about too many things or doesn’t react strongly to much; if you tend to say “screw it” and “whatever” to pretty much whatever, this is a good descriptive for you.

«Фигово» [crappy] – oh, this can be used in so many ways to describe conditions of various objects, as in «сделано фигово» [of inferior workmanship] and persons, i.e. «на душе фигово» [feeling blue] as well as global phenomena «на Ближнем Востоке сейчас фигово, что и говорить» [it goes without saying, the situation in the Middle East is discouraging].

How socially appropriate are these words and phrases? They are inoffensive (usually) in informal conversations with people you know well. However, keep in mind that «фигня» is really a euphemism for a much stronger-flavored word familiar to Russians «от мала до велика» [young and old], the one that is not fit to print or say «в приличном обществе» [in a polite company].

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