Posts tagged with "russian"

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!

Советские Анекдоты [Soviet Jokes]

Posted by Natalie 11 Comments
Sep 26 2011

«Дорогие друзья» [Dear friends], it is with great pleasure that I inform you that I am in an advanced Russian class this year. We have been reading «советские анекдоты» [Soviet jokes] in class and I want to share a few of them with you, as they are often quite funny. In the photo: a visual joke of sorts – graffiti on the Berlin Wall.

«–Цензурируется ли переписка советских граждан?
–Нет, но письма антисоветского содержания адресатам не доставлются.»

[–Is Soviet correspondence censored?
–No, but letters with anti-Soviet content are never delivered.]

«–На какие категории подразделяются советские диссиденты?
–На сидентов, досидентов, отсидентов, пересидентов, ожидантов и вновьсидентов.»

[–Into what categories are Soviet dissidents broken down?
–Those who are sitting (i.e. in jail), those who are almost done sitting, those who are just out from sitting, those who sitting longer than their sentence, those who are waiting to sit, and those who are sitting again.]

This is quite a clever joke, but I did not understand it until my professor explained it to us. It plays with the idea of Russian prefixes and the verb «сидеть», which can mean to be in jail.

«–Что такое СССР?
–Спальная, столовая, сортир, работа.»

[–What does USSR stand for?
–Bedroom, dining room, toilet, work.]

My favorite version of this joke has «Смерть Сталина спасёт Россию» [Stalin's death will save Russia] as the punch line. Also, if I’m not mistaken, «сортир» is not a polite word, so you probably should not go around using it!

«–Нужна ли в русском языке буква “М”?
–Не нужна. Мяса нет, маргарина нет, молока нет. Маленкова нет, Молотова тоже нет. Остался один Микоян и тот не русский.»

[-Do we need the letter "M" in Russian?
-No. There's no meat, margarine, or milk. There's no Malenkov, or Molotov either. Only Mikoyan remains, and he's not Russian.]

This is my favorite joke. It’s from the 1950s, so it plays on the chronic food shortages in the Soviet Union, as well as de-Stalinization. (Malenkov and Molotov were Stalin allies, as was Mikoyan. However, Mikoyan fared better under de-Stalinization because he backed Khrushchev’s efforts. Also, Mikoyan was Armenian, hence the comment on him not being Russian.)

Do you have a favorite joke in Russian? Do you want me to post more Soviet jokes later this week? Let me know in the comments!

The New Facebook: What Do You Think?

Posted by Natalie No Comments
Sep 22 2011

You may be wondering right now «Где же Наташа?» [Where is Natasha?]. I know I have had a long absence from «наш русский блог» [our Russian blog], but I am pleased to say: «я вернулась» [I have returned]. And in a later post, I will answer the questions: «Где я была? Что я делала?» [Where was I? What was I doing?] But for now, another post about social networking…

I have blogged about social networking before, and I mentioned the website «Фейсбук» [Facebook]. Well, in case you have not noticed, «Фейсбук» has made some «изменения» [changes] in the past few days. Over on our Facebook page (if you did not know it, my friends, I am telling you now: Transparent Language’s Russian blog has a Facebook page, and we would love it if you clicked «Мне нравится» [Like]), there is quite a discussion going on.

In response to «вопрос» [the question] “Use your Russian to say what you think of the new Facebook layout!” there are over two hundred responses. Yes, my friends, I do mean «двести» [two hundred]. Here is a selection of what some of you have been saying:

  • «Это мусор!» [It's trash!]
  • «Очень плохо!» [Very bad!]
  • «У меня ещё не поменялся слава богу!!!» [Mine still hasn't changed yet, thank God!!!]
  • «Это кошмар!» [It's a nightmare!]
  • «Я хочу, чтобы они просто оставить его в покое.» [I just wish they'd leave it alone.]
  • «Всё равно, я никогда не мог найти ничего здесь.» [It's all the same, I can never find anything on here anyway.]

«Честно говоря» [To be honest], I agree with that last statement. I do not like the new format, but I was not overly fond of the old one either.

A few people like it, such as one commenter who wrote «очень хорошо» [very good]. And some others really, really hate it and have used «мат» [bad language (okay, so I recognize that my example is not technically considered «мат», but it is still a word you really should not use in polite company)]. A common word I see in this discussion is «говно» [s**t].

But my favorite comment is this one: «Я люблю Россию» [I love Russia]. No matter what Facebook decides to do when changing its interface, «мы любим Россию» [we love Russia], right?

What do you think about the changes? Will this affect how many people use Facebook? Let me know in the comments!

Social Networking – In Russian

Posted by Natalie 25 Comments
Aug 8 2011

In recent years, a new term has become popular on the internet: «социальная сеть» [social network]. Some of these sites seem to be «международный» [international], like «Фейсбук» [Facebook]. Others, like «В Контакте» [V Kontakte] are not. Not only are social networks fun, but they can also help you learn a language. How? Read on to find out.

«Что такое социальная сеть?» [What is a social network?] Wikipedia says that it is «интерактивный веб-сайт» [an interactive website]. Furthermore, «обычно возможно указать информацию о себе» [you usually put information about yourself], such as «дата рождения, школа, вуз, и т.д.» [birthday, school, university, etc.].

The whole point of social networking sites, of course, is to «найти друзей» [find your friends]. Usually you will be able to search for specific people so that, in Facebook terminology, you can «добавить в друзья» [add to your friends (list)].

«Сначала» [At the beginning] of the social networking phenomenon, usually «молодёжь» [the youth, young people] were using these websites, but now «много людей» [many people] use them.

So, how can using social networking sites help you learn a foreign language? In many ways! «Например» [For example], you can go to «настройки» and change your language settings. My Facebook is «только на русском» [only in Russian] and this has helped me learn computer vocabulary.

If you want to interact with Russian people, you could join «В Контакте» [V Kontakte]. «Этот веб-сайт похож на Фейсбук, но на русском.» [This website looks like Facebook, but in Russian.] The design is similar to the old Facebook design. «К сожалению, нужно приглашение, чтобы войти.» [Unfortunately, you need an invitation to log in.] If anyone reading this needs an invitation, I may be able to give you one (if I can remember my account password!).

You can also seek out Russian speakers on «Твиттер» [Twitter]. «Твиттер тоже на русском» [Twitter is also in Russian], so you can learn some new vocabulary. Also, with Twitter, you communicate with «короткие сообщения» [short messages], which means you won’t get too overwhelmed with very long sentences.

Do you have any tips for learning Russian by using social networking? Share below!

Prefixed Verbs of Motion: Some Example Sentences

Posted by Natalie 5 Comments
Jul 27 2011

This is the third post in a series about «глаголы движения с приставками» [prefixed verbs of motion]. If you have not read the previous two posts, you can do so here and here. In the photo: «Дон в Воронежской области» [the Don (a river) in Voronezh oblast].

A commenter asked for example sentences with prefixed verbs of motion. I am happy to say that I have found sentences for you. Some I found on the internet, and others are what I or my Russian-speaking friends would say.

  • «Все вышли во двор.» [Everyone went out to the courtyard.] Note how «во» is used because «двор» begins with two consonant sounds.
  • «Я прилетела в Москву сегодня утром.» [I arrived in Moscow this morning.] Since this is a single action, I used the perfective form of the verb.
  • «Завтра она улетит в/на Украину.» [Tomorrow she is leaving for Ukraine.] Ukraine can take «в» or «на». In general, I have noticed that Russians tend to use «на» and Ukrainians tend to use «в», but I do not know if this is a hard and fast rule.
  • «Солнце восходит в шесть часов.» [The sun rises at six o'clock.]
  • «Мы часто заходим к Ольге.» [We often drop in on Olga.]
  • «Дети переходят (через) улицу.» [The children are crossing the street.] Notice how the «через» is optional.
  • «Как пройти на Красную площадь?» [How do you get to Red Square?] This is an excellent question to ask if you are in Moscow, my friends.
  • «Я прошла мимо аптеки.» [I walked past the pharmacy.]
  • «Туристы дошли до Большого театра.» [The tourists walked up to the Bolshoi Theatre.]
  • «Анна увидела свою подругу, когда она выходила из машины.» [Anna saw her friend as she was getting out of a car.]
  • «Он стремительно подходил к половине.» [It rapidly approached the halfway point.] This is a quote from «Белая гвардия, написан Михаилом Булгаковым» [The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov]. It is talking about the month of December going by quickly, so perhaps a more poetic translation would be “Mid-month rapidly approached.” I like it because it uses a verb of motion in a more figurative sense (as opposed to these other sentences, which literally involve motion).
  • Я отвёз Сашу в аэропорт.» [I took Sasha to the airport.] With the verbs «нести», «вести», and «везти», the prefix «от» can add the meaning of taking something or someone from one place and leaving it in another.

Questions? Let me know in the comments!

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