It appears that two major themes dominate our news stream of late: the oil spill (or, rather, a series of them) and the illegal immigration related debates. Both are topics not completely unknown in Russia, so here are the Russian words for you:
OIL (the fossil fuel kind) is нефть ("neft"). Which is why you have company names like Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Gazprom, Rosneft, Transneft, Yugansknefegaz, etc., all oil companies.
Cooking or salad oil, on the other had, is масло ("MAHS-lah"), or, to be exact, растительное масло ("rahs-TEE-tehl-noh-yeh MAHS-lah"), as opposed to сливочное масло ("SLEE-vahch-nah-yeh MAHS-lah"), or butter.
As far as the illegal immigration issue (you may be surprised, but apparently there are plenty of people interested in moving TO Russia), the phrase is almost identical to the English one: in Russian we say
For the most part, нелегальные мигранты ("neh-lih-GAHL-nih-yeh mih-GRAHN-tih"),"illegal migrants", or simply нелегалы ("neh-lih-GAH-lih"), the illegals, as they are more frequently called, come from the former Soviet republics, especially those in South-East Asia.
Б is the second letter of the Russian alphabet. Its sound is always the same as "b" in, for example, Big Brother (the one that's watching you, remember?)
Russian Names
There are surprisingly few Russian names that start with letter Б. In fact, there are no women's names that would be more or less frequently used or recognizable as Russian. As for guys, there are basically only two: Богдан ("Bahg-DAHN") and Борис ("Bah-REES"), the latter being by far better recognizable.
Most of you probably still remember the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin. He was not the only famous Борис.
You can read the full Russian text of Doctor Zhivago online here.
Two other rather well-known (in Russia) individuals come to mind: a fastly popular contemporary writer Boris Akunin and a controversial dancer / singer Boris Moiseyev.
The diminutive for Борис is Боря ("BOH-rya"). Unlike Антоша or Андрюша, Боря can be used among friends / buddies to address a grown man in a friendly manner (just make sure you are friends).
By the way, Big Brother from Orwell's 1984 can be translated as Большой Брат ("Bohl-SHOI braht"), both words starting with letter Б.
A complete, I would even say state-of-art, online Elementary Russian course.
May not be suitable for absolute beginners (you may need to know at least the alphabet).
Conversation, Grammar, Vocabulary sections, videos, interactive exercises and quizzes, cultural information.
Has versions for the speakers of English, German, French, Italian and Chinese,as well as a Russian-only version.
"Free Russian Course" - Currently includes 8 lessons on Russian Alphabet, Meeting People, Introducing others, Fun and Games, Directions, Congratulations and Wishes, Hobby and Activities, At the hotel. Lessons include Vocabulary, Listening and Grammar sections.
Other sections: Grammar, Vocabulary, Literature. Features a dictionary and a Forum.
A lesson on Russian alphabet, 10 "Introductory Lessons" and 2 "Phrasebook topics", layered with 4 quizzes. These will give you some sound basics, especially if you are struggling with reading Russian. The rest of the goodies (which the site appears to have plenty of), you would have to pay for. Also features a forum.
"Online Course": The first 5 lessons are free. The topics are: "Greetings"; "Introducing yourself"; "Where are you from?"; "Professions"; "Language Skills". A rather nice collection of words and phrases, complete with audio. Also features "Russian Pronunciation" and "Reading Russian" sections. Greatest feature: an audio file for next to anything, and audio quizzes.
Some of the fruit that you will easily find not only in Анапа, but in most Russian markets:
Абрикос
(Ahb-ree-KOHS)
Арбуз
(ahr-BOOS)
Here is a memory key for this one: think "Our Booze"
Апельсин
(ah-pel-SEEN)
Try "up-ill-seen"
Since more likely than not you will want more than one of these, for the plural just add "ы" (something like "i" in "big"). So, if you we are buying a bunch of them, they will be
абрикосы
арбузы
апельсины
That's all for now. If you want to know more about the Russian alphabet in general, or Russian letter "A" in particular, check out this, or just drop me a line.
Here is something to help you with Russian Alphabet:
I am starting a Russian Alphabet series - with a twist. I will be telling you about Russian culture - in alphabetical order. If you have any suggestions or special requests, please let me know.
So, let's start at the beginning.
Russian Letter:
Read it as if it was "a" in "father"... or like "Ah!"
Russian names:
Probably the most common woman's name that starts with letter "A" is Анна. If you are close friends, or if she is still a little girl, she will probably like it if you call her Анечка ("AH-nech-kah"), Анюта ("Ah-NYOOT-ah", or maybe "new" in the middle will be easier to remember: "Ah-NEW-tah") or Аннушка ("AHN-noo-shka" - please please PLEASE remember to stress the FIRST syllable if you use this variant).
A Soviet-born Polish singer Анна Герман (here in English) was once very popular in that part of the world.
Another common Russian name starting with "A" is Алла ("AHL-lah"). Again, if she is your close friend or still a little girl, you can try calling her Аллочка ("AHL-lahch-kah"). Here, of course, I have to mention Алла Пугачёва (here in English), another singer, vastly popular in the 80-ies and 90-ies, and not completely forgotten to this day.
Here is a classic from the 80-ies (was our favorite nursery school song - not officially, of course... for some reason it was perfect to shout when on a swing.)
Here is a newer one:
Now, to the gentlemen:
Андрей ("Ahn-DRAY") is a fairly common name. Unless you are his mother or he is a little boy, he may not like being called Андрюша ("Ahn-DREW-shah").
Photo: "book, Заступница. С. В. Калистратова. Составитель: Е.Печуро. «Звенья», 1997. (in Russian)", retrieved form Wikimedia Commons, Copyright: M.A.Kallistratova et al.
Another name I would like to mention is Антон ("Ahn-TOHN"), or Антоша, ("Ahn-TOH-shah") if you are his mother, or he is a little boy. If he is a little boy, his buddies probably call him Антошка ("Ahn-TOHSH-kah"), a diminutive variant used in an old Soviet cartoon:
British Open remains a hot topic on the web, the English-reading web that is. It appears, however, that the RuNet, as we call the Russian-language part of the World Wide Web, is hardly bothered. This will probably tell you that golf is not one of the most popular sports in Russia. Honestly, I learned about its existence from English-Russian dictionaries and language textbooks, and I had not seen a live golfer until, if I remember it right, 2007.
Apparently, this is not all that surprising. According to Wikipedia, there were no golf courses (none!) in the whole then-USSR until 1988! That is 22 402 200 square kilometers (8,649,538 sq mi) and not a single golf course! The same Wikipedia article states that even now, there are only six golf clubs in the whole country. On a more positive note, though, thirteen more golf clubs / country clubs are being built.
The other thing I have to mention is, of course, that as you move up the social ladder, the closer to the executive world you get, the more you will hear about golf. But then you will also hear about a numerous other things non-existent for the majority of Russia's population.
For those learning the Russian language, here is an interesting Golf Glossary. While it was obviously developed for beginner golfers and focuses primarily on explaining the concepts, you will notice that each word has an English equivalent. And since there are only 47 items on the list (at the time of writing), it shouldn't be impossible to use this reference as both a Russian-English and an English-Russian "Golf Dictionary". Happy Putting!
As I have been browsing the news, two people caught my attention...
The first one was Tiger Woods... it is amazing how people are so much more interested in his affair than pretty much anything else about him. C'mon guys, there's life out there besides his.
This reminds me of Clinton-Lewinski scandal back in 1998. You know what what the most important news about it in Russia? That "their" (the US) president "still CAN"! Then-President Clinton's informal "approval ratings" went through the roof, and the popular sentiment was that such incident deserved decoration, rather than impeachment. You see, those were not the best of Yeltsin's years... And pictures of Clinton with a sax evoked only one association. (Curiously, this particular saxophone was a present from Boris Yeltsin, back in 1994)
Well, whether it was President Yeltsin's perceived (not only political) impotence, or the consequences of a devastating financial crisis that hit the country later that same year... but in 1999 Russia met a new President-to-be.
(the source of the three photos above: www.kremlin.ru)
Now, that was a guy to have a crush on!
What does the omni-present, omni-potent, eternal Steve Jobs have to do with this? Well... other than that both look better in turtle-necks than they do in suits, other than the fact that both always have a "it's your own fault"- style response ready... Other than...
For those that are interested, here is your Russian Spy vocabulary list:
шпион
a spy
шпионить (за кем-либо)
to spy (on somebody)
шпионаж
espionage
заниматься шпионажем
engage in espionage
If you are not sure how to read the Russian words, try Google Translate - it will say the word for you.
Here are a couple of soviet "anti-spy" slogans:
"Смерть шпионам!"
(Smehrt shpee-OHN-am)
"Death to spies", or "Spies must die" - a popular slogan of Stalin times, a very convenient one, as almost anyone could be made to match the definition.
"Болтун - находка для шпиона"
(Bahl-TOON na-KHOHD-ka dlya shpee-OHN-ah)
Roughly translates as "A blabber is a (precious) find to a spy"... Sort of like the British WWII poster "Keep mum - she's not so dumb"
The recent Russian Spy Ring affair has been getting quite a buzz - on both sides of the Ocean... Whatever that story is really about - I grant you, we will never know.
But it reminded me of something...
I remember asking what the difference was between "shpion" (spy) and "razvedchik" (scout or intelligence officer, depending on the context). How would you answer a question like that from a -say- five-year-old?
The answer I got was that when they are ours, they are "razvedchiki", intelligence officers. When they work for the enemy's side, they are, of course, "shpiony", spies. Other than that, the unspoken assumption was that they are the same. My first lesson in semantics... lol.
On a more serious note, once my mother - who understood some basic English - helped a confused foreign couple discover the store they were in did not sell "halva"... or rather was (rather permanently) out of that supposedly-Russian supposedly-delicacy. All she said was, "Halva? Halva - no! Halva no here." The following morning (!) she was called to drop by "Department One", where a non-uniformed officer asked her if she remembered the papers she had signed... about not talking to foreigners, you know, those papers... I guess Big Brother was watching.
It's about things Russian and Soviet, stories I have heard and history I have lived - encompassing pretty much the lifespan of that monster called the Soviet Union, from before its "birth" to after its collapse.
It's about the Russians as I know them - by the way they are not all hot-blond-spy-mail-order-brides. (Some are guys, you know... most are not blond... and quite a few are not hot at all)
And yes, I will teach you some important vocabulary - both Russian (hopefully, we will go beyond "Putin", "Lenin", "vodka" and "nyet") and Renglish (it's like Spanglish, only for us Roosskies).
Don't worry, Russian girls / singles / dating / brides (and a long list of those hot search words) will not be deprived of attention either.
It will be very not logical, and hopefully not academic at all. But I promise you - it will be authentic. And honest. Questions welcome.
