Helping those who study Russian.
Often enough, my students get frightened by long Russian words. A student, who normally reads fluently, stops in terror upon seeing a four-syllable word and approaches it like a horse face-to-face with a tall hurdle. I found that explaining what the long word consists of helps to disassemble or lower the hurdle. Compare two words:
Why is history so important? Because it helps us to understand better our present, realize the deep reasons of recent events and make more accurate forecasts regarding consequences they may have. Why do we learn nothing from history? Well, perhaps because we keep ourselves too alienated, too distant from the events that happened in the
Why do people anticipate Winter holidays? Because this is the time to switch off an alarm clock and sleep longer. This is a time for lazy morning coffee and the quiet satisfaction of taking your time. Christmas is a good time for relaxation. Some countries limit winter vacations to a few days, right between Christmas
When an English-speaking person wants to report his or her likes and dislikes, (s)he normally says, “I like it”. The sentence is pretty simple: “I” is a subject, “like” is a predicate and “it” is an object. The same goes with “I need it”. We now have a person who intentionally and responsibly reports his
Up until recent times, personal automobiles have been rare in the Soviet Union. The principal mode of suburban transport has been the elektrichka. Elektrichka is an informal word for an “electric multiple unit passenger train.” Though many people in the Post-Soviet Russia drive personal cars, the electrichka is still very popular today. Designed to carry
Using public transportation is one of the most important things that a visitor must learn upon arriving at a new city. In many Russian cities, you enter the bus, trolley or tram (streetcar), take a seat and then buy a ticket from a guard or conductor. Normally, this is a lady with a bag in
1. The Russian alphabet is weird itself. Some characters are exactly like in the Latin alphabet, while others look the same, but sound different, and the two characters “ъ” and “ь” represent no sound, who needs them? 2. One character E may represent two different sounds [ye] and [yo].Actually, there is a special character for
Have you noticed that people from different countries manage time differently? Germans are known for their accuracy with time and for their desire to schedule everything in. My friend from Germany told me that in any business, Germans try to foresee everything in order to avoid errors and accidents. Perhaps this is why German highways
While politicians are deep into discussion on global warming, many countries are facing the unusually cold weather. My friends from Asia, Europe and America have complained about chilling wind, cold and snow. Here in Siberia, this winter is cold too. During the first decade of the January, we had temperatures below -30C/-22F. This is quite
