Fighting Is My Job

The Russian “Parliament” is called the Ду́ма (Duma) from the verb думать (dumat’) meaning ‘to think or consider’. The Russian statesman belonging to the Ду́ма are supposed to ‘think‘ for their supper just like in England or America, right?

The English governing body, the Parliament, has a different word origin however, meaning ‘to talk’. So that’s what those English are doing.

What about the American Congress? Originally congress came from Latin: congressus “a meeting, hostile encounter”. But by the 1770′s meant a meeting of delegates. Coincidence?  I think not.

My Favorite Russian

Ok, so if you don’t know Hot for Words and you love words (or hot blondes) then you need to check this out. I wish she would do some videos about the origins of Russian words! Go get ‘um Marina!

Keep the Change!

Russia is my kind of country (even though I’ve never been there). How do you say “Keep the change” in Russian? Quite literally it’s “The rest is for tea“. (Astavtye na chai. Oставте на чай.) Unfortunately, I drink so much tea that I need a bit more than pocket change to feed the addiction. lol.

Here is the strangest video of people using a Samovar you will ever want to see.

t.A.T.u

Hahaha…these girls crack me up

Even though these two are obviously cranky like noted in the video I bought their song “Ya Soshla S Uma (I’ve Lost My Mind)” I think this could be very good vocab to learn lol.

Foxhall? What?

The Russian word for TRAIN STATION is вокзал ‘vokzal’ which many believe came from the English word VAUXHALL. If your not from London you might be confused.

Legend has it that when the Russians first wanted to build a Railroad station they visited a South London train station named Vauxhall. The Russian engineers mistook the name to be the generic name for a train station, hence the word, вокзал.

Vauxhall Station.

Michel Thomas Is My Favorite!

If you want to learn the basics for a new language I promise that you should start with the Michel Thomas method!  I loved learning the basics of Spanish with his CD’s.  Today I started with the Russian CD’s that use his method.  http://www.michelthomas.co.uk/default.htm

To learn about him check this out!

Getting Down to Business: How I Will Learn Russian

It’s time I learn Russian. I have always wanted to. My grandmother is from Russia and that’s were I get this fascination from. I learned Spanish by studying and living in Chile…but I’m not a student anymore so the wanderlust lifestyle is on hold for awhile. So while I would like to learn Russian by living in Russia and immersing myself with the language I will do the next best thing….pretend.

My Language Learning Plan:

1. Listen to ‘learn Russian’ CD’s and tapes for 30 min. each day.
2. Learn about a Russian tradition/ cultural oddity each week and try it out.
3. Make a Russian meal 2x a month.
4. Find and write a Russian penpal.
5. Jam to awesome Russian pop music in the car.