touchrussia:

On the 12th of April 1961 the 27-year-old carpenter’s son Yuri Gagarin become the first human in space, aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 capsule. He circled the Earth once on a 108-minute space flight, before parachuting safely to ground in the Saratov region of the USSR. His foray into space is regarded as one of the 20th century’s most significant achievements.

Read more about Russia’s most famous cosmonaut

Source: ITAR TASS

A friend linked this comic to me today. I found it very amusing and hope you do too.

A pangram or holoalphabetic sentence for a given alphabet is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once.

Listed below are some examples in Russian using the Cyrillic alphabet:

(traditional telegraph test; lacks ъ and ё) В чащах юга жил бы цитрус? Да, но фальшивый экземпляр! 
Would a citrus live in the thickets of the south? Yes, but only a fake one!

(each letter exactly once) Эх, чужак, общий съём цен шляп (юфть) – вдрызг!
Hey, stranger, the general takings from prices of hats (made from a thick leather) have completely crashed!

(each letter exactly once) — Любя, съешь щипцы, — вздохнёт мэр, — Кайф жгуч!
The mayor will sigh, “Eat the pliers with love; pleasure burns!”

Разъяренный чтец эгоистично бьёт пятью жердями шустрого фехтовальщика.
An enraged narrator selfishly beats a nimble fencer with five poles.

Наш банк вчера же выплатил Ф.Я. Эйхгольду комиссию за ценные вещи.
As of yesterday, our bank already remitted to F.J. Eichhold a commission payment for the valuables.

touchrussia:

95 years ago, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, on 12 March 1918 Moscow became the capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and of the Soviet Union less than five years later. The city ceased to be Russia’s capital in 1712, after the founding of Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great.  Over time, Moscow has acquired a number of epithets, most referring to its size and preeminent status within the nation: The Third Rome, The Whitestone One, The First Throne, The Forty Forties. In old Russian the word “Forty” also meant a church administrative district, which consisted of about forty churches.

Source: Natalia Mikhaylenko

touchrussia:

Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes!

To warm themselves, Russians spend Maslenitsa eating tons of pancakes with countless different kinds of fillings. RBTH takes a look at the Maslenitsa pancake tradition and shares a recipe for Russian Beer Pancakes

Try it out and tell us - what is your favourite pancake filling?

Source: Lori / Legion Media

touchrussia:

Happy Maslenitsa (Pancake Week)!

Did you know that each day of Maslenitsa has a special meaning and a series of associated traditions? And that, if you like pancakes with jam, you must be very loyal by nature?

Learn more with our infographics: http://rbth.ru/23629 

Source: RIA Novosti

 

degreezerofliberty спросил(a): How hard is to learn russian? Is it worth it? Is it possible to learn russian by yourself? If yes, where should I start?

How hard is it to learn Russian? According to the FSI (the Foreign Service Institute), Russian is placed in Category IV (they say it would take 44 weeks or 1100 hours to reach a level of general professional proficiency in speaking and reading) in terms of language difficulty for native English speakers. (Source) Having said this, difficulty is different for each individual.

Is it worth it? Why, yes, of course! It’s always worth learning another language - I don’t want to write in cliches and tell you how languages open your eyes to another world and another culture and lets you communicate with more people and so on because everyone’s heard all that before, but cliches are repeated over again because they’re true. But then again, it’s only worth learning if you yourself want to learn it.

Is it possible to learn Russian by yourself? If yes, where should I start? Well, personally, I studied it at school and am now studying it at university, so I can’t really say, but there are plenty of people teaching themselves Russian, so yes, if you work hard enough, it’s possible. The internet is a magical place and you have all the resources you need right here. I’ve posted every resource I could find on this blog and the blog’s wonderful followers have suggested a good many as well:

Resources

Sites for learning Russian

Grammar lessons

Here are some external links to get you started:

http://www.russian.ucla.edu/beginnersrussian/student/home.htm

http://learnrussian.rt.com/

http://www.russian-plus.com/

http://www.practicerussian.com/

http://www.russianforeveryone.com/

Immersion is key to learning any language, whether you’re being taught or self-teaching, so surround yourself with as many Russian-related sources as possible! It’s also worth finding a Russian penpal once you get to grips with the basic.

I was hoping that somewhere down the line, anyone could chance upon this blog and start learning Russian from it, so I’m glad you found this blog!

imlearningrussian:

Добрый день! (Good day!)

Today I’ll be talking about basic (very, very basic) Russian phrases that you can use when you meet a Russian speaking person. This was the first thing I memorized, even before learning the Russian алфавит (alphabet). But I strongly recommend you to study the alphabet before you go through this post :) 

Saying “hello”:

• Здра́вствуйте! - Hello! (formal)
• Здра́вствуй! - Hello! (informal) 
• Приве́т! - Hi! (informal) 

Examples:  

Здра́вствуйте, профе́ссор. - Hello, professor.

Ири́на, здра́вствуй! - Hello, Irina!

Все́м приве́т! - Hey everyone! (lit. All hi!)

Greetings throughout the day:

• До́брое у́тро! - Good morning!
• До́брый де́нь! - Good afternoon/Good day!
• До́брый ве́чер! - Good evening!

Examples:

До́брое у́тро, А́нна. - Good morning, Anna.

Алекса́ндр! До́брый де́нь! - Aleksandr! Good afternoon!

Ива́н, до́брый ве́чер! - Ivan, good evening!

Saying “good bye”:

• До свида́ния - Good bye (formal)
• Всего́ хоро́шего! - All the best/So long (г is pronounced as в)
• Пока́! - Bye! (informal)
• До за́втра! - Until tomorrow!/See you tomorrow!
• До́брой но́чи - Good night (lit. Good nights)
• Споко́йной но́чи - Good night (lit. Calm nights)

Examples:

До свида́ния, Евге́ний. - Good bye, Evgeny.

«Всего́ хоро́шего, и спаси́бо за ры́бу!» - “So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish” (book by Douglas Adams)

Пока́, Ю́лия! - Bye, Yulia!

До за́втра? - See you tomorrow?

До́брой но́чи, Ва́ня. - Good night, Vanya.

Все́м споко́йной но́чи! - Good night everyone! (lit. All good night!)

Remember that the “о” and the “е” changes its sound when it’s not accented.

- “о” sounds like the “o” in the English word “monument”, or even close to the letter “a” in “almond”.

- “е” sounds like the “e” in the English word “green” or “here”.

Also, “до свида́ния” and “до за́втра” is said like it’s one word. So the non-accent rule applies here, too.

Don’t forget to practice everyday!

До свидания!! :)

(со страницы shapka-ushanka)

theparisreview:

The pioneering Russian animator Fyodor Khitruk has died at age 95. Perhaps best known for his adaptations of A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories, Khitru’s work was often political and avant-garde. 1973’s Island, below, won the Palme d’Or for best short.

At its core, Tatoeba is a large database of example sentences translated into several languages. But as a whole, it is much more than that.

This is a wonderful site for looking up words in context. It’s a community-based project where anyone can contribute or translate example sentences - if you are fluent in more than one language, it would be great for you to help out!

discoveringrussia:

Russian is an exquisite language with such a rich and meaningful vocabulary. Proof of that is the creation of words by compounds. 

Words with the root сам

These are examples of words that begin with the root сам (=oneself, itself):

самовар= сам + варить (=to boil) = samovar (heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water)

самолёт= сам + летать (=to fly) = airplane

самородок= сам + родить (= to bear) = nugget, piece of gold

самосвал= сам + сваливать (= to dump) = dumper truck

самокат=  сам + катить (=roll) = kick scooter

самокрутка= сам + крутить (=twist, twirl, roll up) = type of cigarette that is rolled by the smoker

thelanguagecommunity:

• http://www.tasteofrussian.com/ -dialogue based mp3 lessons with slang and everything
• http://speakrussian.blogspot.com/ - a variety of Russian language information
• http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/language/lessons.cfm#russian -lesson podcasts that focus on Russian in Kazakhstan 
• http://www.international.ucla.edu/languages/technology/podcasts/ - podcasts on Russian literature
• http://www.ukindia.com/zip/zru1.htm - a guide to help on reading Russian
• http://russophilia.wordpress.com/ - word of the day
• http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/ - news, radio, and TV based in the US

discoveringrussia:

Build your Russian vocabulary the smart way by memorizing 500 most used Russian verbs. This page features a frequency list for Russian verbs along with their English translations and aspectual pairs. Each verb pair shows the imperfective and perfective forms of the same verb (e.g. говорить/сказать). Learning most common verbs early in your Russian study will help you to understand significantly more situations as compared to learning your verbs from random sources. 

touchrussia:

The Russian Picture Dictionary: What’s inside the bag?

Learn Russian in a fun and easy way with RBTH!

Image by Natalia Mikhaylenko

discoveringrussia:

Very good course where you can test your progress and improve your Russian from the very basic until an intermediate-advanced level.