The languages of February

February.

How is it that the shortest month always seems so long? Ukrainian sure got the word right: Лютий, fierce, cruel, severe, February.

Morning commute.

Instead of just treating this post as a place to whine, though, I want to share a positive linguistic trend. At work we use mainly English and Spanish with clients. I met one Ukrainian guy back in October of last year, and then... nothing. Just when it seemed like it would never happen, they appeared.

First, a husband/wife from western Ukraine. I asked them what language they used at home, expecting the answer to be Ukrainian or possibly Russian. Nope. Any guesses?

[hint: it's another language that starts with an "R".]

Romanian! "I grew up learning Romanian and Russian in school", the husband explained, "then picked up Ukrainian during my military service in L'vov." Have you ever heard Romanian being spoken? It's a beautiful language.

Russian by the Numbers: 2014 Goals

Holiday wishes from the Ukrainian pop star Verka Serduchka

Happy 2014!! : ) Meanwhile, the holidays go on in Ukraine. I asked D this morning if it was time to take all the decorations down. "No way!" he said, "Tomorrow is Christmas!" Tomorrow is indeed Orthodox Christmas (Jan 7th)- he's actually got the day off work. Then there's Orthodox New Year (Jan 14th), so the decorations will have to stay for a little bit longer, I suppose.

In the meantime, the beginning of January means goal-setting time. Some people aren't into this much, but it's one of my favorite times of the year- a new start, a new planner, a reset button on bad habits. I already picked out a brand new planner (2 to be honest, couldn't choose!) and have been mulling over some things. Are you the New-Year's-resolution-setting type? What are your dreams for this new year?

The 5 useful words I learned this summer

I've been off work for the past two weeks, which means a chance to escape the English bubble and really concentrate on Russian. Here are my "official words of the summer", things that either really stood out or keep cropping up over and over again.

1) сарафан (summer dress)

yes, it's me, and then me again expertly photoshopped onto a tree, hooray!

It's hard to find a woman who doesn't have at least one of these stashed away in her closet for the summertime. The term seems to work for any loose-fitting dress worn at this time of the year. I've got several sarafans to make it through the hot weather we're going through now.

According to the indisputable Wikipedia, sarafans go waaaay back in Russian culture to 1376. Read more about the traditional sarafans here.

Weirdly enough, the phrase сарафанное радио (sarafan radio) translates as word of mouth, probably because it's those who wear sarafans- women!- who do most of the talking ; )

2) душевая кабина (shower cabinet)

Ugh, my nemisis! Before the most recent round of apartment-hunting, I'd never had any cause to associate with these horrid little shower cabinets. Let the record stand that I stand 100% in support of bathtubs and outrageously long bubble baths. Come to think of it, if we'd never stooped to considering an apartment with a shower cabinet, we never would have ended up at that scammy agency.

although if forced at gunpoint to sell the bathtub and use a душевая кабина instead, this is definitely the one I'd go for...

50,000 views and some news!

We've reached 50,000 views on this blog!!! I want to send out a huge СПАСИБО, ДЯКУЮ, and THANK YOU to everyone for reading and sharing : ) You guys are a huge inspiration to D and me ... being able to share our small corner of the planet with you has totally changed the way we see the world. Your comments, emails, and questions are totally fantastic, keep 'em coming!

As for these fireworks, remember how I mentioned before that fireworks are quite commonplace  in Ukraine? This was someone's random weeknight celebration in the neighborhood. Pretty cool, eh?

The other piece of news....

... our new website is up! It's called Street Russian and it's designed for people who are learning Russian. The immersion method has its ups and downs (as we've discussed before) but one of the awesome pros of living abroad is being exposed to all kinds of vocabulary that you'd never find in a course book. I want to share those everyday moments with those who don't get to see them and could benefit from the exposure.

The site is still a work in progress but if you're learning Russian (or even if you're not!) we'd love to hear what you think. Is it useful? How would you improve upon it? We were thinking about adding an audio file for each picture in the future so users can hear how everything is pronounced. If you've got an idea or a picture that would be a great fit for the site, please drop me a line! By the way, here's the Street Russian Facebook page if you're into that sort of thing.


So thanks again, my friends! I look forward to learning more about all things Ukraine and Russia with you : )

12 Words You Should Learn Before Coming To Ukraine

Yep, this one's important- the restroom!

Most of us do it- buy textbooks, enroll in classes, drop big bucks on the latest version of Rosetta Stone, all in hopes of learning a smattering of the local language before we arrive. Any one of those resources can teach you "Where's the bank?" or "Nice to meet you", but here are 12* useful Russian words that you probably won't learn from your class, book, or computer program.

 *erm, make that 12-ish words

Easy Russian 3: the letters Ф and л

(If you can't hear the audio files, click on the title to view the entire post in a new tab) 

I'm going to teach you a new letter.

Ф

Looks kind of weird, right? Don't worry, it's not. It's f.

ф = F
F = Ф

It almost looks like a football or a football field.

Try these easy ф words-
кофе = coffee
кафе = cafe 
факс = fax
факт = fact 
фета = feta cheese

фото = photo

Ват из ит?

I'm supposed to be studying right now, but it's way more fun to make a list of these novelty words.

грин кард
дайджест
мейк-ап
лифтинг (on a skin care product)
експрес сервис
девайс

(гаджет)


It seems that everywhere you look these days in Ukraine you see English words spelled out in Cyrillic letters-

Easy Russian 2 : the letters З and С

(Click here if you missed Lesson 1: Р, П, and Н)
(To hear the audio files, click on the title to view the entire post)

Here's a very easy letter: З
Yes, it looks an awful lot like the number three but it's actually a Z.
З = Z

You remember маркет , right? (market)
If you have pets you'll need to shop here as well:

 зоомаркет = pet store






On a beautiful summer day it's always nice to visit a парк (park).
The more adventurous may spend an afternoon here!

зоопарк = zoo

Easy Russian 1 : the letters Р, П, Н

(To hear the audio files, click on the title to view the entire post)

It's true- the Russian alphabet has a whopping 33 letters. One for each tooth and one for the tongue : ) How many do you know? Can you read these words?

Hint: the Russian letter Р = the r sound in English.

That's right,

• Тор = Thor
• маркет = market
• метро = metro
• and марка = postage stamp, brand name
 

ку ка ри ку (That's what a rooster says in Russian)

During one of my classes the topic of animal sounds came up. As you're probably aware, animals don't necessarily make the same sounds in different languages. For example, in English a rooster says cock-a-doodle-do which Russian speakers find freakin' hilarious, since the Russian equivalent is ku-ka-re-ku. Pigs- English: oink, oink. Russian: huru, huru. Dogs- English woof, woof (big dog) or arf, arf (little dog). Russian: gavf, gavf. But the one sound that really got me- the hedgehog.