The LITTLE BIG Moment That Had Me Shook

Hey guys. Just wanted to say that I'm not going to post for some time. I don't know how long it will last, but I won't be here until summer for sure.

My heart goes out to Ukraine. If you want to help, please donate to the military charities that I posted down below.

Stay safe. And let's hope peace will come again soon.

🇷🇺❤️🇺🇦

Я шагаю по Москве - Никита Михалков

This song comes from the 1968 movie of the same name. It’s a good speed if you’re just getting used to listening to Russian and quite catchy :) Any feedback/corrections, please let me know! 

Бывает всё на свете хорошо Sometimes everything in the world is good В чём дело сразу не поймёшь You don’t immediately know what’s the matter А просто летний дождь прошёл And a simple summer rain fell Нормальный летний дождь Normal summer rain

Мелькнёт в толпе знакомое лицо A familiar face will appear among the crowds Весёлые глаза Cheerful eyes А в них бежит Садовое кольцо And in them runs the Garden Circle* А в них блестит Садовое кольцо And in them shines the Garden Ring И летняя гроза And a summer thunderstorm

А я иду шагаю по Москве, And I’m walking around Moscow, Но я пройти ещё смогу, But I can still go further, Солёный Тихий океан The salty Pacific ocean И тундру, и тайгу. The Tundra and Taiga.

Над лодкой белый парус распущу Above the boat I’ll set a white sail Пока не знаю с кем With who I don’t yet know Но если я по дому загрущу But if I start longing for home Под снегом я фиалку отыщу I’ll find a violet under the snow И вспомню о Москве And remember Moscow И вспомню о Москве… And remember Moscow…

*A big ring road around central Moscow

Another Improvisation post! Thank you for the feedback and the suggestions! Fun fact: Dr. Dolittle's name in Russian is Айболи́т (Aibolit) which is a combination of a Russian exclamation «Ай!» and the word «Боли́т» («hurts»). The Russian translators really wanted to make his name speak for itself so they literally named him «Ouch, (it) hurts».

Me in a restaurant

Waiter: here's your glass Me: oh, thank you Waiter: *puts the glass down* Me: thank you Waiter: *fills the glass with water* Me: thank you Waiter: I'll bring your order soon Me: thank you

So I wanted to do something different and translate a scene from the Russian version of Howl’s moving castle! Hope you enjoy the voice acting just as much as I do.  *Бабка, бабки (babka sing., babki plur.) — rude way of saying ‘old woman’.  Бабушка, бабушки (babushka sing., babushki plur.) — neutral/polite way of saying ‘old woman’ or ‘grandmother’. Баба, бабы (baba sing., baby plur.) can refer to a grandma you already know (in this case the grandmas name is usually followed) or a woman (in a rude way). All the nouns are feminine.

failure…

failure hurts

don’t panic or stress

keep it under control

you can do it

i know you can

question your wrongs

learn from your mistakes

change your plan

fix your regime

learn from others around you

start with a fresh mind

renew yourself

failure does not define you

Hey, it’s that Russian learner who sent you an ask several months ago saying I watched your clips to help me. Just wanted to drop by again and say I’m still learning Russian and your videos are still hilarious! I’ve even watched a few bits of Improvisation on my own, and while I haven’t really been able to find anything with good subs, I have been able to practice my listening skills by typing the stuff I didn’t understand into the translator, lol. Thanks for the update, glad these guys are still around. Definitely glad to have discovered you!

You have no idea how happy I am I'm actually crying 😭 So glad to know you're still learning Russian! I'm even more glad to know Improvisation and my blog have been a part of your learning journey. I'm sure you've made a huge progress these past couple months! I hope you continue sticking around and good luck with Russian (๑•ᴗ•๑)

Tips to learn a new language

The 75 most common words make up 40% of occurrences The 200 most common words make up 50% of occurrences The 524 most common words make up 60% of occurrences The 1257 most common words make up 70% of occurrences The 2925 most common words make up 80% of occurrences The 7444 most common words make up 90% of occurrences The 13374 most common words make up 95% of occurrences The 25508 most common words make up 99% of occurrences

(Sources: 5 Steps to Speak a New Language by Hung Quang Pham)

This article has an excellent summary on how to rapidly learn a new language within 90 days.

We can begin with studying the first 600 words. Of course chucking is an effective way to memorize words readily. Here’s a list to translate into the language you desire to learn that I grabbed from here! :)

EXPRESSIONS OF POLITENESS (about 50 expressions)      

‘Yes’ and ‘no’: yes, no, absolutely, no way, exactly.    

Question words: when? where? how? how much? how many? why? what? who? which? whose?    

Apologizing: excuse me, sorry to interrupt, well now, I’m afraid so, I’m afraid not.    

Meeting and parting: good morning, good afternoon, good evening, hello, goodbye, cheers, see you later, pleased to meet you, nice to have met.    

Interjections: please, thank you, don’t mention it, sorry, it’ll be done, I agree, congratulations, thank heavens, nonsense.    

NOUNS (about 120 words)

Time: morning, afternoon, evening, night; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; spring, summer, autumn, winter; time, occasion, minute, half-hour, hour, day, week, month, year.    

People: family, relative, mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, husband, wife; colleague, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend; people, person, human being, man, woman, lady, gentleman, boy, girl, child.    

Objects: address, bag, book, car, clothes, key, letter (=to post), light (=lamp), money, name, newspaper, pen, pencil, picture, suitcase, thing, ticket.    

Places: place, world, country, town, street, road, school, shop, house, apartment, room, ground; Britain, name of the foreign country, British town-names, foreign town-names.    

Abstract: accident, beginning, change, color, damage, fun, half, help, joke, journey, language, English, name of the foreign language, letter (of alphabet), life, love, mistake, news, page, pain, part, question, reason, sort, surprise, way (=method), weather, work.    

Other: hand, foot, head, eye, mouth, voice; the left, the right; the top, the bottom, the side; air, water, sun, bread, food, paper, noise.    

PREPOSITIONS (about 40 words)    

General: of, to, at, for, from, in, on.    

Logical: about, according-to, except, like, against, with, without, by, despite, instead of.    

Space: into, out of, outside, towards, away from, behind, in front of, beside, next to, between, above, on top of, below, under, underneath, near to, a long way from, through.    

Time: after, ago, before, during, since, until.    

DETERMINERS (about 80 words)  

Articles and numbers: a, the; nos. 0–20; nos. 30–100; nos. 200–1000; last, next, 1st–12th.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.    

Quantifiers: all, some, no, any, many, much, more, less, a few, several, whole, a little, a lot of.    

Comparators: both, neither, each, every, other, another, same, different, such.    

ADJECTIVES (about 80 words)    

Color: black, blue, green, red, white, yellow.    

Evaluative: bad, good, terrible; important, urgent, necessary; possible, impossible; right, wrong, true.    

General: big, little, small, heavy; high, low; hot, cold, warm; easy, difficult; cheap, expensive; clean, dirty; beautiful, funny (=comical), funny (=odd), usual, common (=shared), nice, pretty, wonderful; boring, interesting, dangerous, safe; short, tall, long; new, old; calm, clear, dry; fast, slow; finished, free, full, light (=not dark), open, quiet, ready, strong.    

Personal: afraid, alone, angry, certain, cheerful, dead, famous, glad, happy, ill, kind, married, pleased, sorry, stupid, surprised, tired, well, worried, young.    

VERBS (about 100 words)    

arrive, ask, be, be able to, become, begin, believe, borrow, bring, buy, can, change, check, collect, come, continue, cry, do, drop, eat, fall, feel, find, finish, forget, give, going to, have, have to, hear, help, hold, hope, hurt (oneself), hurt (someone else), keep, know, laugh, learn, leave, lend, let (=allow), lie down, like, listen, live (=be alive), live (=reside), look (at), look for, lose, love, make, may (=permission), may (=possibility), mean, meet, must, need, obtain, open, ought to, pay, play, put, read, remember, say, see, sell, send, should, show, shut, sing, sleep, speak, stand, stay, stop, suggest, take, talk, teach, think, travel, try, understand, use, used to, wait for, walk, want, watch, will, work (=operate), work (=toil), worry, would, write.    

PRONOUNS (about 40 words)

Personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, one; myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.    

Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Universal: everyone, everybody, everything, each, both, all, one, another.    

Indefinite: someone, somebody, something, some, a few, a little, more, less; anyone, anybody, anything, any, either, much, many.    

Negative: no-one, nobody, nothing, none, neither.    

ADVERBS (about 60 words)

Place: here, there, above, over, below, in front, behind, nearby, a long way away, inside, outside, to the right, to the left, somewhere, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, home, upstairs, downstairs.    

Time: now, soon, immediately, quickly, finally, again, once, for a long time, today, generally, sometimes, always, often, before, after, early, late, never, not yet, still, already, then (=at that time), then (=next), yesterday, tomorrow, tonight.    

Quantifiers: a little, about (=approximately), almost, at least, completely, very, enough, exactly, just, not, too much, more, less.    

Manner: also, especially, gradually, of course, only, otherwise, perhaps, probably, quite, so, then (=therefore), too (=also), unfortunately, very much, well.    

CONJUNCTIONS (about 30 words)

Coordinating: and, but, or; as, than, like.    

Time & Place: when, while, before, after, since (=time), until; where.    

Manner & Logic: how, why, because, since (=because), although, if; what, who, whom, whose, which, that.   

Improvisation content... What happened?

Hey guys! The Russian Improvisation fandom recieved some bad news and good news in the span of the last 4 months, and I would like to share them with you. They are quite important. First of all, I'm sad to tell you that the original show has been permanently closed. The show has aired for 8 seasons in nearly 7 years.

The reason for the show's closure is NOT its low ratings - Improvisation has been one of the most popular TV shows on the Russian television, and the fanbase keeps growing every day. In short, TNT's management team (the channel Impro was originally aired on) went through some changes, and the new team decided Improvisation had to go (which, in everyone's opinion, makes no sense). Sure, this news is dreadful, but I think the new changes make up for that.

Improvisation changed its name to Improvisators and moved to a different channel called STS and the new episodes started coming out last month! Not only that, but the episodes are now in open access on YouTube! This is great news to all of you who have been asking for the whole 40-minute episodes instead of 5-minute clips that I post here (the videos still aren't subbed though :( ).

I'm very excited to translate a clip from their new show format and I can't wait to show it to you!

Thank you all so much for your patience and have a nice day!

P.S. My friend in Moscow was on the set of their new show and she said she loved the changes. I hope you like it as well!

Дайте человеку хлеб - и он сыт весь день (Give a man bread and he's full all day long)

Дайте человеку арбуз - и он ссыт всю ночь (Give a man watermelon and he pisses all night)

There is a pun here, the two words sound absolutely the same: - сыт - is full. - ссыт - pisses This is what makes it very funny in Russian.

Vocabulary: сытый (short form: сыт, сыта, сыты) - to be full ссать - to piss (colloquial)