Hello Everyone!

here's a comp of completely random pictures in russian that make me giggle: pt 2

[a product review]

★★★★★ Great product

Experience of using

Less than a month

Advantages

Boils water

Disadvantages

Uses electricity

Comment

That's how kettles work, what can I say.

— Mikhail Andreevich, I won't be at work today

— Thank you

Your region: Samara

[Yes, save me...] ("Да, спасибо")

[No, friend...] ("Нет, другой")

[A questionnare book for children]

17. What do you usually do when you are alone

Listen to music or panic

— Take 💩 for a walk

— Take shit for a walk?

— I couldn't find dog emoji

Smart eyes.

(he's a genius)

Have a good day!

Russian Idiom: как не знаю кто

Как не знаю кто often cannot be translated directly. It is an idiom meaning “to the extreme degree, too much”. “Я не знаю кто”, literally, I don’t know who, implies that any comparisons with other people or other events would be too weak, too pale. “I don’t know who could be as [something] as you are now”

Here are a few examples for you (thanks, Reverso Context) : 

Эти девушки смотрели на тебя как не знаю кто. These girls have been lookin’ at you like I don’t know what.

Нет, я еду домой, вымотался как не знаю кто. No, I’m going home. I’m completely soaked. 

Надевает наушники и радуется, как не знаю кто. He’s listening on his headsets, happy as a clam.

Ты пьяна как не знаю кто. You’re really drunk.

Воевали как я не знаю кто, чтобы сделать это. You have fought through hell to do so. 

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

An ancient Russian dish

Here’s a piece of information about the Russian cuisine!

Пирог, пироги — pirog (sing.), pirogi (plur.)

Pirog is a baked case of dough with a sweet or savoury filling. It’s pretty much a regular pie. Pirog is one of the oldest dishes in Russia that our grandmothers bake to this day.

In ancient Russia, there were a lot of traditions regarding the consumption of a pirog. For example, the first bite of a pirog was always taken by the oldest man in the family. After him were younger men, then women and children. People started noticing how inconvenient these traditions were, so Russian women started baking small pirogs. They were more convenient to eat and to even pack for the road. This is how pirozhki (пирожки) were created.

Пирожок, пирожки — pirozhok (sing.), pirozhki (plur.)

There is no known date of when pirozhki were created, but some sources say that they were already around when Ivan the Terrible was ruling Russia (1533).

The most popular flavours of pirozhki are: apple jam, meat, smashed potatoes, eggs and fish.

Hey, just a random anon who found this blog looking for Russian content (somewhat new learner here). I came to learn the flow of the language and stayed for my new favorite Russian comedy—it’s absolutely hilarious, and I hoard your clips like precious gems, watching them again and again. I’m glad to see you’re back—I’ve realized just how much something you do to bring positivity for yourself can bring positivity to a total stranger. Thank you for making me smile and doing what you do.

You are literally the nicest! You have no idea how much you made my day. I'm so glad I'm back too, I almost forgot what wonderful people you all are. Thank you for your kind words, I hope you continue learning and familiarizing yourself with Russian! <3

When you listen to an entire song in your target language and one thing makes sense:

RUSSIAN TEA VOCAB/ ALL THE NUANCES EXPLAINED

ча́й - the drink itself and a product in the store

ча́йная зава́рка or simply зава́рка - dry tea leaves in the packaging

ча́йный паке́тик - teabag

крупнолистово́й чай - whole-leave grade of tea

чаи́нка (the plural form чаи́нки is more common since usually there is more than one of them in your tea) - fannings, wet pieces of tea leaves or tea dust which fell into the tea

де́лать чай - to make tea. The construction is widely used and describes the process of making tea from any tea product i.e. leaves, tea bags.

ста́вить ча́йник - put on a kettle It is not common to say включи́ть чайник

поста́вь ча́йник = поста́вь во́ду - boil some water in kettle (usually for the tea)

я уже́ поста́вила ча́йник, ско́ро бу́дем пи́ть чай - I’ve already put the kettle on, we’ll have tea soon

зава́ривать (чай) - to brew. One of the steps of the process of tea making (usually from whole-leave grades of tea) when tea leaves are poured with hot water and left for a few minutes in the teapot. The process requires time as tea leaves need time to release natural chemicals. When it is happening the Russians say чай зава́ривается, i.e. the tea is being brewed.

зава́ривать ка́шу (to cook kasha) = to cause a situation that brings about troublesome or unpleasant consequences ну и ка́шу же ты завари́л! - what a mess you’ve made!

but! вари́ть ка́шу = to cook kasha

наста́ивать (чай) - to infuse. The idea of the process of настаивание is to wait longer than usual so the taste becomes strong enough. This verb can be used to explain the same process while preparing herbal teas and infusions.

Remember that this verb has two meanings!!! наста́ивать - to insist

подожди́, чай ещё не завари́лся = подожди́, чай ещё не настоя́лся - wait, the tea is not brewed yet

остужа́ть (чай) - to cool the tea down

электри́ческий чайник/электроча́йник - electric kettle

зава́рочный ча́йник - teapot

ча́шка = кру́жка - cup/mug traditionally ча́шка is the elegant cup with a special design, usually a part of a tea set. Кру́жка (mug) usually has a shape of a cylinder and larger than a regular cup. Now the differences are almost forgotten so you can use any word of your choice when you talk about tableware. But! It is always ча́шка/ча́шечка чая - a cup of tea

блю́дце - saucer

ча́йная ло́жка - teaspoon

ча́йный серви́з - tea set

моло́чник - milk jug

са́харница - sugar bowl

чай с са́харом (мёдом, варе́ньем, молоко́м, лимо́ном) - tea with sugar (honey, jam, milk, lemon)

#russian

I'M BACK ALREADY because that was too good not to comment on, oh my god. That was hysterical. Anton's face when he pulled out that stick and the pie tin and realized he'd have to do something with it. These guys are so talented, I can't believe they pull the jokes out of the top of their heads. This is already one of my favorites and I can already foresee the rewatches. As a reverse learner, I could appreciate the humor so much. And that you explain the jokes to give cultural/linguistic context.

yes, this episode was freaking exellent! my favourite part is Anton's cocky face when he says 'yeah, I listen' I laughed for like 10 minutes when I saw that 🤣 by the way, it's not really a stick Anton pulled out, it's something called ве́ник (literally means 'besom' or 'bath broom') and is used for traditional sauna sessions (ба́ня). you basically whip yourself with it to help blood circulate better. sounds harsh, but it actually feels amazing, talking from experience lol.

/I'm too scared I may get blocked for sending the picture here, so just google 'bath brooms for banya' and you'll get the point haha/ and thank you for the feedback, of course! I'm so glad you enjoyed it 🥰

Hey, I thought I would compile a selection of different resources dedicated to learning the Russian language. Feel free to reblog and add your own

Information about the language

Russian Language on Wikipedia

Russian Language on BBC

Russian Language on Encyclopaedia Britannica 

Russian Language on Real Russia

Books

I have a masterlist of different Russian language textbooks for all levels, as well as general Russian literature and Russian magazines for reading practice. It contains over 60,000 books and over 4,000 magazines

Children’s Books in Russian

Project Gutenberg Free Russian Books

Courses - Note that not all of these courses are free. 

Lingvist (comes with a 2-week free trial, and by far my favourite course)

Duolingo  (Joining with this link automatically adds me as a friend)

Busuu 

I Kinda Like Languages Russian Course

Learn Russian with RT (The audio files no longer work but there’s a lot of great resources that work)

Live Lingua Russian Tutors (Not a course as such, but a way to get a Tutor. You can get a free hour lesson)

Russian for Everyone

Russian for Free 

RussianLessons

Russian Made Easy

Way To Russia 

Russky

Lingodeer

Между нами

MasterRussian

Я говорю по-русски/ I speak Russian

Русский как иностранный: B1+. Russian as a foreign language: B1+

Русский как иностранный: B1+. Часть 2. Russian as a foreign language. B1+. Part 2.

Русский как иностранный B2-1 / Russian As a Foreign Language B2-1

Русский язык как иностранный B2-2 / Russian as a Foreign Language B2-2

A1 Elementary Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

A2 Basic Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

B1 I Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

B2 II Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

C1 III Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

C2 IV Certified Russian Course with Pushkin Institute

Beginner Russian Course / Курс России языка для начинающих

Intermediate Russian Course / Курс России языка среднего уровня

Russian Grammar Course / Курс грамматики России языка

Russian Course for Travelers / Курс России языка для путешественников

From Zero to Fluency Youtube Course

Start Speaking Russian Youtube Course

Russian Reading Youtube Course

Learn Russian Alphabet

Russian (Kazakhstan) Peace Corps Course

FSI Russian Course

Learn Russian

Yes Russian

Polymath

Learnalanguage

Ready Russian

Simplang

Russian Learning Reddit

Learn With Oliver

Memrise is a great resource as it has Memrise courses and user-created courses. These are the official Russian courses if you go through them one by one they amount to approximately 54 hours of content. The thing I like about Memrise is they test you on your pronunciation, and they have lots of videos by Russian native speakers. So it really tests you in all your skills.

Russian 1 by Memrise

Russian 2 by Memrise

Russian 3 by Memrise

Russian 4 by Memrise

Russian 5 by Memrise

Russian 6 by Memrise

Russian 7 by Memrise

These are some unofficial Russian Memrise courses you might like too. Although they tend to not have audio and they don’t have pronunciation tests or native speaker videos, they can still be a good resource.

Learn Basic Russian 

Top 10,000 words part one 

Top 10,000 words part two

Russian Grammar through Exercises

Assimil Russian

New Penguin Russian Course Vocabulary 

Vocabulary resources

Anki

Word Reference

Ba Ba Dum

L-Lingo

Russian Swadesh list

English terms derived from Russian

Wikipedia Russian Topics (Click on different topics then click on different words for their English translation and meaning)

Russian Idioms

Russian Proverbs

Russian Similies

20,000-word Frequency dictionary of the modern Russian language (the Russian National Corpus)

Russian spelling alphabet

Russian Frequency lists/1-1000

Russian Frequency lists/1001-2000

Russian Frequency lists/2001-3000

Russian Frequency lists/3001-4000

Russian Frequency lists/4001-5000

Russian Adjectives - Frequency List

Russian Nouns - Frequency List

Russian Verbs - Frequency List

Russian palindromes

Russian Pronouns

Alpha Dictionary

Dubbed Russian Songs (Russian songs with Russian lyrics alongside transliteration and English translation. They also accept requests)

Clozemaster (I’d say this is more for intermediate-advanced, but beginners might make use of this as well)

Vikida Children’s Encyclopedia (Entirely in Russian)

Russian for Children by Pushkin Institute (Entirely in Russian) This actually contains resources for 5+ to 18+ so it covers a broad range of levels

Slow Russian Podcast

Slow Russian Youtube

Beginning Russian through Film

Amazing Russian Youtube

Bab.La English - Russian Dictionary

Grammar

Grammar Exercises Youtube Playlist

MasterRussian

Online Interactive Grammar 

Learn Russian Grammar Tables

Russian Grammar Youtube

Russificate

Conjugation Tool

Russian Grammar

Russian News Sites

Russia Today (In Russian) / Russia Today (in English) (They also have a whole database of documentaries/shows/films that are in English or Russian. Just click on a show here and it’ll give you the option to watch in English or Russian) 

The Moscow Times (In Russian) / The Moscow Times (In English) (They have free English PDFs of past print publications too)

Tass Russian News Agency (In Russian) / Tass Russian News Agency (In English)

Moskovskij Komsomolets (Московский комсомолец) (only available in Russian)

Komsomolskaya Pravda (Комсомо́льская пра́вда) (only available in Russian)

Izvestia (ɪzˈvʲestʲɪjə) (Only available in Russian)

Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Российская газета) (Only available in Russian)

Kommersant (Коммерса́нтъ) (Only available in Russian)(There is also a UK news website entirely in Russian)

Trud (Tpyд) (Only available in Russian)

Moskovskiye Novosti (Московские новости) (Only available in Russian)

Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Независимая газета) (Only available in Russian)

Novye Izvestia (Новые Известия) (Only available in Russian)

Vedomosti (Ведомости) (Only available in Russian)

Pravda Правда (Only available in Russian)

Delovoy Peterburg Деловой Петербург (Only available in Russian)

RBC daily (Only available in Russian)

Sport Express (Спорт-Экспресс) (Only available in Russian)

Sovetsky Sport (Советский спорт) (Only available in Russian)

Russia Beyond The Headlines (In Russian) / Russia Beyond The Headlines (In English)

Krasnaya Zvezda (Кра́сная звезда́) (Only available in Russian)

Moskovskaya Pravda (Московская правда) (Only available in Russian)

Argumenty i Fakty (Аргументы и факты) (Only available in Russian)

Sovetsky Sakhalin (Советский Сахалин) (Only available in Russian)

Tyumenskaya Oblast Segodnya (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Murmansk (Вечерний Мурманск) (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Novosibirsk (Вечерний Новосибирск) (Only available in Russian)

Vecherniy Stavropol (Вечерний Ставрополь) (Only available in Russian)

Novaya Gazeta (Новая газета) (Only available in Russian)

Novgorod (Новгород) (Only available in Russian)

Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti (Санкт-Петербургские ведомости) (Only available in Russian)

Literaturnaya Gazeta (Литературная газета) (Only available in Russian)

Parlamentskaia Gazeta (Парламентская газета) (Оnly available in Russian)

Meduza (In Russian) / Meduza (In English)

Please note that sites listed do not equal an endorsement. I don’t know the political background or views of each of these publications. I’m merely compiling a variety I saw through various Russian news lists and search engine results. Content warnings may apply and not all content may be suitable for minors

Listening practice (Note, I may make another masterlist compiling various Russian podcasts and Youtube channels so I’m leaving them out of this section)

LibriVox

Listeningpractice.org

Slavic Languages and Cultures Department, University of Groningen Listen to the Slavic languages

Audio Lingua

Learn Russian with Peppa Pig

Forvo

StarMediaEN (Russian shows, documentaries etc with English subtitles)

Russian Films With English Subtitles Youtube Playlist

Alosha (Алёша Попович и Тугарин Змей) Children’s Film

Dobrynya and the Dragon (Добрыня Никитич и Змей Горыныч) Children’s Film

Ilya Muromets and Sparrow the Robber (Илья Муромец и Соловей Разбойник) Children’s film

How Not to Rescue a Princess (Три Богатыря и Шамаханская Царица) Children’s Film

Russian Animation (Mixture of dubbed content and subtitled content)

Киноконцерн “Мосфильм” (Moscow Film, only some of these are subtitled)

фильмы о Холмсе и Ватсоне (Movies about Sherlock Holmes with Russian audio and English subtitles)

Okay, so this list has gotten long enough lol. If you have any resources you feel should be added feel free to reblog and add them or message me and I’ll edit it in. If you have any requests for resource compilations that you want me to do (e.g. compiling Russian podcasts, general Russian websites, Russian YouTubers etc) please let me know. 

I’m not gonna lie, this is probably my favourite episode from Evening Urgant. This is a bit from the interview with Stephen Colbert.

What are they talking about? Stephen and Ivan are referring to the so called ‘White Nights’ (Белые ночи), which Saint-Petersburg is famous for. It’s a night when it is never properly dark. The White Nights’ season usually takes place from June 11th to July 2nd. By ‘the bridges’ Ivan meant the Palace Bridge, which draws at 1:10 AM and 3:10 AM.

A picture from Wikipedia taken in Saint-Petersburg. June 23rd, 2009, 11:49 PM

The Palace Bridge during White Nights

The original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT3VFQ8wYZg The cut version they showed at Stephen’s show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWnVV3-0wgw