Interesting Russian Books

While studying the Russian language, it’s impossible to avoid meeting with good old classics. Most of you probably have heard of, or even read, the great and sizeable «War and Peace» by Leo Tolstoy, and equally famous «Crime and Punishment» by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. You can also add Anton Chekhov and his witty short stories, as well as Mikhail Bulgakov’s devilish «Master and Margarita» to that list. These are the first names that come up whenever I ask a non-Russian person about Russian literature.

Don’t get me wrong, these authors are great. They are the true jewels on the crown of Russian culture, and their writing style and ideas have had a great influence not only on the contemporary writers, but on the Russian people as well. However, I have always found it a little puzzling that most of contemporary Russian books remain largely unnoticed on the world literature stage. Especially since a lot of people from my generation have grown up reading those books and they affected the way we see the world and how we interact with others. So, in order to gain a better understanding of what modern Russians are like, it’s highly recommended to get acquainted with the books they read. Not to mention that the books I’m going to talk about are all extremely well written and entertaining.

** Language Learning Note: Some of these books are available in adapted versions. Here is the main publisher of adapted Russian books for language learners. These are e-book version, but you can also buy them online at amazon.
1)  «Adventures of Erast Fandorin» by Boris Akunin. The series has been the detective classics for at least few decades now and still haven’t lost their popularity. Imagine something in the lines of James Bond meets Sherlock Holmes in 19^th century Russia. Awesome, right? Many of the books are translated into English. Boris Akunin is a tremendously talented author, known for his elegant and witty writing style.

2) «The Night Watch» series by Sergei Lukyanenko. The books have become very popular in Russia thanks to the movie adaptation of the same title which came out in the early 2000s. If urban fantasy is your thing, you’re going to love this. Meet Anton, an ordinary Russian guy, who one day finds out that there is much more to our world that meets the eye. By more I mean opposing supernatural organizations, the shifting balance between Light and Darkness, vampires, witches and sorcerers. Oh, and there is plenty of personal drama, good dialogue and fantastic plot twists.

3) «The House, in which…» (or «The Gray House») by Myriam Petrosyan. The book tells of a boarding school for disabled children and was published in Russian in 2009, becoming a bestseller. It was nominated for the Russian Booker Prize in 2010 and received several awards and nominations, among them the 2009 Russian Prize for the best book in Russian by an author living abroad. I read this book last autumn and still haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It’s rather challenging to try to explain the plot, and I think that it’s much better to let you see for yourself. The experience is simply incredible. The English translation will be coming out in April 2017.

4) «The Roadside Picnic» by Strugatsky brothers. This short novel is a must read to all the lovers of science-fiction. In fact, many people are familiar with Andrey Tarkovsky’s movie Stalker, which is loosely based on this very novel. Despite being written more than 40 years ago, the story keeps firm position on the top of all-time favourite sci-fi list. If you enjoy the story, make sure to check out more of Strugatsky novels. I especially recommend «Monday begins on Saturday» and «Hard to be a God», all available in English.

5) «Generation P» (translated to English as «Homo Zapiens» and «Babylon) by Viсtor Pelevin. A rather bold and controversial read, if you ask me, but very interesting. The book deals with such themes as heavy drug use, philosophy of consumerism and even Mesopotamian mythology, all taking place in the post-Soviet Russia. The narrative style is rather playful and at times straight out hilarious.

I could have added a lot more books to this list, but unfortunately, they haven’t been translated to English yet. Let’s hope it will be fixed in the nearest future. As for now, I’ll be very happy if one of the books I’ve mentioned above will pick your interest. After all, there is nothing like reading a good book for the first time. Enjoy!

Russian Humour in films

Contrary to what many might think, Russians are quite cheerful people. Although our sense of humour at times can be quite strange. Perhaps it lacks the flirty finesse of English humour or funky directness of American one, but it’s humour nonetheless. At times it can even be funny.

Most of the jokes these days can be found on the Internet. They exist in the form of memes and usually involve photos of certain individuals who were once unfortunate enough (or fortunate, depends how you look at it) to put themselves on YouTube. Yeah, Russians love laughing at others. That’s probably the cornerstone of our humour. You’ll rarely find a Russian who likes to laugh at himself/herself, but when it comes to others…oh, that’s another story.

It’s quite interesting that Russians of previous generations like to claim that young people are spoilt and have a stupid sense of humour. I tried many times showing my mum things I found on YouTube that I thought were downright hilarious. However, the only reaction I would get was a confused look on her face. Then she would ask when exactly she was supposed to laugh.

True, humour changes from generation to generation. What our grandparents found funny usually makes us shrug and elicits at best a wry smile. But some things never change. One of them, as surprising as it may seem, is so-called black humour. Maybe this is so, because life for an average Russian is not always sweet and light. So, in order to survive, you’ve got to learn to laugh in the face of hardships that life throws at you.

Actually, Russian humour can be put into 3 major categories: Soviet humour, post-Soviet humour and modern humour. Let me briefly introduce you to these categories:

• The Soviet era is the one that gets romanticised the most. And for a good reason, too. It was at that time we got our share of cinematic geniuses. A lot of great comedies with little to no profanity. If you’re into something like that, check out the comedies directed by Leonid Gaiday, namely Бриллиантовая рука/the Diamond hand, Иван Васильевич меняет профессию/Ivan Vasilyevich changes professions  (my personal favourite) and Кавказская пленница/The Caucasian prisoner.

All three are still watched in many Russian homes on a regular basis.

• The situation changed dramatically with the collapse of the Soviet Union. People literally went crazy, which took its toll on all forms of contemporary art. Humour became less sophisticated and you would often watch comedies touching the previously taboo subjects, such as sex and politics. One of the perfect examples of such movies is Ширли-Мырли/Shirli-Mirli by Vladimir Menshov, which shamelessly mocks the reality of Russian life (unfortunately, no English subtitles for this one).

• The term modern Russian comedies can be used to describe all the comedies that came out after the year 2000. Since it’s nearly been two decades, this is quite a broad topic to discuss. In brief, modern comedies have their ups and downs, and one can find his share of good and bad comedies. However, let’s be honest, good Russian comedies are hard to come by these days. Usually they are filmed by independent studios and aren’t always shown at cinemas. I would recommend you something, but I don’t want to be responsible for spoiling your mood. So, I’ll leave it up to you.

What is the situation with comedies in your native country? Feel free to share your thoughts below.

 

Challenge#4

Всем привет! ^_^

Наконец, Рождество и Новый год позади, и после долгих двух недель переедания мы можем вернуться к нормальной жизни.

Сегодня наше задание будет немного необычным. Мы будем писать отзыв на фильм или сериал. Честно говоря, я очень люблю кино и могу говорить на эту тему бесконечно. А вы? 🙂

Но прежде всего давайте посмотрим, какие слова обычно используют в отзывах:

Я посмотрел/ла – I saw/watched…(a movie, TV-show, etc.)
Просмотр – view (as in viewing the movie)
Жанр – genre
Сюжет – plot
Режиссёр – director
Актёры – actors
Бюджет – budget
Спецэффекты – special effects
Мне понравилось/не понравилось… – I liked/disliked
Меня впечатлил/ла/ло – I was impressed by….
Меня разочаровал/ла/ло – I was disappointed by…
По-моему...- in my opinion…
Я рекомендую – I recommend

1) А сейчас я хочу рассказать вам о своих впечатлениях после просмотра фильма “Звёздные войны: Пробуждение Силы”.

Я очень люблю “Звёздные войны”, поэтому нового фильма ждала с нетерпением. По-моему, это один из самых крутых фильмов в жанрах “фантастика” и “фэнтези”. Я слышала, что у фильма есть новый режиссер и очень большой бюждет. Мне было интересно посмотреть, что получится. И результат меня не разочаровал. 

Фильм получился динамичным и интересным, с хорошими шутками и правдоподнобной драмой. Спецэффекты впечатляют!

Актеры замечательно сыграли свои роли. Мне особенно понравился нестандартный антагонист. Также было очень приятно увидеть персонажей оригинальной трилогии.

Правда, одна вещь меня разочаровала: сюжет этого фильма слишком уж похож на “Звездные войны: Новая Надежда”. Надеюсь, следующий фильм удивит нас необычным сюжетом.

Я рекомендую этот фильм всем, кто любит подобный жанр, да и просто тем, кто любит хорошо провести время. 

2) А какой фильм вы посмотрели недавно? Напишите небольшой отзыв о нем.

* Более продвинутым ученикам предлагаю посмотреть и написать отзыв на первый эпизод русского комедийного сериала “Как я стал русским”. Вы можете это сделать вот здесь.

Успехов! 🙂

Challenge#3 – Christmas and New Year

Всем привет!

Совсем скоро наступит Рождество (Christmas), а за ним и Новый год (New Year). В воздухе висит (hangs in the air) атмосфера праздника: в России это свежий запах ёлки и мандаринов, а в Австралии – запах лета, свежей выпечки (fresh pastry) и шоколадных конфет.

Australian Christmas

Вот и пришло время начать наш новый challenge. И поговорим мы, конечно, о самых волшебных (magical) праздниках в году. Вы готовы? Тогда вперёд!

Father Frost and the Snow Queen

A Russian feast for New Year

Fireworks

а) Для начала прочитайте эти слова:

• Шарики – baubles
• Украшения – decorations
• Украшать – to decorate
• Праздновать, отмечать  – to celebrate
• Подарки – presents
• Ёлка – fir tree (also known as Christmas tree or New Year tree)
• Дед Мороз – Father Frost
• Церковь – Church
• Служба – service

б) Посмотрите видео

в) Ответьте на вопросы:

• Как отмечают Рождество в России?
• Что едят в России на Новый год?
• Кто дарит подарки детям в Австралии? В России?
• Почему австралийское Рождество необычно для русских?
• Как вы празднуете Рождество и/или Новый год?

New Year in Russia

Decorations in Australia

 

Вежливость (Politeness)

Я нашла интересную статью о том, что думают британцы о русских туристах. Теперь я понимаю, почему стюардессы в самолётах смотрели на меня странно, когда я спросила: “Вэр из зэ тойлет?”

Вы можете прочитать статью здесь.

А вот некоторые слова из статьи:

• вежливость – politeness
• грубо/грубость – rudeness
• приветствия –  greetings
• жаловаться – to complain
• ведут себя – behave themselves
• оправдываться – to make excuses
• нахамить – to be rude
• приемлемо – acceptable

Ответьте на вопросы:

• Какие правила вежливости приняты в вашей стране?
• Может ли быть “слишком” вежливым?
• Что вы думаете о русских?

How to be polite “the Russian way”

Greetings, my dear readers!

I’ve recently come across a very interesting article on how other people see Russian tourists and Russians in general. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t that surprised to learn that we’re often seen as “mean”,”rude” or even “completely nuts”. But what is it about us that makes people use such unbecoming titles? I have a few theories that I’d like to share:

•  First thing to mention is our intonation. I mean, of course, every single language in the world has its own unique rhythm and sound. However, the problem is that Russian intonation can actually trick foreign listeners into thinking that we’re being angry about something. For instance, when I talk to my students, I make sure to smile a lot and keep my voice light and slightly higher than normal. I do it for a very good reason, because a few times that I tried to use my normal voice, my students thought I were tired and in a bad mood.
• The next thing is smiling. As you may already know, in Russia it’s not okay to flash smiles at everyone. Many people actually feel threatened by a sudden display of friendliness from a stranger. If you try to approach them on the street and start a casual conversation, they’ll probably think you’re trying to sell them something and will make a hasty departure. Even at the shops, salespeople will not act as if they’re happy to see you, but instead will stick to a dry professional tone. The customers, in turn, will act equally grim. That’s why when I enter the shops in Australia, the salespeople often ask me if everything’s alright, because they’re probably thinking I’m not so pleased with the service.
• Finally, some Russian tourists can actually act rude. Simple as that. That is, of course, if they drank too much vodka 🙂

The moral is simple: if you ever find yourself in Russia, you don’t have to worry about etiquette too much. Don’t apologize too often, don’t smile, look displeased and you will blend in just fine. Also, it would be good to remember these phrases:

“Chto vam nado?” – What do you want?!

“Muzhchina/zhenchina, podvintes!” – Man/woman, move away!

“Vy mozhete idti/ehat’ bistreye?” – Can you walk/drive faster?

“Sleduyushiy!” – Next! (often used in a commanding tone by the doctor/cashier/server)

“Rasschitivayemsya!” – Pay up! (usually used by a shuttle bus driver before he starts the bus)

“Tiho!” – Quiet! (can be used in variety of social  situations)

If you can read Russian, check out this post for more information.

Cute letters to Father Christmas

Here are some letters from children to Father Christmas, about what they want for Christmas. Do you remember doing this as a child?

This is one of my favourites. Can you translate it?

 

Russian Music

Hi everyone! Today I want to talk to you about Russian music.

Many of my Russian-learning students surprise me by saying they have never actually listened to Russian songs. Of course, Russian music is not the most popular in the world (probably with the exception of Russian classical music, but that’s different), but for me the very first thing that got me interested in the language was music! And English movies, of course, though at first I used to watch them with Russian dub, meh. So when I ask my students “Have you heard any Russian songs?”, the answer is usually “no”. The next thing I do I give them a list of songs that I created just for that purpose. It includes various songs by bands and singers that have been popular in Russia throughout 80s, 90s, and 2000s.

Do my students like them? Sometimes they do, sometimes not so much, but they all agree that Russian music is unique and at times highly entertaining. You could probably try and divide it into standard genres, such as pop, rock, alternative, jazz, folk and so on, but there is also a huge part that can not be defined. It’s when you listen to the start of the song with no words  there and you recognize it as utterly and genuinely Russian. For instance, take the heart-wrenching yet strangely life-asserting prison songs, so-called “chanson” – many old-school Russians (and certainly my uncle) would probably say it represents Russian soul – or, at least, that’s how it was in the legendary 90s. There are also catchy and arrogant rock songs, which used to be the absolute hits at any school party at the start of 2000s. But, of course, Russia is not only about romanticizing criminals and teenage rebellion. It’s about so many other things – both worldly and spiritual. To understand what I mean, you’ll have to listen to a few songs yourself – I’m afraid there is no other way 🙂

If you made up your mind and decided to follow my advice- then prepare your ears and open your mind… I promise you won’t regret it 🙂

Here are some popular tunes to start with:

1) 7Б – These guys are amazing! Many people say their songs have mystical effect on a listener, putting him or her in some sort of a trance with dark and beautiful chords. I absolutely agree with that.

2) БИ-2 – This band has many wonderful songs in different styles. Their songs can be sad and romantic, dangerous, crazy, sexy or a strange mix of all those. The singer’s voice is unique and unforgettable.

3) Звери – This is the band from my teenage times. Their songs are extremely catchy and very emotional! One of the songs called Дожди-пистолеты (which can be roughly translated as rains-guns, meaning that the rains are like the guns, only they shoot cold water :Ь) has a bit of a story to it. The first half of the song is standard: a guy sings about a dysfunctional relationship and how it all makes him feel. Then, in the middle of the song we can hear somebody’s voice talking about his break up with his girlfriend. It sounds so natural it makes it seem random, like a recording error. In fact, it’s not so far from the truth. You see, the lead singer wrote it after his break up with a girlfriend. So he was telling his best friend (who also happens to be a member of the band) all the sad details and his friend was listening. What he didn’t know, is that his best friend was secretly recording his monologue to put it into the song – to make it more sincere, maybe? I don’t know what the singer thought about this and what was his reaction when he heard the result (I assume, he was a bit upset, but maybe I’m wrong), but the song is here and you can listen to it and judge for yourself 🙂

If you don’t know how to use songs to learn a language, check out this guide here.

Russian Movies

If you started learning Russian, then at some point you will definitely find yourself wondering about Russian cinematography. There are many things which can be said on that topic, but one is clear: Russian movies are rather different from their European counterparts, especially English-speaking ones.

For decades now our ambitious movie directors have tried to copy Hollywood style of film-making with what is arrogantly called “our answer to Hollywood”, but the results prove to be unsuccessful.

On the other half of the scales we have movies made strictly for the Russian viewer. In a nutshell: if a person who is not really familiar with Russian culture tries to watch one of these, then he or she is most likely to find themselves utterly confused and at times disappointed.

Luckily, there is another layer. In this case, a movie keeps its authentic charm, while at the same time it speaks to all the audiences around the world. So, basically, no matter what your cultural background is, you will easily understand the message and be able to enjoy the new experience.  I wouldn’t say such movies are rare, but they definitely tend to be overlooked, lost in a glossy crowd of those pretentious Hollywood clones. A shame, really, since it is absolutely worth giving them a try.

The other issue is subtitles. In fact, it can get really frustrating trying to find a subtitled version of a good Russian movie (or especially, a TV-show). I actually had to create subtitles for a full season of Brigada in order to show it to my students.

That’s why, to make it easier for an untutored reader, I decided to create a short IMHO list of must-watch Russian movies and TV-shows with a short description for each and some useful links. Enjoy! 🙂

1. Формула Любви/Formula of Love (1984) – A young aristocrat, Aleksei Fedyashev, is languishing in his family’s country estate, spending his days reading poetry and confessing his love… to a statue. Upon hearing that famous Count Caliostro is touring Russia and has created quite a buzz in high society with his “magic”, he decides to ask the Count to bring the statue to life…

2. Кавказская пленница или Новые Приключения Шурика/ Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1967) – In this comic but dated story, nerdy Shurik travels to the Caucasus in search of native legends and folklore. But what he finds is a beautiful girl whom, due to intoxication and deceit of the local “gang”, he ends up literally stealing for the local deceitful governor. All the time Shurik thinks that it is all just a one old Caucasian custom. When he, finally, realizes what he did he goes out in search for the girl of his dreams.

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=P2_sjEURwgo&index=1&list=PLHpkQdSgZYriUYmcxI5V3TmjoY7u4DL31

3. Обыкновенное чудо/Ordinary miracle (1979) – A wizard invents characters who all come to life and start to arrive at his house: a King, his servants, a princess, a bear trapped in a man’s body – the usual lot. The Plot mainly rotates around the bear, who the wizard had turned into a man. The Bear, who wishes to be a bear once again, can turn into his old self if he were to kiss a princess. It gets complicated when he falls in love with that princess, that arrived at the wizard’s house. For how can they be together, if a single kiss will destroy their love?

4. Солярис/Solaris (1972) – A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.

5. Здравствуйте, я ваша тетя!/Hello, I’m your aunt! (1975) – a musical comedy film, loosely based on the play Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas. Unemployed and homeless Babbs Baberley is being chased by the police who attempt to arrest him for vagrancy. Babbs finds himself in a rich house, where he encounters Charlie and Jackie. Babbs’ unsuccessful attempt to disguise himself as a woman gives Charlie and Jackie an idea. By threatening to surrender Babbs to the (successfully bribed) police, they force their unexpected visitor to dress once again as a woman and pass himself for Donna Rosa d’Alvadorez, Charlie’s millionaire aunt who is expected to arrive with a visit from Brazil.

6. Брат/Brother (1997) – An ex-soldier with a personal honor code enters the family crime business in St. Petersburg, Russia.

7. Бригада/Brigade (TV mini-series 2002) – Brigada is a group of four friends, who grew up together and formed a most powerful gang in Moscow. Initially they made business together, but an unplanned murder transformed them into a gang. Now their lives are at risk and there is no way back.

8. Все умрут, а я останусь /Everybody dies but me (2008) – One Monday morning Katya, Vika and Zhanna learn that there will be a school disco, their first disco, on the coming Saturday night. The girls feverishly start preparing for the event, which rapidly becomes the most important moment ever in their universe, and looks like the ideal way to escape their daily lives…

9. Ночной дозор/Night Watch (2004) – A fantasy-thriller set in present-day Moscow where the respective forces that control daytime and nighttime do battle.

http://subs.com.ru/page.php?id=3556

10. Лиля Навсегда/Lilya 4-ever (2002) – Sixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Estonia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life.

Is it possible to learn a language without learning a culture? :)

After spending more than a year living in Australia and working as a tutor here I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many people are actually interested in my native country. Some of my students want to learn the language because they are planning to visit Russia somewhere in distant future, some had a distant relative of Russian descent, some just want to learn to speak Russian because it’s cool to speak “like those baddies from Mafia movies”.  Anyway, at first everything goes great, but after a certain amount of lessons  we approach a so called “midstudy crisis“, when the grammar constructions become more complicated and sometimes plain scary 🙂 Students end up feeling not motivated and, as a result, find themselves giving up, because ” Russian is just too hard to master”. So here emerges a very important question: was there enough motivation on the first place? What do our students actually know about the country which language they are learning to speak? Is it all that important?

The answer is “yes”! Getting acquainted with the culture not only creates a unique sense of growing familiarity, It also starts a fascinating process, known as “getting a feel for the language” which makes some of its aspects understandable on a subconscious level. It also goes without saying that learning a foreign culture turns you into a smarter person, totally immune to stereotypes and other sad things like that 🙂

Now, it probably would be better to specify what I mean by ” learning a culture”. It’s by no doubts a broad concept and it includes all kinds of things: history, language, folklore, literature, movies, cuisine and so on and so forth. All of these form one beautiful mentality of the people who live in a particular country.

So how do you apply this to learning Russian? It’s simple, really. You can start with something small: cook a Russian national dish or watch a movie with subtitles to get your ears used to the sound of the language. Listen to some catchy Russian tune and let it bring you closer to that mysterious “Russian soul”, which since ancient times has been expressed in songs. It may seem like not much, but it does help to stay motivated and gives you a sense of direction.  The thing is, to truly acquire any language, you must be in love with its culture 😉

Here are some ideas to incorporate Russian culture:

• Listen to Russian music or radio (I’ll do a blog post about Russian music later. For now, try this radio station which plays only Russian music – http://www.nashe.ru/ press play up the top to listen. You can also find this in an app like TuneIn Radio)
• Cook or buy Russian food (https://irinabeketova.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/russian-food/)
• Watch a Russian movie/TV show or read a book (blog post to come)
• Read online news articles (Try http://www.themoscowtimes.com/ (in English), http://rt.com/, http://www.vesti.ru/)
• Learn about Russian history.
• Have fun! =)