In this episode, Natalia Worthington addresses a listener's request, providing a clear and beautiful recital of Anna Akhmatova's famous poem, "Lot's Wife" (Лотова Жена). The listener, a beginner student of Russian, specifically asked for this poem to help with pronunciation practice. Natalia gladly obliges, offering the full Russian text for an immersive learning experience.
The video that goes with this episode can be found on my YouTube channel: Episode 031 Toasting is a huge thing in Russia. Has been for ages. A full glass must be drunk to the bottom after every toast, because “a toast without wine is like a wedding without a bride!” A traditional Russian drinking party usually includes a sequence of several standard toasts. You can refresh them by watching my Most Common Russian Drinking Toasts/Phrases video . The most common first toast is... To our meeting! За...
The video that goes with this episode can be found on my YouTube channel: Episode 030 Asking questions in Russian can be quite a daunting and intimidating task, especially if you try to follow the proper grammar rules of declention, gender agrement, etc. What if you are a beginner? Should you not even try? Of course not. By knowing basic Russian interrogatives, you'll be able to express your questions, even without an extensive vocabulary or grammar knowledge. Lots of times you don’t even need t...
Ever wanted to pronounce the days of the week in Russian like a native? Piece of cake!
Today’s spoonful is going to consist of a useful Russian phrase and a poem in Russian. Don’t worry if you don’t understand the poem. The reason for reading out loud is so that you can get more familiar with the Russian sounds. As you’ve probably noticed I started this podcast with the expression Добрый день translated as ‘Good afternoon’. There is also Доброе утро (‘Good morning’) and Добрый вечер (‘Good evening’). So when is the appropriate time of the day to use these expressions? Most Russian...
Ever wanted to know how to call your family members in Russian? I don't mean nicknames:) I mean official titles.
Almost everybody has a book that they read and re-read in their childhood. When we read it again as adults it takes us back into the wonderful world of childhood fantasies and dreams. I have a book like that too. In Russian it was called " О чём думает моя голова ". Translated into English " What's on My Mind ". It's a collection of short stories about 2 elementary school girls, the best of friends. About their everyday adventures, how they made friends, how they took revenge on enemies, tried t...
Many of you probably know that Russians have always been big on celebrating the New Year rather than Christmas. After the 1917 Revolution, Christmas was banned throughout Russia, along with other religious celebrations. It wasn't until 75 years later, in 1992, that the holiday was openly observed. Today, it's once again celebrated in grand fashion, with the faithful participating in an all-night Mass in incense-filled Cathedrals amidst the company of fellow believers and the painted icons of the...
Most Common Russian Drinking Toasts . There are more, but these will get you started:)
Little Fir Tree (В Лесу Родилась Ёлочка). This is the most popular Russian New Year's song. Every Russian knows it. It's something that no winter holiday can do without. The song was born in 1903 and since then it brings joy and excitement to Russian kids just like that little fir tree from the song. Автор текста (слов): Кудашева Раиса Адамовна Композитор (музыка): Бекман Леонид Карлович "В лесу родилась елочка" В лесу родилась елочка, В лесу она росла, Зимой и летом стройная, Зеленая была. Зимо...
Borrowing: The best way to think about the borrowed words in Russian is from a historical perspective. The influx of foreign words came in waves depending on what country or culture had influence in Russia: • Byzantine influence and conversion to Christianity: influx of Greek words • The reign of Peter the Great: influx of German and Dutch words (e.g. шлагбаум, гастарбайтер, бутерброд and so on) • End of 20th century, perestroyka (перестройка) and post-soviet Russia, globalization: influx of Eng...
A fun way to learn Russian is by learning the words with opposite meanings. Here are some antonyms for you. Stay in touch: - site: http://speakrussian.blogspot.com - voicemail: 209-980-7877 (209-980-RUSS) - email: spoonfulofrussian@gmail.com - twitter: @russianspoonful
Здравствуйте и добро пожаловать … Hello and welcome to the very first 'Questions and Answers' edition of A Spoonful of Russian Podcast. Coming to you from a small home studio in beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina. Instead of trying to find time to get back to each and everyone of you individually through email, I decided to start accumulating the questions and answering them in a podcast. I am thinking of getting one out once a month maybe. I am getting questions sporadically. Sometimes several...
Final Part 3 of Крокодил (The Crocodile) by Korney Chukovsky.
Part 2 of Крокодил (The Crocodile) by Korney Chukovsky. Крокодил (часть 2) Корнея Чуковского.
Russian Poems series. "Stars" by Sergei Esenin.
Learn some Russian words related to weather, seasons, and pets. Twitter @russianspoonful Email: spoonfulofrussian@gmail.com
Russian Stress Patterns ( Accented Vs Unaccented Vowels) 1. Greeting by a subscriber (Thank you, Emily) - Спасибо! 2. BIG thanks to all who show their support by: - purchasing authentic Russian food at Russiantable.com also via a banner 3. Lesson - Russian Stress Patterns ( Accented Vs Unaccented Vowels) 4. Contact Twitter @russianspoonful Email: spoonfulofrussian@gmail.com Website: speakrussian.blogspot.com You can also leave a voicemail by dialing 209-980-RUSS (209-980-7877) and I will play yo...
Learn some sport-related vocabulary words in Russian.
Inspired by last night's thunderstorm, our next poem is by Ф.И. Тютчев "Весенняя Гроза". English translation by Dmitri Obolensky
Subscribers spoke. Some of you mentioned you would enjoy listening to Russian spoken without thinking of grammar. I've been thinking of doing it for a while now. Auditory training is an integral part of any foreign language learning. Thus, I created a dedicated playlist within my YouTube channel. I hope to fill it with masterful creations of Russian poets. Question: would any of the parents of young kids out there be interested in Russian fairy tale/poetry/short stories recorded by 'yours truly'...
Just to change the pace a little, my daughter Emily and I are trying our hand at covering one of the most popular contemporary Russian songs originally performed by Alla Pugacheva and her daughter Kristina . Those two don't need introduction....
Lesson on bilabial stop consonants [p] [b] and dental consonants [n] [t] [d] 1. Greeting by a subscriber (Thank you, Jeanette, and Happy Birthday!) - Спасибо! С днём рождения! 2. Recommendation of recording apps - Voice Record Pro (for iOS) - Hi-Q mp3 Voice Recorder (for Android) Another way - Google voice 209-980-RUSS (209-980-7877) BIG thanks to all who show their support by: - purchasing authentic Russian food at Russiantable.com also via a banner 3. Lesson - bilabial stop consonants [p] [b] ...
Russian accented vowels sound much richer and fuller than their English equivalents. That is because Russian is spoken much more vigorously than is English - there is greater muscular tension throughout the organs used in speech production.
Ученье свет, а неученье тьма ( Knowledge is light, ignorance is darkness ) Век живи - век учись ( Live and learn ) And the last one is quoted around our house quite often:) Повторенье - мать ученья ( Repetition is the Mother of learning ) I thought I would start talking about the Russian sound system. Since I want to be true to the podcast's format and keep it short'n'sweet and to the point ... It will take us several lessons. Some of the items used for pronunciation practice will be isolated sy...
Today we'll talk about nouns and genders. Keep in mind that we are going to look only at singular nouns in nominative case (more on the 6 noun cases later). As you know, a noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, event or idea. All Russian nouns are divided into 3 genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. It's important to know the gender of a noun, since it needs to agree with other parts of speech. Let me give you an example: красивая девушка (a pretty girl) is correct, while красивый ...
'Привет', my old friends, and 'Здравствуйте', my new listeners! Welcome to Lesson 22 of 'A Spoonful of Russian with Natalia'. I am Natalia, your host and instructor. And today we are going to finish the Russian Cursive Letters series. But before we start, I want to thank again all those of you who support this podcast by first of all, keeping subscribed, also by purchasing Rosetta Stone's software through the link on my site (that really helps), and via PayPal donations. There's another and rath...
Today you will learn how to write Russian Cursive letters "У,Ф,Х,Ц,Ч" . (updated on November 25, 2009) To answer Chris' question about forming a cursive 'ф' in the middle of a word I made a little demonstration vid.
