Russian Words and Phrases

[Prosal]

Thanks Prosal, but your link must be updated. Yes, these cursive letters drive me crazy!

My bad.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/LRC...ing/index.htm#

[Bimbo Boy]

Seconded.

BTW printed letters and cursive letters are slightly different. This other page helps with how to make (and be able to read) those cursive letters:

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/LRC.ing/index.htm#

Thanks Prosal, but your link must be updated. Yes, these cursive letters drive me crazy! .

[Bimbo Boy]

You won't learn Russian out of a book, or a class. It's not possible. You could spend years studying Russian in a classroom and then travel to Moscow, or anywhere else in Russia, and not understand a word anyone is saying. The slang, the jargon, the idioms, the abbreviations, will defeat you. You need to associate with Russians, maybe subscribe to Russian language television. Listen to the way Russians speak and try to understand how they think.

The first step is to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You will be surprised at how many Russian words will be familiar to you when you can pronounce the alphabet.

Well I am spending a few days each month in Ukraine or Russia, so I hear spoken Russian. I already can manage with the alphabet and master a few dozen words. I am now looking for a structured method for making serious progress in the Language.

[Prosal]

The first step is to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You will be surprised at how many Russian words will be familiar to you when you can pronounce the alphabet.

Seconded.

BTW printed letters and cursive letters are slightly different. This other page helps with how to make (and be able to read) those cursive letters:

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/LRC.ing/index.htm#

[Stravinsky]

I am looking for a good method for learning Russian. I am asking for your recommendations.

You won't learn Russian out of a book, or a class. It's not possible. You could spend years studying Russian in a classroom and then travel to Moscow, or anywhere else in Russia, and not understand a word anyone is saying. The slang, the jargon, the idioms, the abbreviations, will defeat you. You need to associate with Russians, maybe subscribe to Russian language television. Listen to the way Russians speak and try to understand how they think.

The first step is to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You will be surprised at how many Russian words will be familiar to you when you can pronounce the alphabet.

[Bimbo Boy]

Hello,

I am looking for a good method for learning Russian. I am asking for your recommendations.

For French speakers, there is the Assimil method, which is quite good.

For English speakers, there is Pimsleur (apparently only oral, not written Russian) , or Rosetta Stone (apparently with voice recognitionsoftware).

Thanks for your help.

[Prosal]

Understanding the alphabet is vital to move around.

Here is a great page to learn it: (place your cursor over each letter to listen to the alphabet as it's spoken)

http://www.languageguide.org/russian/alphabet/

Learn it by both writing and speaking it (writing solidifies the visual comprehension). Do it for 15 minutes a day for 45 days and you will have learned it permanently.

A tip, make excercises by writing girls names (Tatiana, Irina, Masha, ect) or cities names (Vladivostok, Volgograd, Novokuzrnestk, ect) in cyrillic. It's easy, fun and efficient.

[Tomcat2]

Thanks guys.

It is a great cultural lesson.

[Stravinsky]

Kurenda,

спасибо огромно! Not only for the translation, but also for the cultural lesson. Difficult to believe that a Soviet teacher (of either sex) would advise their students to, "Stop fucking Mitya?" Seems like that would be more likely to happen today, than in Soviet times.

At least we finally know who Mitya is!

[Kurenda]

This is slang used in some parts of Ukraine. Russian language with twisted german words.
So she's either in Ukraine or she was born and lived for a long time there and picked up the slang.
Anyway she's pissed off! The sensible translation is:

Listen you! Stop wasting my time.
Agree to my conditions or get lost.

This is old soviet term and direct translation is "stop fucking Mitya".
It means to stop wasting somebody's time, pretending there will be result at the end. Mitya is a guy and screwing him will not give any result he he.
Was used very often in schools by teachers. Teacher calls pupil to answer for the grade in front of blackboard.
The pupil don't knows anything and pissed off teacher yells "кончай митю ебенить!" with hilarious respond from other pupils.
This was often used by female teachers he he. I doubt it's in use in Russian schools today it's not very PC.

[Stravinsky]

I got those messages from this girl. I tried to use babelfish to translate, but I still don't undersatnad.

слыш ты!кончай митю ебенить.
я согласна на гачку баккать а патом в нитвштрихайн.

Thanks guys.

Difficult to say. There's a lot of slang and нитвштрихайн is just gibberish. Difficult to translate without knowing the context of the conversation.

However, any text message from a woman that begins with, "Listen up (asshole)!" doesn't bode well. You might want to move on to someone more promising.

BTW - Who is Mitya???

[Prosal]

She might have read "titakaya" as a single word and thought you were accusing her of being a Tee-tan (Titan) , the gods of Greek mythology,"My dear Laura, you are such a charming Titan"?

Anyway, probably best to stick to English, she will most likely understand that better than your transliterated Russian.

I like to call my Russian GFs with (a bit exagerated I admit) terms of endearments like "my Aphrodite" or "my goddess from Olympus". A Western girl would find that totally ridiculous, but Russian devs are very sensible to this kind of things. What works great also are "my Natasha Rostova" (the central character of "War and Peace") or "Turgenevskaya devushka" (which means Turgenev's girl, Turgenev being as you know the most romantic Russian author and the girls who love him being seen as excessively romantic). More classic terms of endearments like "Dusha moya" (my soul) work well and are very appreciated.

One have to change our frame of mind when dealing with Russian girls. They are much more sensible to "little names" than Western girls, latinas or Asians.

[Tomcat2]

I got those messages from this girl. I tried to use babelfish to translate, but I still don't undersatnad.


слыш ты!кончай митю ебенить.
я согласна на гачку баккать а патом в нитвштрихайн.

Thanks guys.

[AColonizer]

I couldn't find the original message.

There is no surprise about her reply, I learnt here modern Russian women suddenly love or hate, with no matter about sweet words or feelings.

It is probably that Russian woman has changed her target and so she has trashed Dominos Dick (as well as dozens of men before him).

Hmmm...

Transliterating Russian is always tricky, particularly if are operating phonetically, without any understanding of the Cyrillic spelling or sounds.

I think what you wanted to say was,

Дорогая моя Лаура, ты такая прелестная.

"dorogaya moya Laura ti takaya prelesTnaya" (My dear Laura, you are so charming)

What you said was, "dorogaya moya Laura titakaya prelesnaya"

It's difficult know how she might have interpreted that, but obviously, she didn't understand your original meaning. I doubt if she would have misinterpreted "prelesnaya", that should be an obvious mis-spelling. She might have read "titakaya" as a single word and thought you were accusing her of being a Tee-tan (Titan), the gods of Greek mythology, "My dear Laura, you are such a charming Titan"???

Anyway, probably best to stick to English, she will most likely understand that better than your transliterated Russian. Assuming, of course, she's still talking to you.

Try this, "Laypa, izvyenitsye pozhalysta, ya dyelal oshibka. Ya vass lyublyu, ochyen, ochyen."

[Stravinsky]

Guys who know Russian please help me with this one- I am doing a Russian girl here in Mumbai, india and have become a friend type I just sent her an sms which reads ''dorogaya moya Laura titakaya prelesnaya'' I meant to say my dear laura you are so cute. Her reply sms was ''asshole'' tried calling her and sent 2 english sms but no reply. Now where did I go wrong here?? Have I screwed up the translation to Russian? Please help I don't check this Russian forim often so please pm me if anyone has an answer.

Hmmm...

Transliterating Russian is always tricky, particularly if are operating phonetically, without any understanding of the Cyrillic spelling or sounds.

I think what you wanted to say was,

Дорогая моя Лаура, ты такая прелестная.

"dorogaya moya Laura ti takaya prelesTnaya" (My dear Laura, you are so charming)

What you said was, "dorogaya moya Laura titakaya prelesnaya"

It's difficult know how she might have interpreted that, but obviously, she didn't understand your original meaning. I doubt if she would have misinterpreted "prelesnaya", that should be an obvious mis-spelling. She might have read "titakaya" as a single word and thought you were accusing her of being a Tee-tan (Titan), the gods of Greek mythology, "My dear Laura, you are such a charming Titan"???

Anyway, probably best to stick to English, she will most likely understand that better than your transliterated Russian. Assuming, of course, she's still talking to you.

Try this, "Laypa, izvyenitsye pozhalysta, ya dyelal oshibka. Ya vass lyublyu, ochyen, ochyen."