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Solfrid Cristin’s way TAC 2011 Team Ohana

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5558 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 17 of 221
29 December 2010 at 6:26pm | IP Logged 
Russian is a wonderful language for terms of endearment and nicknames, so here are a few basic ones to get you started (please don't tell your bloke where you got them ;) ):

If he did something good..."malodets!" (good boy/well done) is more than reward;

or if you're just feeling close and warm, try "solnyshko" (little sun) or "zajka" (little hare);

but if he's acting up and a bit of a silly-billy that day, then he could well get a "durachok" (little fool) thrown in his general direction;

and if downright naughty, well then he shouldn't be surprised if he gets called "popa s ruchkoj" (little bottom with a handle) lol!

Living with a Russian girl, I've got hundreds of these, but I'd blush a deep Soviet red to share them all right here today...
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Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5336 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 18 of 221
29 December 2010 at 9:48pm | IP Logged 
Teango wrote:
Russian is a wonderful language for terms of endearment and nicknames, so here are a few basic ones to get you started (please don't tell your bloke where you got them ;) ):

If he did something good..."malodets!" (good boy/well done) is more than reward;

or if you're just feeling close and warm, try "solnyshko" (little sun) or "zajka" (little hare);

but if he's acting up and a bit of a silly-billy that day, then he could well get a "durachok" (little fool) thrown in his general direction;

and if downright naughty, well then he shouldn't be surprised if he gets called "popa s ruchkoj" (little bottom with a handle) lol!

Living with a Russian girl, I've got hundreds of these, but I'd blush a deep Soviet red to share them all right here today...


Thank you so much, Teango!! I know that the first one can be used also for a child, but how about the others? I am in the market for terms I can use for my daughters, as I want to speak as much Russian as possible to them. The only one I know so far is "dotchinka" but I'd love to learn some more.

And of course in that way I would not have any blushing on my concience,:)
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Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5558 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 19 of 221
30 December 2010 at 12:52am | IP Logged 
You can usually change the ending of someone's name to make it cuter: "-ushka", "-anka", "-enka", "-onka" or "-echka" (there are plenty of others too), e.g. Natasha becomes "Natashenka" or "Natashechka".

In addition to "solnyshko" and "zajka", here are a few more well-known words of endearment for your daughters:

"lapushka" (little paw)
"kotya" (little cat)
"rybka" (little fish) - this one always makes me laugh!
"zvezdochka" (little star)

Edited by Teango on 30 December 2010 at 12:52am

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tomsawyer
Senior Member
Aruba
Joined 5289 days ago

103 posts - 141 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: GermanB1, French, Russian

 
 Message 20 of 221
30 December 2010 at 12:59am | IP Logged 
Hi Solfrid,

Best of luck with your studies this year, I'm looking forward to following your log and seeing your progress in Russian and German, especially.

Thanks,
Rob.
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Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5336 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 21 of 221
30 December 2010 at 9:01pm | IP Logged 
Thanks, Teango! I'll put them all to good use:)

Yesterday was a family day, so almost no studies (just a couple of chapters in my German book), but today my husband and daughter went sleigh riding and to the cinema, so I got lots of time on my hands.

RUSSIAN
Vocabulary:
I have entered 78 words in Anki today, and 36 sentences plus revised 142 cards (basically everything I had entered). I had first just entered the words that I struggled to remember, but since I cannot really write Russian, I decided that it would be a good idea to enter also the words I knew well orally. It takes forever, because first I find the word from Assimil, then I translate them from French into Norwegian and write them into a little book, and then I type the word into Anki using a Russian key board (using the” look for – locate – hit button- system “of typing, since I have never written in Russian before).
It may seem complicated, but the words need to pass by my hand to actively enter my brain, which is why I write it in a little book first. The fact that the keyboard is English/Russian, so the specifically Norwegian letters are no actually written on the key board, does not make it any easier.

Films:
I went for a real intellectual challenge this afternoon; “The pacifier”, with Vin Diesel. I actually had a lot of fun, and I switched between having Russian audio with English subtitles and Russian audio with Russian subtitles. Large parts of it depended so much on physical humor that it is not really essential to get all the dialogue. In any event I feel pure joy whenever I can understand a full sentence.

General knowledge and French/Russian practice

I have attacked “Le Russe pour les nuls”, and gone through the first chapter. This book is neat, because I get to practice both French and Russian at the same time, since so much of the text is in French (am I cheating for counting it as both Russian and French practice? Besides, in the first chapter I learned that the word tsar comes from Cesar, and was warned about some “faux amis” between French and Russian. I also learned that Russian children have to make a lot of practice, in order to know when to spell a word with an O or an A (join the club, guys).

GERMAN
I am continuing with the book, but I am disappointed with it. The previous books in this series have been good fun, and I’ve learned a lot about the Jewish faith. This time they have spent the first 20 chapters on mainly unpleasant Christan characters. One of them is such a piece of s… that I assume he is either the murderer or the victim. I sincerely hope he is the victim, because at this point I feel ready to strangle him with my own two hands.
Oh and although it is not really language related I have to share something I saw yesterday. One of my neighbors has two sons that are adopted from Thailand. Their big passion in life is football. So what do you do when there is 60 cm of snow and 10 degrees below zero outside? You do football on skis!! It’s the funniest thing I have seen in my life, but I guess if you can do ice hockey, why not ski football. No Norwegian born would have done anything so crazy, so I guess sometimes you really need some external influence in order to have innovation.

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Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5336 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 22 of 221
31 December 2010 at 5:47pm | IP Logged 
RUSSIAN

Russian/French
I started on the second chapter of “Le russe pour les nuls”, but the chapter has 50 pages, so I am hardly going to finish it today. I noted down some everyday expressions that I will enter into Anki though.

Listening:
I listened to chapters 20-24 of Assimil. I read the first 30 chapters earlier this year, but I did not go through them thoroughly, just brushed through them, so I am trying to be a bit more meticulous this time over. I turned down having any Christmas presents this year, so my Christmas present to myself was a new CD-player with a repeat button, so I can listen to the same chapter over and over again.
My favorite dialogue (and one I can relate to right now) is the following:

В СИБИРИ (In Siberia)

- Алло, Игор?
- да, привет!
- Я смотрю прогноз погоды. Говорят, у вас страшный холод.
- Да, нет, минус двадцать – двадцать пять.
- Да? А по телевизору говорят – минус сорак пяать ...
- А-а-а Ну, так это, может бить, на улице!

Oh, and I apologize for any spelling errors. As this is copied from a book it should of course be spotless, but I am afraid I am a spelling error generator in any language, and in particular in Russian …

GERMAN

I finished my book today, but I was not happy with it. Granted, they did kill off the right man, but the killer got away because of his connections. I am old fashioned enough to want the killers to get caught, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
It took longer to finish this book than the Spanish one, even if it was way shorter, but my level of German is much lower, and with a less exciting book the result was a given. Do you guys look up words as you read? I have to admit that I never do that. I just read along, and trust that I will somehow understand the gist of it. I am sure that I would have been able to answer any possible question as to the plot, and the people involved, but there were a lot of individual words that I did not understand.

I got quite a surprise day before yesterday, though. I asked my mother in law if I could borrow any German books from her, but to my great surprise she confessed that she didn’t have any. She thought it was too difficult to read German novels due to the length and complication of the sentences. Now had this been just any random Norwegian, I would not have battered an eye, but here we are talking about a woman who has taught German her entire life, and who according to her son is absolutely fluent in German. If I can read German, I would most certainly think she could. Well, I guess she just has higher standards, and is uncomfortable reading texts where there are large chunks which she struggles with.

ITALIAN
The next book I started on today is called “La Rosa e il serpente”. It is also a crime novel, and it was claimed to be about “The Kay Scarpetta of the 12th century”. It is written by Ariana Franklin, and starts with two horrid double scenes of the birth of a child and the agony of a woman who has been poisoned. I notice that the 15 years without reading Italian have taken their toll, so just like in German it is more about getting the gist of it, than actually being able to understand everything which is written.

And yes. If you have not guessed it by now, I am a serial reader. I must at all times be reading a book or I go crazy (eh or should I say crazier…)

Happy New Year to all you!!

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Emme
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
Joined 5349 days ago

980 posts - 1594 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English, German
Studies: Russian, Swedish, French

 
 Message 23 of 221
31 December 2010 at 6:42pm | IP Logged 
Hi Solfrid Cristin!
Good luck with your TAC 2011! I’m sure I’ll love reading your log updates. And apart from a very productive (linguistic) year, I wish you a 2011 filled with peace and happiness!

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snovymgodom
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5727 days ago

136 posts - 149 votes 
Speaks: English*, Russian

 
 Message 24 of 221
01 January 2011 at 4:37am | IP Logged 
Happy New Year, Solfrid Cristin!

If I'm reading something very short but has unknown words, I like to look up the words. However, if it is a novel or a long story, I try to read as much as I can and only look up words if they are recurring and seem important to the story. I'm not too concerned with memorizing the words for obscure articles of clothing from 19th-century Russia, for example. :-)

By the way, the best online Russian dictionary of learners I know of is multitran.ru.
You can look up any form of a Russian word, regardless of the case/tense/plurality/other forms, and you will get not only the translation, but you will be able to see how the noun/adjective is declined and how the verb is conjugated.

Your dialogue is good, by the way! Only a few minor errors - Игорь, сорок, and может быть.

Also, I noticed some people in previous posts were talking about diminutives, which are very widespread in Russian. You might find this interesting:

The word водка (vodka) came about as a diminutive form of вода (water). However, since everyone nowadays knows that vodka and water are two completely different things, no one would order водка at a restaurant and expect them to think you're talking about water. So what is to be done about diminutives? There are two separate ones. водИчка = вода, вОдочка = водка

Which is funny, because водочка is like a diminutive of a diminutive. :)

EDIT: Also, if you want to walk/drive around a bit in Russia without leaving Norway, it is possible on http://maps.yandex.ru/. It's kind of like Google Street View if you've ever used that. Zoom in to a major city's streets, hit Панорамы and then select a blue region on the map, and you can start moving around! It's not the same as actually being there of course, but it still is something. :) It doesn't have every city in Russia, but the main ones are there.

Edited by snovymgodom on 01 January 2011 at 5:11am



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