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Author Topic: What about Russia?  (Read 4174 times)

Archon

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #15 on: February 21, 2005, 02:35:16 AM »
What do you mean by second and third tones? We haven't ever really gone into how to arrange a sentence in any depth, we are still finishing up the cases (genitive, instrumental...).
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Oldie Black Witch

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #16 on: February 21, 2005, 02:43:31 AM »
The tones were referring to Chinese and why I didn't take it.

Now the cases in Russian start getting interesting when you have to begin memorizing verbs that only take a certain case as compliment. Especially when there's a synonym that takes a completely different case--usually Dative or Instrumental.

And sentence structure is fairly easy.  Put the most important information at the end. Otherwise, word order isn't all that firm.
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Archon

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #17 on: February 21, 2005, 02:56:26 AM »
Yeah, it is already fun memorizing all of the buildings, and whether it is B or Ha.
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Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #18 on: February 21, 2005, 03:05:05 AM »
its been a long, time since I've cracked a russian book
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Oldie Black Witch

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2005, 03:17:29 AM »
Just out of curiousity, Archon, what textbook are you using?
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #20 on: February 21, 2005, 07:36:03 AM »
The RUssian alphabet isn't that difficult, so many of th eletters being so similar to Greek, which is easy to figure out. There are a startling number of familiar words too. when I visited St. Petersburg I had my wife teach me the alphabet and I could identify pretty much any place I wanted to go and parse out most anything I needed.
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Archon

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #21 on: February 21, 2005, 12:20:56 PM »
Old One, we use like 3 different ones, and we don't really stick by any of them. The teacher is very spontaneous, she wants to keep things interesting, so she will randomly give us information packets, and activites that have nothing to do with the book. Oh yeah, all of our books are from before the fall of the Soviet Union too. I don't have them with me, but I will give you their names after I go to school.
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Oldie Black Witch

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #22 on: February 21, 2005, 06:50:50 PM »
I actually took Russian in high school before the fall of the Soviet Union. My teacher was an ex-pat, but she was still Soviet. Very Soviet. In retrospect it was rather amusing.

We didn't have a textbook at all for that class, and the teacher created her own packets and had us memorize a few irregular verb conjugations. Mostly we momorized songs like Yolitchka (darn it for not supporting Cyrillic!) and Podmoscovye Vechera, and phrases to use at tea parties:

"Yes, I'd like some chai with lemon, please."
"Here you go."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."

And with B or Ha, there are a few exceptions you need to memorize (like post office and kitchen), but if the event is temporary (like a concert) or outside, it's Ha. Otherwise, if the event is ongoing or indoors, it's B. Once you learn aspect, you'll find that most Russian is based on the idea of timeframe--so much so that it affects just about every verb. Especially the six or so verbs that mean "to go."

Isn't Russian a fun language?
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MsFish

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #23 on: February 21, 2005, 06:53:35 PM »
So what happens if it's ongoing AND outdoors?  Or indoors and temporary?
« Last Edit: February 21, 2005, 06:54:20 PM by MsFish »
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Oldie Black Witch

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #24 on: February 21, 2005, 07:00:41 PM »
Fish,

Ha, and Ha.  :P
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Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #25 on: February 21, 2005, 08:14:21 PM »
I was cussing the lack of cyrillic earlier too actually...

hard to say Strasvutya tavarich without it ....

Still

I remember a little, but honestly I've decided to study a language that Im likely to speak around here...
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Archon

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #26 on: February 21, 2005, 08:22:44 PM »
Yeah, it is very hard to put Cyrillic into English. And yes, it is a very fun language.

Yolitchka oh Yolitchka
Kak Krasivlee Tvayee Vyetvli... That song Old One?

Old One, I thought your last response was laughing at MsFish for a minute.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2005, 08:24:35 PM by Archon »
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MsFish

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #27 on: February 21, 2005, 09:24:00 PM »
Don't worry, Archon.  She was.
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Archon

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #28 on: February 21, 2005, 09:59:39 PM »
Well she could have been, but I think she was actually replying Ha (which is pronounced na)
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In the depth of winter, I finally discovered that within me there lay an invincible summer. -Albert Camus

Oldie Black Witch

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Re: What about Russia?
« Reply #29 on: February 22, 2005, 01:03:05 AM »
LOL. I hadn't even considered that it might be taken as a laugh.

Archon, actually it was Vlesu rodilas yolitchka, vlesu ana rosla . . .

Jeffe, you never know when you might need Russian. I wished I'd spoken it more fluently when I lived in Alaska.
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