first-time poster

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

Hello. I've had three semesters of Russian in college, but that's been more than two years ago. I'm picking it back up slowly and learning some new stuff since I moved to New York and took a job at a library that serves, among others, a Russian community (Inwood/Washington Heights area). My Russian friend showed me this LJ community, and it seems a knowledgeable and supportive group of people.

Because I find textbooks and phrasebooks so dull as well as suspect in their phrasing, I'm going to try slowly going through Веллер's Легенды Невского Проспекта because I also have the audio for it. If anyone's familiar with Веллер and knows of any linguistic pitfalls I should watch out for (i.e., things I would sound stupid saying out loud), please let me know.

Also, I was looking at an anatomical atlas suggested in a previous post, and I'm wondering what the difference is between кость and косточка.

Thank you in advance, and if any of you helpful people are in the New York area, I'd love to make some new friends up here.

Comments

[romik-g.livejournal.com]

'Косточка' is a small 'кость' (bone), and 'косточка' is also both 'stone' and 'seed' in fruits, vegetables, etc.

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much.

[romik-g.livejournal.com]

How do you answer to "Thank you very much." if it didn't need any strong effort from me to answer a simple question? =)

// Note that often there is a lag between questions asked from US and answers from Ru, It's 7:52AM Moscow time now.

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

My gratitude can be out of proportion to the effort, right? :)

I learned the time difference quite well on my way back from Moscow: my visa expired just before my return flight.

[romik-g.livejournal.com]

:)

You were in situation similar to that happened with the hero of "The Terminal" (Tom Hanks) ))

[pigmeich.livejournal.com]

// Note that often there is a lag between questions asked from US and answers from Ru, It's 7:52AM Moscow time now.

Russian Far East disagree with you!

[pigmeich.livejournal.com]

"Косточка" in this context refers to smallest bones of a body. So malleus is "косточка", while femur is "кость".

[zoa-mel-gustar.livejournal.com]

Well, as I remember, there are some specific phrases, some of them may be rude or indecent. I haven't a book now to name them... But, I think, you could ask about strange things here, or understand, that you should use them carefully, by context.

[priapic-saint.livejournal.com]

Weller's vocabulary is quite... mmm... interesting, you'll have to post here twice a day. There are slang words and some words specific for Soviet Union. But the book is rather funny.

Maybe Russian translation of O'Henry's novels would suit better.

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

Thank you. The examples are helpful.

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I will certainly ask.

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

I want to avoid, as much as possible, my teacher's experience when he began. Chekhov was some of his first reading material, and people frequently recognized it in his speech. I asked a bookstore clerk in Orenburg for something more conversational in tone. I went away with Veller and Max Fry. Thanks for the recommendation. I will check the library, but do you know of a good place I could buy it? I'll check ebay for now. Is your icon Waterhouse?

[romik-g.livejournal.com]

=)

[the-sunn.livejournal.com]

You can also use russian online libraries, as lib.ru. The choosing become easier when you don't need to find & buy any book that have been recommended, eh?

[outside-flo.livejournal.com]

if you like city legends, you'll probably like Гиляровский "Москва и москвичи". but it's older, beginning of 20th century. and contain some slang too. but we had it in our school program in Moscow (as our city's history or smth.)
ask here about the words that you can't find in slang dictionary ;)

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

I'll keep it in mind. Thanks.

[vlad-msk-ru.livejournal.com]

For learning Russian-English.
Newspaper. .pdf file 20mb. DOWNLOAD (http://depositfiles.com/files/z6z29bq6j)

[priapic-saint.livejournal.com]

Nope. My userpic is by Dante Gabriel Ros(s)et(t)i, still do not remember the exact spelling, and the picture is 'Lady Lilith'.

As for buying books - I do not know where do you guys get them in the US, but lib/dot/rus/dot/ec is the most famous source of books in Russian, and all of them are for free. Audio versions are available on torrents/dot/ru, and plenty of movies as well. Most of them are slightly illegal, but nobody cares. For those who care about copyright I could search for books in Russian which are in public domain and for free in all meanings audio versions.

If you want to learn language spoken in Russia at the moment, the best way to do so, IMNSHO, is reading books which were written or translated in Russian in last, let's say, ten years.

Weller and Fry (by the way the pen-name is more likely 'Frei', from German 'free' as in 'alcohol free', there is a hint in one of her books, and yes, she is female) are not the best choice. They are rather popular in Russia, but they both use some specific vocabulary - Soviet for Weller and fictional for Frei.

I would rather read Neil Stephenson's 'Zodiac' or 'Cryptonomicon' in Russian, 'cause the books are great and they were translated around 2006. O'Henry's novels are also worth reading.

I am not a teacher, but I am learning German on my own, so I'm just telling what I would do if I were you.

And one more way to get some help in learning the language is joining a bilingual chat, I'd recommend pidgin, psi, xchat or any other irc/jabber/multiprotocol client, i'm sure there are some special channels for this purpose. Watch out for character encoding.

[priapic-saint.livejournal.com]

BTW most of bookstore clerks and bartenders in Moscow are to be killed with fire, 'cause they don't care for what they sell. (

[priapic-saint.livejournal.com]

O! Ilya Stogoff is also rather good. It seems like the only stupid phrese he uses is 'делать секс' instead of 'трахаться' as 'having sex/making love/etc'.

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thanks for all the recommendations. I will make note of them. Soviet words and fantasy words are of interest as well, so I think I'll try Veller first. I also already paid for the audio cd. Ha.

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thank you.

[priapic-saint.livejournal.com]

Good luck. )

[cheaffa.livejournal.com]

Hi!
i like Веллер very mach, and I re-read Легенды Невского проспекта regulary. This book is very powerfull, it's help me in my life. If you will need help, I can explain some things. In my opportunity, of course.

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much. Do you have any instant messenger?

[cheaffa.livejournal.com]

icq 22one-7nine7-11nine, you are wellcome!

[johnnyever.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Added you.