(no subject)

[gnomygnomy.livejournal.com]

What if I wanted to take Spanish while studying abroad in Russia? (I'll be there for a year, if my plan goes accordingly.) Is that unheard of? Would that be weird?

Chepálova and Medvedéva

[b0bb.livejournal.com]

Here we go again.
Not only Russian tennis players suffer, but Winter Olympic athletes as well.

I'm not asking you (non-Russian native speakers only!) which one of the names of Russian female skiers (see the subject) is pronounced correctly (the first one is correct, the second one is incorrect), but I'm asking you - why?

What made NBC and CBC sports commentators believe that Chepálova is Chepálova, but Medvédeva is Medvedéva?
What's the difference, to the English native speaker, between these two names?

Спасибо

[imtheface.livejournal.com]

(sorry for not writing in Russian, my Russian is VERY bad)
At my school we have a club called Conservation Society, and we are supposed to make signs that have facts about recycling, and conserving energy/water. Like...You save a certain amount of water by turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth. Or something along those lines. We have signs in Spanish, French, and Japanese, and I thought it would be cool to have one in Russian, so if you know any facts about such things and can write them in Russian, that would be awesome! THANKS!