Learning Russian

Hello all you people ~
I'm a sixth former currently attempting to learn Russian. I was just wondering if any of you are also learning it or know it? It would be awesome to talk to you :smile:

Also I have a perchant for swearing in different languages so if you want to help me out with some Russian swears that would be lovely.

I know the Cyrillic alphabet so phonetic translations are uneccesary (unless they are unusual e.g. его/yevo)

Thank you in advance :smile:

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Reply 1

aftrglw

I lived there for three years and I'm engaged to one. What did you want to know?

Just so you know, Russian swear words are really bad. You really seldom here them and if you let one slip in front of the wrong people their opinion would change of you forever. When most Russian people are frustrated, they just say "блин!" which literally translates as "pancakes!" but is probably more like "oh fiddlesticks!".

Some good phrases to know, that aren't exactly swear words/phrases but need to be used carefully are... "сексуальный" (e.g. "у тебя очень сексуальная попка!"), "чё за бред?" which I believe amounts to "what the heck?" and "да, детка!"

If a Russian boy ever asks you "ты работаешь?" when you're out and about it doesn't mean what you think it means, and slap is in order. This post has been really random... apologies :wink:

Reply 2

LithiumSalts

ты работаешь... Does that mean "are you a prostitute?" Because I know it literally means "you work" or "do you work?"... Believe me, if someone asked me that I would definately slap them one XD

Reply 3

aftrglw

Original post by LithiumSalts

It can mean "Do you work?", but it usually means "are you working?", because Russian doesn't distinguish between what we call present simple (for actions that happen more than once, habits, etc) and present continuous (now). So unless you're sitting behind a desk or something, it usually means what you thought it means. If you're cute and dressed up for a night out, it can certainly happen... I don't want to teach you swear words, but funny phrases and the finer points of Russian language can be fun. :biggrin:

Reply 4

Georges Duroy

I am living in Russia at the moment as part of my compulsory year abroad as I chose to do it at university. It's a great language, pretty hard but enjoyable too. I am not yet fluent, but at a good conversational level I'd say. Just give yourself as much exposure to the language as possible; watch films, read newspapers, find online forums to chat in Russian. If you are considering studying it at university- by all means do ask :smile:

Reply 5

LithiumSalts

Thank you both of you :smile:

(sorry this computer won't let me quote)
aftrglw: I'd love for you to teach me the funny phrases instead :smile:

believe me, offending people unnecessarily is something I want to avoid :smile:

Georges Duroy: I listen to Russian music etc, but my grasp of the language really isn't good enough to try and read something complicated like a newspaper. Honestly, I think I'm restricted to those books that are meant for toddlers etc, although I don't think I would be able to understand most of them either =_= I really want to study it at uni, but all the courses want either an A-level in Russian (which my school doesn't offer) or another MFL A level, which I didn't take. If I can find some courses that offer the basics for people who haven't studied Russian in the past, then I'd definately apply for them. But until that, I'm restricted to doing part time courses etc after I've gained extra qualifications.

Reply 6

Georges Duroy

Original post by LithiumSalts

Thank you both of you :smile:

(sorry this computer won't let me quote)
aftrglw: I'd love for you to teach me the funny phrases instead :smile:

believe me, offending people unnecessarily is something I want to avoid :smile:

Hey, glad to hear about your passion for Russian. That's great that you're starting reading kids' books, it's the best way to learn, from scratch. Then you can gradually build it up as you progress, learning more vocab and constructions then moving on to bigger books and articles :smile:

I am at the University of Manchester, and you can do a BA in Russian studies without ever having done a Modern Foreign Language A-level, Russian or otherwise. Many of my classmates have not learnt any other foreign language, or dropped it at GCSE. It would mean you can only do Single Hours Russian, as you cannot learn two languages from scratch. For example, one of the boys in my class did History, English and Maths and is now doing a BA in Russian.
See this : http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/courses2012/course/?code=00357

Only need to have done a language to GCSE level. Even if you haven;t done any GCSEs in a language, I am sure it could be negotiable with the university, you just need to send the Languages Admissions officer an an email and ask :smile: