Some Russian videos

For those, who like watch video :) I think it will help you understand why we have different words for Russian as nationality, language, culture and for Russian as citizenship. Both "Chinese" are Russians.

Angry Chinese rock


В тот год над командой навис злой рок. Встречайте - злой китайский рок!
That year our team was under ill fate. Angry Chinese rock! ("ill fate" = "angry rock" in Russian)

- Здравствуйте!
Hello!
- Здравствуйте, европейцы. Наша музыка, она о мире во всём мире. О будущем, в котором не будет межнациональных конфликтов...
Hello, Europeans! Our music is about peace all over the world. About the future without international conflicts...
- ... потому что не будет разных национальностей!
because there will be not different nationalities!
- Все будут говорить на одном языке.
All will speak one language.
- В Китае уже все на нём говорят!
in China it is already spoken by everybody!
- Мы хотим, что б все люди в мире были как братья. Так сказать, поработимы..
We want people to be like brothers. We will enslave you! ("sworn brother" is "pobratim" and "will enslave" is "porabotim")
- Побратимы.
sworn brothers
- Побратимы. Понимаете?
sworn brothers. Understand?
- Не понимаете? Наша музыка...
don't understand? Our music is...
- Не рассказывай. Они скоро сами всё узнают.
Don't tell. They will know it soon...

Край, Приморский край, Region, Primorsky region (the closest to China Russian region)
Фактически это Китай, Actually it is China,
В числе перспектив In perspective
Рижский залив. Bay of Riga...
Дай, волю дай - Give... Give free scope
будут шпроты "Made in Китай", There will be sprats "made in China".
Пекинский бальзам - Beijin's balsam (there is famous Riga's balsam)
Всё сделают там. All will be done there.
И Китайская не выдержит Стена, And the Chinese Wall will fall
И накроет мир жёлтая волна! And the world will be covered by yellow wave
Гостям с Bостока Westerns won't be glad to see
Запад вряд ли будет рад. Eastern guests.
Да и сам я не рад, I am also not glad.
Ведь калмык, он бурят. You know, I am Kalmyk, he is Buriat.
Не путайте нас. Do not mix us up!


And for those, who think that previous video is political incorrect - another. About international friendship :)) The team is the same - students of Russian University of Nations' Friendship.


Живёт в белорусском Полесье In the forest of Belarus
Кудесница леса Олеся. forest's magician Olesya lives.
Всего полчаса были вместе We were together only 1/2 of hour
И ей посвящаю я песню. And now I devote the song to her.
Олеся, Олеся, Олеся Olesya, Olesya, Olesya
Как сказка, как чудо, как песня. is like the fairy-tale, like the miracle, like the song

Живёт в африканской саванне In the African savannah
Красавица джунглей Снежара jungle's beauty Snezhara lives.
Её зацепил в РУДНе I caught her in RUDN (Russian University of Friendship of Nations)
Теперь мной гордится всё племя. And now the whole tribe is proud of me

Мечта для любого японца Every Japanese man dreams about
Девчонка с лицом цвета солнца a girl with a face of sun's colour.
Красива, стройна и невинна beautiful, slim and innocent
Пусть даже она Made in China even if she is "Made in China"

Живёт в самом сердце Калькутты In the heart of Calcutta
Муза моей Камасутры The muse of my Kama Sutra lives
Индус любит женщин красиво The Hindu loves women beautifully
Завалит цветами как Шива! Heaps up with flowers like Shiva!

Мы встретились в центре столицы We met on the center of Moscow
В центральном отделе милиции In the head office of police
В стихи превращается проза Prose is turned into lyrics
Куплю у себя ей три розы. I'll buy flowers for her from myself.

тихо.. я сам Stop... I will do it myself.
Любовь - это страшная сила. Love is a terrible power.
Мы словно герои Шекспира We are like heroes of Shakespear
Не бойся меня, на, ведь я, на Don't be afraid of me, f, I, f,
Люблю, на, тебя, на, Татьяна love, f, you, f, Tatiana!

Ещё, на, ещё, на, ещё, на! One more time, f, one more time, f!
А ничё, на, люблю, на - и всё, на! Nothing, f! I love you, f, and that's all, f!

Неважен язык и цвет лиц The language and skin colour are not important
Игра не имеет границ. The game does not have boarders.
Здесь будем мы вечно влюбляться, We always will fall in love
Ведь шоу должно продолжаться. And show has to be continued!

Олеся, Олеся, Олеся, Olesya, olesya, Olesya.
как сказка, как чудо, как песня. is like a fairy-tale, a miracle, a song.
Останься со мною, Татьяна, Stay with me, Tatiana,
Снежара, Гиляна, Наридьяна, Марина, Олеся. Snezhara, Gilyana, Naridiana, Marina, Olesya.

Как сказка, как чудо, как песня! like a fairy-tale, a miracle, a song!

Eh...

Unfortunately I am too shy for group discussions...

I received a postcard from Japan!!!

A month ago I sent a postcard to Sapporo. I was very happy to receive a Japanese address, as about 30% of postcards that I receive and send are from/to Germany. And every time when I click on the "Send postcard" button, I cross my fingers and whisper "Please, not Germany, not Germany". And one time I received Japanese address. Of course, I wrote in English and Japanese :)
In postcrossing you are given an address of a random user (name him/her "the user A"), and you send postcard to the A. The A receives your postcard and registers it on the site. Now, the system knows that you really sent the postcard to A, so your address is given to another user B and you receive a postcard from B. So, A is not supposed to send any postcard back to you, just few lines as a PM on the site.
But this girl from Sapporo answered me. I just received a postcard from her. It is the Kit-Kat ad card "キット、サクラサクよ。" and it is written in Japanese. You know it is quite difficult to read Japanese hand writing :)) Here what I can understand:
「ラサナさん、お手紙ありがとう！切手もかわいくてうれしかったです。日本語は本で勉強しているのですか？それとも学校（I am not sure about the second kanji, it is looks a little different...）にかよっているのでしょうか？ラサナさんのしゅみのひとつがフィギアスケートときいてとてもロシアらしいなと思いました。日本ではフィギアスケートは人気がありますよ。それでわまた！」
:)))

Ни о чём :)

Прочитала в блоге Линк_Саппорта "フロントページのデザインをアップグレードしました" furontopeji no dezain wo appuguredo shimashita :) Мы в русском, особенно в IT-сфере, тоже используем множество заимствованных слов, причём так, как будто они исконно русские. Проапгреидить, заюзать. Но всё-таки мы большинство этих слов используем, так сказать, "неофициально". И в русском исполнении эта фраза всё-таки звучала бы далеко не "апгрейд дизайна фронтпейджа", а "изменение/улучшение дизайна главной страницы" :)) Порой японский всеми этими не очень нужными заимствованиями из английского мне очень сильно напоминает татарский язык :))

Takahashiphrenia...

Today my Topfield is a little bit capricious, so I did not have a chance to record the Figure Skating World Team Trophy. So I watch it right now on youtube... Erm... I tried to watch, but as usual I switched to Daisuke Takahashi, then to Jeffrey Buttle and Andrei Griazev... Eh... Why Menshov represents Russia on this competition?.. Griazev is better... Or Borodullin... Why Menshov?..

Ok, Takahashi's sp for the season 2008-2009, but unfortunately he did not have an opportunity to compete this season. I like this program very much and hope that he will skate it in Vancouver ;)

Again nonsense from foreign press...

"In Grosny kehrt die Nacht ein. Neben der Hauptstraße blinkt die blau-weiß-rote Trikolore der Russischen Föderation."
blue-white-red... Russian flag is white-blue-red. Why should I trust this newspaper, if they even don't know the colours of Russian flag? They do not know Russian flag, but know internal Russian event very well... I doubt.

P.S. Why we know that blue-white-red (vertical) is French flag and red-white-blue (horizontal) is Netherlands, and even black-red-yellow is German flag, but foreign newspapers presume do not know Russian flag, pretending to know everyting about Russia... Grrr!

Tigers

Three weeks ago I received a very beautiful postcard with a tiger cub.
The title of this postcard is "Bengal Tiger Cub with Mother", it was made in England, has the IKEA logo and was sent from Portugal :) Globalization.
I do like this postcard. I think that tigers are the most beautiful and strong animals. I saw a tiger when I was 3-, or even 2-years-old. I mean, I saw the tiger in the taiga, without any cage, just 3 meters away from me. (Yeah, I have a lot of recollections from that age.) My sister, her friend Ksenia and I went to the observatory where our fathers worked. We went on the left-hand side of the country road and the tiger appeared from the taiga and went on the right-hand side of the road for 5 or 10 meters. I was not afraid of her (our village was on the area in the territory of a female tiger, some years she was with a little cub), just because I was too young. But I still remember this unusual occurrence. My parents did not see any tiger in the taiga, they saw her footprints on in the snow, and saw her from the window of a bus - but she was far away on the mountain.
The first Japanese word that I learned was tora - a tiger. Just because I was at in the Far East, in Vladivostok, when I became interested in Japanese. So, the first word that came to my mind was, of course, "Ussuri tiger" (or "Amur tiger") and asked my friend.

P.S. :))) I missed only two articles! Unbelievable!

ETA. You can listen to this story about meeting a tiger in Russian at LingQ

My Japanese study

Being ill at the beginning of the month, I totally forgot about my tutor salary at LingQ, and now I almost did not have points... But I am too lazy to calculate...

I am a "diligent" lurker of the Japanese Open Forum and some Japanese blogs. But last days there were so many (for my Japanese reading speed) updates. Nevertheless, I have learnt kanji for (oops, my desktop does not have Japanese yet) taihen :)

Also this week I downloaded some audiofiles. They are without transcript, so they are not very useful for me right now. But sometimes it is interesting to listen them and check whether I can catch some phrases or not :) I understand Baseball academy *gg*, kodomotachi and some phrases like sou desu ne :) But I am going to use these files as the indicators of my Japanese progress :) So, I will liisten them one more time somewhere at the next week - perhaps I will catch more :)

A new postcard

Yesterday I received a postcard from Finland. It was written in Swedish. (Actually I received 2 postcards. Another one was from the UK.) And I understand it quite well without dictionary. I did not understand one word, but I guessed that it is "texts of the songs" and I was right. Of course, it is not a big deal to understand written Swedish if you know English and some basic Swedish grammar and pronunciation (it really helps, because some words sounds a little bit like English ones, but have a completely different written form). But anyway I was happy and proud :) The last time when I listened Swedish at my mp3-player was on a plane to Vladivostok! October, 5... I will definitely restore my Swedish learning as soon as I separate English and Japanese in my mind :) I still think that it is the most beautiful language I ever heard.

Давно что-то я ничего здесь не писала. Как впрочем, и в ЖЖ...
Почему? Просто с головой ушла в японский. :)

The economic outlook remains as chilly as a Moscow winter

Ha! I think, Moscow winters are not chilly at all... :)

Today I've received 4 postcards!

Today I receive postcards from Australia, Germany, Great Britain and Spain. Especially I like the postcard from Australia.
There is a panda on it! It is special Australia & China postcard, and there is koala & panda at the postmark! It is so cute! I like it :)

And 2009-2010 Grand Prix Final goes to... Tokyo!

I do not follow figure skating news both international and national... Today I just wondered where the next Grand Prix Final would be held, went to International Skating Union site and discovered that Tokyo confirmed as host of 2009 Grand Prix Final. A tendency! :) fs Grand Prix Final before Torino also was held in Tokyo! Let every Olympic season Final be held in Tokyo :) And some day I will be there. But not in 2009...

P.S. And Yuko Kawaguchi received Russian citizenship... Oh! I don't like that Russian National Skating Union prefer one Russian pair to other...

I've received the first postcrossing postcard!

すごい!


Сегодня я получила первую открытку с postcrossing.com! Она из Германии :)

ETA
You can listen to Russian podcast about this postcard at LingQ

Пенсия, ау! (Retirement, where are you?)

One year ago I said that when I retire I would be a teacher of Russian. Yes, I wanted to help foreigners to learn Russian a year ago. But as I had already made a choice and was a programmer, I said that I would wait till retirement...
Now I do help foreigners to learn Russian :)
But sometimes it is rather hard to combine a work, Japanese learning and tutoring... This week was tough. Как же я устала! (I am so tired).
But, there are only 31 years till my retirement ;)