Svenska + 日本語 ＝ Svens語

Last week-end I discovered that there are a forum on postcrossing.com, where different RR's are organised. One of RR is "World Languages RR", where groups of 5 people send each other postcards written in some specific language. Japanese language group had been already completed, but Scandinavian language group had one slot. Two days I was making up my mind to join this RR :)) It was like Usagi's "Mamoru!!! =) English! :`( Mamoru!!! =) English :`(" *gg* On Monday I said myself that I am a brave girl and writing Swedish is not a big deal (at least it is not Hindi! *gg*), and joined this RR.
But it is a preamble. What I do want to say is...
I am trying to write Swedish. Yes, I have already selected postcards which I will send, and now I am trying to write a draft. And when I reread what I just have written, I always see "demo" (でも), "dakara" (だから), etc.

"New year's" resolutions

I usually don't make New Year's resolutions in December, I do them in May, on the Victory Day, or a couple of days before. As I am rather egocentric person, I measure my life with in my own years - from one my birthday to another the next. Tomorrow I am going to clean my flat, so today I am making resolutions :))

• First of all I am going to take dance classes.
• Second, I am going to listen to Swedish content. Mon, Tue - Japanese; Wed, Thu - Swedish; Fri - English.
• Third, I am going to work harder at my work.

This year will be the year of overcoming my shyness. For achieving To achieve this goal I will record content for LingQ and participate in group discussions; at work I will always give my view on the every subject.
So, no more shyness!

May, 1st!!!

I can't say that have some special feelings to "Pervomay", the Labour Day. But I do have some special feelings to this day, because it is the first day of MAY!!! 9 days till my birthday :) I've already invited my friends, and now, while they are looking for birthday presents to me, I have time to think over what I want to do next my year :)

I will be 25. Ok, what I want?
It seems this year I do not have any particular plan... Last year I was sure that I will visit Vladivostok in October, now I am even not sure when we finally will move into the new house...

1. I want to be able to speak and read Japanese.
2. I want to care more about my health.
   
3. I want to restore my wushu trainings.
4. I want to restore my figure skating trainings.
5. I want to relearn to play the piano (yes, I've totally forgotten how to do it!).
6. I want to become advanced speaker of English.
7. I want to start learning Bashkirian.

I want to have Hermione's time-turner!

Ok, it is the list of my wishes. But... Am I going to do all these stuff really? :) If in one year I say "Oh, I have done 2 of 7", it really will be great. :)))

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

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 ;)

Ещё немного, ещё чуть-чуть

Sometimes programmers' work can be described by "The Last Battle" song...
Today is the last battle, I hope. I want to sleep... If today is not the last battle, I will demand a gift for the Motherland Defender's Day *gg* Because I need to be manlike, otherwise I would burst into tears in such situation...
"Мы так давно, мы так давно не отдыхали,
Нам было просто не до отдыха с тобой...
<...>
Ещё немного, ещё чуть-чуть,
Последний бой он трудный самый..."

About my name

If you think that Rasana is a usual Russian name, try to google it.
There are only two Rasana besides me at Russian social network vkontakte.ru. My name is not rare name in Russia, it is extremely rare name. A lot of people try to call me Roksana (oh, yes, it is very hard for Russians to say simple words like Rasana, as we prefer more complicated words like vstrecha *lol*). Even those Russians who pronounce my name correct, spell it as Rosana. So I have been struggling for the correct pronounciation and spelling of my name for my whole life. *gg*
Why I have such a rare name? My mom invented it by herself. :) The names of my grannies are Rashida and Sakina (these names are not Russian also, they are Tartar and Bashkirian). And mama combined my name from the first syllables of the grannies' names. So, there is some implication in my name,especially in syllables "ra" and "sa". That's why my nickname is Sakura. I wanted my nickname to have the core syllables of my name, so I chose Sakura.

The first Japanese dream :)

It seems that now "Japanese Dreams" is a more appropriate title for my blog! :)
Today I had a dream that I called to a client and he was japanese! %)
The client: もしーもし
I:　こんにちは。　ラサナ　です。
The client:　こんにちは。　・・・　です。
I:　はじめまして!　
I was going to say 「げんき です か？」, but my alarm-clock rang. And I was so self-confident in this dream. During Japanese conversation I am not so confident. I must learn from myself-in-a-dream :)

てがみ (手紙)

It seems I become a fan of Angela Aki. This weekends I've found Tegami video at youtube. The first time I did not watch the video, just listen the song. By the end I began to cry, I did not know why I began to cry - I understood only "Arigato" and "Keep on believing"... But then I found video of "Tegami" with Japanese school girls... And they are crying too!

2008

This year was very good for me. All my wishes and expectations -and even some more- came true.

All spring and summer I was searching the tool for learning languages. I tried to correspond with members of MyLanguageExchange and chat at the voice chat at SharedTalk, but it was not what I wanted. And just before my october trip to Vladivostok I had found LingQ. So, my wish to find way for learning Japanese and Swedish, and for improving English is fulfilled. Now whether I will learn Japanese and Swedish or not - this depens only on me.

At spring two my friens born sons. So, this year I have three friends with babies, and spend my spare time with them :)
In June I passed driver exams and received driver's license :)

Also I travelled all over Russia this year. I was at Russian North-West, at Russian North, and at Russian South-East! I saw swamps, forest-tundra and taiga.

January, 3 - 12: Saint-Petersburg

Figure Skating Russian Nationals 2008 were held in Saint-Petersburg. So, on 4-7 January we were at the icerink stands watching competition. Then, on January, 8, we visited the Bosco rink on Dvortsovaya square
and walked on the center of Saint-Petersburg.
The hockey European Champions' Cup started on January, 9. Magnitogorsk hockey team "Metallurg" represented Russia on this competition. I am a fan of our hockey team, so I visited the first Metallurg game on ECC - with Modo of Sweden. I sat near 3 Swedish woman, but was too shy to talk with them. But before the game, at the metro, I acquinted with Swiss hockey fans. Swiss hockey team (I have forgotten the name of this team!!! Ok. I'll edit this post later, when I will remember it.) was the leader of another group, so it was supposed that these teams (from Switzerland and Russia) would play on the final. Inspite of I was the fan of the main rival of their team, Swiss fans were very kind and we talked before the match, and during breaks.

August, 2-16: Komi republic

My family made a 3-days car-journey to Rusanovo, Komi republic. It is near the Polar cicle. Our way was via Ufa (the capital of Bashkortostan republic), Kazan (the capital of Tatarstan republic), Joshkar-Ola (the capital of Mariy-El republic), Kirov, Syktyvkar (the capital of Komi republic).

In Rusanovo I saw for the first time reindeer moss, cloudberries, bog bilberries, cranberries (I had seen and eaten cranberries before, but I had not seen them on the bush).

October, 4-19: Vladivostok

In October I visited my best friend. She live in Vladivostok. I flew to Vladivostok via Moscow, because it is cheaper then via Yekaterinburg (remark: Magnitogorsk and Yekaterinburg are Moscow +2h, Vladivostok is Moscow +7h).

We visited a botanic garden, a beacon, an oceanarium, an arboretum, an observatory, my native village Gornotayozhnoe. It was my best vacancy! :) I love Vladivostok: its hills, a solty sea smell, the nature.







I had the great year, I think :)

Russia wa さmuい deす か?

Today we (the excellent Japanese tutor Emma and I) have the second conversation.

Kyoう, Nihon wa さmuい deす. (Today Japan is cold.)
Russia wa さmuい deす か? (Is it cold in Russia?)
Haい, さmuい deす. ( Yes, it is cold)
とてmo さmuい desu か? (very cold?)
いいえ, あmari さmuく あrimaせn (No, it is not very cold.)

This our dialogue (honestly, I said only "hai, Russia wa samui desu") reminds me of dialogue with one brazilian on June :)

Jun. 28th, 2008

Вчера зарегилась ещё на одном "языковом обменнике", вышла вечерком в их голосовой чат... За 3-4 часа пообщалась с шестью молодыми людьми... француз, испанец, перуанец и три (а что ты хочешь, если твоя лучшая подруга Кариока?) бразильца...
Только зашла в чат - стучится ко мне бразилец. Принимаю приглашение, оказывается он изучает русский и уже вполне сносно понимает. Поэтому я не заморачивалась и говорила по-русски, а он по-английски. В очередной раз меня научили, португальским oi и tchau. В очередной раз для меня это было открытием :)
Но это всё так, лирическое отступление (или вступление?..) Я совсем другим хотела поделиться... Этот бразилец, что с русским языком, говорит мне, что у них сейчас зима, очень холодно... +14С... А я ему в ответ: "А у нас лето и +13С"...

Блин, бразильская зима теплее нашего лета...

Let's start this blog again

I have this blog, why not to start it again :)
It was a blog about figure skating video several years ago, and now it is my multilingual blog about everything.

I have not been here for three years, so I've already forgotten what I wrote at my wishlist... I wanted Japanese tutorial three years ago!!! I am surprised :)

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"А не спеть ли мне песню..."

Когда-то этот блог был о фигурном катании, преимущественно о видео. Потом у меня началось дипломирование, закончила универ, устроилась на работу...

А теперь начну все заново. В этот раз - о языках.