I have to admire the good intentions to honor the Russian language and your spouses through the process. Good for you guys!

But if you really want to honor Russia in a serious way...why not live in Russia for a certain number of weeks or months each year? Immerse yourself in the culture annually and really use the language authentically...not merely as contrived chit chatting with your spouse once a week in the USA. And how far can you carry that Russian language only commitment...what language will you use when the phone rings or there's a knock at the door or your American kid's friends come over to hang out? That's easy....English.

I can see maybe learning Russian as a hobby but where oh where will i find room for another hobby? i can not even finish a good book anymore. For me learning Russian is not practical or worth the time i could be doing something for my wife to make her happy in my good old American way. I want to serve her now in a way that will have immediate positive impact...not many months or years down the road. I have a Russian vocabulary of about 30 words and i think that's about it for me. It's enough to survive in Russia at a base level and converse with my wife when we want to do a simple exchange in Russian. BUT I will never be able to do the rolling RRRR thing...my mouth just does not work that way. So I'm doomed to failure.

Besides, my father's ancestors spoke French...the most beautiful and romantic language in my judgment. When i hear Russians talk it always sounds like they hate each other even if it's a friendly discourse...or they're yelling at each other. French sounds like poetry even when people are cussing each other out.

Bonjour!

Come on guys, Russian isn't as hard as Chinese or Hebrew!
Russian is великий и могучий! If you try hard, you can learn it. The only problem might be age... the older you are... the harder it is to learn the language.
The cases and conjugations aren't as bad as they seem to be. You just need someone to explain how they work. I've had lots of american students who now speak very good Russian.
Learning Russian is NOT impossible!

seanconneryii,
Why didn't you find a French lady then? I find your words very offensive. Feel sorry for your spouse too. Do you think it's easy for her to say such simple words as "Better" or "water" in English?

-Olga.

Come on guys, Russian isn't as hard as Chinese or Hebrew!
Russian is великий и могучий! If you try hard, you can learn it. The only problem might be age... the older you are... the harder it is to learn the language.
The cases and conjugations aren't as bad as they seem to be. You just need someone to explain how they work. I've had lots of american students who now speak very good Russian.
Learning Russian is NOT impossible!

seanconneryii,
Why didn't you find a French lady then? I find your words very offensive. Feel sorry for your spouse too. Do you think it's easy for her to say such simple words as "Better" or "water" in English?

-Olga.

My husband speaks 4 languages fluently and is learning English now. According to him English is sooooo difficult and hard and confusing and Hebrew is piece of cake. I guess to each it's own. I think Hebrew is too complicated and he always laughs and tells me it makes more sense than English. Go figure!

Point and grunt works for getting some, but being able to say "smotri moy vertolyot" puts her in the mood a lot faster.

Point and grunt works for getting some, but being able to say "smotri moy vertolyot" puts her in the mood a lot faster.

Wouldn't that be "Look at my helicopter."?

смотри..it's imperative.

смотри..it's imperative.

смотреть is infinitive. "смотр" apparently means "review; parade, show; inspection," so смотры would be the plural of that, not a verb form.

Point and grunt works for getting some, but being able to say "smotri moy vertolyot" puts her in the mood a lot faster.

Now I'm not going to be able to say this word--or helicopter--without giggling. Thanks slim.

Gotcha. I have смотры written down on a word list I made some time ago, but didn't write down tense.

Basically I'm now convinced that Slim is into aviation voyeurism. A very niche fetish, but hey, we're not here to judge.

Communicating with the dog seems to be a bigger problem. He doesn't listen to us in Russian or English.

"Stand in my helicopter?" Swear to god I'll never understand Russian women, but hey, if that's what gets her in the mood...

Hahahaa.... I think that's the general idea. Those of us less physically gifted will need to think of something different to put our SO's in the mood.

maybe slim can swing it around like it's gonna take off

And a few posts back I was reading something about having ground clearance issues and what woul.... does anyone smell that.... smells like bulls#!t in here all of the sudden. Anyway, what was I saying?

Ahhhhhh....well this might have been why I had such a hard time understanding the reference. See, I just don't have the ground clearance to "helicopter."

Have you seen the new Night Rider? Sweet jeebus it's awful. I mean, camp was part of what made the original show fun, but this show isn't even campy in a fun way. It's just a 60 minute Ford commercial, except the actors are worse than your average car commercial actors. It's sooooooooo bad.