Hi Folks.. Happy Easter!

Since I have more than a month, I was going to send documents to Tanya USPS Global Express in Cyrillic.

I need a little help with translating into the format that Slim suggested in the post below please:

"RUSSIA/РОССИЯ
682640 (or whatever your sweety's postal code in Russia is)
Хабаровский Край (Name of Region/Krai/Oblast)
Амурск - Пушкинская ул 24 Д 95 Кв (City/Oblast/Metro stop if applicable, Street, House #, Apt. #)
Шарапове Марие Н (Your sweety's name.... (in the dative case! Don't worry about that!))
(07) 4214-238-436 (Your sweety's mobile or home phone number. Maybe most important!)"

I believe Sochi is in Krasnodar Krai
Her fullname is Tatiana V. Rebenok
Her address is: 5 "B" Titov St. Apt. 9

Thanks again!

RUSSIA/РОССИЯ
(INSERT POSTAL CODE HERE, ALL NUMBERS)
Краснодарий Край
Сочи - Титов ул. 5Б Д. 9 Кв.
Ребенокове Татяне В.
(PHONE NUMBER HERE, ALL NUMBERS)


I don't know if that's 100% accurate, I just transliterated from what you provided. You may have to google search the exact spellings. (Or wait for someone with a degree in Russian languge..... or someone that's actually Russian, ahem!..... to get on here.) However, if you're trying to send it off today, that should get you by.

And.... LEARN SOME CYRILLIC ALREADY!!! You're wife is going to learn English, learn some Cyrillic. You don't have to be fluent in Russian, but it's nice to be able to read places on the map and understand basic menu items, etc. It's a survival skill that can't be understated. DO IT!!!

Good luck getting all that to her. And just in case, make copies and prepare a 2nd "kit" just in case that one doesn't make it in the next month or so. If worst comes to worst, you can FedEx or DHL (for a million bucks) the back-up kit.

Just noticed her last name is Rebenok (not Rebenokova?) if so, maybe just stop at the K instead of putting the OBE in there. Or, just write her whole name in English.

I don't know how particular she'll be about her name. Don't want you to end up in the dog house! (I could use some company though.)

Agreed. Just learning Cyrillic will take you almost no time at all. Invest a couple hours a day over a couple weekends and you'll have it. Learning to pronounce some of the letters correctly will take a little longer, but your girl will teach you.


That struck me as unusual too. Are you sure there's not an "a" on the end of her name she's not telling you about, Irish?

Just send your fiancée an email asking her to write her address in Russian for you. Why break your head on this, especially if there is some strange local variation to her address.

Thanks all for your advice!

FWIW, I'll relate my experience......

At first, I was under the impression that letters to Russia should be addressed in Russian (Cyrillic alphabet), but I no longer believe that to be necessary. Over the years, I've sent alot of letters and packages to addresses in four different Russian cities using USPS, UPS, and Fedex. I've addressed these only in English, and I've had 100% success in the letters and packages getting to the intended recipient. As far as I can tell, there have been no delays because the addresses were only in English. Maybe I've just been very fortunate, but that's my personal experience. Maybe Russian postal workers have cursed the arrogant American who expects his letters and packages to be delivered without the consideration of using the native language for addressing, but I've never heard those curses , and the letters and packages were always delivered (intact).

Your mileage may vary......

After having lost a couple packages in the mail, I started taking to writing her address and phone number in Cyrillic on all 4 sides of the package. Then I went to the post office, and watched a postal worker proceed to cover every single side that I'd written her address with a USPS sticker. Despite my protests they said it would confuse the postal workers. Seriously. So now I've taken to also writing it on the bottom of the package.

I agree that it's easier to go with an English address. I've sent lots of greeting cards and a DHL package and they always showed up. The NVC sends letters like the the assignment of agent form (CR-1) to Russia in English including the letter and forms. By attempting to use Cyrillic, I think there's too much room for errors.

Well...140 million people can't be all wrong. The problem with the Russian posta is not the language, it's the reliability. And by "reliability" I mean the criminals who work there.

I wrote the name and address in both English and Russian and it worked fine. Do not be misled by the postal service and how quickly your package should arrive. I would spend the extra money on DSL or Fed Ex and transmit documents via them, especially documents that are important or may be necessary for interview or other purposes. Over 4 years of sending and receiving packages to and from Russia we have found out that US packages via the postal services are notoriously slow, yet the packages sent from Russia arrive fairly quickly. If the postal service is bad in Sochi, your fiancee may have a wait or make many trips to the post office to get the package you sent. Moreover, in Sochi international packages may not be picked up at the local post office, but at a special post office designated for packages of that nature, which is what happens in my wife's hometown. Don't experience the grief we have had over slow packages from the states, go with a courier service. And if you try to track a USPS package, it only works through US borders, not very well overseas. The courier services on the other hand should be able to tell you where the package is at any given time. Might drop a line to Bobalouie I think his fiancee is from Sochi also.

If shipping via DHL, be prepared for sticker shock. A document package will run you around $120-$150 for 3-day delivery (3-day is the only option). FedEx is even more expensive, and last time I checked takes at least a week.

Yes...your right about that. I've never even seen locks on the Russian apartment building post boxes and most look like the won't even close.

LOL...the implication I suppose is that if it is delivered then there must be nothing of importance in it. Has a certain twisted logic to it I guess. Это Россия.

I wrote about this before but it's been a while and some of you were not here then so I'll tell you about my experience with DHL. Sent 2 document packages to my fiance a few years back and the first one took more than a week, and the second one even longer as it got side tracked and spent some time in Belgium or Italy or some other place. Anyway when I went back and looked at their web site I saw where they "guaranteed" 4 day delivery (I think that's what it was at the time) to Russia. I was a little unhappy so I called them and inquired about the "guarantee" and they took down my info and tracking numbers. Sure enough about a month later I received a FULL REFUND for the total amount of the cost for shipping both document packages which was more than I really expected as they did get delivered, but several days late. As I recall it was about $80 for each package back then.

Maybe if you are lucky, and they still stick to this policy, your packages will be a few days late and cost next to nothing.

Last time I checked it costs just $0.90 to send a letter to Russia using the USPS. Since all of you know the process is going to take somewhere between 6 to 12 months; why not just spend a few dollars sending the documents using plain post at first. Send a few out. If in that time period all your attempts fail, then go with the expensive DHL or Fedex. We had success doing this. Our documents took two weeks to get to Tomsk from California and back

Ready to give a hand:

Россия, Краснодарский Край,
город Сочи,
улица Титова, дом 5 Б, квартира 9,
Ребенок Татьяне В.

Good luck!!!

Thank you!

postal code, Россия, краснодарский край
город Сочи, улица Титова, дом 5Б, квартира 9
Ребенок Татьяне


p.s.your fiance has a cool last name)))

Mariya

Thank you again, all.

I actually sent it via DHL on Saturday. It was only around $60.00. I know I could do it on the cheap using USPS but it took me many hours to gather all the info and I wanted to be able to track it so she could be home from work to receive it. I priced out Fedex for grins and it was $213.00!!
I had to ask the people at the mail place to repeat that to me..
Anyway, her name is her maiden name. Isn't an "A" only added when a girl gets married?

Normally the woman's last name is her father's (or her husband's) last name with an "a" at the end. There are possibly other feminine extensions, but "a" is the only one I've seen. So the daughter or wife of Petrov becomes Petrova, Mironov becomes Mironova, Volkov becomes Volkova, etc. It works this way with the woman's patronym as well. Alexander becomes Alexandra, etc.

Obviously there are exceptions, as in Tanya's case. Maybe it's regional?

How many documents were you sending? $60 is a lot cheaper than I was quoted for just a plain old document mailer. Maybe that too is regional.

It cost me $136 for a document mailer to Sochi via UPS.

Most literate people around the world can read English letters and make sense of them; transliterating in their head into their native tongue and/or script. There is so much influence from pop culture and marketing; Hollywood, Coke, etc. etc. etc. that people are familiar with our alphabet and can make sense of it.

If you write all in English it will be delivered. However, if you have the know-how to write it in the native language of the place it's being sent to, why wouldn't you do it? It's not like it's going to slow it down!

If there is a question as to the correct way to write it, English only probably is the safest way to go. But you've got VJ!!! You're an expert already!



Now that's funny!

....And straight out of the SOP for govt. employees. "Even though this makes a lot of sense and would make our job easier.... we're not going to do it because it's not in our regs. We're not authorized to do that, and neither are you."

There are also some neuter last names in Russia that work for either gender, e.g., Nesterenko. Plus, it is always possible her father's family somewhere down the line was from a different country.

Just to correct you a bit, Kirk, daughter of Aleksander (patronymic) would be Aleksandrovna.

But don't the neuter last names typically end in -o anyway? "Rebenok" doesn't sound neuter. I'm more inclined to believe that you're right about it not being a Russian last name.


"Keerk...eeeenncorrrect!"

-enko names aren't truly "Russian" are they?

And Rebenok as a last name sounds a little fishy...

I should have clarified better! I meant neuter (as in neutral) in that there are some Russian last names that don't get the "A" to feminize them. Of course, Rebenok would be a masculine noun. Interesting name as it means a "small child" or "toddler" in Russian. I even knew a Russian family with the German last name Edelman. They did not make it Edelmana for the ladies.

Doesn't it literally mean, "little fish?" (Which is used for someone close to you like a child or loved one?)

Can I just ask how you got a $60 rate to Sochi via DHL? Do you have some kind of frequent-DHL'er discount or something? The cheapest DHL package (DHL Express Letter) will, according to the DHL website, run me about $150. The DHL website is reporting $136 to Sochi. So...just curious. If there's a cheaper way for me to send via DHL that would be really helpful!

I believe, "рыбка" would be little fish. Not sure about the literal definition of, "ребёнок".

"Enko" is ukrainian in origin, i believe.

The only last names in russian which are declined are possessive form or adjectives--so ivanov/a is like "johnson." It's actually an alternative to the normal genitive to indicate possession--i.e., you CAN say muzh mamy or zhena papy for stepdad and stepmom, but i think a native speaker would always say mamin muzh and papina zhena. I believe this form is used a lot more with russian names/people words (mom/dad/brother/friend)/animals to show possession than the genitive. What specific possessive ending--ov/en, in/yn, or the one which is like in the title of the bulgakov story "sobach'e serdce" (heart of the dog) has always confused me and i loathe this topic in russian grammar. I also loathe how these names have a specific declension which differs from normal noun declension.

And of course adjective names decline normally.

Rebenok is a russian word last name, but not a proper Russian last name in the sense of ivanov or whatever. Interestingly, when I was studying some Pasternak my professor told us that Jews were given last names like Pasternak (turnip, i believe) as a kind of humiliation. Maybe Rebenok is the same? Rebenok is related to "guys," pebiata, i think, but i don't remember the entymology at the moment.

Interesting Eekee! I also found it interesting that some first names such as "Трактор" were once popular. Perhaps this was to indicate strength?

Maybe it just shows an affinity for agriculture.

(Or maybe it's the name of a character on the Russian version of Mayberry... (I would totally watch that show because you know the guy that's always in the drunk tank would be one of the normal ones.)

Russian version of "The Andy Griffith Show"-!!!

Remember, "Johnson" can be the name of a person OR object!

Opie: Hey Aunt Bea, where's pa?
Aunt Bea: That good for nothing drunk? You know he only comes around when he needs vodka money! (laugh track)
Opie: Well I just thought he'd be around for my birthday and all.
Aunt Bea: Well Barney will be here, that should be good enough, yes?
Opie: Yeah but he's only going to be here to haul me off for army service. (laugh track)
Aunt Bea: Don't worry, he said they stop beating you when you're unconscious. (laugh track)
Opie: Gee that's swell! Looks like you're busy, you need help?
Aunt Bea: Yes please! Here's a list of American men I met on the internet. See how many you can get to send money! (laugh track)
Opie: Oh Aunt Bea, you 'ol scammer you!
Opie and Aunt Bea: (Laughs together, fade out, key music)

Hollywood waits-!!!

"Traktor" glorifies agriculture. In the early soviet union it was a trend to name your kids not traditional russian names, but instead new modern names which glorified soviet ideals--traktor, elektron, marlen (for Marxist-leninist), etc. I was reading something the other day and came across an old woman named "Stalina"--i thought it was very unfortunate.

I met a "Stalina" in Kazan' and she is only 32 or so.

Ahhhh...y'know, now that you mention it I remember something about that as well. This country's done that too--lot of girls named "Reagen" were born in the late 80's, and there was another surge of the name in 2004-2005 when Reagen died. I also read a story a few years back that when the first space shuttle prototype was rolled out, a couple named their child "Enterprise."

Cool info, thanks for sharing that!

Wonder how many W00ts have been born here?

Role call in a few years is going to be tricky.

Teacher: Roflmao?
Student: Here.
Teacher: jkjklol?
Student: Here.
Teacher: stfu?
Student: Here.
Teacher: a/s/l?
Student: 10/m/present.
Teacher: I quit.

I believe it was a mistake on the part of the lady at my mail place! I looked it up on DHL website and it quoted $90.00, which was good in any case.
She called them when I brought the package in and that was the quote she gave me. Never using DHL before, I just thought that she got a special rate or something. She told me she was new, but sends DHL packages all the time. She was from Pakistan and may have gotten it wrong, I suppose. If they charge her back I intend to make it good.

Her father was born with the last name Rebenok in Russia, according to her 325. I believe that it is a Byelorussian or possibly Hungarian name from the Grandparents.

Now that's a cool name!


Mox, your Andrei Griffitov show was hilarious! (Standing by for more.....)

OMG! That's the name! Good one Slim!

It definitely wouldn't be a Hungarian name as "rebenok" is a russian word and hungarian is a finno-ugric language, not a slavic one. I don't know about Belarusian, as Belarusian last names are not as systematic as Russian ones. It could possibly be a Belarusian name. I'll ask my mom if "rebenok" is the same word in Belarusian as in Russian when I return from Italy.

Italy? What???

Must be nice to jet-set around the world on the drop of a dime. Ah, the good ol' days. I'm gonna win that Mega Millions soon though, and I'll be sure to invite all of you to stop by my island for punch and pie.

I dunno...I'd have to pack, and there's the hassle of airline travel and getting time off from...waitasecond...did you say pie? I'm so there.