OT: Russian Language Lessons

[mox 298]

For all you guys who say getting Russian tutoring is a waste of time, you're just not doing it right. From my lesson last night:

Me: Olga, do you know what a Russian pirate's favorite food is?

Olga: No.

Me: YARRRRRR-bla-kah!

Olga: [Confused, slightly nervous look]

Apparently Pirate jokes don't translate well to Russian. Their loss.

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

:lol:

For all you guys who say getting Russian tutoring is a waste of time, you're just not doing it right. From my lesson last night:

Me: Olga, do you know what a Russian pirate's favorite food is?

Olga: No.

Me: YARRRRRR-bla-kah!

Olga: [Confused, slightly nervous look]

Apparently Pirate jokes don't translate well to Russian. Their loss.

[slim 1,514]

She's going to have to start charging you more.

[mox 298]

Anyone (ekee maybe?) have a good online resource for learning (and bonus, retaining) Russian cases? I'm having the worst time keeping it all straight.

[Bobalouie 0]

Anyone (ekee maybe?) have a good online resource for learning (and bonus, retaining) Russian cases? I'm having the worst time keeping it all straight.

I found something on another message board that is pretty informative. Here is the best that I can do:

(the) verb is the action word of the sentence. It expresses the action of the sentence. Ex., I see, know, hear, go, etc. я вижу, знаю, слышу, хожу.

(the) adverb modifies the action of the verb somehow and normally in Russian precedes the verb. I badly understand. я плохо понимаю.

(the) subject answers to question who/кто or what/что is doing the action. It is found in the nominative case or "name" case.

(the) possession of someone or something is found in the genitive case and answers the question of whom/кого or of what/чего.

(the) indirect object of the verb is indirectly affected by the action of the verb. It is found in the dative case and is usually answers the question to/for whom/кому or to/for what/чему.

(the) direct object of the verb is directly affected by the verb and is found in the accusative case and answers the question whom/кого or what/что.

(the) instrumental case shows the instrument or manner the action of the verb is accomplished and answers the question by/with whom/кем or by means of/with what/чем.

(the) prepositional case is the case of place/location and answers the question about/concerning/where of someone/о ком or something/о чем. This case usage is never without a preposition. Remember this case answers the question where/где.

Hope that helps ya mox.

[Bobalouie 0]

and here is another i thought of mox. It has helped me from time to time:

An online reference for Russian grammar

[eekee 182]

Don't forget that genitive also shows non-existence: u nac net nichego. You also have to know things which are different in russian: in russian, you "call to" someone and "help to" someone: the person you are calling or helping will be in the dative, not the accusative as an english speaker might expect. There are lots of other special uses governed by certain verbs and prepositions.

All of the cases have many more uses than shown here... I like a book called (i think) russian grammar by nicholas maltzoff as my quick reference.

Anyone (ekee maybe?) have a good online resource for learning (and bonus, retaining) Russian cases? I'm having the worst time keeping it all straight.

I found something on another message board that is pretty informative. Here is the best that I can do:

(the) verb is the action word of the sentence. It expresses the action of the sentence. Ex., I see, know, hear, go, etc. ? ????, ????, ?????, ????.

(the) adverb modifies the action of the verb somehow and normally in Russian precedes the verb. I badly understand. ? ????? ???????.

(the) subject answers to question who/??? or what/??? is doing the action. It is found in the nominative case or "name" case.

(the) possession of someone or something is found in the genitive case and answers the question of whom/???? or of what/????.

(the) indirect object of the verb is indirectly affected by the action of the verb. It is found in the dative case and is usually answers the question to/for whom/???? or to/for what/????.

(the) direct object of the verb is directly affected by the verb and is found in the accusative case and answers the question whom/???? or what/???.

(the) instrumental case shows the instrument or manner the action of the verb is accomplished and answers the question by/with whom/??? or by means of/with what/???.

(the) prepositional case is the case of place/location and answers the question about/concerning/where of someone/? ??? or something/? ???. This case usage is never without a preposition. Remember this case answers the question where/???.

Hope that helps ya mox.

[slim 1,514]

the person you are calling or helping will be in the dative, not the accusative as an english speaker might expect.

This is where I have to start paying attention. My Latin training kicks in pretty normally with the accusative but I have to retrain it into the dative.

Usually I just kind of slur the endings and it works just fine. Try that next time. ooh and ah sound a lot alike when you have a Twix in your mouth.

"Ya poshla magazinaauuhhhmmmmmcrunchuuamchomuuuah."

They get the picture.

The same works for guy/girl stuff. If I had time to change the a to an o or l or whatever, I'd never get to eat my Twix.

[mox 298]

Usually I just kind of slur the endings and it works just fine. Try that next time. ooh and ah sound a lot alike when you have a Twix in your mouth.

"Ya poshla magazinaauuhhhmmmmmcrunchuuamchomuuuah."

My tutor's wise to this trick now. I got away with it a couple times but now I get the famous eyebrow arch that we've all seen and withered under. I can still fake the occasional -oo vs -yoo, but mostly I get "eeeenncorrrect."

So believe it or not, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Russian" has a pretty good section on cases. I resisted buying this book for ages because of the title, but eventually broke down and then never opened it until a couple days ago. Overall it's mediocre, but the section on case got me jump started. Maybe "The Total Fucktard's Guide to Russian will have an even better section..."

Oh...and just wanted to add that the further I get into this, the more I realize what a load of ####### Rosetta Stone is. It's not just overpriced, I'm seeing that it actually has disadvantaged me to an extent. I'm constantly "un-learning" things.

Edited March 24, 2008 by mox

[slim 1,514]

Maybe "The Total Fucktard's Guide to Russian will have an even better section..."

Oh...and just wanted to add that the further I get into this, the more I realize what a load of ####### Rosetta Stone is. It's not just overpriced, I'm seeing that it actually has disadvantaged me to an extent. I'm constantly "un-learning" things.

As soon as you write it, I'll buy a copy!

I see a lot of people who are "above" things like the idiots guides (or fucktards guides, what-have-you) and are unwilling to utilize good resources because they feel like they're being looked down upon for doing them. I've tried for years to get my buddies to read children's books in foreign languages and they just won't do it. I don't know why... maybe because they're fucktards? Anyway though, when you're trying to learn from a base of nothing, you need to start with the simplest stuff and work your way up.

And on the "un-learning" things, there's no substitute for first-hand knowledge. Or for paying hundreds of dollars for a training program used by the U.S. Army, the State Department, etc. We all see how efficiently their operators work, huh?

"FACE TOWARD ENEMY"

[mox 298]

I think you just like saying "fucktard," slim.

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

Fucktard...

I think you just like saying "fucktard," slim.

[slim 1,514]

It's a good word. Do I have to give you credit when I use it?

[mox 298]

It's a good word. Do I have to give you credit when I use it?

Nah, that's ok. Not original by me anyway. Think I picked it up online gaming some time ago.

[slim 1,514]

See! Online gaming is good for something.