Guys, Don't Worry. Sometimes We're Not Sure Either.

Hey, it’s that Russian learner who sent you an ask several months ago saying I watched your clips to help me. Just wanted to drop by again and say I’m still learning Russian and your videos are still hilarious! I’ve even watched a few bits of Improvisation on my own, and while I haven’t really been able to find anything with good subs, I have been able to practice my listening skills by typing the stuff I didn’t understand into the translator, lol. Thanks for the update, glad these guys are still around. Definitely glad to have discovered you!

You have no idea how happy I am I'm actually crying 😭 So glad to know you're still learning Russian! I'm even more glad to know Improvisation and my blog have been a part of your learning journey. I'm sure you've made a huge progress these past couple months! I hope you continue sticking around and good luck with Russian (๑•ᴗ•๑)

Just a fun fact

The word 'очевидец' is a combination of an old Russian noun 'очи' (eyes) and verb 'видеть' (to see). Just like that, the word itself means 'eyewitness'.

Actually, we don't say 'бутылированная вода' that often because I guess it takes a lot of time to say it. We prefer saying something like 'вода в бутылке' (voda v butilke) which means 'water in a bottle'. Although it doesn't mean that 'бутылированная вода' is not used at all.

🥤 Choosing a Drink in Russian! PS: Learn Russian with the best FREE online resources, just click here: https://www.russianpod101.com/?src=social_special_infograph_drink_031219

Improvisation content... What happened?

Hey guys! The Russian Improvisation fandom recieved some bad news and good news in the span of the last 4 months, and I would like to share them with you. They are quite important. First of all, I'm sad to tell you that the original show has been permanently closed. The show has aired for 8 seasons in nearly 7 years.

The reason for the show's closure is NOT its low ratings - Improvisation has been one of the most popular TV shows on the Russian television, and the fanbase keeps growing every day. In short, TNT's management team (the channel Impro was originally aired on) went through some changes, and the new team decided Improvisation had to go (which, in everyone's opinion, makes no sense). Sure, this news is dreadful, but I think the new changes make up for that.

Improvisation changed its name to Improvisators and moved to a different channel called STS and the new episodes started coming out last month! Not only that, but the episodes are now in open access on YouTube! This is great news to all of you who have been asking for the whole 40-minute episodes instead of 5-minute clips that I post here (the videos still aren't subbed though :( ).

I'm very excited to translate a clip from their new show format and I can't wait to show it to you!

Thank you all so much for your patience and have a nice day!

P.S. My friend in Moscow was on the set of their new show and she said she loved the changes. I hope you like it as well!

Just a fun fact #2

In old Russian times, people used to say "спаси тебя бог" (spasi teb'a bokh), which literally means "God save you". But then, someone took the first and the last word from that sentence and put them together. This is how "спасибо" (spasibo) was created back in 17th century, and Russians use it as "thank you" nowadays.

Interesting facts about the Russian keyboard layout: Ф is where the English letter A is, and A is where the English letter F is. Also, S is a common plural ending in English, and Ы on the same key is the most common plural ending in Russian.

This is my favorite TED talk by Mikhail Kazinik called “The school is dead, long live the school”. 

The point of his TED talk is that the school system is not teaching the right way anymore. The school used to teach to create the image of the world, but it now teaches the subjects without associative thinking.

“We shove information into our poor children like bags […] and where do we put the bags after that? To the junkyard. Because the school’s task is to ignite, and not to shove information.”

The poems Mikhail quoted in this bit: http://www.pushkins-poems.com/Yev704.htm https://ruverses.com/fyodor-tyutchev/we-can-not-divine/8632/

The original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gt6m7RwlYk&t=924s

I’m not gonna lie, this is probably my favourite episode from Evening Urgant. This is a bit from the interview with Stephen Colbert.

What are they talking about? Stephen and Ivan are referring to the so called ‘White Nights’ (Белые ночи), which Saint-Petersburg is famous for. It’s a night when it is never properly dark. The White Nights’ season usually takes place from June 11th to July 2nd. By ‘the bridges’ Ivan meant the Palace Bridge, which draws at 1:10 AM and 3:10 AM.

A picture from Wikipedia taken in Saint-Petersburg. June 23rd, 2009, 11:49 PM

The Palace Bridge during White Nights

The original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT3VFQ8wYZg The cut version they showed at Stephen’s show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWnVV3-0wgw

Hey, thank you so much for the feedback on my previous post! I’m so glad you liked it! This time, I translated a scene from ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’. Random facts: English: gills + weed = gillyweed Russian: жабры (plur., gills) + водоросли (plur., seaweed) = жабросли In Russian, instead of calling You-Know-Who ‘Voldemort’, all the characters in the HP universe call him Волан-де-морт (Volan-de-mort). Yeah, I don’t get it either. Snape’s ‘don’t lie to me’ line has been a huge meme among Russians for years now. Russian Harry Potter YTP was the thing that started it. What movie scene should I translate next? Do you have any suggestions?

I was reading something and came across this period: "Потомучто ты уже развосемь проштрафилась". I threw it in google translator, but the result didn't make a lot of sense to me lol. Can you please help me understand? Amazing blog, btw :)

Hi, sure thing!

I'm assuming it's the word "проштрафилась" that Google wasn't able to translate. It's a verb that comes from the noun "штраф" (fine, penalty). Про- is a prefix which indicates that the action was done particular number of times or in a particular period of time (e. g. "проговорить целый час, проделать два раза за неделю" etc.)

With all this information, "Потому что ты уже раз восемь проштрафилась" basically means "Its because you've already got a fine ticket like eight times now".

Hope I helped :)