“I Want To Invite You To The Skating Rink*” *Каток (katok) - A Word That Means Both “skating

helpful apps

i know there are a million of these posts out there but here’s a personalized one for the apps that i find helpful during the school year! i won’t mention stuff like forest or duolingo bc obv we all know about those. 

1. pocket schedule - this is my go-to new app for glancing at my schedule. because i am a disaster of a human being, my first few weeks of class are spent continuously checking back on the student website for my timetable in order to figure out what room number i’m in. pocket schedule is a basic timetable and also lets you add in tasks and assignments. 

2. overdrive/libby- overdrive has saved my goddamn life. i RARELY have time to go to the library (just look at my library fines, lmao) and when i do i usually get way too much that i don’t read. if you download libby or overdrive you can access your library’s ebook selection. if i remember correctly libby also has audiobooks for those like me who walk everywhere. 

3. onenote- perfect for a digital bujo if the regular bujo doesn’t work for you. it’s easier to look at on a laptop but i like to check my habit tracker if i’m waiting in line for food or on the bus. 

4. bear- a simple and clean writing app. mostly used for grocery lists. can also be used as a diary if that’s your thing.

5. daylio- a mood journal in which you can track your mood over the course of several months. an awesome tool if you go to therapy and need to check yourself daily.

Hi! Please do more of Evening Urgant or Improvisation videos.. I love watching them and they are really helpful for my Russian but I can't find them anywhere else online so I hope you translate more. You have an amazing blog keep up the good work!!

Hi! Absolutely! There's a lot of Evening Urgant content on the official Youtube channel (youtube.com/c/urgantshow), but unfortunately none of the videos are subbed. The Improvisation content is a lot trickier, there's almost no public access to the episodes online. I myself had a hard time finding the source, and the videos aren't subbed either. I already have a couple of episodes in my drafts. I'm going to translate them once I'm finished with all of my exams! Thank you for the feedback, it means so, so much!

ICONIC

Ivan Vasilievich Changes Professions // Иван Васильевич меняет профессию

Дайте человеку хлеб - и он сыт весь день (Give a man bread and he's full all day long)

Дайте человеку арбуз - и он ссыт всю ночь (Give a man watermelon and he pisses all night)

There is a pun here, the two words sound absolutely the same: - сыт - is full. - ссыт - pisses This is what makes it very funny in Russian.

Vocabulary: сытый (short form: сыт, сыта, сыты) - to be full ссать - to piss (colloquial)

Here's a comp of completely random pictures in Russian that make me giggle: pt 3

[Mom]

I'm sorry for my excitement when you said Olezhka was an abuser. I though abuser meant he worked somewhere in IT.

open it up I farted

5. PROCEDURE FOR RESOLVING DISPUTES

5.1 Should any disputes or disagreements on the current contract arise, both parties are pledged to a knife fight face to face.

[The driver is on the way.]

17:46

Hello, please order another cab.

My depression is starting.

my spine is tired of carrying my gigantic sexual nature

DRUG ADDICTION?

ALCOHOLISM?

THERE IS A WAY OUT!

POTATOES

Have a great day!

Tips to learn a new language

The 75 most common words make up 40% of occurrences The 200 most common words make up 50% of occurrences The 524 most common words make up 60% of occurrences The 1257 most common words make up 70% of occurrences The 2925 most common words make up 80% of occurrences The 7444 most common words make up 90% of occurrences The 13374 most common words make up 95% of occurrences The 25508 most common words make up 99% of occurrences

(Sources: 5 Steps to Speak a New Language by Hung Quang Pham)

This article has an excellent summary on how to rapidly learn a new language within 90 days.

We can begin with studying the first 600 words. Of course chucking is an effective way to memorize words readily. Here’s a list to translate into the language you desire to learn that I grabbed from here! :)

EXPRESSIONS OF POLITENESS (about 50 expressions)      

‘Yes’ and ‘no’: yes, no, absolutely, no way, exactly.    

Question words: when? where? how? how much? how many? why? what? who? which? whose?    

Apologizing: excuse me, sorry to interrupt, well now, I’m afraid so, I’m afraid not.    

Meeting and parting: good morning, good afternoon, good evening, hello, goodbye, cheers, see you later, pleased to meet you, nice to have met.    

Interjections: please, thank you, don’t mention it, sorry, it’ll be done, I agree, congratulations, thank heavens, nonsense.    

NOUNS (about 120 words)

Time: morning, afternoon, evening, night; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; spring, summer, autumn, winter; time, occasion, minute, half-hour, hour, day, week, month, year.    

People: family, relative, mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, husband, wife; colleague, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend; people, person, human being, man, woman, lady, gentleman, boy, girl, child.    

Objects: address, bag, book, car, clothes, key, letter (=to post), light (=lamp), money, name, newspaper, pen, pencil, picture, suitcase, thing, ticket.    

Places: place, world, country, town, street, road, school, shop, house, apartment, room, ground; Britain, name of the foreign country, British town-names, foreign town-names.    

Abstract: accident, beginning, change, color, damage, fun, half, help, joke, journey, language, English, name of the foreign language, letter (of alphabet), life, love, mistake, news, page, pain, part, question, reason, sort, surprise, way (=method), weather, work.    

Other: hand, foot, head, eye, mouth, voice; the left, the right; the top, the bottom, the side; air, water, sun, bread, food, paper, noise.    

PREPOSITIONS (about 40 words)    

General: of, to, at, for, from, in, on.    

Logical: about, according-to, except, like, against, with, without, by, despite, instead of.    

Space: into, out of, outside, towards, away from, behind, in front of, beside, next to, between, above, on top of, below, under, underneath, near to, a long way from, through.    

Time: after, ago, before, during, since, until.    

DETERMINERS (about 80 words)  

Articles and numbers: a, the; nos. 0–20; nos. 30–100; nos. 200–1000; last, next, 1st–12th.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.    

Quantifiers: all, some, no, any, many, much, more, less, a few, several, whole, a little, a lot of.    

Comparators: both, neither, each, every, other, another, same, different, such.    

ADJECTIVES (about 80 words)    

Color: black, blue, green, red, white, yellow.    

Evaluative: bad, good, terrible; important, urgent, necessary; possible, impossible; right, wrong, true.    

General: big, little, small, heavy; high, low; hot, cold, warm; easy, difficult; cheap, expensive; clean, dirty; beautiful, funny (=comical), funny (=odd), usual, common (=shared), nice, pretty, wonderful; boring, interesting, dangerous, safe; short, tall, long; new, old; calm, clear, dry; fast, slow; finished, free, full, light (=not dark), open, quiet, ready, strong.    

Personal: afraid, alone, angry, certain, cheerful, dead, famous, glad, happy, ill, kind, married, pleased, sorry, stupid, surprised, tired, well, worried, young.    

VERBS (about 100 words)    

arrive, ask, be, be able to, become, begin, believe, borrow, bring, buy, can, change, check, collect, come, continue, cry, do, drop, eat, fall, feel, find, finish, forget, give, going to, have, have to, hear, help, hold, hope, hurt (oneself), hurt (someone else), keep, know, laugh, learn, leave, lend, let (=allow), lie down, like, listen, live (=be alive), live (=reside), look (at), look for, lose, love, make, may (=permission), may (=possibility), mean, meet, must, need, obtain, open, ought to, pay, play, put, read, remember, say, see, sell, send, should, show, shut, sing, sleep, speak, stand, stay, stop, suggest, take, talk, teach, think, travel, try, understand, use, used to, wait for, walk, want, watch, will, work (=operate), work (=toil), worry, would, write.    

PRONOUNS (about 40 words)

Personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, one; myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.    

Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Universal: everyone, everybody, everything, each, both, all, one, another.    

Indefinite: someone, somebody, something, some, a few, a little, more, less; anyone, anybody, anything, any, either, much, many.    

Negative: no-one, nobody, nothing, none, neither.    

ADVERBS (about 60 words)

Place: here, there, above, over, below, in front, behind, nearby, a long way away, inside, outside, to the right, to the left, somewhere, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, home, upstairs, downstairs.    

Time: now, soon, immediately, quickly, finally, again, once, for a long time, today, generally, sometimes, always, often, before, after, early, late, never, not yet, still, already, then (=at that time), then (=next), yesterday, tomorrow, tonight.    

Quantifiers: a little, about (=approximately), almost, at least, completely, very, enough, exactly, just, not, too much, more, less.    

Manner: also, especially, gradually, of course, only, otherwise, perhaps, probably, quite, so, then (=therefore), too (=also), unfortunately, very much, well.    

CONJUNCTIONS (about 30 words)

Coordinating: and, but, or; as, than, like.    

Time & Place: when, while, before, after, since (=time), until; where.    

Manner & Logic: how, why, because, since (=because), although, if; what, who, whom, whose, which, that.   

here's a comp of completely random pictures in russian that make me giggle: pt 1??

(news article) a blogger got lost in a forest shooting a video on how to not get lost in a forest

um so whens this gonna turn into crab flavored lays

"please, don't knock on the glass! Dusen'ka is resting!"

-aha, you've got lack of tea and sweets -i knew it

a poet Valery Bryusov sitting under a table because he likes it

and my personal favorite that doesn't need a translation:

have a great holiday!

I’m sorry, but THIS. This is what great translation is. Simple, yet genius. Shield — щит (pronounced as ‘sheet’; masc., sing.) So yeah, in the Russian version of Free Guy, Chris Evans said both ‘what the shield’ and ‘what the shit’. The translators could have just put ‘Что за чёрт?’ in there (which is a standard way of translating ‘What the hell/shit/etc?’ in Russian), but they used this beautiful combination of circumstances to their advantage. As someone who’s majoring in translation, I just can’t get over how good this bit is. This joke got a lot of laughs in the movie theater I went to.

I said I was gonna get back to translating when I'm done with my exams... Yet here we are!

If you've seen 'Who's Line Is It Anyway?' before then I probably don't have to explain the rules of 'Scenes From A Hat'.

Hope you enjoy! And thank you for being here ❤️

When you listen to an entire song in your target language and one thing makes sense: