Thread: Russian in Everyday Life, Russian as a world Language and Keeping your skills up..

I thought I'd start a thread for those who like the Russian language, to share experiences of how and when we use Russian in everyday life.

Apart from overhearing some conversations in Russian, I have not had an opportunity to practice it since returning to Sweden.
But today, I found myself in a communal laundry room in a block of flats that I am temporarily staying in (a corporate flat, rather modest).

Myself, an old Iranian woman and a an Estonian programmer were all trying to do our laundry in this place, but the machines were quite complicated. After trying but failing to communicate in Swedish and English it eventually emerged that all of us could get by in Russian. The woman was in fact Armenian-Iranian and spoke Russian. She had emigrated to Sweden to be with her family and for some reason, the state had put her up in the same building that my company and the company of the Estonian coder had put us up in. Quite a mix of people from different backgrounds! We ended up having a rather nice chat in Russian after working out how to operate the laundry equipment. Cool to see that Russian can work as a language of communication when English does not.

But I was really disappointed to notice how much I'd forgotten in only a few months. Words that I am sure I used to know just didn't come to me... As soon as I've settled down in a nicer place I will surely sign up for a Russian course to continue my studies.

When did you last speak Russian outside of Russia and how did it go?
Do you find that you can keep up your skills if you don't use them for a while?

Well, my wife is Russian and she's found a group of Russian girls living here in São Paulo, Brazil, all of them are married to or date Brazilian guys. There are about 8 girls that meet almost every week, and sometimes they invite the husbands too =P

When it started one year ago, I just stood there talking with the husbands in Portuguese and the girls would talk in Russian among them, but now, as I'm continuing my Russian course at university, I still don't speak in Russian because I don't feel safe to do it, but I can understand pretty much 70~80% of what they say. That made me really happy, to see my progress in the listening area =)
But still, I can't speak in Russian. I just keep babbling and usually just get tired of it. When talking to the girls, we all use Portuguese, and some guys use English sometimes.

And answering your question, I forget Russian ALL the time. When I went to Moscow in 2010 I could say things that I couldn't when I went back there in 2011. That's normal I guess, you just have to practice. I'm starting to forget even my beloved Italian, which is close to Portuguese. You can imagine what will happen to Russian if I quit practicing it.

11 years ago I graduated from the University with a Russian major and a 5 month old baby. I tried to continue reading Russian, but my life was busy and very exhausting (Now that I have 6 kids I wonder how I could ever have been busy with just one.), so Russian slipped out of my mind. I needed piano servicing recently and the piano technician is Russian. He is now a family friend. I spoke Russian to him last night. I am studying my old, first year book to relearn grammar, but I also reference some other books and google to learn vocabulary that I actually use in real life.

Interesting to hear your stories!

Flash update! I'll be interviewing tomorrow for an assignment implementing a large software project IN RUSSIA, for a company that I think most people have heard of. How cool would it be if I got that?? Keep ur fingers crossed or say a prayer tomorrow at 9 CET! Пожелай мне удачи!

Small grey text so I don't jinx it. And pride cometh before fall, I'd be very lucky for sure, if they considered me...

Break a leg!

Is there a phrase like this in Russian? Meaning good luck but sounds completely backwards?

Originally Posted by Seraph

Break a leg!

Is there a phrase like this in Russian? Meaning good luck but sounds completely backwards?

Thanks! I would have got it, but they wanted 3 references from the UK, which is hard to get, the UK has some funny laws about work references and I really didn't feel like calling around to beg people to break the law and subject themselves to a long interview about me... Plus, the job was located in a part of Sweden where they have the ugliest accent you can imagine.... The project would have been very cool though.

At the moment I am just waiting to start another consultancy role on 1 December at another major company. To my great annoyance the assignment is in Stockholm though, where i did NOT want to be, but... oh well, next assignment in 6 months I'll have my way for sure.

There's the expression Ни пуха ни пера!, which literally expresses the wish "[May you catch] neither fur nor feather!" -- apparently it originated as an ironically backwards way to wish a hunter good luck, by wishing him bad luck -- same as "break a leg."

And also I'm reminded that "to jinx" is сглазить -- from the noun сглаз, "the Evil Eye".

Well, I ended up with a job, using some Russian. My friend has employed me as his secretary. He thinks I'll be better with his customers than his other secretary, who is also Russian and is busy with his own life. My first task is to straighten up the books. They are quiet the mess having gone from my friend, to his daughter, to his friend, and now to me. There are notes scribbled here and there and everywhere in Russian. I've learned the words for "tuning", "sticky keys", and "squeaky pedal". My boss has the owner of a piano store written about 5 times in both English and Russian. Several American names are written in Cyrillic. There are street names and city names in Cyrillic as well. I especially love the names written in both English and Cyrillic letters. The telephone numbers are divided up in the Russian way and they have a cool "T" with points hanging down from the top edges. Then, I get to talk Russian to my boss. It's fun, but I really just hope to get my friend to make surplus money. He was happy living in poverty until he met me... I have him playing in an orchestra on a $12 clarinet. (Fortunately, he can repair clarinets as well as pianos.) He needs clothes for the performance.

My mother-in-law arrived for a month-long visit yesterday, and she doesn't speak any English so I'm going to have lots of practice over the next few weeks.

If only she were someone I want to talk to...

Originally Posted by zedeeyen

My mother-in-law arrived for a month-long visit yesterday, and she doesn't speak any English so I'm going to have lots of practice over the next few weeks.

If only she were someone I want to talk to...

Why wouldn't you want to talk with her? If you make the effort to get to know her, you'll probably find that she is an interesting person. She is probably very keen to get to know the man that her daughter has married.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Why wouldn't you want to talk with her? If you make the effort to get to know her, you'll probably find that she is an interesting person. She is probably very keen to get to know the man that her daughter has married.

She's been my mother-in-law for twelve years, so I think we may be past getting to know each other.

My Russian "in-laws" are really great to me, I love them. My wife's parents, grandfather, aunt, cousins, all of them treat me like a son. Only her uncle, he doesn't even look me in the eyes...but I don't care much, he's a douche.

Yesterday I went to a work networking thing for women in IT. Since my company was hosting it, I had to be social and mingle and I was talking to random people.

I talked to one particular woman for a long time because we had a lot in common. I noticed that she looked Turkish or perhaps Greek, and had an accent which I assumed was Turkish. However she said she was Russian from St Petersburg! I would never have guessed..

Her Swedish was very good and she was a manager in IT, like myself. Like me, she did not have an IT degree and started her career from scratch in a foreign country. I had the advantage that I already knew the language though, whereas she didn't.

I found her story quite inspirational on an individual level.

However I learned that she really didn't like Russia. Despite the fact that St Petersburg is a one hour flight away, she had not been back go Russia for ten years!!!
She said that the political situation was so bad that she was scared to go there.... which really surprised me. I did not thought this would be something that regular people would worry about while on a short visit... All this was a bit peculiar. According to this woman, work is really tough in Russia: hard to get a job and bosses are dictatorial and unfair.

I'm going to connect with her on LinkedIn though, and stay in touch that way.

People who know me on the forum (and don't hate me after fights in the political forum....) If you want to connect on LinkedIn, drop me a PM!
I have finally got around to updating my account although I am still boycotting Facebook.

hard to get a job

It is hard anywhere nowadaes, I think.

She said that the political situation was so bad that she was scared to go there

That's just nonsense. How can the political situation affect ordinary people? I mean in such a way that people would be scared. (I'm not sure that the last sentence is correct)

Originally Posted by Marcus

It is hard anywhere nowadaes, I think.

That's just nonsense. How can the political situation affect ordinary people? I mean in such a way that people would be scared. (I'm not sure that the last sentence is correct)

Exactly, I was rather curious about this myself, but this was supposed to be a work related event, just light hearted professional conversation, so I couldn't ask detailed questions about her personal affairs.

To me, she was rather un-Russian in her looks and behaviour. Everything about her was like a Turkish or maybe Middle Eastern person. Her name was not typically Russian either (could be wrong about this though). Perhaps she is originally from the Caucasus area and that is what she bases her opinions about Russia on. But she said her mother lived in St Petersburg. Oh well... I'll probably run into her again sometime so then I can find out.

Originally Posted by Marcus

That's just nonsense. How can the political situation affect ordinary people? I mean in such a way that people would be scared. (I'm not sure that the last sentence is correct)

You probably familiar with border officers which check you international passport on a way out of country (this doesn't exist in North America but widely practiced in Europe and Russia is not an exclusion). It is up to them to let you out of country if you are citizen of the country. In Russia those officers can check quite a lot of information about a person, even their tax returns and have power not to let person out by any reason
You can guess what scares people not to go back to Russia

Originally Posted by Doomer

You probably familiar with border officers which check you international passport on a way out of country (this doesn't exist in North America but widely practiced in Europe and Russia is not an exclusion). It is up to them to let you out of country if you are citizen of the country. In Russia those officers can check quite a lot of information about a person, even their tax returns and have power not to let person out by any reason
You can guess what scares people not to go back to Russia

What a complete bullshit you wrote here dude. At least about any reason. The only reason they can refuse you to leave the country is if you are ignoring for too long some court's decision. But you can easily avoid even that if you leave Russia through Belorussian border (there is no border check there). And Belorussian border guards don't care at all if some Russian citizen going to, say, Poland from Belorussia have some debts that he should pay by Russian court's decision or not.

Originally Posted by Hanna

When I fly out of Sweden the border police always ask where I am going after they checked the passport.
I always respond honestly but it irritates me that they ask - it's my personal business. I have never been asked anywhere else.

That reminds me about a situation wich happened this summer to me when I was returning from Ukraine by car. I was asked by a Russian customs officer who happened to be a very beautiful young girl where I am going too. I was in the mood for a jokingly flirt (I just left my wife and kids at Ukraine at my mother-in-law's then, hehe) and I answered in macho voice: "I'm going home". I almost added something like "baby" or so but held myself at the very last moment. Her reaction was unexpected: she hided my papers wich she was checking, made a stone-face and said: "go for a walk for a while and next time think twice how to talk to a customs officer who is doing her job." I must add that I had stood in a line for about a half of an hour to get to her desk. So I had to stand in that line again. After I came to her desk for a second time she gave me a look like he saw me for the first time and asked again were I am going. I told her my adress and she returned my papers to me like nothing happened. Actually after losing more than a hour just at Russian customs (when you are crossing Russian/Ukraine border by car you have to pass 6 checks: customs check, border guard's check and passport check at one side and the same checks at the other side) I was considering here not so beatiful as it seemed to me before, to say the truth I was calling her "bitch" in my thoughts by then.

That reminds me about a situation wich happened this summer to me when I was returning from Ukraine by car. I was asked by a Russian customs officer who happened to be a very beautiful young girl where I am going too. I was in the mood for a jokingly flirt (I just left my wife and kids at Ukraine at my mother-in-law's then, hehe) and I answered in macho voice: "I'm going home". I almost added something like "baby" or so but held myself at the very last moment. Her reaction was unexpected: she hided my papers wich she was checking, made a stone-face and said: "go for a walk for a while and next time think twice how to talk to a customs officer who is doing her job." I must add that I had stood in a line for about a half of an hour to get to her desk. So I had to stand in that line again. After I came to her desk for a second time she gave me a look like he saw me for the first time and asked again were I am going. I told her my adress and she returned my papers to me like nothing happened. Actually after losing more than a hour just at Russian customs (when you are crossing Russian/Ukraine border by car you have to pass 6 checks: customs check, border guard's check and passport check at one side and the same checks at the other side) I was considering here not so beatiful as it seemed to me before, to say the truth I was calling her "bitch" in my thoughts by then.

Ha-ha, good luck doesn't seem to be your cup of tea. But I'd never go like that anyway, I'd simply say if I were you then, "I'm going from Ukraine to Russia", and nothing but a legal law could make me clarify more.

Originally Posted by Basil77

What a complete bullshit you wrote here dude. At least about any reason. The only reason they can refuse you to leave the country is if you are ignoring for too long some court's decision. But you can easily avoid even that if you leave Russia through Belorussian border (there is no border check there). And Belorussian border guards don't care at all if some Russian citizen going to, say, Poland from Belorussia have some debts that he should pay by Russian court's decision or not.

That reminds me about a situation wich happened this summer to me when I was returning from Ukraine by car. I was asked by a Russian customs officer who happened to be a very beautiful young girl where I am going too. I was in the mood for a jokingly flirt (I just left my wife and kids at Ukraine at my mother-in-law's then, hehe) and I answered in macho voice: "I'm going home". I almost added something like "baby" or so but held myself at the very last moment. Her reaction was unexpected: she hided my papers wich she was checking, made a stone-face and said: "go for a walk for a while and next time think twice how to talk to a customs officer who is doing her job." I must add that I had stood in a line for about a half of an hour to get to her desk. So I had to stand in that line again. After I came to her desk for a second time she gave me a look like he saw me for the first time and asked again were I am going. I told her my adress and she returned my papers to me like nothing happened. Actually after losing more than a hour just at Russian customs (when you are crossing Russian/Ukraine border by car you have to pass 6 checks: customs check, border guard's check and passport check at one side and the same checks at the other side) I was considering here not so beatiful as it seemed to me before, to say the truth I was calling her "bitch" in my thoughts by then.

I just wondering what would you do if second time she wouldn't give you your papers back and just pretend that she IS seeing you first time
I would really like to see how would you travel from "Russia to Belorussia" w/o papers. Or trying to convince court that you "не верблюд"
I also would like to see how you would you convince court when they say you this famous phrase "cуду нет основаная не доверять работнику полиции". I'm sure you aware of it

In Russia those officers can check quite a lot of information about a person, even their tax returns and have power not to let person out by any reason
You can guess what scares people not to go back to Russia

Such things exist everywhere. Then this practice has taken place recently. That can't be the cause.