Thread: Speaking to children

I'm a new aunt to two beautiful Siberian children, ages 4 and 7, adopted by my brother-in-law. I did Pimsleur's Russian 1 to learn basics, but everything in that course was designed to address people formally. I can't read Cyrillic (yet) so I can't make much of verb conjugations written out in Cyrillic and not transliterated.

I've picked up on a few things to say to them, but mostly they're commands, like "be careful," "sit down," "don't do that," "come here." I don't know how to ask many questions, because I don't know the "informal you" tense of any verbs. Does anyone have any recommendations about where I can find resources on speaking to children? For instance, I'd like to be able to ask things like, "how are you?," "how is school going?," "do you like (food, sports, games, television shows, music, etc)?," "do you have?," "do you know?" I would like to know how to pronounce the "informal you, I, he/she, we, and they" tenses of verbs, particularly to be, to know, to have, to want, to do, to go, to eat, to sleep, and reading it in Cyrillic doesn't help me at all. All I learned with Pimsleur were the "formal you" tense for a handful of verbs and the "I" tense for fewer than that.

I know the kids will be picking up English, but not quickly enough that they'll understand conversations right away. Thank you to anyone who can help me! Oh, and does anyone happen to know what the names "Lyubov" and "Alexey" translate to in English? Just curious!

Lyubov means "love."

The name "Alexey" is simply a relative of the name "Alexander," I believe. Don't quote me on that, though.

I'd help you with the phrases, but I don't have a mic and I doubt written translit would help you much. Plus, some native speaker (or Dogboy) will come along and do a better job of it anyway

Pimsleur really is the spawn of Satan, isn't it.

Just call Alexei - Alex.
There was an exchange student from Russia named Alexei and we just called him Alex.

Alexei nickname is Alyosha. I hope that they won't lose their Russian. But I'm surprised, their adopted and they WANT to speak Russian? I was living in an orphanage too, and we didn't want to speak Russian when we left. Are they young? Just sort of curious. I think it's really good you want to learn Russian to communicate with them.

Originally Posted by Евгения Белякова

Alexei nickname is Alyosha. I hope that they won't lose their Russian. But I'm surprised, their adopted and they WANT to speak Russian? I was living in an orphanage too, and we didn't want to speak Russian when we left. Are they young? Just sort of curious. I think it's really good you want to learn Russian to communicate with them.

They probably don't know English yet. But I'm guessing that they probably will want to speak English once they learn it.

Yes, they probably won't want to speak Russian anymore.

Originally Posted by Линдзи

The name "Alexey" is simply a relative of the name "Alexander," I believe. Don't quote me on that, though.

No, Алексей and Александр are two different names.
Алексей means 'defender' from Greek.

Originally Posted by alexei

Originally Posted by Линдзи

The name "Alexey" is simply a relative of the name "Alexander," I believe. Don't quote me on that, though.

No, Алексей and Александр are two different names.
Алексей means 'defender' from Greek.

\

Oh, I know that Александр is also a distinct Russian name. But aren't the two from simliar roots? Or am I just making that up?

names arnt translated across languages...their meaning can, but not the word. And by "Siberian" do you mean they are Asian or are they European?

She probably means they are (ethnic) Russians who were adopted from an orphanage in Siberia.

YEA Peeps wtf

Алексей and Александер and hella diffrent names!!!!! get it right foolz! You know how we do!

lol Dogboy

But i still called an Aleksei Alex.

алексей - лёха
алексадр- саша

Алексей- Алёша*(а не лёха)

No. It's лёха. You're lucky we aren't in Moskow. I'd bust a сap in you East mosvka style. Что ? Что ? Да, я так и думал.

No, Eugenia is right...

Originally Posted by BlackMage

No, Eugenia is right...

So i just talked to a russian named Aleksey.

Matt (21:20) :
bolshevik05: and alyosha is short for aleksei
bolshevik05: u are wrong there.
Matt (21:20) :
Im so much 1337: oh f*ck no
Matt (21:20) :
Im so much 1337: f**kin i know like 3 leha

Originally Posted by Линдзи

Oh, I know that Александр is also a distinct Russian name. But aren't the two from simliar roots?

I don't think so.