Thread: I found a Russian supermarket in my town!

Weeee! It's called супермаркет "Москва" (yup, original ), and it's run by Russians. You can buy all kinds of Russian sausages, piroshki, bread, cd's, video's, books etc. My father noticed it today, so tomorrow I'm going to buy meself some колбаса and икра!
I can't believe my luck!

Oh, and now I'm at it: I visited the library today and browsed through some third/fourth form A-level Russian coursebooks, and noticed that I could understand everything! And that for someone who has only studied the language for 5 months!

Yeah baby, nothing can ruin my day/week anymore...

Where do you live? Do you like икра? Try it Russian style, a large spoonful on buttered bread.

You'd better try пирожки.

Yep, "pirozhki" rule! When I was in Piter I just skipped the MacDonalds and went for the "goryachaya vypechka" whenever I got hungry!

Here a tip: skip the McDonalds everywhere you travel

Wise words, mike, wise words indeed...

Originally Posted by JB

Where do you live? Do you like икра? Try it Russian style, a large spoonful on buttered bread.

The first time in Russia I almost fainted at the amount of butter people spread on their bread (like a whole centimeter thick), now I occasionally too!

пирожки и пиво in the park (сокольники) =heaven!

Originally Posted by mike

Here a tip: skip the McDonalds everywhere you travel

What the hell is that greese that coveres everything that comes from crap donalds?

Originally Posted by z80

Originally Posted by mike

Here a tip: skip the McDonalds everywhere you travel

What the hell is that greese that coveres everything that comes from cr@p donalds?

I guess that's the same type of greese as on junk-in-the-box

In Moscow the McDonalds women's bathrooms are very popular (clean with real TP and free). The line is longer than the food line. (We never eat the food there!!)

Originally Posted by JB

In Moscow the McDonalds women's bathrooms are very popular (clean with real TP and free). The line is longer than the food line. (We never eat the food there!!)

Yes, I think that Macdonalds should forget the whole food thing and just concentrate on providing good free public toilets over the whole world.

The food already tastes like that's the direction they're headed for.

And that for someone who has only studied the language for 5 months!

How did you learn the language in five months Trust me, I really want to learn russian, but I can't seem to get myself past the alphabet and a few grettings and verbs. Every time I sit down to study it, I can't seem to focus but maybe for 10 minutes at the most. What do you do, you read the word, and look at its translation? Then what do you do once you read the word, you repeat it fifty times over and over again? I'll do this and forget it by the next day. What am I doing wrong!? I've made notecards, gotten books, posted little sticky pads on everything in my apartment with the russian name on it. I'm freaking out b/c my boyfriends grandparents come to viset from Russia in two months, and they speak absolutely no english. I've been slowly trying to learn for like a year now, and am not progressing very much. How can I learn alot fast, like in two months, any tips?

I've had the same learning problem, I'm hoping it'll just go by.


Is that supermarket by any chance in the Philadelphia area?

@russkayalove: you've just got to have what's called a 'talenknobbel' in Dutch, or a "language-bump", which means a feeling for languages. Don't ask me to learn and understand 50 pages of Physics, because I'll just flatly refuse or grudgingly try and fail horribly anyway...
Actually, it's been 4 months, in total. And for whom it may concern, I did the Dutch equivalent of the A-level exam (eindexamen VWO Russisch 1+2) yesterday and scored 8,4 out of 10! Now I'm asking my head-teacher if she can arrange for an exam next year that actually counts for a diploma...

Во всяком случае, some tips.
1. Get a частотный словарь (a frequency dictionary). The most used words stand at the beginning, the least used at the end, so you're sure you're learning only the words that you will be most likely to meet in normal, non-technical texts. (Note the absence of 'chicken', 'fork' and 'plate', so often present in 'first lessons', in the first 2000 words of these dictionaries. Face it, how often will you use chicken, pig, triangle, purple, calendar etc.?)
2. Learn from it every day. I did 50 words a day. Stick to your schedule.
3. Learn basic grammar. If only to familiarise yourself with the different forms of verbs, nouns etc. and to notice similarities and regularities. Like
на(on)+идти(go, come)=найти(come upon=find).
В/во(in)+идти(go, come)=войти(go inside).
от(from)+носить(carry)+ся(reflexive suffix, oneself)=to carry oneself away. относиться к= to carry oneself away to (sth)= to regard (sth).
Be creative!
4. If all fails, get a teacher. e.g. your boyfriend?

Or be a prodigy like Jasper

Aww, shucks!

(the smiley depicting someone blushing because of being flattered, not because of shame)

Originally Posted by russkayalove

And that for someone who has only studied the language for 5 months!

How did you learn the language in five months Trust me, I really want to learn russian, but I can't seem to get myself past the alphabet and a few grettings and verbs. Every time I sit down to study it, I can't seem to focus but maybe for 10 minutes at the most. What do you do, you read the word, and look at its translation? Then what do you do once you read the word, you repeat it fifty times over and over again? I'll do this and forget it by the next day. What am I doing wrong!? I've made notecards, gotten books, posted little sticky pads on everything in my apartment with the russian name on it. I'm freaking out b/c my boyfriends grandparents come to viset from Russia in two months, and they speak absolutely no english. I've been slowly trying to learn for like a year now, and am not progressing very much. How can I learn alot fast, like in two months, any tips?

I really don't think you could learn russian in 2 months, although i did learn english in 7 months but that was just the words it took me a year year to learn the spelling basics! And i learned english at age 5! So everybody at my school is like how do you say telephone in russian?And i say telefon. And there all like. That's not right!well, how do you know!

Originally Posted by ночь-проводник

So everybody at my school is like how do you say telephone in russian?And i say telefon. And there all like. That's not right!well, how do you know!

It always amuses me when English speakers ask why other languages "steal words from English", such as telephone, considering that telephone is a half Greek/ half Latin mutt of a word without a hint of anglo-saxon lineage.