Russian songs with lyrics + Singing vocabulary

I have found a nice channel on Youtube that shares Russian songs with their lyrics and much more. Even if you don't like singing, it's still a nice practice for listening comprehension. (If you want to know 7 reasons for using music and singing in your language practice, read this.)

In addition here's some useful Russian vocabulary:

Russian handwriting...

...can be tricky for foreigners and natives alike. Try to read what Russian doctors wrote in your record – mankind will land on Neptune before doctors' handwriting becomes readable. :-) Mere mortals can have clear handwriting, elegant one, messy one, weird one, etc.

Half of my friends say my handwriting is unreadable, and the other half says it's special. But I'll still show you how I write. If you speak Russian but never actually read what others write it may be quite hard when you finally try. So why not start now?

...

Why are you running away? It's not scary!

See?

Well... I'll try again.

Soviet cartoon «Просто так»

One of the sweetest cartoons ever made. :-)

         

My favourite Russian saying

Язык мой — враг мой.
My tongue is my enemy.

That's true. Sometimes we say things that we regret saying. For example, you said something to an angry person, and this person started shouting at you. Now you think it probably was better to stay quiet. You think your tongue is your enemy. Язык мой — враг мой.

Word of the Day + Russian song

How to say that you like something in Russian? One of ways is to use нравится. Here is how you do it:

Мне нравится... - I like...

Мне не нравится... - I don't like...

You can use verbs after this word:

Кате нравится слушать музыку. - Kate likes listening to music.

Мише не нравится пить молоко. - Misha doesn't like to drink milk.

Skinny Russian

Today we'll talk about being a skinny Russian ;-). Russian language has a lot to say about being not that fat, so let's have a look.

Basic vocabulary:

худой, тощий — slim, skinny;

толстый — fat, thick.

You can see how the words худой and толстый are conjugated here:

Advanced:

When people see that I eat a lot but don't gain any weight (ever), they say

не в коня корм (literally it means “not into a horse food” = a horse is fed but not gaining weight).

Usually they say it with a smile, like this :-).

1st of September – Russian day of knowledge

This day is a very special day for Russian pupils and students. It is time to leave summer vacation behind and go back to school. Some are happy about it, some are not :-).

I still remember 1st of September when I was a kid. Lots of flowers for teachers, all the school gathered in a school yard, and some music, and something more... I'm not sure. I'm getting old, it seems.

Anyway, today is a special day for you and me, too. Because this blog officially starts! Yay!

Yay, anyone?

Anybody here?

Oh, I see some faces. Hello! Привет всем!

Today our studies fun starts. I do hope to make this blog a place where you can come to find answers to all your Russian language related questions. I'm not a teacher of Russian, I'm just a native, and I'm your source of modern and spoken language. Real people don't talk like they do in textbooks. And I'm going to show you how I talk, how my friends talk and people around me. I'm from Moscow, so of course I can't cover local dialects, but will you please forgive me for this? *begging eyes*

So, let's talk about... fingers!

Russian finger vocabulary