I love the Russian language. I realized recently that I'm almost as far in Russian as I am in Italian, which is a crazy reminder of how much I've put into this.
My lesson this time around dealt with numbers, and how to deal with buying situations. It's the same as the previous lesson, only that this time I learned MORE numbers and how to ask if someone has Russian money and how much I owed. I really appreciated the practice, especially since I haven't gotten numbers down pat yet, but I'm kind of waiting to learn something more engaging. Whenever I go to Russia, I don't think I will want to focus for too much on how much I owe someone. If I need to buy something, I'll get what I need, READ the numbers, and pay. All of which can be done silently, lol. However, I do think that one needs to know how to handle themselves.
One of the things that I learned is that in Russian, instead of asking, "How much do you have?", you ask, "How much exists in your place?"
English: How much do you have?
Russian: Сколько у вас есть? (Skolko u vas yest?)
But in Russian, if someone asks you that without including "есть" in the question, you don't need to include it in your answer. So basically, you can say "Skolko u vas?"
The numbers in Russian are starting to get bigger, and I'm learning how to ask for thousands of things because Russia uses the Ruble (just like Italy used to use the Lira). So for and example, something could cost fourteen thousand rubles (Четырнадцать тысяч рублей/Chetyrnadtsat tysyach rubley), instead of like, five dollars in America. The hardest part for getting the numbers down is remembering where the accent is. It's tricky, but doable, and sounds great for such a lovely language.
Of course I'm still writing down the Russian script as I'm going, and it is getting so much easier. Practice is definitely paying off.
I wish I had more to talk about from this lesson, but like I said, it was mainly about numbers and handling monetary situations! I'm really excited to learn the past-tense, but I know that won't come until later :/.
I will say this though. Being a polyglot has brought me in contact with a TON of speakers of foreign languages. I tweeted something about Russian the night before I did this lesson, and I got a response from another person who is interested in learning the language. We struck up a conversation, and just like that, now I have a person to practice with via Twitter who seems to know what he's talking about.
Languages are a beautiful thing.
Constructive comments, tips, and advice, are always welcome!
до свидания,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
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