Tristano's log 2016:Things! (now Russian and Dutch)

[Tristano]

Hi @Cavesa!
Yes, it would be awesome indeed

(it would be also awesome to have advice about Russian music )

[whatiftheblog]

Hi @Cavesa!
Yes, it would be awesome indeed

(it would be also awesome to have advice about Russian music )

I'm probably going to date myself here to other natives, but among Russian artists I've only ever really liked Zemfira (Земфира) and Splin (Сплин). I think both have really interesting lyrics - actually, if you can find any interviews with Zemfira, who's sort of media-shy now, she speaks very well in a very distinctive manner, it's almost like she has her own sentence structures, but it's very educated Russian.

If you're into super-pop, I think the same (re: interesting lyrics) can be said about Maksim (Максим), though she's definitely more Taylor Swift than Bruce Springsteen. And then there's the soundtrack to the Irony of Fate (Ирония Судьбы), familiarity with which will likely form you instant friendships with natives.

ETA: Here's some Splin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDoKGiEL5aM

[reineke]

It's weird how many threads we make on French or Spanish books, or tv series, or movies and how few on the Russian ones, despite the fact we've got both Russian learners and Russian natives in our community. It would be awesome to have those too.

Hi @Cavesa!
Yes, it would be awesome indeed
(it would be also awesome to have advice about Russian music )

Since you asked...twice

http://www.fluentu.com/russian/blog/russian-tv-shows/

https://www.kinopoisk.ru/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Russian_television_series

Russians love to hate their TV shows. Russian TV humor is not my thing but I'd start with “Кухня” and maybe some recent animated films like Prince Vladimir. After that, Liquidation. The TV series, I mean. You may like short historical dramas like The Idiot.

[vonPeterhof]

Russians love to hate their TV shows.

Guilty as charged Apparently even Putin isn't above it.

Seriously though, I don't really have an opinion about modern Russian TV shows, as I spend way too much time consuming foreign media (read: anime ) to watch any Russian TV. I've heard good things about Оттепель and have been meaning to watch since forever, but just never manage to fit it into my viewing schedule. My father also seems to be enjoying Мажор, which recently got bought by Netflix. I guess that's about as much as I can recommend. Well, if we also include Soviet TV series, I guess there's Семнадцать мгновений весны and Место встречи изменить нельзя - some of the biggest sources of pre-Internet memes in Russian humour (though neither is a comedic show). Покровские ворота, one of my favourite Soviet films, also technically counts as a two-episode TV series, although it's usually aired as a single movie nowadays.

After that, Liquidation.

Also heard good things about this one, but I'd preface it with a warning about its dialect. Due to the unique circumstances of the Odessa dialect's formation a lot of its patterns come across as markedly non-native to Russian speakers, and there apparently aren't that many speakers of the full-on dialect around any more, so I'd be careful about picking up phrases from the show if I were you.

[reineke]

Russians love to hate their TV shows.

Guilty as charged Apparently even Putin isn't above it.

Seriously though, I don't really have an opinion about modern Russian TV shows, as I spend way too much time consuming foreign media (read: anime ) to watch any Russian TV. I've heard good things about Оттепель and have been meaning to watch since forever, but just never manage to fit it into my viewing schedule. My father also seems to be enjoying Мажор, which recently got bought by Netflix. I guess that's about as much as I can recommend. Well, if we also include Soviet TV series, I guess there's Семнадцать мгновений весны and Место встречи изменить нельзя - some of the biggest sources of pre-Internet memes in Russian humour (though neither is a comedic show). Покровские ворота, one of my favourite Soviet films, also technically counts as a two-episode TV series, although it's usually aired as a single movie nowadays.

After that, Liquidation.

Also heard good things about this one, but I'd preface it with a warning about its dialect. Due to the unique circumstances of the Odessa dialect's formation a lot of its patterns come across as markedly non-native to Russian speakers, and there apparently aren't that many speakers of the full-on dialect around any more, so I'd be careful about picking up phrases from the show if I were you.

I forgot to add the part about "glorifying the classics" as another Russian characteristic. "Liquidation" apparently parallels the famous "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" that you mentioned. I doubt that Liquidation will somehow change my Russian since 99% of my overall exposure will consist of standard Russian. However, it's good that you mentioned this since some people use TV series for intensive study. A very safe choice that will not affect Tristano's pronunciation is the cartoon series Ну, погоди!

[Serpent]

Does Ну, погоди even have much spoken Russian in it though? It's fun but pretty much like Tom&Jerry, most of the plot is just visual

As for music, a few of my favourites or just classics (rock):
Åквариум - Стаканы, Человек из Кемерово, Желтая луна
Кино - Группа крови
Агата Кристи - Опиум для никого
ДДТ - Осень
Кипелов - Я свободен (originally by his band Ария)
Би-2 - Волки (there's also a LOTR fanvideo for it... nice but pretty random tbh, no real connection with the lyrics)
Алиса - Трасса Е-95 (the name of the band means Alice, so if you want to find more songs you may need to include the frontman's name, Кинчев)
Король и шут - Прыгну со скалы
Ночные снайперы - Ты дарила мне розы
I like Splin too. Their most famous song is Мое сердце

See also the soundtrack for Brat 2 movie. I'm not a fan of the film itself but the soundtrack is essentially the best Russian music of that time. Note that the third song is Ukrainian (the one by Океан Эльзы, if you look for the soundtrack elsewhere).

For more bands/artists of this kind, see wikipedia or pick whatever Youtube suggests.

The only modern band I know/like is Тролль гнет ель (literally a troll bends a fir ). They're from St Petersburg and play Irish/Nordic folk rock. To pick a specific song... for example Пивоварня Ульва. My own favourite is Праздник Похмеляйнен, but about 1/3 of the song are Russian words with the Finnish -nen ending attached to them (They also have hilarious titles like pornopolka, trollbeard/тролльборода, catch the salmon/поймай лосося )
I know that Arkona is very popular but I don't tend to like female vocals myself.
Mumiy troll is another name worth mentioning but I'm not sure which song to recommend... they're from Vladivostok and the name is a reference to the Moomins but there's nothing Nordic about the music really. Also, they represented Russia at Eurovision once.
Speaking of that, I'm sure most of you know t.a.t.u. Still so weird to think of how their homoeroticism was too much for Europe in 2003 (actual lesbians seem to find Ночные снайперы more relatable though)

The first time I watched Eurovision, Russia was represented by Alsou/Алсу. That's her real name, she's from Tatarstan and wow it seems like she's recorded some songs in Tatar and Bashkir. I had no idea. I'm not sure she actually speaks them though. I remember reading an interview back when she was a teenage star (with rich parents ) and lived in London. She said she was fluent in English, French and Italian, and used to speak Tatar as a child but had forgotten it. Now that I think of it, she was definitely an inspiration for my language learning

Alexander Rybak, who won Eurovision while representing Norway, is of Belarusian origin and has a perfectly native accent in Russian. Try Небеса Европы for example. (he's also recorded this song in Belarusian but his pronunciation is basically Russian )

[reineke]

Does Ну, погоди even have much spoken Russian in it though? It's fun but pretty much like Tom&Jerry, most of the plot is just visual

I was hoping Tristano would find out on his own. Hedgehog in the Fog is another great Russian cartoon.

[vonPeterhof]

Does Ну, погоди even have much spoken Russian in it though? It's fun but pretty much like Tom&Jerry, most of the plot is just visual

I'm reminded of all the times I was shown Mr. Bean in English class

The first time I watched Eurovision, Russia was represented by Alsou/Алсу. That's her real name, she's from Tatarstan and wow it seems like she's recorded some songs in Tatar and Bashkir. I had no idea. I'm not sure she actually speaks them though. I remember reading an interview back when she was a teenage star (with rich parents ) and lived in London. She said she was fluent in English, French and Italian, and used to speak Tatar as a child but forgot it.

I have that album, and to my ear her pronunciation did sound heavily Russified. Granted, this impression is based more on my understanding of Kazakh phonology than any deep knowledge of Tatar or Bashkir, so I could be overestimating it. Урманга by Lumen, their only song in Tatar, also gave me that impression, but I've heard some argue that what sounds like the singer's strong Russian accent is actually a Mishar accent.

[Tristano]

Guys, you're awesome!!!
It will take a long time to process all the input you gave me
I started with Земфира. I like it! Somehow it is exactly how I was thinking that Russian rock could be

--

Sometimes I have a conversation in Dutch with someone that goes so smooth that after I start to think "eh? did we speak English?".

--

I'm reading the New Penguin Russian course as a light book. I'm going on, forgetting most of the vocabulary and the endings but I don't care so much. I'm getting a feeling for the language, becoming more fluent in reading Cyrillic and getting some exposure. Good enough for now.

If I understood how Russian names work, my Russian name should be something like Тристано Давидевич Сурианев

[Tristano]

So!
How is going with Russian? Well, I'm at chapter 7 of New Penguin Russian and I just noticed that in the reading comprehension exercise I have no idea what a good 50% of the words mean. So I have to go back and relearn those words. Maybe coughI should cough use srs cough cough

I tried and failed with Russian cuisine hahahaha. But the taste was good even though what I produced it doesn't even resemble the real thing. Next time will be better I guess