Moose Attack!
Nov. 23rd, 2004 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmic_llinOooh, I totally kicked off at Fred in Russian today, absolutely without meaning too - but now I'm kind of glad I did.
Not sure if I've mentioned Fred on here before, so here's the lowdown: He's in nearly all of my Russian and German classes, so I see him every single day. Not that I understand why he's at University, because he patently knows everything already. He already has GCSE Russian, so he makes the rest of us look pretty stupid - but he does the same in German even though we all have A-Level. He speaks about a dozen other languages too. And he isn't subtle about it. If you get something wrong, he will laugh at you unashamedly, and he often corrects the teachers, even when they're right.
So anyhoo, today we were in our Russian Oral class and Svetlana (lecturer) asked me a question. Now, I knew the answer to the question. I often know the answer to the question, but it all goes wrong when it comes out of my mouth - which is what happened today. I can't remember what I said wrong, but Fred burst out laughing. Since I was quite pissed off anyway, I couldn't stop myself from yelling at him about how I didn't like being laughed at and found it offensive. The look on his face was priceless. He may not talk to me again, ever - but so what?
Still feeling quite grumpy about things generally, but maybe now Fred will think twice before laughing at other people's mistakes.
Not sure if I've mentioned Fred on here before, so here's the lowdown: He's in nearly all of my Russian and German classes, so I see him every single day. Not that I understand why he's at University, because he patently knows everything already. He already has GCSE Russian, so he makes the rest of us look pretty stupid - but he does the same in German even though we all have A-Level. He speaks about a dozen other languages too. And he isn't subtle about it. If you get something wrong, he will laugh at you unashamedly, and he often corrects the teachers, even when they're right.
So anyhoo, today we were in our Russian Oral class and Svetlana (lecturer) asked me a question. Now, I knew the answer to the question. I often know the answer to the question, but it all goes wrong when it comes out of my mouth - which is what happened today. I can't remember what I said wrong, but Fred burst out laughing. Since I was quite pissed off anyway, I couldn't stop myself from yelling at him about how I didn't like being laughed at and found it offensive. The look on his face was priceless. He may not talk to me again, ever - but so what?
Still feeling quite grumpy about things generally, but maybe now Fred will think twice before laughing at other people's mistakes.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 04:54 pm (UTC)How difficult is it to learn Russian at first? That's the one language I REALLY want to know about.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 05:16 pm (UTC)For starters, it doesn't have any articles (the and a) so you don't have to worry about getting those right, unlike in German where you have eine, eine, einer, einem etc etc that all mean almost the same thing.
One of the most difficult things with Russian is that all words effect all other words. There are three genders of nouns, and depending what gender your noun is there are different forms of adjectives etc. And then it also depends what case you're in what forms of words you use. I'm not sure if you're familiar with this, so I'll explain a bit: cases in English mostly govern what pronouns you use, eg you would say 'I saw you', but 'You saw me' - 'I' and 'me' mean basically the same thing, but they're in a different part of the sentence. She/Her and He/Him are the same thing. One example of this in Russian is place names. You would use a different form of a place name depending on whether you were just saying the name of the place, saying that you live there, saying that you're going there etc. So that is quite complicated, but once you get the hang of it it makes sense.
A lot of people think Russian must be difficult because there's a whole other alphabet, but in some ways that makes it easier. It takes hardly any time to learn the alphabet and once you have you can spell most things because it's quite phonetic, unlike English. Plus it looks pretty cool and really impresses people.
Like any language, there's a lot to confuse you and a lot of stuff to learn and get used to, but I'm finding it really enjoyable even when it is difficult. The other day I saw an ep of SG1 with some Russian in it and I was like: 'Yes! I understood a word!' Also once you've been doing it a little while you can cultivate a wicked Russian accent and pretend like you're in a Bond film, which is always amusing.
On a more serious note, hardly anyone speaks Russian so if you study it your employment prospects really improve. And there's a chance you could pursue a career as a spy, or at least something exotic with lots of travelling.
Gee, this turned into an essay! hope I didn't bore you too much - if there's anything else you want to know just ask.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 05:22 pm (UTC)I learnt Italian for around 4 years...could not stand it by 4th year. I've always had a *thing* for Russia...there's some kind of mystery about it. You know what I mean?
I get what you're saying about the different place names and such, a little confusion never killed anyone.
I could never be a spy...the whole keeping secret is too demanding...
oooh was it a season 8 ep? The one I saw...ghost of Anubis...cute Russian guy...Danny boy speaks Russian *dies*, Jack goes mental ape-shit...defys president...all the good stuff!
no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 07:14 pm (UTC)The one I saw was Entity, I think. Is there a bit at the beginning with a Russian tech, something about a space station?
Yeah, I know what you mean about Russia, and the language itself sounds quite mysterious too. Have you ever seen the cartoon of Anastasia?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 04:49 am (UTC)Lol legal I'm sure :P
OOOH YES! I LOEV Anastasia...that pretty much set my obsession in concrete.
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Date: 2004-11-24 07:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 10:12 am (UTC)They're always getting alien possessed!
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Date: 2004-11-24 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 09:15 am (UTC)