American Writers Which modern American writers are now popular in the US? I mean those who started writing in the beginning of this century. Would be great if you named some of their books. I like politics, history and fiction...

Torment, Flour and Flies This story is a continuation of the series of true stories about the funny things which really happened to my American friends in Russia. I hope these stories might be helpful, in a way, for those who study Russian and plan on visiting Russia some day. So, let's go on! Sheldon had been living in Russia for about one year, but his Russian was still not good enough to use it for communication. Because of that he was like always getting into a funny situation or sort of a trouble pretty much every time he tried to speak. The saving grace was that he had an excelent sense of humor, so his own failures didn't bother him too much. I remember him having problems with the three Russian words: "мУка" (torment), "мукА" (flour) and "мУХа" (a fly). Those words sounded almost the same to his ear and he got to mix them up all the time. Besides, he always used to forget where to put stress in each of the words. One day Sheldon went to a store to stock up on flour. He came up to the counter and said to the salesgirl: "Мне, пожалуйста, один килограмм мУки (the wrong stress!)", which translated came to be "Please, I need one kilo of torment." "МУки?!" asked the girl with a smile though she realized that he was a foreigner. She probably also had a good sense of humor 'cause she went ahead and said laughing: "Что я, мучительница что-ли?! (What am I here then? A tormentor?!)" Sheldon didn't understand the meaning of the phrase because it sounded as deep as Dostoevsky to him, but he certainly felt that he'd just used a wrong word again. "О, нет, нет! Извините! (Oh, no, no! I'm sorry!)" he said laughing together with the salesgirl "Я всегда их путаю! (I always mix them up!)" So they had a good laughing and when they finally calmed down the sales girl asked: "Так что же Вы хотели? (So, what did you want?)" "Я хотел один килограмм МуХи! (I wanted one kilo of fly (flies)!)" said Sheldon with a sigh of satisfaction.... :-))

What does an American usually say to their son/daughter who is just back home from school? :-)

Please Be Polite! (Part 3) The old man, unexpectedly for Andrew, got very upset and shouted: "Ты как со старшими разговариваешь? Сосунок еще, чтобы так разговаривать! Тебя что, родители не учили?" Andrew was not ready for this reaction from the old man. Now he had a suspicion that he had said something wrong, but he couldn't figure what. "Чего ты на меня кричишь?", Andrew asked, not knowing that what he was saying now was just nothing but "more oil to the fire". "Ax ты наглец! Что ты мне ТЫкаешь?", the old man shouted. "Посмотрите на него! Бессовестный!" At this point Andrew couldn't already understand what was going on because the other passengers in the bus started murmuring and throwing angry looks at him. He felt like panic was taking him. As soon as the doors opened at the next stop he rushed off the bus... Ooh... When Andrew told me this story I thought "Well, I should be more serious in my study of other languages and pay attention to even small details. And... apparently... having perfect pronunciation in a foreign language may not be a good thing for you... sometimes". :-))

Please Be Polite! (Part 2) On that bright sunny summer day Andrew left his apartment to go to the mall because he needed to get something to eat for the dinner. He decided to take a bus, so he headed off right for the bus stop. He was in a good state of mind joyfully wistling some popular melody. It didn't take him long waiting for the bus, but the bus was pretty much stuffed with passengers so he couldn't find a seat and had to stand up the whole way. Suddenly, someone from behind tapped on his shoulder. Andrew turned his head, looked down and saw a short old man. The old man was saying something, his voice weak and his mouth lacking more than 50% of teeth. Normally Andrew could understand Russians pretty well, but this time (whether it's because of of the noise from the busy street or the old man's specific pronunciation) he didn't. And at this point that happened. "Чего тебе надо?", he asked the old man in a pure Russian, which translated means "what do you need?" but used in a very impolite, even rude form. That form we use only when talking to a very close friend. Andrew's Russian friend in New Zealand taught him the phrase and they used it a lot when speaking to each other, but he didn't teach him any polite forms of addressing people, esspecialy old people in Russia. So, Andrew should have said "Что Вам нужно?" instead. In the polite form we use "Вы", "Вам", "Вас"and "Вами" instead of "ты", "тебе", "тебя" and "тобой". But Andrew didn't know anything about that. And if he had an accent, the people around could have realized that he's just a foreigner and didn't mean to offend anyone, but... (to be continued)

Please Be Polite! (Part 1) I knew a guy from New Zealand. His name was Andrew. He had been staying in Russia for one year on some kind of business when I first met him. Andrew didn't look like a foreigner - his face and the way he dressed didn't seem to say anything about his sothern hemisphere background. And there was something else, something very special about him - Andrew spoke Russian without any accent! Of course, he couldn't speak as fast as normally we Russians do, but his pronunciation was just perfect. "How come you speak Russian so well?" I asked him on the very first day. He said that his best friend in high-school was an immigrant from Russia. Andrew liked the Russian language, so they used it for their communication through all the school years. "Wow, that's so amazing!" I marveled. "Your Russian is just perfect!". "Well, I'm not so sure now", he said with a wry smile.Then he told me what had happened to him only a couple of days before. (to be continued)

Late Night Alumni "Late Night Alumni"... What's the meaning of the band's name? I understand the words, but I'm not sure about the meaning... What picture should normally come into my head when I hear the expression?

A Puppet I heard this story from my american friend. Her name is Pat. Although she's been an old lady she used to visit Russia almost every year since 1992. So, no dout that she's got a lot of russian friends here. Mostly they were English teachers at schools and universities. Once Pat was invited over by one of them (also an old lady) to have a little dinner together, because the lady just had her birthday the day before. When Pat came and they sat down to eat the lady started off telling about what had been happening with her those days. So she said: "As you know, yesterday was my birthday. And I was given a wonderful gift. My daughter gave me... you know what?!". "What?", Pat asked getting really interested. "A puppet!", said the lady. Pat was very surprised: "Wow, that's so unusual for a birthday gift...". "Tell me about it, I was totally shocked!", said the lady. "First I thought what would I do with it. And I even wanted to give it back. But the puppet was so cute and beautiful, so I agreed to keep it." And as the lady went on speaking about the puppet, a suspicion of something strange happening began to grow in Pat's mind. The lady told how she liked to play with it, and that she thought the puppet would have become a good defender for the apartament... Bewildered, Pat finally asked the lady to show her that magic puppet. At that, the lady heavily sighed and said: "It is so hard for me to tell you, but this morning, when I took it out for a walk, the puppet ran away from me, and I couldn't find it." Pat froze on her seat, her eyes wide open. "Is she insane or something," she thought. But then, oh my goodness! It dawned on her that it was not a PUPPET! The russian lady mixed up the two english words. She meant PUPPY!

A Lot of Work Now, I'm up to remodel the living room in my apartment. It seems I'm going to have a really hard time. Yesterday all the old furniture was taken out, and today I've removed the old wallpapers off the walls. So, we don't even have anything to sit on in our living room! Standing we watch the TV, the only thing that is left! We also had to move all the good stuff like books, paintings, decorations and little pieces of furniture to the other room and shove them in between other things. By the end of the week the construction workers will come and start doing something... Hope it won't take them too long to finish.