I am a native Russian speaker and can speak English pretty well. I am studying Chinese language at the moment, and I can speak Chinese a little bit. I can share my ability of speaking English or Russian in return of Chinese Mandarin. I am just back from the trip to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region> and I was impressed a lot. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a Great country!<o:p></o:p>
Привет! 大家好! I am looking for a language partners to practice Mandarin. I am studying Mandarin at the moment. I teach Russian language so I can help with Russian, so we can practice Russian and Mandarin. I also can speak English, though I am not a native English speaker. So, Mandarin in exchange of Russian or maybe English, who wants? <o:p></o:p>
Have you heard that Robin Hood in Russian language became Robin Good?<o:p></o:p>
That’s how this name (actually it’s a nickname) is pronounced in Russian language (Робин Гуд)
So Robin Hood was a good man because he helped the poor but in Russian language he became really Good (Гуд) by name. What do you think?我的中文不好. So I’d like to ask a question in English! I’ve heard that for Chinese people when you say: “a-ha” and nod your head while you are speaking to a person it isn’t polite. Is it true?<o:p></o:p>
On your opinion what’s the biggest challenge in studying Russian cases?<o:p></o:p>
There are a lot of English words of Germanic origin which are similar to Russian words. When you know that, it’s easier to study Russian for English speakers and vice versa. Let’s take the word “house”. It’s in English. Russian translation of this word is “дом” [dom]. Russian word is close to Latin word but there is no similarity to English word. But when we are talking about a house, we sometimes mean not only a building, but people, family or something like that. May be there is a word in Russian with that bigger meaning that sounds like “House”. Yes! There is a word “хозяйство” [hozjajstvo] which can be translated into English like economy or household. “House”, “хозяйство” [hozjajstvo]. These words sound similar! The meaning is almost the same! Bingo! What do you think?<o:p></o:p>
Russian words are long and pronunciation is unbearably difficult. So how do those Russians use their language? Do they just speak faster in order to make it possible to say really long words and sentences? No, of course a fast pronunciation isn’t enough to speak like real Russian. So, if you want to speak like Natasha Rostova or Raskolnikov you have to know one little secret. You should know where the stressed syllable is. You should pronounce the stressed syllable correctly. The good news is that other syllables aren’t important at all. Let’s take the word “Здравствуйте” [Zdravstvujte]. It’s actually “hello” in Russian. “Здравствуйте” [Zdravstvujte] sounds like the worst nightmare. Can you imagine saying this word every day and many times a day?! But we know the secret of Russian pronunciation. And we can expect that Russian pronounce this horrible “Здравствуйте” [Zdravstvujtje] a little bit differently. And it is true! Russians pronounce it like [zdrastje]. Now it is much better isn’t it?<o:p></o:p>
What can be more different than English and Chinese? I guess nothing can. This is true and everyone knows that. But sometimes we can find examples of unexpected similarities in these languages. Let’s take the word 车 (Chē). We all know, that the meaning of this word is “car”<o:p></o:p>
But车 doesn’t mean exactly “car”. It means some kind of vehicle with wheels. Is there a word in English that means and sounds the same as Chinese 车(Chē)? May be it’s not a car, but it does have wheels… Yes! There is such a word! It’s “Chariot”. So车 (Chē) and Chariot. These words sound and mean the same! Different languages, but similar words! It’s amazing, isn’t it? What do you think?<o:p></o:p>
It’s curious but sometimes English words and Russian words are very close. We aren’t talking about words which came into Russian language from English or Latin languages, like “football” or “computer” or “revolution” etc. Let’s take the word “strawberry”(клубника in Russian). This word doesn’t sound Russian at all. But if we read each letter in Latin (or just with Russian accent), this word will sound like [stravberri] or стравберри (in Cyrillic alphabet). And now “strawberry” sounds like [s trav beri] (с трав бери) and does have sense in Russian. “С трав бери” means “take from the grass”. And we know that strawberry grows on the grass! It’s amazing isn’t it?<o:p></o:p>
