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My name is Nikolay, or just Nik. I like foreign cultures and languages. Russian is my native and English is my best. I also know the very basics of Japanese and Lithuanian; I studied these languages in the past so can speak a little. I would like to improve my English language skills, as well as to have a little practice in French and, probably, Lithuanian. You may be sure that my Russian is very literate, "above the average", because I'm also highly interested in improving my skills and vocabulary in my NATIVE tongue as well. So feel free to ask anything you want to know about Russian: I'll also get better at it when helping you! * * * Salut tout le monde! Je m'appelle Nicolas (vous pouvez appelle moi juste Nico). J'aime des langues étrangères, et notamment français. Je n'écrire ça assez bien, alors excusez-moi d'avance si je ferai fautes ou erreurs. Je voudrais comprendre et parler français trés bien, et je veux lire des livres français aussi.
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  • Corrected
    0 voted
    June 18, 2018
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  • Corrected
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    April 11, 2016
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  • Posted
    Maybe I don't understand something... When I write to some people here on italki, they don't answer. In fact, the absolute majority of them don't reply anything to my messages. I don't know why. Maybe I wrote something offending for them. But Gosh, what can be offending in a proposal to be penpals and to do language exchange?! Are we all here on the dating site to ignore messages like this? No, this is language exchange site, as far as I know. But even so people could write me something like "Get away" and I'll catch the meaning. But they don't, they just keep silence. Maybe people just already have enough friends (I don't like this word in such a context but nevertheless) to exchange with. Well, in such a case, they might just write in their profiles that "I don't wanna any new friends here, don't bother me" and so on. But they don't. My another guess is that people are extremely busy to answer to my messages. Hell, I'm also a kind of busy person, but somehow I do find some time to read and write messages to people I connected with. At least short ones. In a way "Sorry, I'm strongly busy now, let's talk about what's really important." It's easy, but people don't do even this. Finally, if people here want to learn languages, how they want to learn them without trying tyo embrace different speakers? One more, one less to around 20 or 30, it doesn't matter, only the best will remain in the end. But for some reason people ignore my messages and friendship proposals. So what's the reason for the entire site to exist? Why people register here to log in every day just to ignore those who really want to learn their native tongues? Am I alone in my attempts to find a good speaker to talk with regularly? Maybe not every day, but at least once a week to have practice, to exchange with the news and thoughts. Do I ask too much? Maybe I should change but in what way? I've got no "origin of coordinates" to start with. Ah, people, who will read this, tell me please in comments, maybe I don't understand something...
    April 11, 2016
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  • Commented

    Hi, Ed!

    Although I'm not a PROFESSIONAL translator in terms of formal education, I've been WORKING AS TRANSLATOR (Ru-to-En) since 2009. Saying "working" I mean it's my sole official occupation and the primary money source. Well, I hope this is enough to consider me professional translator. :)

    1) I like the excitement I feel when converting phrases from one language into another. And those challenging points I'm trying to put properly: when I finally find the best form of saying something in the target language, I feel so great!

    2) I think translator must like to translate and like the language one works with. Note this is the "joint" ability, not two different ones. Because one may be a good at UNDERSTANDING language, say, when reading websites or books, but fail at trying to GRAMMARLY TRANSLATE what one reads.

    3) Most of the working translators have formal education, I think, but not all graduates of language faculties easily find work either. Some people just live among languages from their childhood... Too many ways to become a translator.

    4) I think this is a matter of personal preferences and inner/outer constraints. Say, young mother works as a freelance translator because she has a kid and cannot move freely. To me, I just like to work at home without the necessity to go anywhere to do the same.

    5) I'm not sure that I correctly understand what you mean. If you imply the busy schedule, then I think it depends on how you personally plan it and on your ability to switch between different things. How I personally deal with when the brain is about to explode? I just try to split the work into parts within a day and fill the gaps with something different from text for my brain to relax: not reading, but playing on guitar, cooking, just spending 10-15 min in silence etc.

    Hope that I've answered your questions. If not, I'd be glad to answer some extra ones.

    Best wishes,
    Nik

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    October 8, 2015
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  • Corrected

    I added green marks where corrections seem to be the most necessary and yellow ones where only some styly should be "polished," and added comments when it seemed to me crucial. If you need further explanation, I can write comments.

     

    Воспоминания об Америке

    Я уже несколько месяцев живу (also possible: прожил) в Австралии, и мне стало труднее вспомнить чувство снега и особенный (a/p: специфический) запах весны, который свойствен (a/p: присущ только; бывает только в) северной части США (I'm unsure, but if you meant northern part of the mainland U.S., not Alaska, you maybe should write something like "северных штатах, например, в Массачусетсе или Нью-Йорке", or "северной части Соединённых Штатов/США" in order America not to be confused with the continent). Даже картина покрывающих землю широких луж (I hope that I understood your initial sense correctly and you meant that pools are so huge that cover the ground; a/p "огромных/гигантcких" instead of "широких") и маленьких дорог штата Нью-Йорк вспоминается с трудом. Некоторые могут назвать это явление (rather "ощущение" or "чувство") тоской по дому. Может быть, у меня появилась тоска по дому, но я не уверен — я вообще обрадовался возможности переехать в Австралию, и всё же рад тому, что жизнь изменилась. Я начал вспоминать многие музыкальные произведения, которые я слушал, и книги, прочитанные мной в то время, например, 7-ю ("Ленинградскую") симфонию Дмитрия Шостаковича или "Асю" Ивана Тургенева. Сегодня (no comma) мне захотелось послушать "Ленинградскую" симфонию снова, так как эта музыка снимает стресс и наполняет меня приятными чувствами. Читать "Асю" не стал, так как думаю, что сперва лучше добиться другой поставленной цели — прочитать 120 дополнительных книг к концу этого года.

     

    Great text, Ed! By the way, if you want to check your writing skills, attend the Total Dictation event this Saturday (http://totaldict.ru/). It will held in Brisbane and Canberra. But if you cannot, there's an opportunity to write it online. Good luck!

    0 voted
    April 13, 2015
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  • Corrected
    0 voted
    August 28, 2014
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  • Corrected

    Поездка в Австралию: мои впечатления (часть 1)

    Вспоминая события прошедших двух недель, я очень рад, что посетил Австралию, ведь я увидел здесь много интересного. Я посетил захватывающий город Мельбурн, который мне очень понравился: этот город полон энергии, красоты, очарования, многообразие живущих там людей - всё это делает его по-настоящему "моим". Я посетил маленькую деревню, Вадонгу, и мимоходом зашел в прекрасное кафе. Там я узнал о "Веджимайт", божественном блюде из Австралии - эта паста является предметом национальной гордости австралийцев и её можно найти на полках магазинов по всему миру миру. Что это за блюдо? Это пирог с мясом. Если бы я был человеком, которому нравится загружать фото еды на Инстаграме, то выложил бы здесь такое фото. Но поконструктивнее можно.

    Мы с родственниками увидели, как выглядит Тихий океан на юге, и услышали историю (байку), которую рассказывают на этом побережье: о женщине, которую якобы съела акула. Однако, здесь я не увидел никаких других животных кроме собак и нескольких очень опасных для человека синих медуз.

     

    Marked orange is the fragment where I haven't understood what have you meant. If possible, write this in English in a comment to this correction, I'll write the relevant Russian phrase in turn.

    Marked yellow is what I corrected in a way how we typically express these senses in Russian. And here are some notes on fragments.

    1) "захватывающий город Мельбурн, который мне очень понравился". Adjective "захватывающий" doesn't sound well with noun "город", neither any other adjective meaning you anyhow liked the place. This causes tautology whith what you say just after this. I removed both that adjective and the noun "город", but the noun appeared later.

    2) "и разнообразие народов, там живущих". I'm unsure what exactly you meant here, but the most obvious I can think of is that you implied just "various people", not "multiple nations". If you meant exactly multination character of Melbourne, then the fragment should be translated as "многонациональность".

    3) "зашел в прекрасное кафе нахрапом". The word "нахрапом" is absolutely not of this context. I guess you just meant "by chance, acidentally" (случайно) or "in passing" (момоходом); the latter meaning fitted the context better in my opinion, so I used it.

    4) "узнав о божественном блюде Австралии, гордости моей страны, помимо всеми признанной пасты, оказывающейся в магазинах по миру — Vegemite". I reformulated this fragment as an individual sentence with the meaning kept. Just a hin: in future try to look the words you don't know in Russian in Wikipedia or dictionary. They often can be found.

    5) "А что такое это блюдо?" In Russian, we typically say in a situation like that "Что это за...?". To compare, a more formal set phrase: "Что представляет из себя...?"

    6) "из мяса". A fine thing: "из мяса" is like "из дерева", implying something that "made of smth". So A pie made of meat sounds pretty... unordinary. What's more similar to be true is this is a "pie WITH meat".

    7) "посмотрели на Тихий Океан на юге". It can be said so in Russian, but it sounds like "we looked at for a moment it and then looked away". Verb "увидеть" brings the sense you've lookeв at it a bit more, and it was something new to you.

    8) "распространилась по побережью история о женщине, которую акула якобы похитила и съела". As far as I've understood, local folks told you a story (a kind of local tale maybe) about a woman that was eaten by a shark. So the Russian word "похитить" is absolutely unnecessary here. Word-by-word meaning is a bit silly: "a shark kidnapped and ate a woman". I think you meant something else, but it's natural to say just "a shark ate a woman" is pretty enough.

    9) "никаких животных кроме собак и нескольких синих jelly fish, очень опасных для человека". You say here about dogs and jelly fishes, but participal phrase started with "который" is ambiguous: it can be understood that BOTH dogs and jelly fishes are very dangerous for human. So I made the words about danger to sound about jelly fishes only.

     

    Hope it was useful. By the way, Ed, I must say that you're pretty good at Russian, despite certain errors. Keep on that way, errors will leave with practice!

    0 voted
    August 28, 2014
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  • Posted
    Impressions from my first novel in English Last days I read the book I wanted to read for a long time, "A Wizard of Earthsea" in English. Before this I've read it only in Russian, but it became my favorite since that first reading 15 years ago. When I knew there are several translations, I thought of reading them, but also I wished to get and read its English version first. I wanted to appreciate the beauty of the original. I think it's no use to speak much about the language of the novel, because I'm not a native speaker and not a literary critic by trade, so cannot judge objectively. The only things I want to say is the following. First, there was not any serious difficulty for me to read this book without dictionary at all. I mean I read it continuously without consulting a dictionary once the word was unknown. Some sentences in the first half were inconvenient to my reading-in-English experience, of course, but generally I understood almost everything, more than 95%. Second, I absolutely enjoyed the style of narration, with lots of words and constructions showing the richness of English. I am glad that "A Wizard..." has become my first novel in English. There is no much knowledge one must have to understand its sense. The novel itself gives a reader enough, so all the symbols and allegories are understandable without other special books. And what's even better, I think, almost everyone can see something individual in this, one's own hidden sense, although it may seem "just a good fairy tale" at first sight. Its sense is much deeper. So to say, the question "what is that story about?" can be answered in different ways. The first one that came to my mind is "this story is about people should think over what they do". The second that may be is "this is an allegory about fixing the ecological problems caused by human errors". The third is "the story tells about acceptance of the darker side of one's soul". The fourth is "this is a tale about finding and recognition of one's and the world's integrity in duality". And so on. The senses seem to be multiple, I just mentioned few. Well, I don't know what else to say just to recommend to read this novel for non-native English speakers who reached at least intermediate level. Reading this may improve your skills, expand your vocabulary, and bring you much joy of perceiving the English speech. P.S. Thank you for reading. Any comments and corrections are welcome.
    August 27, 2014
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  • Corrected
    0 voted
    August 5, 2014
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  • Corrected

    История России

    Я люблю русскую историю потому что она очень интересная. Я люблю читать о ранней истории/прошлом страны. Великая Отечественная война - моя любимая тема. В России много интересных людей и сильная армия. Я хочу посетить эту страну, но у меня недостаточно денег для этого. Я хочу посетить все музеи и города (побывать во всех музеях и городах), но я знаю, что это очень дорого.

     

    Notes.1) The Russian word "интерес" and the English "interest" are derived from the same root, so you shouldn't omit second letter, "н"/"n", when writing.

    2) "Я люблю/хочу/могу [indefinite verb]". This construction is very similar to the English "I like/want to [indefinite verb]". Like you keep "to" before the verb in English, you should use indefinite form of Russian verb in similar constructions. Indefinite form of Russian verbs always ends with "ь" (and gives a soft sound of the last pronounced consonant, of course :)).

    3) If you meant "the time when the Russian state was young", the time range of about 9th--15th centuries, it's better to say "о ранней истории" (about the early history). If you meant Russia's past in general (the mid-20th century is the newest history by the Russian classification, but still the past, although relatively recent), then you should say just "о прошлом" (about the past).

    3) The fine point. We distinguish "the WWII" (Sep. 1, 1939--Sep. 2, 1945) and "the Great Patriotic war" (June 22, 1941--May 9, 1945). So maybe you meant the Great Patriotic war and not the WWII.

    4) "У России" sounds like you used "Russia has" as a basis. This would work if you'd say only "Russia has a strong army (big fleet, great history)". It's a kind of a set phrase that used in pretty few contexts. In most cases you can use the construction "There is/are ... in Russia" as a basis that usually translates as "В России [есть] ...".

    5) The Russian word "человек" in its plural form is written as "люди" when the number of people is not specified, like here. But if you say, for example, "пять человек", then you may use it in plural form.

    6) There's no much error in saying "мощная" about an army, but we typically say "сильная" (literally, "strong"), or, if you want to emphasize the power, you may say "могучая" ("mighty").

    7) A comma is needed before dividing conjunction "но". It's analogous to the cases of use of "but" in English, when there's certain contrast: "I heard, but did not see".

    8) When we say in Russian "у меня мало денег" in the context you wrote, we usually imply a bit more: "I have not <em>enough money to do smth.</em>", so you can freely use this construction in future in similar situations - "у меня недостаточно денег, чтобы купить эту книгу/такой автомобиль".

    9) In this context, verb "видеть" is not the best, even if to transform it to "увидеть". The most suitable here are either "посетить" or "побывать" ("visit", "go to"). Note the difference in spellings of words after these two verbs.

    10) If something is too expensive to you, you may use an almost word-by-word translation: "это слишком дорого". Feel free to use this construction with the other adjectives.

    11) Mind about the indicative words like "это", "этот", "эти"; they always start with the letter "э", not "е".

    0 voted
    August 5, 2014
    1