Reading signs in Cyrillic

[Ooooops]

I sometimes share those same fears myself, but am not about to admit it to her, having faith in this beautiful and resilient language and its ability to adapt yet survive.

Russian (and most of others) language has tons of foreign words - some we are used to by now and some that sound totally ridiculous to me (like менагер  ).    It is normal in a country that has not been in total isolation from the outside world.

[mendeleyev]

With this being the end of May and the exciting end of school for kids, our next words will be from this important event:

The first time I heard the then-future Mrs Mendeleyeva ask me to wear a costume to an event, I was confused. It wasn't halloween so what did she mean? She meant a suit.

Костюм = suit, "kas-TOOM"

лента = sash or ribbon, "lyenta"

Платье = dress, "plah-tye"


Here the boys are wearing suits, the girls are wearing dresses and the graduating seniors (11th graders) are wearing sashes.



Ah, there is one more. Some of the girls are wearing a pretty white apron.

Фартук = apron, "far=tuk" (remember to thrill the R!)

[mendeleyev]

хамбургер (hamburger), хоть дог (hot dog), пицца (pizza) are some of the items enjoying success in the former Soviet Union.

For our readers we'll explain that these are borrowed words from other languages and brought into use in Russian, then assigned Cyrillic lettering to complete the transliteration.

That being said, lets work on spelling which will aid our Cyrillic alphabet comprehension:

- хамбургер is kh-a-m-b-u-r-g-e-r, or "khamburger" but Russians usually assign the letter g (г) to the first letter of this word so don't be surprised if someone offers you a "gahm-burger." Just say yes.

- хоть дог is kh-o-t  D-o-g or "khot dog" and that is the way it will be spoken.

- пицца is p-i-z-z-a. Fairly simple.




This Anastasia Kolesnikova photo is of a new fish & chips kiosk in Moscow called Mama's, near the Kurskaya Metro station.

Russians love ice cream at any meal and Mama's, yes that is the name in both Russian and English, serves pastries and fried ice cream for breakfast. What a country!

Next door to Mama's is a стардогs (StarDogs), a хоть дог (hot dog) chain in major Russian cities. They do serve great hotdogs by the way!

If Stardogs looks, feels and tastes a lot like Nathan's hot dogs, an American chain from New York, you're on to something. When Stardogs began they modeled themselves after Nathans, going so far as to spend time in New York with Nathans management to learn how to do things right.



Above: a Stardogs kiosk in Yalta, Ukraine along the Crimean Black Sea.

In Ukraine there is a growing knock-off chain called "McFoxy" which carries the McDonalds menu and anything else they can do to siphon off some of McDonalds business.



...more to come.

[mendeleyev]

Sticking with a food theme for awhile, here is a sign you may recognize from home:





Using the Cyrillic alphabet from page one we can spell this as: b-u-r-g-e-r  k-i-n-g. Ah, Burger King!


Of course if you are good enough to spell it backwards just look at the window sign:

[mendeleyev]

Promotion news!

My friend Viktoria May of www.funrussian.com has been promoted, and in a very cool way. Vika is now the regular Russian language contributor to the very successful Russia Beyond the Headlines organization.

Her website is packed with free lessons and now she will be sharing her gift of teaching with a much wider audience as RBTH is read by thousands around the world.

Since we've been on the subject of food, her new contribution to is how to talk about food in Russian and is well worth reading and learning the phrases.


Here are a couple of examples of her latest article:

Я хочу пить [ya ha-CHOO PEET’] I’m thirsty

Есть [YEST’] eat

Кушать  [KOO-shat’] eat

Пить [PEET’] drink

[mendeleyev]

Continuing in Vika's food theme:

Завтрак [ZAF-trak] breakfast (learn more breakfast words in Russian in the article – Breakfast in Russian)

Завтракать [ZAF-tra-kat’] have breakfast

Обед [a-BYED] lunch

Обедать [a-BYED-at’] have lunch

Ужин [OO-zheen] dinner

Ужинать [OO-zhee-nat’] have dinner

Еда [ye-DA] food


Unlike the West where we categorize foods by meal time, most homes in the FSU don't eat by those rules to the same extent. The next meal, no matter which one it is, will consist of what is on hand whether that be pizza, chicken, eggs, potatoes, pasta, etc. I've had roast beef and salad for breakfast and although I wouldn't say it to be the norm--it is certainly acceptable.

Chicken is a frequent breakfast protein on our home menu as are any of the many varieties of sausage. колбаса [kuhl-ba-SA] = sausage.



Most restaurants feature things like porridge (rice or wheat/grain), fruit and bread for breakfast. Bread is a constant item at every meal so we should know the most common names for bread.

хлеб {khlep] = bread

белый хлеб [bel-iy khlep]= white bread

черный хлеб [chor-nee khlep]= black bread (dark rye)



Americans love toasted bread for breakfast but finding a toaster in the typical Russian home while not impossible, certainly won't be a given. Most bread is eaten sliced and with some butter. On the rare occasions I want toast, a small saute pan can quickly get the job done.

One of the most common foods you'll see at kiosks and in restaurants is Russian "blini" (блины) or pancakes. Thin, basically like crepes, these aren't the thick and heavy pancakes from back home but they are delicious and can be enjoyed at any meal.



с куриной грудкой = with chicken breast meat

с грибами и сыром = with mushrooms and cheese

с красной икрой = with red caviar

[mendeleyev]

While sticking with the food theme, there are some phrases to make your requests more polite. We're going to give you three phrases for the price of only two!

пожалуйста [pa-ZHA-luysta] = please (and also "you're welcome")

спасибо [spa-SI-ba] = thank you


There you have it, two for the price of one. Follow this conversation:

person 1: пожалуйста (please)

person 2: спасибо (thank you)

person 1: пожалуйста (you're welcome)

[OlgaH]

Using the Cyrillic alphabet from page one we can spell this as: b-u-r-g-e-r  k-i-n-g. Ah, Burger King!

No wonder the percent of overweight people in Russia is increasing.
More than 25% of Russians are obese and 55% percent of Russians are overweight

http://ria.ru/society/20121211/914282515.html

[Ooooops]

Mmmmm....  kalbasaaaa....   mmmmm.....   

[OlgaH]

Mmmmm....  kalbasaaaa....   mmmmm.....

think what it's made of  (though I like salami...)

[Ooooops]

think what is made of  (though I like salami...)

The less you know the better your sleep, remember?        Although couple times that I bought my favorite Doktorskaya kolbasa in local Russian grocery store it was really bad...        SO I gave up on it and moved to red caviar which is excellent.   

[OlgaH]

The less you know the better your sleep, remember?        Although couple times that I bought my favorite Doktorskaya kolbasa in local Russian grocery store it was really bad...        SO I gave up on it and moved to red caviar which is excellent.   

yeah... Red caviar is a good choice. I like it without bread  (good thing my husband doesn't like it, he prefers black caviar)

[Ooooops]

yeah... Red caviar is a good choice. I like it without bread 

Me too!   Me too!       Oh, I was in heaven when we RVed around Alaska during the salmon run - I had my own "malosol" caviar in the fridge for couple months straight, courtesy of local fishermen who just through away "fish eggs" (saving a bit for bait).   

[SANDRO43]

хлеб {khleb] = bread

Isn't that supposed to be pronounced hlyep?

[SANDRO43]

think what it's made of  (though I like salami...)

Salame, to use the correct Italian spelling (salami is a plural), is larger than a sausage :

Etymology: from sale (salt), which is one of its various ingredients and also the etymology of salarium (salary), the salt ration allotted to Roman legionaries - we have hundreds of local varieties here, including salame Milano:

As you may notice, it's a leaner, more seasoned variant, not really produced in Milan - too few pigs remaining around - but in Brianza, the hilly region north of Milan where the wealthy Milanese used to have their summer retreat villas.

[OlgaH]

Me too!   Me too!       Oh, I was in heaven when we RVed around Alaska during the salmon run - I had my own "malosol" caviar in the fridge for couple months straight, courtesy of local fishermen who just through away "fish eggs" (saving a bit for bait).   

nice... with a big spoon... fresh ... bursting in your mouth  I remember how my mom and I were eating from the 3-liter jar. Our train got some problem and a man had 2 jars of caviar "не проподать же добру"   

[Ooooops]

Sandro, stop with the pictures!!!   I'm gonna drown in my own saliva!!!   

[OlgaH]

Sandro, I suppose you are talking about normal salami not salami that is full of soy and  starch 

[SANDRO43]

Sandro, I suppose you are talking about normal salami not salami that is full of soy and starch 

I'm talking about real salame, not some fraudulent Chinese imitation . Fortunately, we have been making some progress in having many international legislations recognise that our food/wine names should not be used by non-Italian producers, normally employing quite different ingredients and totally 'different' methods of production.

Interestingly, this seems to have had a beneficial effect on our related exports, IINM up 12% last year, one of the few exceptions in our currently depressed situation .

[SANDRO43]

Sandro, stop with the pictures!!!   I'm gonna drown in my own saliva!!!

Then I'll deliver my merciless coup de grâce :

(Just a few random examples of Italian salumeria )

[Ooooops]

Oooooooooooohhhhhhhh....       


BYW, Mortadella is very close to Doktorskaya kolbasa in my opinion.   That's what I was buying for my sandwiches when we lived in more westernized countries than China.

[Misha]

Russian (and most of others) language has tons of foreign words - some we are used to by now and some that sound totally ridiculous to me (like менагер  ).    It is normal in a country that has not been in total isolation from the outside world.

True and the Russian language has many foreign loan-words that many Russians do not even know where they come from, including quite a few words from the French language: этаж, плаж, тротуар, кошмар, макияж,...

[SANDRO43]

BYW, Mortadella is very close to Doktorskaya kolbasa in my opinion.

I never tasted the latter, so I cannot say. In the 1950-60s, it used to be the cheapest sort of salumeria available, I still remember entering a salumiere shop at around noon and seeing several muratori (masons) wearing their stained singlets, shorts, scruffy footwear and newspaper hats - no safety helmets then - buying half a pound of mortadella for a sandwich at their lunch break.

(Our President wearing a mason's newspaper hat in a nostalgic moment)

[Ooooops]

True and the Russian language has many foreign loan-words that many Russians do not even know where they come from, including quite a few words from the French language: этаж, плаж, тротуар, кошмар, макияж,...

As long as we are on the "kalbasa" subject - БУТЕРБРОД - it's German, not French, but it's tastier than кошмар   

[Ooooops]

(Our President wearing a mason's newspaper hat in a nostalgic moment)

This head-ware is just as Russian as Mortadella.