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среда, 17 января 2018 г.

WHAT CELEBRITIES SAY ABOUT RUSSIA

There are many celebrities, who visited Russia, and even decided get Russian citizenship. What do the say about Russia?

French actor Gerard Depardieu, who was granted Russian citizenship personally by Vladimir Putin, is probably one of the most well-known celebrities that decided to go Russian. Upon returning to France after spending just a few days in Russia, he was already welling up with nostalgia: “I really want to go back to Mordovia (a Russian republic 650 km from Moscow), want to sit by the pond with a fishing rod, to fish, to walk through the birch groves — I love this tree, it has the poetry of Russia.”

Steven Seagal adopted Russian citizenship in 2016. “I often come to Russia, but I don’t plan to live here permanently; I like to travel and I have a lot of shootings in the U.S., Japan, Thailand and other countries,” he told Russian media in March 2016. Here is a great video where legendary Hollywood actor showes his aikido fighting skills at the International Youth Sambo Tournament, in Saratov.

David Duchovny, whose paternal grandparents hailed from eastern Europe starred in an advertisement for the Russian beer Sibirskaya Korona (Siberian Crown), in which he imagined what life would have been like if he had grown up in Russia: “There is another country where I got my family name from, and sometimes I wonder what if things turned out differently, what if I were Russian?”

Who do you most agree with? When you were in Russia, did you most enjoy the museums as David Radcliffe or couldn’t get enough of the metro like Hugh Jackman? Maybe you felt like home? Let us know in a comment!

среда, 29 ноября 2017 г.

FALSE SYMBOLS OF RUSSIA

What are false symbols of Russia?

There are some things that are considered to be Russian symbols and are really popular among foreigners that visit Russia. They buy these things as souvenirs and bring them home to always keep Russia in their houses and hearts.

The only problem is that these things are usually never used by Russian people nowadays. Most of them don’t have them in their houses and have never had before.

The first vivid example is Matryoshka

It is also known as a Russian nesting doll. It is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin and designed by Sergey Malyutin who was a folk crafts painter. There is a museum of matryoshka in Moscow. There are lots of amazing beautiful dolls there. Matryoshkas could be a real treat for kids, but unfortunately most Russian people don’t buy them for their children, maybe because usually you can’t find a matryoshka in kids stores in Russia – only in souvenir shops, where they cost a fortune.

A samovar (literally “self-boiler”) is a heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water in and around Russia as well as in other countries: Central Europe, South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, Iran, Kashmir and the Middle-East. Since the heated water is typically used to make tea, many samovars have a ring-shaped attachment (Russian: конфорка) around the chimney to hold and heat a teapot filled with tea concentrate.

Though traditionally heated with coal or charcoal, many newer samovars use electricity to heat water in a manner similar to an electric water boiler. Antique samovars are often prized for their beautiful workmanship.
Nowadays there are not so many people that have samovars at home. Usually if they do, those samovars were left after their grandparents and are never used anymore. Now people use electric kettles to boil water for tea, though samovar would make this process much more interesting and traditional.

Most people in the world imagine bears and vodka when they think of Russia, right? Vodka is true, but bears… Of course there are bears in woods in Karelia or Siberia. But bears do not walk around centers of Russian cities, and we don’t keep them at home as out pets: it’s too dangerous!:)

Though some symbols of Russia are already too old and outdated, they all are nice and interesting. But if you want to know more about real Russia, come to us this winter or any other time, learn Russian and have fun! Apply for a Russian language course

пятница, 24 ноября 2017 г.

TOP 5 MOST POPULAR RUSSIAN FOLK SONGS

5 legendary Russian songs that people know and sing all over the world

Each of the following songs has an interesting backstory, and is well-known both in Russia, and outside its borders. Check out the list and if you think anything is missing, write a comment.

5 Podmoskovnye Vechera

“Подмосковные вечера” (Moscow nights) is one of the best known Russian songs abroad. Originally, it was called Leningrad Nights but the title was changed after it was used for a documentary.

At first, the song was not particularly popular but suddenly – and much to the surprise of those who wrote it – the USSR couldn’t get enough of it. Soon after it started making waves abroad when young American pianist Van Cliburn (who won the first International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958) became a symbol of the thaw in Russian-American relations at the time.

4. Калинка-малинка

Today there are reports that the song was written by Ivan Larionov about 150 years ago. The song’s popularity in Russia and abroad is explained by the fact that it is included in the repertoires of many different music groups. The popularity of the song is so great that the title “Kalinka-Malinka” has become a common name of Russian restaurants abroad.

3. Валенки

Valenki are traditional Russian winter footwear, essentially felt boots: the name valenok literally means “made by felting”.

Here is the translation of “Valenki” song into English.