Ruff Guide to Russian Language

Lesson 9: Culture and Russian Things

It has been so horrendously long since I last updated this and the insane amount of reads/likes have humbled me, thank you all for sharing my enthusiasm for this strange little hobby, beautiful language, amazing people, and outstanding country. Without further ado, I will now give a list of words for distinctly Russian items/places... like the White House, and Big Ben, those two really famous restaurants in Moscow.

1: Баня (Ban-ya) - A Banya, my friends is a traditional Russian sauna. Participants typically enjoy beating one another with branches to (apparently) therapeutic effect and cooling off afterwards by diving into the snow. Wonderful.

2:  Cамовар (Sam-oh-var) - A Samovar is like an ancient kettle for boiling tea, although largely replaced by electric Samovari (I won't pluralise that with an 'S' like an English speaking pleb :) ) or actual kettles, you can still purchase traditional ones that require wood burning (or so I think you burn wood, I have never used one myself.)

3: Советский Союз (Suv-yet-skiy-sai-oos) - Need I say more? For some trivia: Soyuz (that second word) is also the name of a famous series of Russian spacecraft.

4: Казак (ka-zak) - Cossack - Legendary horseback warriors of Russian antiquity (I vastly oversimplify, perhaps in future I will make a book on Russian history and include the Cossacks) if memory serves me, it roughly means 'vagabond' or 'bandit' in Russian, or stems from that meaning.

5: Россия/Российская Федерация (Rass-iya/Rossi-skai-ya-feder-atsi-ya) - Russia'Russian Federation - Looking back, I realise I never actually told you all how to say the country itself. Silly man. Well, there's how you say Russia!

At last, we now have a completed new part. I apologise sincerely for the immense gap (almost a year) since the last chapter, but I have learned a lot more Russian since then and have plenty of knowledge to share; despite starting College, I will try to post regular, smaller parts to aid digestion, and maintain activity. Look out soon for a possible new work related to Russian history and for any other general fiction I may post. Good times to all. Long may the sun shine! Especially on those who get that reference.