In grammar class, we are learning about how using passive voice and impersonal expressions is a good thing. In the Russian language, you are supposed to put the blame on an invisible, mystical (neuter gendered) something. The Star Wars “Force,” if you will. (And no, it’s not God, for God is male in the Russian [...]
Archive for the ‘Quotable’ Category
Weeks 24-25: Taking responsibility, a lesson in grammar
Posted: March 1, 2010 in Иркутск, Quotable, Student LifeTags: $, Baikal, bribes, culture shock, занятии, earthquake, English, grammar, high culture, Irkutsk Philharmonic, Litterateur's House, passive voice, responsibility, Severobaikalsk, Snow
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Week 13: Once upon a December (+Quotables)
Posted: December 4, 2009 in Иркутск, QuotableTags: cold, Decembrists, friends, Pushkin, Quotable, research symposium, Revolution, teachers, the color green, Volkonskii
December has a special meaning (kind of) for Eastern Siberia (the region of the middle of Siberia, not the Far East), if not just for Irkutsk. For better or for worse, it has nothing to do with the Mandy Moore song (blog post’s title) or the Disney movie Anastasia about the last Russian tsar, in [...]
Quotable: Divine wisdom, and calls from higher-up
Posted: November 23, 2009 in QuotableTags: culture shock, divine wisdom, phones, Quotable
This country seems to have a perhaps larger-than-average volume of it’s defining idioms, riddles, etc. (note: I base my “average” off of my knowledge of English, French, and Russian). Accordingly, I’ve concluded that this volume comes from the country’s general quotability. Accordingly, I’ve decided to share a few instances of the basis of my reasoning [...]
