Маша и Медведь

A litte piece of Russian culture has entered our house recently, in the form of the hilarious animation series 'Masha and the bear'.
I spotted little Masha and her friend the bear for the first time when travelling to Ukraine in June. Merchandising was everywhere, especially in Kiev airport. And cute she is, as you can see on the dvd cover here.

Then last week - in the supermarket around the corner - there she was again. The dvd's of 'Masha and the bear' made it even to the Dutch-language market. I could not resist.

The dvd's were certainly worth their money. My daughters (6 and 4 years old) howl with laughter when they watch the adventures of Masha and the bear. That is mainly because Masha is not so cute as you might initially think. She is a 'little, annoying thing' who drives her friend the bear often to despair.


Which makes this animation series fun to watch for parents as well. So many scenes are familiar to me, and I guess to many parents: she does not give in when she has set her mind on something, she is not able to sit still for more than a second, she wants all attention of her friend the bear (who tries to escape sometimes but cannot say 'no' to her either),... This reminds a bit of the books and animation series of 'The little princess' of Tony Ross. The interaction with the bear on the other hand is more Looney Tunes style. Meep meep.

And while writing this, my daughters burst out laughing again! Masha, you have two fans! :-)
 

The Madonnas of Leningrad

It is becoming rarer over the years but now and then I still get touched by a book. 'The Madonnas of Leningrad' by Debra Dean managed to move me this week.

It is the story of an old Russian woman who has Alzheimer's. (If you have read my post on Memory loss you can imagine that Alzheimer's, though luckily not diagnosed in the family yet, is a disease I seriously dread.) Although she has lived in the US for most of her life, the memories that distress this woman are about the years when Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) was occupied by the Germans during the second World War.

Being a guide in the Hermitage museum at that time, she was helping with the rescue of thousands of pieces of art and furniture. Then, when there was nothing left but to hide in the cellars, she tries to remember the paintings by imagining each of them in their particular room, as such making the Hermitage into a memory palace.

Later, when she has started a new life in the US, she never talks about these terrible years, during which almost 1 million residents died of starvation, the cold or in bombardments. But when Alzheimer's disease is taking over, it are precisely these memories that come back and make her lose her grip on reality.

It might sound all a bit gloomy but believe me, this book is written in such a poetic and stylish way that you will savour every page of it.

It's this time of the year

It's this time of the year: I am studying Russian. Next week we have the final test. And if all goes well, that was it for my fifth year then. It wasn't my most fruitful year, I was too busy with other things. Yet, I'm happy not to have given up. There is always the possibility to give it a new impetus if the time turns out to be (more) right.




In the meantime, enjoy some of the pictures I took in Ukraine. Early June, I visited Kiev and the Crimea peninsula. A must! And yes, there was the opportunity to speak Russian. As it turned out, in Crimea they don't speak Ukrainian, only Russian. Even education is there in Russian, as I was told by our local guide. Add to your destination list, Russian language lover!

Russian for beginners and travelers

Hello again. Long time not been here. Was there more pain than pleasure in learning Russian the last few weeks? Luckily not. I nicely continued going to evening class, did my test before Easter holiday and am now ready to start the last trimester. Although I lacked a bit of enthusiasm and commitment to really improve my Russian knowledge, all things considered. One evening per week is just not sufficient and I didn't find the time to do some extras.

I managed to watch the interesting tv-series Rusland voor beginners though. It was a Belgian Dutch-language series but as Lena De Winne, Russian wife of astronaut Frank De Winne, was the central figure of the series (she travelled each episode with a Belgian personality through Russia, focusing on themes as religion, ecology, economy, arts, etc.), most of the conversations and interviews were either in English or in Russian. So, if this series will ever be released on DVD, I will certainly let you know here - it is also worthwhile watching it if you do not know the Dutch language.

And concerning this upcoming trimester of my fifth year of evening school... I participated a bit half-heartedly in the lessons lately, yes, but I have a good motivation to start focusing again: in a few weeks, I will go to Ukraine. Okay, Russian is not the first language in Ukraine but I imagine that some knowledge of the Russian language will certainly help during the trip. So, time to rehearse the Russian for travelers vocabulary...

Очень холодно!

It is terribly cold here in Belgium. Yesterday it was about
-10°C. With our maritime climate, we are not used to it. A little snow on top of it yesterday evening during peak time and we broke our record of kilometers traffic jam. Winter tyres become worthwile considering...

My Polish colleague tells me it was -27°C in Poland that same day. But people are used to it there, is her opinion, and houses are isolated well. Still...

On the Russia Today website, I read that Ukraine had
-35°C and that  there are already hundreds of deaths in Ukraine, Russia and Eastern Europe. Horrible!

Russia Today ends with some good advice: "Dieting is strictly discouraged – consume enough food and drink to allow the body to keep generating heat." Ha, can do that! Will do immediately :-)

7 Russian books

End 2011, I followed this course on Russian literature, which was taught in such an enthusiastic way that you end up leaving the room with the firm decision to actually READ these books that you have just discussed.

Now, Russian classic books are not exactly what you would name 'thin booklets'. And there are many of them. So unconsciously I had always considered the reading of Russian classics as something I would do 'when I am retired'.

Yet, retirement age going up all the time and inspired by the course, I decided to make a shortlist, slice it up (meaning: read one or two of these enormous books per year) and voilà, in a few years I will have at least a basic knowledge of the Russian literature.

So here is my shortlist:
1. Dead souls - Gogol
2. Crime and punishment - Dostoyevsky
3. Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
4. War and peace - Tolstoy
5. The master and Margarita - Bulgakov
6. The cherry orchard - Chekhov (drama)
7. Eugene Onegin - Pushkin (poetry)

If you consider that I have already read Anna Karenina and The master and Margarita and that I am currently finalising my reading of Dead souls, it seems perfectly doable to finish this shortlist in a relatively short time period. So off I go. Next on my list: War and peace - a whopper!

Note: I will read these books in Dutch, in case you wonder; if I read them in Russian, I need decades, not years, to finish this shortlist!

Jan Balliauw komt naar onze school!

't Is echt waar, Jan Balliauw (denk aan de onlangs uitgezonden documentairereeks Back in the USSR) komt op woensdag 15 februari naar onze school. Normaal gezien enkel voor cursisten maar ik ben ervan overtuigd dat een telefoontje naar onze school wonderen kan doen :-)

Russian movies: good stuff!

First of all: С Рождеством - Merry Christmas!
Having Christmas and New Year already a week behind me, it almost escaped my mind. But yes, in Russia Christmas is celebrated on 7 January because the Russian orthodox church uses the old Julian calendar for religious celebration days. So all my best wishes to everyone who is celebrating today!

Apart from that, what I wanted to share with you today is this: I discovered the Russian movie (yes, better late...) and I am enthusiastic! I am not talking about the American movies and television series based on Russian literature I watched so far (and enjoyed). I am not talking about the 'War and Peace' and 'Doctor Zhivago' movies but about 'the real thing': the Russian spoken and Russian made movie:-) And I must admit: they have 'good stuff'!

So much that I don't have time to write anything more now because my next Russian movie is waiting for me (honestly!). But if you are interested (and are not an expert yourself yet), then follow my discoveries on my I can recommend page. The list will be updated regularly!

Next holiday destination: Ukraine

 Lonely Planet

Hohohooo. Not Santa Claus but me in good cooperation with my husband/babysitter and my good old friend/travel partner made it happen: today I booked my next holiday.

Destination: Ukraine.

Travel partner: good old friend with whom I used to do lots of citytrips until we both got kids. Luckily last summer we found each other back in our travel yearning and we headed off for Bilbao. It tasted like more...

The travel programme: limited in time as the kids will be missing us (we think/hope/fear), we will cover Kiev and Crimea in 4 days/4 nights. Good preparation will be everything, so I am already the proud owner of the Lonely Planet Ukraine. It is a little pleasure of mine - especially during grey, boring days - to leaf through travel guides and dream of what is yet to come :-)

Anyway, next to the vacation with my family of course, this is something in 2012 I am really looking forward to! And yes, of course, I hope to speak some Russian there. I know it is not the first language of the country but I hope there will still be many opportunities to speak it. I will soon find out!

Russian food

Yesterday evening we had Christmas party with our Russian class. It was an everyone-brings-some-food-or-drinks party and devoted as we are, we all did our best to bring something 'Russian'. Luckily for me - being everything but a cook - the prefab blinis (little pancakes) have found their way to our mainstream supermarkets. Just as wodka of course. And although the champagne, fish and seafood we brought were most likely not really from Russia, they gave our buffet a Russian touch.

For those interested in Russian food, I can highly recommend the book Culinaria Russia. It is full of interesting information about Russian food and drinks: history, habits, regional specialities, recipes, it is all in the book. So if you always wanted to know what exactly борщ (borscht), квас (kvas) or пельмени (pelmeni) are, then don't hesitate and put this book on your Christmas wish list.

In the meantime, let me whet your appetite by showing these pictures of some закуски (zakuski) and блины (blinis)!

www.ullmann-publishing.com

Culinaria Russia



Noteer alvast in uw 2012 agenda: 'Rusland voor beginners', op Canvas

Het concept: 'In "Rusland voor beginners" verkennen 10 Vlamingen de Russische samenleving in al haar facetten. Ze worden geholpen door Lena De Winne, de van oorsprong Russische echtgenote van Frank De Winne.' (aldus http://www.deredactie.be/)

4 декабря: life at different levels

Dear readers,

As announced, on Sunday 4 December I became 40 years old. I invited a few friends for a breakfast and played Stratego with my kids in the afternoon. I had a very nice day.

That same day, Russians went to vote for a new Duma. I can advise you to read about it in the professional press: Western and Russian press, trying to get an objective view on it.

Two days later, in my little country Belgium, we finally manage to form a government. Negotiations went on for how many days? We voted on 13 June 2010, press helps us remember (one would almost forget) and we have a government on 6 December 2011. A year and a half, let's say, without government.

Dear readers, I leave it up to you to follow the press and, yes, to judge.

Sabine

Turning 40, being greedy

Next Sunday will be a milestone in my humble life: I will turn 40!
I am not really panicking. My life is okay (perfect husband, kids, friends, work and house) and 'je ne regrette rien' (if I did stupid things, at least I learned from them). Yet, turning 40 makes me reflect a bit. Upon the past, upon the future. Every year, the first becomes a bigger, the latter a smaller part of my life.

And thinking about my life makes me conclude that I am greedy. If it were up to me, I would try all the chocolates in the box. They all look tempting. Well most of them, from a few I already know I don't like the taste (after all I am in life for 40 years now). But there still remain a lot to try.

And as a result, my resolution for my +40 part of life is to do as much fun and interesting things as possible in the coming years. Don't imagine a young lover, sports car and the like now. Being me, I am first of all thinking of (city)trips: on my own (to Russia) as well as with my little daughters (a bit more nearby to start). And of books, operas, films, courses, musea, gardens, restaurants,... Oh yes, I am greeeedddyyyy!

Busy busy busy

I have been absent here for too long. Life is full of interesting and beautiful things and I tend to get distracted :-)

But I haven't forgotten about Russian. I went to Russian class almost every week (good girl, I am!). We also had a conversation evening in our school, very nicely named (in Dutch): Taalmaatje, which means something like 'language buddy'. Очень интересно! My co-students and me met a nice Ukrainian lady and a nice bilingual Bulgarian lady, who both talked very patiently with us in Russian that evening.

And maybe you remember that last year I did a course of Davidsfonds - Universiteit Vrije Tijd on Russian history. Well, I liked it so much that I of course registered for the new course on Russian literature this year. Also taught in a very captivating manner, this time by Professor Waegemans, another Belgian authority in the field.

Inspired by the course, I started reading 'Dead souls' of Gogol, but I will have to put it aside for a few days now because we have a Russian test next week - just a matter of priorities :-)

'Back in the USSR': meer van dat!

Hé, de documentairereeks Back in the USSR zit er al op. Slechts vier afleveringen. Maar dan wel vier goeie. Geen gezwets en samen haring eten en vodka drinken, maar duidende, vrij objectieve journalistiek waar een mens nog wat van opsteekt.
En Canvas heeft al een opvolger geprogrammeerd: 'Last days of the USSR', documentaire van Jean-Charles Deniau en Sergey Kostin. Ben benieuwd.

Memory loss

Now that we focus on conversation in our Russian class, it becomes really obvious how much one forgets. Basic sentences we learned in our first year Russian seem to be forgotten. It is embarrassing.

I must admit that I am worried about my memory loss. Most women turning 40 (my case in a few  months) mainly worry about the loss of their 'looks'. Of course I am not completely insensitive to my physical ageing either, but even more I worry about a possible loss of memory.

Why is it more difficult to remember Russian words at my age than it would have been when I was 15? Is it correct to think that it is more difficult now, by the way. And if yes, what's the reason? Is it just age? Do you lose brain cells or do they die? Or is it just that more capacity of your brain has been used, the memory disk is almost full and your brain becomes more selective?

Being a hands-on person, I am not going to try to give you an answer to the why-questions above, but you can expect references to information on memory techniques from me. I already like to refer to the book S.O.S. Taal from Bernard & Lisa Lernout (in Dutch, I don't think it has been translated).

More tips and info on memory techniques will follow... if I don't forget :-)

Nieuwe reeks op Canvas: Back in the USSR

Vanaf morgen een - hopelijk verrijkende - nieuwe reeks, op Canvas: Back in the USSR
Met Stefan Blommaert en Jan Balliauw, toch alvast twee mogelijke kwaliteitsgaranties.
Zeker uit te proberen, zou ik zeggen.

Too much food for the brain

So we took a good start with our Russian class. We have a new teacher this year which corresponds to a new style. She is a native speaker and we will talk talk talk this year. That's good. I think we are all ready for it. We have seen most of the basic grammar and vocabulary the previous years; the foundations have been laid and we can now start putting the acquired knowledge into practice.

There is a little nostalgia sometimes. Our previous teacher is teaching the first year Russian on the same evening in the classroom next to ours. So we peep into the classroom during the перерыв and remember the days where we were now learning the cyrillic alphabet. We started the first lessons with about 25 students. Only 9 of us persevered. Well done, classmates :-)

In the meantime, I am wondering whether I should quickly start learning some Spanish as I will be going to Bilbao next weekend. I think I will drop the idea. First of all, Bilbao is located in the Basque part of Spain and many people speak Euskera there, not Spanish. Next to that, I am in the middle of a lot of training at work: project management, activity based management and that sort of topics; quite different I know but there is a limit to how much new information someone can absorb. Can food for the brain also be overdone? Is there something as a Brain Mass Index?

Anyway, I decided that this weekend at least I will give my brains a little rest and instead will shamelessly 'hang out' with my little daughters - read: dress up as a princess or a witch (the latter being mostly my role), paint your face in all colours, watch 'Oggy and the cockroaches', 'Looney tunes' and other sorts of other crappy tv entertainment (and laugh like crazy), jump on the trampoline, colour Top model and Disney drawings,...

First schoolday

Classes started again last week, on 1 September to be precise. My daughters had an excellent first schoolday, happy to see all their friends again. And mummy had the same experience in the evening :-)


Yes, we had our first Russian lesson last week. I wasn't really looking forward to it. One reason was that I had finished the German course only a few days before. I had really enjoyed the course but it was also very intensive and I felt as if I could use a break. But no no, I was going to jump from one language into another.

Another reason why I was reluctant to go, was that I had started wondering why I was putting all this time and effort in a language that I - let's be honest - still do not speak after 4 years of evening school and that I do not need in my life at all, not for private reasons, not for professional reasons.

But I went to that first lesson after all and hey, almost all classmates of last year were there and it was good to see each other again. And by the end of the lesson, I had this feeling of 'come on, I will go for it another year'. But I have a goal! I must open my mouth this year. I am one of these people who are reluctant to speak a language as long as they can make an utter fool of themselves.

So, be my witness: I will have conversations, I will communicate in Russian by the end of the year! Otherwise I quit.

Russian is not an EU language

Russian is worthwile studying because it is one of the 23 official EU languages, I read yesterday on one of these language school websites. Well, that is definitely not true.
TRUE: Russian is worthwile studying.
TRUE: there are currently 23 official European Union (EU) languages.
BUT: Russian is not one of these 23.


If you are now curious which languages are among the lucky 23, you can find them on http://europa.eu

For those wondering: the languages mainly used internally by the EU institutions are English, French and German. So it is not the case that all internal documents are written in 23 languages.
But everything that is law or concerns the EU citizens directly, is translated in all 23 official languages. That is the language policy roughly explained. And I consider it fair, despite all the resources needed for this, because you should be able to find out about your rights and obligations in your own language. Not every citizen masters a second language.

On the webpages of the European Commission, you can find more details and the piece of legislation on which this language policy is based. Enjoy!