The quarter is drawing to a close . . .

[philena]

I sit here typing, slowly returning to consciousness after a nap around 5:00--that horrible time of day when you know it's going to start cooling down soon, but you're so tired from fighting the heat that you can't stay awake any longer--and there's a lovely breeze blowing through my window. And it's blowing all the papers from my bulletin board, and several cockroaches (after almost a year of none!) have been sighted in the last two or three days, and people are emailing me constantly and making me feel guilty about not being in town, and my sister is leaving for Mongolia tomorrow for the next two years after having skipped out on the one weekend I managed to be at home before she left. And I'm terrified of my BA. I hope that when I return from California, towing Daniel along behind me, things will have rebuilt themselves to some extent.

В классе в пятницу, мы с другим студентом пытались разговаривать по-русски о наших докладах. Профессор, Валентина (она прикрасная. Кричит на нас.) сказала, что мы уже достаточно знаем, чтобы говорить о всем, что мы хотим. Только надо говорить просто, и если невозможно объяснить доклад просто, то мы плохо понимаем его. Я пыталась, и Брайн пытался, и, наконец, все выяснилось. Мы ничего не понимаем: не о докладах, не о классах, даже не о том, что мы сделали вчера вечером. Хорошо знать. Жизнь проще сейчас.

Comments

story

[juniper949.livejournal.com]

That's a funny story - the Russian one. I even translated for Travis so he'd understand and he thought it was funny translated. It's not all that bad. I'd write you something in Russian but I'm too lazy to try to figure out where the letters are.

Re: story

[philena.livejournal.com]

:) Now what am I to do with the almost-ten-pages of my final paper that I've written so far? 'Twould be simpler to throw them away and become a hermit. But I'm too lazy to hit "delete."

[mangiami.livejournal.com]

Здравствуйте! Меня зовут John, и я учусь в Чикагском университете на первом курсе (скоро на втором курсе, после экзаменов!). Я буду во втором году русском занятиях следующий год. Ты (была? будет?) в четвёртом году русском занятиях?

Well, I just wanted to introduce myself because I'm a first year here and I saw your comment in learn_russian and thought you might be a U of Cer (Russian through Pushkin is what clued me in). I am planning on minoring in Slavic Languages and Literatures and majoring in Linguistics. What is your concentration? I wanted to attend CLS too... I should probably start volunteering next year as well. Good luck on your finals!

[philena.livejournal.com]

Just finished up third year Russian. Good for you with your major and stuff! Almost exactly mirrors mine, except I'm trying for a double major, rather than a minor in Slavic. I like your icon, by the way. Are you in the Tolkien class this quarter?

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

прекрасная

чтобы говорить обо всём, о чём мы хотим

"обо всём" is stilistically better, but "о всём" is not incorrect either.


Мы ничего не понимаем: ни о докладах, ни о классах, ни даже о том, что мы сделали вчера вечером.

It's not correct to use "о"+prepositional in that last sentence. Verb "понимать" requires accusative (c.f. correct "понимаем его" earlier in the text). It might be ~ok in informal speech, if you mean "ни [тогда, когда мы говорим] о докладах, ни ...", but here it sounds somewhat awkward.


"Хорошо знать" is too obvious a calque of "good to know" :). A better phrase is "это радует" (or "это не может не радовать" if you want to sound a bit more sarcastic).

I can't think of a good replacement for "жизнь проще сейчас", may be "проще жить", but I'm not quite sure what spin do you want to put on it.

HTH

[annabananaface.livejournal.com]

for those of us not cool enough to speak Russian, would you care to translate? i've been sitting in suspense for weeks, hoping for a translation without having to ask, but i give up.

[philena.livejournal.com]

Ah, sorry. It's about my Russian class: This kid Brian and I were talking about our final projects, me about my BA and he about his PhD thesis, and were having a dreadful time making all the intricacies understood. Valentina, our professor, who is fabulous and yells at us constantly (she says not to take it personally; she's just Russian), said that we have enough vocabulary and grammar to be able to explain anything, and if we can't describe it simply enough then we clearly don't understand it well enough. So now everything has become clear: I don't understand anything, not my BA, not my major, not my classes, and not even what I did last weekend. It's good to know, because life is simpler now.

[ducksarepeople2.livejournal.com]

Helloooooo my fellow ab-fab enthusiast! Glad to discover your livejournal.

Love & cereal starch paste (R.I.P. wheat starch),
Heather

[annabananaface.livejournal.com]

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know you are enjoying galivanting with Daniel, but I really think you should at least tell the rest of us that you are alive. Besides, I'm bored, and I want someone to entertain me.