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Russian anecdotes - unique cultural experience


russian_pianist

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Hello Everyone!

Всем привет!

Как жизнь? How is it going?

Hope, all is well.

I was thinking about a fun way of learning Russian for you and decided to ask, if you've ever heard of Russian anecdotes. Have you?

Russians love good humour, even though it is hard to tell looking at their less than friendly faces sometimes. Why aren't they smiling? Well, tell your Russian friend an anecdote, and he'll be your friend forever. But be prepared to listen to his favourite anecdotes and funny stories for a good half hour, at least. Russians love to digress. YOu can expect to hear an anecdote from a Russian in the middle of a serious conversation, a wedding speech, a lecture, at a business meeting. Actually, an anecdote you tell at a right time will be appreciated by your listeners, and you'll significantly improve your reputation.

So, here is one of the latest anecdotes in Russian. Let's see if you can understand what it is all about. Will you find it funny?

Ну, ничего... Зато российская сборная по хоккею в России побывала... = Well...At least Russian hockey players came to play in Russia....

There is lot to be dug out from this short phrase.

Here is another one:

Интеллект - отвратительная вещь! Человек без мозгов абсолютно уверен в высоком уровне своего развития. Умный же прекрасно осознаёт, какой он, в сущности, придурок. Вот такой парадокс...

= Intellect is a disgusting thing! The one who can hardly boast any intelligence is absolutely sure that his level of intellectual development is extremely high. A clever person clearly understands how stupid he is, in reality. What a paradox...

Here is a web site where new anecdotes are published daily:

www.anekdot.ru

Read these short and witty stories and you'll be able to significantly improve your Russian vocabulary, as well as have a peak into the Russian mentality.

Here you can listen to some Russian anecdotes:

Enjoy!

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  • 5 months later...

Спасибо! Very good suggestion! They say that when you can understand humor in a different language, you are making very good progress. I also found a great website with many Russian proverbs. These can also be helpful in learning:

http://masterrussian.com/proverbs/russian_proverbs.htm#a

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  • 2 months later...

Awesome! I'll definitely check this out when I have the time!  This is the first time I read one of your posts and I must say I loved your post!  I loved the fact you included a big bit of Russian culture, because when learning a language I believe that learning about the culture where the language is spoken is important too.  I find Russian mentality interesting, so it's so nice to hear what a Russian native has to say! Love it!

I've felt curious about Russian for a while, once I'm done learning dutch and I get enough time I'll surely try to learn Russian (and Hebrew), I truly hope to see you around here then :)

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