As Russian is a Slavic language like Polish, I can understand some words when they're spoken, but I can't read a thing.
Heh, for me it is the opposite! I can read it and I love doing so. Once in a while I stumble about Russian Doctor Who fansites here on LJ and I try to read and see whether I recognize a word or two. And seeing the names like Matt Smith or John Barrowman, but spelled with Kyrillic letters, is hilarius! And Doctor Who is called Doctor Kto, as Kto means Who. Makes sense.
There are many words where they just stick an i at the end and call it a Russian word, like podcasti. So if you can read the letters, you can somehow figure out some things, when the words sound similar to English ones.
I once visited a friend in Prague, and arriving at the station I had no problem finding the exit, as it was written in Russian and I knew the word. I also wanted to be nice and greet her parents with "Dobrij Dyen" while I knew it might be slightly different than the Czech, the meaning still would go over - like you say, it's all Slavic languages - but didn't go over well. My friend asked me very angrily why I was speaking Russian all of a sudden.
She later told me how her grandfather had owned a pharmacy but then the Russian came and took it away from him, so she (and probably the whole family) were very angry at them. Ah well, I tried to be friendly.
I guess for you it must be like for me with Dutch. I love listening to that, when we flew to Vancouver with KLM they always said the announcements in Dutch first before switching to English and I tried to figure out what they said. Also a few days ago while looking for a very rare DVD, I ended up on an internet shop which had a Belgian address but the language was in Dutch. I know now that "Winkelwagen" means shopping basket and "Verder winkelen" means continue shopping. I would have loved to see how far I manage to go on that page and order that DVD myself, but sadly they only shipped to Belgium and Netherlands. I do have a friend in Belgium though, which I met in the Gotham fandom, and she ordered it for me. Always good to have friends everywhere!
There are some false friends of course, like the word for "Sunday" in Polish that means "week" in Russian. My favourite false friend is a Czech word "květen" that is similar to a Polish "kwiecień" ("April"), but means "May". Both words come from the verb "kwitnąć" ("to bloom"), but apparently the flowers bloom in April in Poland and in May in Czech Republic.
Haha, that is hilarious! One thing that is confusing for me is how mathematics can be different? I mean, I know million and billion, but apparently in America billion is what here million is? How can we ever do trade with each other, if we can't even agree on the numbers?
I recently also learnt a Czech word! I was writing a fanfiction which was set in Buenos Aires and I asked my friends if there was some art museum, which I wanted to include into the story. I leant about MALBA which stands for Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires but apparently "malba" also means painting or to paint in Czech. In case I ever need that!
Heh, for me it is the opposite! I can read it and I love doing so. Once in a while I stumble about Russian Doctor Who fansites here on LJ and I try to read and see whether I recognize a word or two. And seeing the names like Matt Smith or John Barrowman, but spelled with Kyrillic letters, is hilarius! And Doctor Who is called Doctor Kto, as Kto means Who. Makes sense.
There are many words where they just stick an i at the end and call it a Russian word, like podcasti. So if you can read the letters, you can somehow figure out some things, when the words sound similar to English ones.
I once visited a friend in Prague, and arriving at the station I had no problem finding the exit, as it was written in Russian and I knew the word. I also wanted to be nice and greet her parents with "Dobrij Dyen" while I knew it might be slightly different than the Czech, the meaning still would go over - like you say, it's all Slavic languages - but didn't go over well. My friend asked me very angrily why I was speaking Russian all of a sudden.
She later told me how her grandfather had owned a pharmacy but then the Russian came and took it away from him, so she (and probably the whole family) were very angry at them. Ah well, I tried to be friendly.
I guess for you it must be like for me with Dutch. I love listening to that, when we flew to Vancouver with KLM they always said the announcements in Dutch first before switching to English and I tried to figure out what they said. Also a few days ago while looking for a very rare DVD, I ended up on an internet shop which had a Belgian address but the language was in Dutch. I know now that "Winkelwagen" means shopping basket and "Verder winkelen" means continue shopping. I would have loved to see how far I manage to go on that page and order that DVD myself, but sadly they only shipped to Belgium and Netherlands. I do have a friend in Belgium though, which I met in the Gotham fandom, and she ordered it for me. Always good to have friends everywhere!
There are some false friends of course, like the word for "Sunday" in Polish that means "week" in Russian. My favourite false friend is a Czech word "květen" that is similar to a Polish "kwiecień" ("April"), but means "May". Both words come from the verb "kwitnąć" ("to bloom"), but apparently the flowers bloom in April in Poland and in May in Czech Republic.
Haha, that is hilarious! One thing that is confusing for me is how mathematics can be different? I mean, I know million and billion, but apparently in America billion is what here million is? How can we ever do trade with each other, if we can't even agree on the numbers?
I recently also learnt a Czech word! I was writing a fanfiction which was set in Buenos Aires and I asked my friends if there was some art museum, which I wanted to include into the story. I leant about MALBA which stands for Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires but apparently "malba" also means painting or to paint in Czech. In case I ever need that!
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