I had the coolest thing happen today.
I saw a lady from Russia who was in her garden watering flowers and I actually had a conversation with her in Russian. It went something like this (only in Russian):
Me: Good evening
Her: Good Evening
Me: My name is Mary
Her: My name is Tamara Alexy
Me: Pleased to meet you
Her: Good. the rain has been hard on my flowers. (she added some hand gestures for me to understand this one)
Then she said something else to which I had to say--I don't understand (a very useful phrase to know).
She smiled.
Me: What a nice evening
Her: Good
Now I know it wasn't much but it was my very first Russian conversation without a book in front of me or my tutor prompting me. I have a long way to go but it made me smile to have accomplished that much.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
That conversation, plus a smile, will get you very far here and allow you to connect with the caregivers and others. Congratulations on your new found skill!
And I'm glad to hear that things are working out in the workplace. At least they will be able to sympathize if you are beating your head against the wall because of a delay or something!
That is great Mary! Did I mention that I will need an interpreter?!
Very impressive. In the Twin Cities, there's a very active Russian meet up group. I really liked the members—very friendly and open to helping non-native speakers. I was wondering if they had a similar group in Rochester? If so, I think you would really enjoy it. Let me know if you would like me to forward their email address on to you.
Russians are everywhere :)!!!!
Great job Mary, If you need to practice before your trip, you know my email.
Anna A.
Congratulations! That's huge. I have to tell you, I think the caretakers at my girl's orphanage really appreciated the effort I made to throw a little Russian in here and there. And on my last day, I wrote a short thank you note to them all, in Russian. I honestly think it's what finally cracked through the otherwise icy veneer of the caregiver on duty when I had to say goodbye to Matilda. I mean, she hugged me. That's huge. So keep it up! It's so very worth it,
-Suzanne
Hi Mary,
Sorry I don't check my gmail as often as I should. Wonderful to hear from you. You and I had the adoption epiphany the same week, it looks like(right around Thanksgiving). It would be neat, although probably rare, that we are over there at the same time, or even in the same place. Very exciting! And I'm trying to learn Russian on my own with marginal success. Your blog motivates me to keep working at it. I just have to get past that alphabet!
Andrea
I love it! Great job!!!!!
congratulations! I think you did a great job, now you are ready to go. Can you say this in Russian? Pashli to Kazakhstan!!!!
I'm posting this because I don't think I have your email address, so I don't know how else to contact you!! Thanks for the frog-name suggestion...I already have a Francesca and a Frank, and then there's Fred (my 4-legged son.) Therefore, I've decided to branch out to F and Ph...therefore, the ballerina frog is Phoebe and the little frog my mom gave me (not sure where she got it) is Phil. He's Fred's newest baby!!
Post a Comment