Proper Russian – A website about Russian language, literature and culture.

Drama and Comedy in Office Affair

Office Affair, a classic Soviet film, has been truly popular for over four decades. It became a hit right away, and has remained one of the most beloved movies for generations. It truthfully displayed the real life and actual problems of people in Brezhnev’s Era of Stagnation, and this is one of the reasons it became so popular. For the very same reason, viewers from other countries and even younger Russians may miss the hints and hidden jokes that make this movie not just a romantic drama, but also a brilliant, sparkling comedy. In this article, I’ll try to explain the secret language of the Office Affair to you so that you could understand the film better and enjoy it in full.

Studying in Russia: Part III Everyday Life

This is the third part of the series of articles about international students in Russia. Twelve people who went to study in Russia responded to my call and shared their experience with the readers of this blog. In the first article, they spoke about the language barrier and how they picked up the language by

Studying in Russia: Part II Culture Shock

This is the second part of the article about international students who chose to study in Russia. In the first part, my respondents talked about the language barrier and shared their thoughts about learning Russian in Russia. Language is just one aspect of being a stranger in a strange land. Language is a part of

Studying in Russia: Part I Learning Russian in Russia

According to the official Russian statistics, in the academic year 2019-2020, the number of international students in Russia was slightly short of 300,000 people. This is almost twice as many as in 2010. The most recent statistic is unavailable, because of “damn ‘rona”, but, most likely, the trend will persist for the next few years.

How People in Siberia Survive Extreme Cold

When people learn that I am originally from Siberia, they often ask me, “How is it even possible to survive the weather that cold? How do you guys live there? How can anybody live in that climate?” In this article, I’ll answer these and many other related questions. But first, let me explain what “cold”

Herbs in Traditional Russian Medicine

It was a hot Siberian summer, about +30C/ 86F. My friend and I visited my grandmother in a rural locality in the Altai region, near the Kazakhstan border. My grandmother and three other grannies, her besties, took us to pick wild strawberries. We marched a few kilometres on foot, away from the village, and reached

Russians During the COVID Times

Throughout 2020, when I talked with my family in Russia over the phone, I couldn’t understand what was going on there. Like many other countries affected by the novel virus, Russia set a lot of restrictions in response to the pandemic. The news from my hometown looked grim. The numbers of cases were frightening. Yet

How to Improve Your Russian Using Online Tools

Learning a new language is always a demanding task. There are so many things you need to cover, from grammar to conversation skills. The same goes for the Russian language, which has so many difficult segments we need to master. Those segments are writing, reading, listening, and speaking. Each one is challenging in its own

Suddenly Dumb

Embarrassing Story When I moved to Canada, my fluency in English was confirmed twice by IELTS. I had been studying English for decades, since I was twelve. I had ten years of experience working in an international company where English was the only spoken language. I was pretty confident in my speaking abilities, when one

Synonyms: How to Tell the Difference

Synonyms are a blessing and a curse for language learners. How can a language learner know the difference between two words that mean the same thing? How do you know when to choose one word, and when to choose the other? Can they be used interchangeably, or does each word have a specific niche and belong to a certain context? I will try to answer those questions in this article, and I will share a few practical tips on how to make synonyms your friends.