January 01, 2004
C Новым Годом (or S Novim Godom)
Last night, I learned something ... Russians love New Year's. The kids in the dorm went collectively crazy like I've never seen them before. Everyone got all dressed up, even though they weren't going anywhere special - girls in elegant dresses, guys in suits.
Whereas, in the states, New Year's parties begin in the evening, with the countdown as the culminating point, and everything after it denouement and drunked stupor, in Russia the countdown is the begining of the festivities. During the day, most people were preparing food for big dinners with friends. I saw this, and being invited to a couple, decided to wait off on eating so I'd be hungry for dinner. As it is, Russians eat later than I'm used to. They usually have dinner around 8 or 9, so for a big party I was thinking maybe a bit later, like 10. Oh no, I'm sitting here starving myself only to find out that the dinner isn't until after the countdown. At midnight everyone goes nuts, sets off fireworks, sparklers, drinks champagne (soaking the food and table in the process), and then settles down for dinner. After dinner is when the crazed drunken debauchery gets started.
Just before midnight, President Putin came on television and gave a speech, of which I didn't understand a word. Then, instead of a ball dropping, the camera focused in on a tower ringing (12 times I think). I'm not sure where it was, but I'm guessing the Kremlin.
I have an internship application due on the second of January, and I'm a bit behind. I promised myself I'd work on it over New Year's to have time to proofread and do several drafts. I worked for a couple of hours until about 10 when I just gave up and decided to join the numerous parties happening around the dorm. Which, by the way, is absolutely trashed. There is barely an inch of floor not sticky with alcohol, including most people's rooms. I'm glad I didn't start a party in my room, I'd be cleaning it up for the next week.
I wish you all a Happy New Year, or С Новым Годом as the case may be.
Here's two pictures from one of the parties I stopped by (me looking unkempt as always - the first is a publicity shot from the new movie I'm in, it's a Russian take-off of Charlie's Angels):
Posted by Owen at January 1, 2004 03:09 PM | TrackBack
Um. Actually, it's spelled "C HOBbIM..."; i.e., the second vowel is wrong. You fail. Faaaaiiil ! Mwa ha ha !
Oh, also, you were right about the tower: it's the clock tower in the Red Square in Kremlin. The ringing of the tower's bells is the Russian equivalent of the American ball-drop.
There is some further info here.
Posted by: Bugmaster at January 1, 2004 03:35 PMDuly noted. Because of the inaudible difference between the "i" sound and the "bI" sound, I got them confused. Now it's been fixed.
Posted by: Owen at January 1, 2004 10:27 PMHuh ??? They are not inaudible at all; those are totally different vowels. True, English doesn't have the sound for "bI", but that doesn't mean it's not there.
Actually, you should watch the old, yet still funny short called "Operatziya bI"... I think it was produced during Brezhnev's times, or maybe even earlier. Anyway, they say the letter a lot in that movie, so it could be good practice for you :-)
Posted by: Bugmaster at January 2, 2004 12:18 AMHappy New Year. Looks like you had a good time, though I don't see a drink in your hands like the other dorm-dwellers. I'm looking forward to the Russian analog of Charlie's Angels, too.
Posted by: Tony at January 2, 2004 08:00 AMI'm aware that they are completely different sounds, but not being a native speaker, they are very had to differentiate and produce. Just like ш and щ. Or, for example, how some non-English speakers have trouble with "w" and "v." Or in French "u" and "ou."
Just takes time, that's all.
Posted by: Owen at January 2, 2004 04:15 PMThink of ы as of 'i' after 'l': lick, Clinton, etc.
Posted by: Mike Tyukanov at January 4, 2004 02:11 AMIncorrect. "bI" is exactly unlike i in lick, because it does not soften the consonant before it, unlike i (the effect is similar to w/v, as you have noted). The vowel sound of "bI" itself is similar to "lick", but it's actually even more pronounced, and even less "ee"-like -- though this could just be my Moscow accent talking. BTW, "scha" is the soft form of "sha" -- for historical reasons, Russian has a special symbol for it. But English does not have official soft/hard consonants, so that makes it hard to adapt.