Thursday, October 18, 2007

Privyet

...that's Russian for hello.
You're probably not going to believe this, but I'm learning Russian. As I type this I'm taking a break from trying to memorise that CRAZY Cyrillic alphabet. You know, the one with letters which look like heirogliphics and mathematical symbols?
Why? Because Russia fascinates me, especially in these days of Vladimir Vladirimov Putin.
One day it would be really cool to cover Russian politics and eastern European politics. Not tomorrow, not next year, but one day.
The teacher I have found, Anna, who is actually Russian and appears to be the only person in Perth teaching the language, says it won't be a quick learning process.
"Don't expect to be fluent within a year," she said.
Just trying to learn that crazy alphabet has taught me that already.
This is a crazy journey, but I'm glad to have started it. You've gotta do this shit in life, don't you? I mean it is not like I'll have children to educate and entertain. So I'll expand my experience of life this way. New skills are always handy.
And I've started to notice some scary early signs of... oh shit, how's this for irony... I can't remember what it's called... not dementia... the other one... old people... forgetful... shit... LOL... ummmm... the forgetful one, anyway. So this will help keep my mind exercised so I don't become one of those 30-year-olds you see taking up nursing home beds.

1 comment:

WB said...

I've nearly forgotten all my cyrillic alphabet - that makes me sad - I still remember some VERY IMPORTANT phrases though...

iz sekret? Is it a secret?
eta mesta svabotna? Is this bench free?
kak krasiba! How beautiful!

Something like that anyways... ahhh... Russian classes.. fun times they were....

Oh, and be thankful the cyrillic has SOME resemblances to the latin alphabet. Once you'vve mastered Russian I dare to try an Asian script *g*