I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but I thought I give at least a quick introduction. I think the email I sent in reply to the polydog help registration email explains my situation quickly and accurately so I will share it with you: "Hi, Well, I am a classical guitarist and currently working on my Bachelor of Music degree. Some months ago, I began language learning as a hobby and have gotten so into it that I've managed to become quite fluent (if only passively) in French. What helped me the most was studying scripts I found online for the popular French series "Kaamelott". Now comfortable in French, I've decided to start tackling Russian. As you can imagine, it only took one google search for "кухня transcripts" before I came across the Polydog forum. And good thing I did because Polydog appears to have a lot more to offer than my original google search. Greatly appreciated," My name is quite unique so I've decided not to share it, but please feel free to use my username here "stratfanatic" or just "strat" is fine too. And for anyone learning French who might be interested in the Kaamelott series mentioned above, here is a link to the texts (simply choose a livre and the 2nd icon to the right of each episode links to its script). These are written by users for free and aren't always super accurate. For accurate hard copies just google "kaamelott textes intégraux" and order online. and the first few seasons or "livres" are available here Anyway there's my 2¢. Thanks for having me aboard!
Hello stratfanatic welcome to the forum. I love music as well. I play the piano, but not for my profession, only hobby.
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I guess should have been more clear. I'm a guitarist. Started on electric. And now in school for classical training (in which I use a cordoba classical). lol good analogy. There seem to be many between language and music. All joking aside, you're pretty spot on. will check it out. That seems interesting Sweet, Wise owl chick! et merci bien, Stelle !
Welcome to the forum, Strat. French and Russian together were quite common 100-200 years ago. Half of War and Peace seems to be written in French .
quand même that would explain all the seemingly arbitrary bits of French I've been noticing from time to time in Russian. I never knew about the French invasion of Russia but I'm reading up on it now. Also going to get my hands on a good copy of War and Peace. I see its split in two on amazon..and 2 tomes per half..thats long. Between this and a couple French books I've got coming in, I'll be busy for a minute
French invasion of Russia The battle of Borodino is well known in Russia, and if you're french or study french you certainly know the expression "C'est la bérézina" (meaning it's a disaster: the name comes from the battle of Berezina where the russian army inflicted great losses in the french army). That war is well known for the apocalyptic conditions in which the french army retreated: the soldiers eating their horses and their human comrades dying of hunger or cold. The russian aristocracy was fluent in french in the XIX century (the children were all raised by french "gouvernantes", teachers, etc), the russian writers (and especially Pushkin, the father of the modern russian language) were all perfectly fluent in french. Also, 1/3rd of the "white russians" fled to France after the revolution of 1917. Now the russian vocabulary contains more than 2500 actives french words (versus less than 100 russian words in french), even if english is more and more present. So, there is a strong cultural link between these two countries, but few people know it because it's not taught in schools: you really have to have an interest in the russian language and culture to discover all that.