Learning English

[tom&tanya 48]

All that water in the toilet .... Tanya said the same thing Alla said about it! My wife is also very impressed that we have water 24-7. Now THAT'S luxury!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

All that water in the toilet .... Tanya said the same thing Alla said about it! My wife is also very impressed that we have water 24-7. Now THAT'S luxury!

and HOT water to boot! Our flat in Donetsk has separate hot and cold water supplies (and separate meters for billing) The hot water goes out several times a week. Alla keeps a bunch of big pots for boiling water for baths.

How is it they haven't figured out the toilets yet? I mean it is hardly rocket science, and if you go to the better "Santechnika" stores they have "modern" toilets with built in traps that hold water. Our building was built in 1955, they knew how to make a good toilet, it had been perfected by then.

[Brad and Vika 129]

All that water in the toilet .... Tanya said the same thing Alla said about it! My wife is also very impressed that we have water 24-7. Now THAT'S luxury!

Ah yes, the little things that count the most

[tom&tanya 48]

Ah yes, the little things that count the most

Last night was quite a milestone in the journey to learn English ... Tanya successfully to me a dirty Russian joke in English which included a few English words I didn't think she knew! Just hearing her say F-U in English was hysterical! ( much funnier than the joke itself but she doesn't know that! )

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Last night was quite a milestone in the journey to learn English ... Tanya successfully to me a dirty Russian joke in English which included a few English words I didn't think she knew! Just hearing her say F-U in English was hysterical! ( much funnier than the joke itself but she doesn't know that! )

Alla doesn't tell dirty jokes, though I imagine she exchanges them with her woman friends. She is of the "women do not talk that way to men and vice versa" belief and her only "dirty words" are "sh*t" (which sounds like "shirt") and "bullsh*t" which sounds like "bullshat" She doesn't think they are "really bad" words since they are about sh*t, not sex.

She is learning more idioms though. The other day she said "that cracks me off" What? "Cracks me off, you know...makes me laugh" Oh yeah, I knew that. She also came home and told me a couple weeks ago that she knows what it means to "hook up". Yeah, meet someone. "No, it means have sex" Really? "Yes the younger students tell me this" She will come home and try out her new idioms on me and see if they are real.

"Hi! What's up?"

[slim 1,514]

she said "that cracks me off" What? "Cracks me off, you know...makes me laugh"

My wife got it one step closer. "Cracks me down."

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

My wife got it one step closer. "Cracks me down."

My favorite, hands down, is still "lub".

[CyberSamurai013 69]

My wife's English is getting better every day ... Yesterday I made the mistake of going upstairs with my shoes on ... my wife walked in, looked at my feet, pointed and said: Vat iz Zis?! ... I promptly took off my shoes .....

ROFL!!! This gave me a good laugh!!! I still have my Tapochki

[AKguy 1]

ROFL!!! This gave me a good laugh!!! I still have my Tapochki

We.. er, I have the Russian word of the week at my house. Where I'll learn a new Russian word and proceed to use it for everything it's not intended for. The week usually rolls into a couple of weeks and my current word is Tapochki.

Hello my little Tapochki...

"Are you in the bathroom?" Yup, I think I have the Tapochkis.

"My love" Yes my little Tapochki "Stop caling me slippers" Taaapooo "a-hole" chki

It's fun.

[baron555 934]

My favorite, hands down, is still "lub".

Alla says "lub" also!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Alla says "lub" also!

Great word! We still use it! Alla still makes occasional wild mistakes and she gets mad if I do not correct her, but sometimes I just can't. She also gets hung up on new words which are gettng more and more complicated. Her latest "differential". However she seems to get stuck on it like a broken record and says something like "differentiential"

She really is doing well and I cannot say she has any difficulty with English anymore (good thing since she is teaching it!) but she still has the accent and will trip up mostly on slang or idioms. She wrote me a note the other day and used the word "ya". I didn't understand it really and asked her..."You know...slang for yes" Oh, you mean "yeah" She said "there is a correct way to spell slang?"

"crack me off" (make me laugh) has now morphed into "crack me out". I don't know about you, but it cracks me UP!

I love being married to her!

She STILL does not get the temperature thing. The other morning is was truly "freeze-your-eyeballs-in-place" cold. -24 F here in the valley. Up in the mountains (where I had to go for work that day) it was -35 F. OMG COLD! She asked me how cold it was. I said "very cold" How cold? -24 F. "How much in Celcius?" -32. "Voooowhat???? We close school in Ukraine if it is that cold." Not here. "Pasha will be sick"

[slim 1,514]

"Stop caling me slippers"

Somewhere along the way we developed the name Chupik for my wife and it's nice and sweet and worked very well for long distance communication. Once we were reunited and faced with the daily brevity of things, "Chup" became her short name. She went on to explain to me that chupik, which is basically the superlative of sweet, when shortened to just chup means something to the effect of "a clump of hair like on a sick dog."

My wife's nickname is the mange!

My nickname is usually durak. My last name is typically shto za hunya, blat! (Although she denies it, I'm pretty sure dedushka Lenin enlisted her as a sailor at one point in her early life.)

She also gets hung up on new words which are gettng more and more complicated. Her latest "differential". However she seems to get stuck on it like a broken record and says something like "differentiential"

My wife can't say opposite. It's always "oh positive."

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Somewhere along the way we developed the name Chupik for my wife and it's nice and sweet and worked very well for long distance communication. Once we were reunited and faced with the daily brevity of things, "Chup" became her short name. She went on to explain to me that chupik, which is basically the superlative of sweet, when shortened to just chup means something to the effect of "a clump of hair like on a sick dog."

My wife's nickname is the mange!

My nickname is usually durak. My last name is typically shto za hunya, blat! (Although she denies it, I'm pretty sure dedushka Lenin enlisted her as a sailor at one point in her early life.)

My wife can't say opposite. It's always "oh positive."

Alla used to say...if I can spell this right "o-positive-ov." She was confusng "opposite of" as one word. Finally I had to stop her and correct her.

I am laughing, Slim, not at your wife, but at the astounding similarity of how they speak. I thought Alla was the only person to say "And vooowhat" until I read here they all do that!

[baron555 934]

Alla used to say...if I can spell this right "o-positive-ov." She was confusng "opposite of" as one word. Finally I had to stop her and correct her.

I am laughing, Slim, not at your wife, but at the astounding similarity of how they speak. I thought Alla was the only person to say "And vooowhat" until I read here they all do that!

My Alla also is a Voo-whater

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

My Alla also is a Voo-whater

But is she an "and voowhater"? Such as "Gary, I got my car towed today, I guess I was not supposed to park there. I had to take the bus and go pay for the towing and now I have a parking ticket to pay also...here" (hands over parking ticket for $50)

Um...so this cost us like $100? " Yes. And voooowhat?"