When I was 16 I went abroad without my parents for the first time. I spent two weeks of the summer at Dorton House College in England with a bunch of other kids.
The place looks a little bit like Hogwarts.
There was only one other German guy, Lukas, next to others from Greece, Portugal and lots of people from Spain.
And then there were two Russians: Igor and Dmitry.
Dmitry’s on the left, Igor on the right. Those two dudes cracked up everyone.
It was like they ran the camp’s laughing department with their constant showmanship, playing pranks on each other and incessant bickering.
I remember one time we played soccer on the school’s large field in the rain. Igor showed up wearing nothing but swimming shorts. When the staff asked him why he merely replied: “It’s ok. These shorts? Transformers!”
Technically, we were all there to learn English, but one of the many perks of hanging out with Igor and Dmitry was that I learned way more about Russian, specifically in the swear word department.
I hope there’s not too many Russians reading this, but you know, сука, cукин сын, Блять, the whole nine yards.
My favorite line, though, is this:
я Дед Мороз
It means ‘ya Ded Moroz’ – I am Santa Claus. I’d say it every time I enter a room they were in and they’d die laughing. I’m not even lying, sort of, given the origin of my name.
It’s been 10 years, but I still remember it.
Ever since those days I’ve wanted to learn Russian. It started purely out of fun, but I’ve only grown more fond of the idea over the years.
I think Russian is one of the most underrated languages out there to learn.
Europeans often don’t take the country seriously, mostly because of all the memes showcasing peoples’ dangerous stunts, crazy road rage and insane handyman skills – sometimes all in one.
Oh, and because of this guy.
Well, Russia is the largest country on earth by surface area and the 9th largest in terms of population.
That’s 140+ million people, waiting for you to talk to them. That’s also 140+ million people you could potentially do business with. Or just make friends.
I don’t think it’s all too difficult either. ‘Thank you’ means ‘spasibo,’ spelled like this:
cпасибо
I get that. s = c, p = п, and so on. Of course it’s not as simple, but I can work with it.
Plus it sounds really, really badass. If I ever ended up in scary places, I’d just whip out my phone and pretend to talk to someone in Russian.
Oh, and vodka’s one of my favorite kinds of alcohol anyway. So who knows. Maybe the next time we see each other, I can greet you in Russian.
На здоровье!
