Лиза Вондрак: Лиза is not Лиса
Лиса sounds like the common American-English first name, but in the Russian language it is actually the word "fox," as someone informed me a few years ago.
Лиза is the spelling of the name, as found in Tschaikovsky's opera, 'Pique Dame,' which also known as The Queen of Spades. I think it's more fun and interesting to write in Cyrillic, sort of James Bond, 007. But if you'd like to know if I actually speak or read Russian, let me put it to you this way: no.
No more than I speak or read German, although after four years of high school German and two years of German at the college level, I ought to. I can pick my way through the libretto of The Magic Flute but that is only because I often peek at the English translation; and also because I know that opera well.
From time to time I like to pick up a German language magazine, even a 'hard' one, like "Der Spiegel," and try to make my way through it. Tough sledding. Basically I look at the pictures to see what is going on. Theis means I buy magazines like "Das Bild," and fashion magazines with American movie stars on the cover.
Foreign language hint: unless you exercise the foreign tongue daily - really immerse yourself in its lingo, you're not going to become proficient. This was one of the several reasons why I didn't complete a master's degree in International Affairs at George Washington University: first you must pass a reading comprehension test in a modern foreign language. Certainly I would have needed to hire a tutor to help me with that, and that is what I should have done. Foreign languages are cunning, that's all I can say.
Fun fact: in my sophomore college year, one of the German class assignments was to memorize and recite a poem in front of the whole group -of about 12 people. I was too petrified to do this, so I started to skip .........a lot. I used to joke to my roommate, Kathy, that I was a 'refugee from the German Department.' She thought that was funny. She should have said: stop being a moron and go to class.
Signed,
Лиза Вондрак
Лиза is the spelling of the name, as found in Tschaikovsky's opera, 'Pique Dame,' which also known as The Queen of Spades. I think it's more fun and interesting to write in Cyrillic, sort of James Bond, 007. But if you'd like to know if I actually speak or read Russian, let me put it to you this way: no.
No more than I speak or read German, although after four years of high school German and two years of German at the college level, I ought to. I can pick my way through the libretto of The Magic Flute but that is only because I often peek at the English translation; and also because I know that opera well.
From time to time I like to pick up a German language magazine, even a 'hard' one, like "Der Spiegel," and try to make my way through it. Tough sledding. Basically I look at the pictures to see what is going on. Theis means I buy magazines like "Das Bild," and fashion magazines with American movie stars on the cover.
Foreign language hint: unless you exercise the foreign tongue daily - really immerse yourself in its lingo, you're not going to become proficient. This was one of the several reasons why I didn't complete a master's degree in International Affairs at George Washington University: first you must pass a reading comprehension test in a modern foreign language. Certainly I would have needed to hire a tutor to help me with that, and that is what I should have done. Foreign languages are cunning, that's all I can say.
Fun fact: in my sophomore college year, one of the German class assignments was to memorize and recite a poem in front of the whole group -of about 12 people. I was too petrified to do this, so I started to skip .........a lot. I used to joke to my roommate, Kathy, that I was a 'refugee from the German Department.' She thought that was funny. She should have said: stop being a moron and go to class.
Signed,
Лиза Вондрак
Labels: cutting class, Geman, GWU, immersion, Russian
posted by Hyde Park Democrat at
2:51 PM
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