It is nice to learn some colloquial phrases. In the NovaMova lessons, there is often a new phrase to learn and practice.
На каждом шагу literally means ‘on every step’. In English, we might translate this to mean ‘on every corner’ or ‘at every turn’. It is used in the same way. So we might say ‘на каждом шагу театры и музеи в Петербурге’ – ‘in St Petersburg, there are theatres and museums on every corner.
Some are more subtle and make use of puns or rhyming Russian words, such as без труда не выловишь рыбку из пруда – ‘if you want to get fish out of a pond, you need to do some work’. This does not work quite so well as a direct translation, but basically means ‘no pain, no gain’. But it is a good way to remember that ‘пруд’ means ‘pond’ and ‘труд’ means ‘work’.
Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей means that if you have 100 rubles, you’ll have 100 friends! We don’t have anything directly similar to that in English, but the sentiment is clear. Maybe one that is similar is ‘a friend in need is a friend indeed. Basically, both are saying that it is easy to attract people around you when you have money, but they may not be true friends.
We learned several idioms relating to time: время лечит (time flies); время ь деньги (time is money); and всему своё время (everything has its time). It seems that in any culture time means much the same – and we find the same ways to talk about it.
Another one that I like is лучше один раз увидеть, чем сто раз услышать, which means literally ‘it is better to see something once than to hear it one hundred times. In English, we would probably say ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.
Another of my favorites is лучше поздно, чем никогда or ‘better late than never, which is just a straight translation and so should be easy to slip into a sentence – if I can just remember it.
In the NovaMova classes, we often practice using these phrases, as an exercise. I would not say that I have learned many of them well enough to remember them in speech, but I am able to recognize them when hearing or reading them. It makes our use of language much richer and more interesting.
Afterward
If you want to work on your Russian language learning, a good way is to find a tutor for Russian coaching and conversation. You can find online tutors, if you want to have the flexibility of working with a native speaker in another country, or, perhaps, if you need to travel a lot for work. When you learn Russian with tutors, you have the opportunity to put into practice the grammar and vocabulary you have learned. It is a great way to build confidence and fluency. A good way to learn is to take a Russian grammar course and follow this with a coaching session where you can apply your learning. With your tutor, you can explore topics that interest you – perhaps talking about Russian history or discussing recent news stories – while developing your knowledge of the language. In this way, you learn more quickly and become confident to express yourself.
