The Russian word for water is вода. I like to live a healthy lifestyle and as a result, I find myself watching the health channel quite frequently. I was watching a program about water and the reporter said «Доктора рекомендуют людям пить от двух до трех литров воды каждый день» “Doctors recommend that people drink two to three liters of water every day.” It is critical to consume enough water to avoid dehydration, especially in Arizona. A few reasons for drinking enough water daily are to increase energy поднять энергию, free the organism of toxins избавить организм от токсинов, loose weight потерять вес, and improve function of the digestive system улучшить функцию пищеварительной системы. There are many more benefits to drinking an adequate amount of water, but even the short list I came up with should be enough to motivate everyone to drink more water. Despite the obvious importance of water, many people still do not consume enough even when hiking on a hot summer day. I often find it strange when I hear a story on the news about a hiker who chose not to bring enough water and had to be airlifted to the hospital due to acute dehydration.

Don's additional notes: the dimunitive form of вода is водичка, so if someone says «Не хочешь водички?», then you know that they mean “Do you want some water?” But you have to be careful because the diminutive of водка is водочка, so if someone says «Не хочешь водочки?», then they mean “Do you want some vodka?”

The Russian word for vodka is водка, and the dimunitive is водочка. So when when he offers you a bit of vodka, a Russian might say «Не хочешь водочки?» Vodka is so associated with Russian culture that doubtless we will blog on the subject many times.

There are many jokes about Russians and vodka. Here is a representative one:

The Russians have an amusing tradition of making rhymes about all sorts of things. I remember in 1986 when I first went to Russia, Gorbachev raised the price of vodka in order to dissuade Russians from drinking excessively. (In this he was following the example of the short-lived Andropov.) I remember my buddy Алёша quoting the following to me:

By "the same thing they did in Poland," they meant the uprising by Solidarity.

The Russians have a thousand stories about the power of vodka. One of them is that vodka foot baths can help eliminate foot odor. The MythBusters tested this hypothesis, and to my great surprise pronounced it true. Mind you, they were washing the feet in vodka, not drinking it. There have been a couple episodes where they explore other vodka stories as well.

The Russian phrase for the American Holiday Thanksgiving is День благодарения, literally the day of thanking. When wishing someone a Happy Thanksgiving, the Russians use the verb поздравлять/поздравить, which is often translated “to congratulate.” The person to whom the wish is directed is put in the accusative case, and the name of the holiday is put in the instrumental case, preceded by the preposition c. Thus the complete phrase is

The Russians often skip the first part of the sentence, leaving only the prepositional phrase «С Днём благодарения!»

The Russian word for emotions is чувства (singular чувство). Some of the basic emotions are happiness радость, sadness печаль, anger злость, anticipation ожидание, disgust отвращение, fear страх, excitement возбуждённость, disappointment разочарование, and shame стыд.

One day, my friend invited me to her birthday party and I was very happy рада to attend the special occasion. As my friend handed me the invitation, I became engulfed with excitement возбуждённость and ran home to show it to my mother. As my mother saw me running to her with a smile on my face, she began smiling too but to my disappointment разочарование, I saw that her smile quickly faded as she read the invitation and said «Я извиняюсь Оля, но ты не пойдешь, потому что мы уже сделали планы поехать в лес в этот день» “I am sorry Olga, but you can’t go because we have already made plans to go to the forest that day.” Shocked, my jaw dropped and I said «Что? Ты не разрешишь мне пойти?» “What? You’re not going to allow me to go?” Again, my mother began apologizing, and I just stood frozen staring at her. Anger overwhelmed me, and I ran to my room, slamming the door behind me. As my mom knocked on the door, I choked back my tears and said «Уходи!» “Go away!” My mother came in anyway and after a long talk, I felt much better even though I was still mad at her.

The Russian word for umbrella is зонт. Everyone should invest in an umbrella because it can help prevent a person from becoming wet on a rainy day. However, many people also enjoy using an umbrella on a hot day because it helps protect against sun burns. When I was a few years old, for the first time, I discovered that umbrellas are not only used on rainy days. It was a hot and sunny day when me and my mother went shopping. As we were walking, I saw an old lady walk down the street with an umbrella. I found it so odd that I began laughing and ran to the lady asking «Почему вы ходите с зонтом? Сегодня солнце сияет и погода очень жаркая!» “Why are you walking around with an umbrella? Today the sun is shining and the weather is very hot!” The old lady turned to me and with a grin on her face said «Потому что я не хочу получить ожог, дорогая» “Because I don’t want to get a burn, dear.” As I continued walking with my mother to the store, I was confused by what the lady told me and I thought «Как может зонт защитить человека от солнечного загара? » “How can an umbrella protect a person against a sun burn?” It was not until a few years later that I began to understand the reasoning behind this practice.