Emergency Russian
When You Really Need It!
If you are far from home, caught out in a Siberian blizzard and badly in need of a cup of coffee, stagger into the local bistro and use the following Russian vocab on the locals.......
Don't worry, they have a great sense of humour! They needed one in the old USSR. For me to learn to speak Russian is impossible so I am learning just a few words as I come across them; a sort of shotgun method of learning the language or of at least getting a smile out of a Russian when I use it! It makes life on board just a bit better if I can say good morning or something. The words below are my personal collection of Russian vocab, my private linguistic cheat sheet! A sort of Russian for Real Dummies!
This page is as much for me as it is for web readers. Some words are quite interesting, such as "bistro". My Russian advisers inform me that when Russian soldiers, who were in Paris after the Napoleonic Wars, wanted speedy service from the local restaurateurs they would shout "bistro bistro!" and wave a sabre in the air. They got their coffee post-haste! So coffee shops, the fast food joints of the day, came to be called bistros. If you go to Paris you can find the first coffee shop that was called a bistro, I am not sure of the name but a local will help you out.