Peter and Nina speak Russian they learned from their grandparents. Nina, being the oldest child in the family, has always been considered to have the best Russian. Peter, having spent nearly every weekend among hunters growing up, has a certain, um, colorful edge to his Victorian Russian.
Nina has a friend here that she's been sort of dating. I love it that they use the Russian formal "you" with each other, they "vous" each other. However, after an evening having a very nice dinner in a fancy restaurant, when M. drove her home Nina said, "Boot me out on the corner."
Peter once told a driver to "Kick me out on the coals." (The word coal and corner, you can hardly hear the difference.) "Let me out on the corner," is new vocab for both of them.
Nina also told her friend that she was learning her way around the metro by telling him, "I'm starting to recognize the Metro." Oh! That's the metro! I know it now! That's not a grocery store! That's the metro!
Not knowing the word for a bunch of bananas, Peter has asked for both a branch of bananas and a pile (steaming implied.)
Also be very careful with the word "finish."
Russian bridal couple in a park in St. Petersburg.
twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?" 
Leave a comment