Unit 6

One of the first animated cartoons I had seen when I was a little child was about a young kid who did not want to wash himself and all his things were avoiding him.  The reason why I am posting on the blog about this is because when we first started going over rooms and items in the house the first thing that came up in my mind was this animation.  The animation names quite a few of the vocabulary words we studied this unit but it also includes location words like under and next to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xypy4CCcE4

Vodka Binge Drinking... an Early Death to Men?

     It has been discovered that alcohol is the primary cause of the high number of premature deaths in Russia.

A recent report shows that 25% of Russian men die before the age of 55, with the majority of these deaths attributed to alcohol (particularly vodka).  Some Russian men said that they drank up to one-and-a-half liters of vodka every week, however researchers say the main reason behind the high death rate is not in the amount of alcohol consumed, but in the way Russians drink alcohol. They predominantly binge drink.  During the course of the 10-year study, more than 150,000 adults living in three Russian cities were monitored by researchers.  Throughout this time, 8,000 participants died from alcohol-related diseases including liver disease and alcohol poisoning. Many of the participants also died in accidents or after getting into fights.  The report also showed that smoking aggravated the negative health effects of alcohol, and that mortality rates were lower among women.  Moral of the story, binge drinking leads to a higher death expectancy, don't do it! :)

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/vodka-binges-kill-quarter-of-russian-men-prematurely-research-shows/493666.html

Russian Music through the ages

I have grown to really enjoy Russian music throughout the time I've been studying the Language in University. These are two of my favorite songs, which also do well in showing the progression of Russian music over the years ('80s-ish to present)

This first one, by Editha Pyekha, is a really great song about youth and years gone by.



The second one, by the artist Velvet, is a current top 50 hit in Russia (as per www.101.ru).