Annie Liang
Why this book exists / the philosophy of this text
Learning Russian has been a hobby of mine for about a decade now, and my objective is the ability to converse naturally with native Russian speakers. This is a very specific objective, different from other language goals such as reading Russian literature, navigating Russia as a tourist, or passing a language proficiency exam. For me, conversational fluency means understanding spoken language by adults in casual (but potentially sophisticated) conversations, and responding in an intelligible way. For example: knowing how to describe a person as “charming” or “easy-going,” or “overwhelmed with too many responsibilities”; how to express nuanced opinions in a precise way (“while I agree with you that… nevertheless…”); how to react to stories and people in an authentic way---the Russian equivalent of “no way!” or “don’t worry, it’ll all work out.”
But in my experience, Russian textbooks typically consist of chapters such as “Russian Cuisine,” “The Russian Dacha and Bath,” “Russian Holidays,” and “Art.” They teach the role of the accordion in Russian villages and how Russian first-graders celebrate the first of September. They teach that натюрморт means “still life painting,” and that триптих means “triptych,” and include sentences such as: На баяне можно исполнять и сложные симфонические произведения и имитировать «соловьиные песни», о которых мечтал тульский мастер Сизов. (Translation: With the bayan, you could perform complex symphonic pieces and imitate the "nightingale songs" that the Tula master Sizov dreamed of.) This is not a sentence I will ever say.
This book is built around the conversations I actually want to have. It prioritizes abstract concepts like “hypocrisy,” “misunderstanding,” “willpower,” and “censorship” over vocabulary like “bayan” and “nightingale.” It emphasizes spoken idioms such as “to be in denial,” “to get along well,” or “to weigh the pros and cons” rather than phrases that primarily belong in written text (“complex symphonic piece”).
Everyone's conversational style is different, but I hope these words and phrases that interest me might prove useful to you as well.