The World Beyond The West
East&West: Mister Simpson, how have you ended up in Donetsk? Have you come here from the US? David Simpson: 25 years ago I was a CIA agent in Riga, Latvia. My first wife was Russian, my second wife too. All of my friends, associates and family are actually Russian for the most part. I saw … Continue reading Former CIA agent in Donetsk: “MH17 was not downed by a BUK”
Appeaser: These symbols look really strange … Patriot: You should educate yourself about the symbols of Azov before so easily falling for Russian propaganda. They have nothing to do with Nazism. The leaders of Azov themselves explained that it stands for “national idea”. And that's not hard to see. The black sun isn't as used … Continue reading Dialogue between a patriot and an appeaser
The Ukrainian language is …. well, um, dear reader, I would really like but no, probably, no, I should not really embark in the impossible task of trying to understand and explain the history of the Ukrainian language actually, not here, not now. The topic is of course extremely interesting, and I am sure it … Continue reading A (Confused) History of the Ukrainian Language
There is a proverb in China: “He who has not been to the wall is not a hero”. In contrast to the Western definition of hero, the protagonist within this saying is neither a superman or some otherworldly mystical being, rather it is a simple person who stoically challenges the problems he encounters and who … Continue reading Either side of Trump’s wall
We live in a thriving democracy. We enjoy the benefits of an open and tolerant society, our system of government is transparent. The highest positions and the highest honors are accessible to those who display enough merit. The process of political decision making is the result of the pressures and needs of our civil society, which … Continue reading Open Germany is a dead-end
Actually the Bulgarian language should not pose too many problems to those who already master Russian. In a way, it looks like a simplified version of Russian, and it is probably the only Slavic language that does not have the noun declination, which is arguably one of the most difficult features of languages like Russian, … Continue reading Getting lost on holiday in Bulgaria: Bulgarian-Russian false friends
I remember I used to be very impressed when people told me they learned Hebrew or Chinese. I thought if they learned something so difficult and “unusual” like Hebrew or Greek or Hungarian, they must really have been people with incredible language learning skills. I know that people with considerable experience in language learning see … Continue reading Byron in Armenia – or why learning a foreign language does not have to mean being a language nerd
تمت ترجمة هذه المقالة تلقائيًا. يرجى الاعتذار لنا عن أي خطأ في ألمانيا ، لا يبدو أي شخص قلقًا بشأن مشكلة الهجرة. يُعتبر التعبير عن أدنى قدر من القلق بشأن إمكانية دمج العديد من الشباب من ثقافة مختلفة تمامًا علامة على التخلف الذي لا لبس فيه ، وأوجه القصور العقلي الخطيرة المحتملة والميل السياسي الخطير … Continue reading ألمانيا ليست جنة
This is a guest contribution for East&West by one of our American readers. I have always been a man of the left. I have a solid working class background, so since I was young, going with the party of the people against the party of the rich was the only choice, a choice which I … Continue reading Why I, a life-long Democrat, will vote for Donald Trump
Есть немного интеллектуальных удовольствий, сравнимых c чтением на иностранном языке и осознанием того, что вы понимаете гораздо больше, чем ожидали. Тем не менее, иностранные языки требуют значительного количества усилий, которые не под силу большинству людей в зрелом возрасте. Изучение нового языка означает начать все сначала, и это требует большой, очень большой доли скромности, способности легко … Continue reading 5 советов как выучить иностранный язык
Some say being a journalist in Russia is an infernal job. You are lucky if you escape alive. Indeed, Russia may well be one of the most difficult places on earth where to exercise the fourth power, that key function of keeping the government under check that the media never tires of claiming for itself. On the … Continue reading How to write about Russia
Our last piece “10 damn good reasons why you should NOT study French”, judging from the reactions online, was not well received. The PC thought police, which 24/7 patrols the dangerous dark corners of the net, got at us again for having committed a thought crime one more time. They probably did not read the … Continue reading 10 reasons why YOU SHOULD study Russian
After the incredible popularity (for about 17 minutes everybody on the internet seemed to be talking just about this) that our recent piece “8 reasons NOT to study German” gave us, we decided to double down on it. It is true that we received a lot of hatred too (which seems to be another reason … Continue reading 10 damn good reasons NOT to study French
Russian and Polish, both Slavic languages, share a lot of vocabulary and they are indeed pretty similar, althought they are not really mutually intelligible. There are some words that are particularly tricky, however. Here is a funny list of my favourite Russian-Polish puzzles: чашка — czaszka: in Russian a чашка is where your drink your … Continue reading The Beauty and the Beast: Russian-Polish false friends
Suddenly it looked like nobody was studying anymore languages the way old bores like me used to. No more books, no more writing, no more real classes, no more schools (I have to agree that language classes can be pretty useless sometimes, if your practice is limited to them). It was as if this new way … Continue reading Does the future of language learning belong to language apps?
EAST AND WEST 