Pointless Chatter

The Russians don't do small talk and find it wastes precious time. Indeed, I am a champion at small talk and filling silences and so I'm sure the Russians will think me a fritterer. We have a book called 'Living in Moscow' which is basically a bible for expats here and I must admit - the section on Russian personalities is very interesting. Having been through Stalinist Russia and just about come out the other side, the general Russian is not quick to trust - hence the seemingly unfriendly disposition. They also speak to each other very close up - again harping back to the days where you never knew who was listening - the whole 'talk cost lives' concept. This also applies to the telephone - as a Russian would prefer to talk about private matters in person and you will often here them say, 'this is not a telephone conversation.' All very cloak and dagger -

To tell you the truth, I have been amazed at how kind they have been on the Metro and helping me with the steps. Graeme told some of his Russian work colleagues this and they were all genuinely quite shocked that people had helped me. Oh well, maybe it's the look of desperation on my face. I keep smiling at people and getting no response but I shall keep smiling and one day I shall get a nice surprise when someone beams back! When you look at recent Russian history then it is very easy to understand why they are like they are and I don't mind at all. I like the moody thing - reminds me of myself when I'm not getting my own way. I'm hoping that some of the Russian directness will rub off on me as I've always needed this skill. This helps with the language too as you can say 'pass salt' rather than 'can you please pass the salt...blahdy blahdy blah' - I think we are getting a Russian tutor soon - I've been looking in my book and have decided that this really is quite a tricky language - not only does each noun have six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental and locative and a little bit of vocative - okay, seven cases) but it also has 3 genders - masc, fem, neuter, adjectives have to agree with their corresponding noun. Also, just to make matters slightly worse (can it be worse?) although verbs only have the three basic tenses - past, future, present - they use a feature called aspect to express particular shades of meaning AND the Russian verb has 5 moods and 4 voices.....holy bonanza, that's going to be easy then seeing as I don't even know what that means. They say that unless you learn how to manipulate the grammar properly then it is most likely that a Russian will not understand a thing you are saying...oh excellent. I think I will be sticking to the point and one word system - how much more direct could I get - seems I am slightly more Russian than I thought.

Went to a meeting of the BWC (British Women's club) today at the British Embassy. All very good and have become member. I have learnt lots of useful information and there is a lovely lady there who actually speaks Russian and so she has said that she will translate websites for me - marvellous! The British embassy is huge and all glass - very swanky. No jobs going there at the moment and so I will have to wait for one to appear and then apply if it something within my realm of expertise...mmmm, might be waiting a long time then. Anyway, I'm off to go and measure one of the flats to see if our bed can fit in one of the rooms even though our container of furniture and things is still in Britain...great. Tomorrow I'm attending a group called 'classical music for babies'  - an orchestra plays lovely melodies to the babies and then they allow the babies to handle the instruments....oh god, watch this space for Arthur having been banned for pulling a violin apart...