Kris and I by no means learned how to speak Russian before we embarked upon our whirlwind trip to the motherland. I studied the Cyrillic alphabet over and over before our first trip. I figured I may not be able to pronounce the words, but at least I would be able to transliterate them (take the letters from Russian and change them to English). Come to find out, a lot of the words in Russian are actually English words, just written in Cyrillic! It became a game for me; I got so excited when I was able to actually read a sign, and even more so when the word I was translating turned out to be an English word!
A few key phrases that we did learn to butcher, I mean, to say were: Hello (privyet - means "hi") & good bye (easy version - paka paka); please (pazhalsta) & thank you (spasiba); yes (da) & no (nyet) (we know this one very well now, thanks to our oh so sweet toddler!); and so forth.
Below are a few of the other words we learned to recognize & say. After the picture will be the Russian (transliterated) word, then the word in English, then the word according to the Johnsons! After being in a foreign country for so long, not understanding much around us, we got a bit silly and made up little things to keep us occupied! Plus - it's just kinda fun & making things up to go along with the words really helped us to learn better.
Russian: Apteka
English: Apothecary/Pharmacy
Johnsons: Alpha Pi Teka (the second letter in the word "Apteka" is a "p" and to me it looks like the "pi" symbol.) This became one of our "sororities"...like I said - we got a bit silly! The Alpha Pi Teka's are the sisters to the Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon's you'll meet a few pictures down. They're the "good" girls.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKh8fZzneKSJ_non2OELrzd8v9RNJuUGXykWqqpmbKNAskZqWQ7hvW6K2CGIMKuGTaNLqiMfRy0jvWoW1t4WuaLm0mDQZAk9YJq7f41TQWgCl5Ot4sZCFpFjPAiW023vUhxZJBHKQJJJp/s200/bar+cafe.jpg)
Russian: First word: Bar; Second word: Kafe
English: First word: Bar; Second word: Cafe
Johnsons: 1st - Bap; 2nd - kappa alpha boobs epsilon
Explanation: It's kinda fun to really butcher a language, even thou one knows the proper pronunciation sometimes. This was one of our faves...Bap! It's more fun to say "lets go to a bap tonite", than to a bar! Now the second "Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon", well, that was the "fraternity" that got it all started! When I was learning the Cyrillic alphabet, the way I learned the letter "f" was to call it a "stick with boobs", thus the fraternity had it's beginning. The guys in the Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon house, we decided, were the good guys; the jocks; the ones everyone wanted to hang out with (brothers to the Alpha Pi Teka's). (we had a lot of spare time on our hands while we were awaiting our little one!)
Russian: Vodka
English: Vodka
Johnsons: Bodka (gotta butcher this one...and it's best to say with a deep Russian accent)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibayiP7nFnJSG9O0T9m18DfqWGdtWeRYbeOovVMNRavMETEVHKdvY6d2c7kDjB63XPN7fGIKYXgpmQAHFCErTgh0NmTXjQaGmXDyKNTEOs2Wh9-uQdy8wRdaV289wyFwlxVRMZ_24Q24I2/s200/cankt+peterburg.jpg)
Russian: Cankt Peterburg
English: Saint Petersburg
Johnsons: Cankt Peterburg (butchering, again, but this word was a must to learn, seeing as thou that was the city we spent the majority of our 3+ weeks as transplants)
Russian: Kassa
English: Cashier
Johnsons: Well...use your imagination as to how we said this one! :) (think back to "Peter" and "Mockba" bellies!)
Russian: Carl's Jr
English: Carl's Jr
Johnsons: Kris' burger joint (he said it tasted pretty much like any old US burger...I took his word for it!)
Russian: Vihod
English: Exit
Johnsons: Enter (nothing too exciting about that one)
Russian: Vhod
English: Entrance
Johnsons: The Beta Chi Ode's (the last letter in the word is a "d" - to me it looks like a "house" and the Russian word for house is "dom", so we referred to the letter "d" as the "house".) (This was our second sorority, and the sisters to the fratboys of C T O Pi...yet to come. They were the more rowdy girls on campus.)
Russian: STOP
English: STOP
Johnsons: C T O Pi's (This was our 2nd fraternity - they are the guys you would drink & party with and most likely get into trouble with on campus)
Russian: Makdonalds
English: McDonald's
Johnsons: Mc Households (see above re: the explanation of the letter "d"; McD's is a "household name", even in Russia, so it just makes sense!)
Random Words to Know When Traveling to Russia:
Russian: Bank
English: Bank
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmTrMjwUMIPd7H_tcuVTqvuFxkRxRF6qugy8LXzFYKsmo4QlHarO4ajWnzcd1rMSdn8nvCRJkrOYpl4Y7Wiaf35BSzryMp9fIqSXPDWwI2dXISY174MTdqxT_xhlMNMH3zXCEQRPKxCY_/s200/russian+words+006.jpg)
Russian: Supermarket
English: Supermarket
Johnsons: The Cypermapket (it's just more fun to say it that way!)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5dYAi8DpJrC-cV1rQbCtXejmepoclCoTzNJPogX3RJTSt0reboX1yrIwS0V6tCPFkOKuW-qrYcl0TcVLM4Qr2XPPjw1Mqfimkan0w7Ku4kbfx_UhKvJNf1IU2f2eRyIt2n8b13elcQlZ/s200/megaphone.jpg)
Russian: Megafon
English: Megaphone
Johnsons: Megaphone...this was our cell phone service provider, so we thought it was fitting to have a picture of the advert.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO3Cqpq3GnfoJItV4RzFwqeRQzpgCl2JpB_1y2Iq6v-gySy15pn3kMFqSRAOk7oUYYj_6AD6afJQ_s9hzlSYBjPCoMy3LxeeIyr8H8uFUDhcJSdDy-LQvq8HlThH74MdkER2m5yoWwp2tW/s200/mockba+sign.jpg)
Russian: Moskva
English: Moscow
Johnsons: Mockba (again, we enjoyed butchering the language!)
Russian: Akva Minerale (name brand of the water) (Boda = Water)
English: Bottled Water
Johnsons: Much needed staple to avoid both "Peter" and "Mockba" Bellies
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMIQ8oL66g1IYFslYiRCwzRNXj6dKlDDNIJrFrwybQUavXRBqCm_l4Amm0dbhXHnvGjY6txGuT7MtpQX-d_Acxmm9pOdxCjsY0O8yUJBAXg5bTUDIpYY493PdI4qWPjZaWG8uHNZqKO4z/s200/restaurant.jpg)
Russian: Restoran
English: Restaurant
Johnsons: Pectopah (literal translation...aka butchering)
A Few Pectopah's to note...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-HBswxH2cef3gLC1GCYriUfKOeBZzaAvZ8n93otnFLrZxNfEoN3rBENS3kkKx8ccw24YWM50ZZ2679r1qJcKJEOxRKGAkMTCN4ekpDpS45DE8EgUJIpwAmGeXeu91eZeryh7MFyCVHbfn/s200/russian+words+013.jpg)
Subway
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWuBGbezjvIQvVG7Bvry_hfteLFYHkDy9siphPKq0MiJmeCt9oo4-hK33uDscdc-4aUfgi4WgPWh_YOEYLbBPvdFv1FkkijllyM9veNfNcwMR-VVK1QiFtVoNDQbps0-re8iXOZYbBXpW7/s200/russian+words+024.jpg)
Sbarro
TGI Friday's
Starbuks Kofe
English: Starbuck's Coffee
Johnsons: Lifesaver; nectar of the Gods; yummy; etc
And last but not least, the place we all need to visit at least once a day...
Russian:
Russian: Tualet
English: Toilet
Hope you all enjoyed our little lesson of the Russian Language! I'd have to say, reading signs here in the US is a much easier task, althou, not as fun!