21 Comments
Nice! And if my sources are correct, Russian was once taught there as second language. Is it still taught there?
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As far as I’m aware, tea is not usually put in a bowl. This makes me wonder if there’s a better translation of “миска”, if this is a nonsense sentence, or if I’m mistaken about whether tea is commonly put in a bowl.
Edit: I stand corrected. Спасибо, HartzHandia and matscientist.
I know the sentence is weird, but maybe you can suppose someone put a lot of tea in a bowl.
So you understand why they made this sentence, the use of the word миска forced you to stop one second and not just write a cup of tea when the word used is a bowl. That way, you remember bowl and you know if there is the word tea, it is not always followed by the word cup.
The closest thing I can think of to "bowl of tea" in Russian is "пиала чая". Пиала is not a Russian word but many Russians understand it.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0
Maybe the tea wasn't prepared yet! Maybe it's still just a bunch of weed inside a bowl!
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I wondered if that would be possible too! And I also wonder if there might be two words for tea, like tea leaves and prepared tea (as in some languages, there is a word for rice (unprepared) and cooked rice).
it's not you, it's the sentence.. I never heard anyone drink tea from a bowl either".. i even google imaged it lol
it should be "chashka chaya" = cup of tea
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Not as bizarre as the Dutch course yet, though, Olga? Nobody's grandfather is a sheep yet. ;) I really thought I was constantly making mistakes, until I realised my only problem was assuming it should always make sense.
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Go for it! It's easier than Russian, especially if you're an English speaker (pretty closely related), and the course has some really surreal humour. The phrase: "In reality, I am a turtle" springs to mind - although that is probably one of the more straightforward translations. Rhinoceroses crop up a lot, and strange things they're eating. I also had to learn to ask whether something is bear-proof; that'll be useful in The Netherlands!
I can see it now: "Wow you know Dutch? Why Dutch?"
"Because the Duolingo course seemed like it would be utterly insane and hilarious"
"..."
As a follow-up... I ran through a couple of Dutch lessons. (And I mean no offense to any Dutch folks or Dutch speakers)
I haven't even gotten to the surreal humor yet, but the course itself is surreal to a native English speaker. It is SO closely related it's like it's Simlish or pig latin or something. I had no idea it was that similar. So much so that some of the lessons sound like they're either making fun of English speakers or Dutch speakers. It was really interesting and weird and fun.
However, I'm fairly certain that while I could probably fairly easily get to the point where I could read Dutch, and possibly even understand it spoken - I will never, ever be able to speak it.
Ever.
This only depends on where you are from.
In France coffee is drank out of a bowl.
I have a suggestion for the moderators/creators of the course: For each noun in Russian, when you hover over it, you get a translation, just like in any other Duolingo course. However, as we all know, Russian nouns are reflected. So I think nouns should also have their case shown in parenthesis. Ex: "чая" should say "Tea (Nom/Gen/Acc/Dat/Prep/Insr)" because it helps to know the case of the noun. Thanks
I fully agree. Nouns should also denote gender in the hover notes. It would make the learning process more efficient.
As a native speaker I can say "миска" is not a really common word to use , while "тарелка" is much more common. I don't really know why duolingo teaches that so early.
