Собаки в поэзии Есенина

1. С. Есенин, «Да! Теперь решено. Без возврата…» (1922):

   Старый пес мой давно издох.

2. «Собаке Качалова» (1925):

   Дай, Джим, на счастье лапу мне.

Литературно-поэтические параллели: Хармс vs. Лермонтов

1. М. Лермонтов, «Бородино» (1837):
   1. оригинальная орѳографія:

      У нашихъ ушки на макушкѣ!
      <…>
      Драгуны съ конскими хвостами…

   2. новая орфография:

      У наших ушки на макушке!
      <…>
      Драгуны с конскими хвостами…

2. Д. Хармс, «Кораблик» (1940):

   У них ушки на макушке,
   У них длинные хвосты…

Funny English learning resources for post-Soviet people

As far as we know, in the Soviet Union, common popular English learning (studying) & teaching methodics were probably NOT meant to result in good English fluency ;-)

Here follows a quick list of sometimes useful, sometimes funny at least, English learning resources (mostly targeted at post-Soviet students with good Russian language and bad English knowledge, but sometimes would be interesting for other audiences too).

1. Анекдот [an anecdote in Russian; probably comes from the 1990s].
   

   Пособие по английскому языку для "новых русских".
   Неопределенный артикль "a (an)" переводится на русский как "типа",
   а определенный артикль "the" — как "конкретно".

2. Учебник английского языка | Журнал Esquire.ru (a funny article about incorrect Russian-English phrases, with illustrations).
3. A Russian Course by Lipson & Molinski (an old American textbook for American students learning Russian language, known for its surrealistic, absurdist, grotesque, humorous or satyrical portrayal of the Soviet Russia reality).
4. Essential English for Foreign Students by Eckersley (an old, but funny British English textbook).
5. English Grammar in Use by Murphy (a British English grammar textbook, not really funny actually).
6. Dictionaries.
   1. Wiktionary (a freely editable [or vandalizable?] dictionary; a sister project to Wikipedia etc.)
   2. Urban Dictionary (an online English slang dictionary; sometimes hardcore & NSFW, sorry).
   3. Merriam-Webster (American English; see Wikipedia).
   4. Cambridge Dictionary (certainly a British one).
7. English corpora.
   1. British National Corpus (BNC).
   2. Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).
8. Stack Exchange (daughter projects).
   
   1. English Language Learners.
   2. English Language & Usage.
9. To be continued…

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Last updated: 2019-09-27

Books: A Russian Course by Lipson & Molinski

Somewhat weird Cold War era US textbook to learn Russian language for English speakers: it's full of surrealist humor, hyperbolising Soviet Communist realities. Allegedly, it has got a cult following.

External links:

• Учебник русского языка для американцев (Липсон и Молински) - NetLore (a review in Russian)
• Alexander Lipson. A Russian Course (a full scan of the 1977 version in DjVu format)

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Last updated: 2019-04-24