June 02, 2021

Internet Writing 101


Internet Writing 101
We Russian Life authors can actually say that, if blogging had been a subject in school, we'd get use out of what we learned. The Russian Life files.

Apparently Russia is backtracking on its previous assertion that blogging isn't a promising career path.

Last week, Russia's Ministry of Education announced that it was considering adding blogging to the curricula of pedagogical universities. The revelation came at a meeting for a society of educators in Nizhny Novgorod, where Sergei Kravstov, minister of education, let it slip.

The program would reportedly focus on online etiquette as well as strategies for effective online writing (and, we assume, how to write nasty Facebook comments and debunk what their grandparents post). After all, noted the minister, more than 90 percent of schoolchildren are on the internet, a number solidified by pandemic restrictions.

In the twenty-first century, knowing how to communicate online is a useful ability. And, as we can attest, blogging is a life-long skill.

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The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
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93 Untranslatable Russian Words

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