Russian Lessons

As you can see, Chris and I have undertaken an enthusiastic embrace of Caucasian culture since arriving here. When we first arrived in Baku, I even used to wag my tail when meeting new people, and tell them “Hey, guess what, I’m learning Russian!”

The reply was usually “So what?”

From Russians, this means “…of course you are, it’s the best language in the world (…and you suck at it…)”

From Azeri’s and Georgians it means “…why (the hell) aren’t you learning our language?”

Part of this Russian endeavour was so that I could speak to our driver (whose English really does suck). He is honest though. For example he was late for work one morning and sent us the following text:

“I am no qud. Kenay Kamin 10-oklok? B, Koz I biq dirink vodka in vedink”

Despite my best efforts, over two years, I’d made virtually no progress with him. A few months ago Chris’s pal, who speaks fluent Russian, told me that our driver doesn’t actually speak Russian.