-[Did you know this about Russia_]-[gRjL

Mmm, this is not vodka. Hi everyone, it's Ellie from Russia and I haven't been to Russia for quite a while already. Wherever I go, I will always miss some things about Russia and in this video I want to share what things in particular I miss about Russia. By the way, look what Aussie weather is doing to my skin. I've never had so many freckles. And while traveling and living in different parts of the world, I meet a lot of people who ask me about Russia and sometimes it seems to me that not everyone but many people have a very plain, superficial, media-sculptured-like view of Russia. So, in this video I will share some things that foreign people usually don't know about Russia and probably you don't know as well. Before we start, let me tell you about a service that I've been using myself for more than a year now and which I really like, who is a sponsor of my video today. Lingopi is a fun and natural way to learn a language by watching international TV shows. Almost every morning of mine starts with watching a cartoon named Lupo, wolf in Italian. It's a cartoon so it's an easy vocabulary in Italian for me and it's just seven minutes and when learning a language, you need to make sure that you immerse in the language as often as you can. You can see that I already have nine hours of watching Italian shows and I didn't even notice devoting this time to language learning as it only took me seven minutes but I did it every day. Lingopi offers international content in eight languages. While watching TV shows, you also see scripts of the videos, you can click on the words that you don't understand and get an instant translation, choose speed for the videos, and there is also a feature of dual subtitles. And the latest feature for those who love Netflix! Now you can watch some of the favorite Netflix shows while learning a language. For example, if you're learning Russian, I would really advise you to watch the show named The Romanovs. It's a series about the history of Russia's royal family, the Romanovs, and it's told in such an entertaining way. I was never a fan of history before watching this show so give it a try. And the link in the description of this video will give you seven days free trial for Lingopi and 55% off for the annual plan. Still not vodka. You don't need it to learn Russian. The first thing that foreign people are usually surprised to find out about Russia is diversity. Because many people think that there are only Russians living in Russia but in reality we have more than 190 nationalities and ethnic groups living in Russia. The most populous people is of course Russians. And in Russian we say РУССКИЕ, because the first state that Slavic people formed was named РУСЬ. That's why РУССКИЕ. We have six groups with a number of people more than 1 million people. Russians, Tatar, Chechen, Chuvash, Bashkir, and Avar. I don't know if I'm saying that right in English but it's АВАРЦИ. And more than 190 ethnic groups with a population less than a million people. Some of these ethnic groups are really small with only hundreds of people or even just several people. That's why sometimes it's difficult to explain to foreigners that you can be from Russia but you're not Russian. Every time I have to explain why being from Moscow, Russia, I don't look like Russian. And there are many different ethnicities, so I represent one of these ethnic groups. We actually have two different words for this. РУССКИЕ, those who are ethnically Russian, and РОССИЯНЕ, which is a word for everyone living in Russia, but you can be of another nationality or ethnic group. But we're all РОССИЯНЕ, but in English both words are Russians. That's why when you say it in English, it's more difficult to explain. We're all different in our appearance, culture, traditions. Sometimes even languages are different, but we've been living together for centuries, so we're very used to this diversity. For example, I grew up in two cities, Perm and Ufar are my hometowns, and at school I studied with Russians, Tatars and Bashkirs. I was very used to this. And when I moved to Moscow for university, I studied with Ossetians, Chechens, Yakuts, Chuvash, Udmurts, like so many nationalities and ethnic groups. And in Russia we're so used to this, and usually we always ask a person which region of Russia he is coming from. Let's talk about these ethnic groups in Russia. I'm Russian Tatar, for example. The biggest ethnic minority and indigenous people of Russia are Tatars. And now I came to their biggest annual holiday named Sabantuy. Tatars are spread out all over Russia, but mostly Tatars live in the region Tatarstan. We have 85 federal subjects in the country, and in each region we have different ethnic groups, and in some regions there are two official languages. For example, in Tatarstan it's Russian and Tatar. There are 35 languages that are also official in different regions, 105 languages are used in schools, and overall there are over 200 languages spoken in Russia. There are about 5 million people of my ethnic minority, Tatars, but some minorities are really small. For example, I lived with reindeer herders on Kola Peninsula, and there are less than 2,000 people who belong to an ethnic minority named Sami, but still they have their language, holidays, traditions. Then there is a bigger ethnic minority, which is also in the north of Russia, named Komi, but they have a Komi Republic, which means that they have an official language, Komi, in their republic as well. And if you ask me if I can understand this language when I go to this region, not at all. It's not similar to Russian in any ways. I couldn't even read those letters. The letter U in Komi language. Is it pronounced U? Then in the republic Yakutia, for instance, people use the Sakha language or Yakut language, unless it's some business or official event where they use Russian. Cool. Is there TV in Yakut language? Yes, of course. And newspapers? Yes, of course. Radio, newspapers, TV. Books are also in Yakut language, right? Of course. My husband had an opportunity to move to Japan because of his job. It was very important for me to bring up my children on my native land, so that they understand their belonging to the nation, to their birthplace, so that they have their homeland, you know? That's why we stayed here and we don't regret anything. In Chechnya Republic, mostly people use the Chechen language. And if you go to restaurants or somewhere, you will see inscriptions or menu, for example, in two languages, Russian and Chechen. And of course, if you start speaking Russian to them, they will answer in Russian. In any of this republic, people speak Russian and maybe some other language. So if you meet a Russian, it's most probably that he speaks some other language too. And don't be afraid that you need to learn 200 languages to go to Russia. Russian is enough. They also say that it's cold in Russia, which is such a strange idea. It's weird to generalize such a huge territory by climate. It takes a week by train from Moscow to Vladivostok. So imagine how different the climate is in these cities. You also can't compare weather in the south, like city Sochi and Murmansk, the capital of the Russian Arctic. If we take Sochi region or Caucasus, for example, climate there is pretty mild all year round. But if we take Yakutia, it's the coldest inhabited place on the earth. But even in Yakutia region, summers can get very hot. In winter, it's one of the coldest places in the whole world. In summer, it's very sunny, warm, and can get above 35 degrees Celsius. So when someone says it's cold in Russia, I have many questions to this person. Which time of the year he is talking about? Which region exactly? Anyway, I love that we have all four seasons in Russia. I enjoy each. I do love winters and cold. Believe me, you can have so much fun at minus 30. We are starting! I love Russian winter. I freaking love Russian winter. This is still water, by the way, guys. Foreign people usually say vodka as soon as they hear the word Russia. Well, this is partly true. Russian men do drink a lot, especially we have a problem, I think, in the Russian countryside and villages. And sometimes foreign people tell me that they never got so much drunk in their life as when they were drinking with Russian men. But still, this stereotype is like over the top, because foreign people think that every single Russian drinks vodka. Me personally, I don't like it at all. But when I lived in the US, all my track and field mates would ask me, Ellie, are you drinking vodka when you work out? Well, I'm not angry at them. It's kind of funny. Russia, vodka, stereotype. I guess it's like with pizza and Italians. But don't think that every single Russian loves vodka. I don't like it, so I don't miss vodka. But what I do miss when I live abroad is, of course, Russian food and especially dairy products. I miss them so much. There is such a huge variety of them. First of all, there is kefir, a fermented drink similar to yogurt, but it's sour. This is baked milk. It's milk which had exposure to heat and it has a caramel flavor. By the way, did you know that many dairy products like milk or kefir are sold in bags like this in Russia? Another product that is made of baked milk is ryazhenka, which tastes like unsweetened yogurt with a very mild taste. There is more dairy products from different regions of Russia, like ayran, tan, matsun, katyk. There is sour cream, of course, and a cottage cheese. I just love syrniki. It's Russian cheesecake-like dessert made of cottage cheese. And syrki, which is sweetened cottage cheese in chocolate. It's just so good. Have you ever tried any of these? Also, as you might have already guessed, each ethnic group in Russia also has its own traditional food. And I miss Tatar food so much. For me, it's the best food in the world. Another belief and a saying about Russia, Russians never smile. I think you shouldn't believe this stereotype too much, because in Russian we have a letter L. So we smile sometimes when we say this letter. But partly this stereotype is true, because Russians are coconuts. Well, there is a theory of two different cultures, peaches and coconuts. Peaches are people who are very mild from the outside, the first moment you meet them, they will be very smiling and have this nice small talk from the very beginning. But when you try to become closer to them and become like best friends, you will see that inside they have this hard core, and it's very difficult to build this close relationship. Coconuts, on the other side, have this very hard shell on the outside. So when you meet this person, he will not be very smiling, he will be more closed. But once you get through this hard shell, he will be very mild inside, and you will become such close friends that you can call him at 3 a.m. and complain about your life. And I believe that Russians are true coconuts. But anyway, I believe that both of these cultures are very unique and specific, and I believe that we should get the best out of both. Overall, I love that with globalization we can travel, we can see how different people live, their cultures, and we can adapt the best out of each culture. I've been to more than 25 countries, and I've lived in all the parts of the world except Latin America, and I'm trying to adapt the best out of each place. Also, I wanted to add that when you travel and learn about new cultures, you start to understand your own culture better too, and to appreciate it even more. And I hope that everyone can travel, learn about new cultures, and become more tolerant to people from all over the world. This way countries would only and only collaborate. I hope that you learned something new from this video. I'm very curious, let me know in the comments what information about Russia was new for you, and what information was the most surprising. I can't invite you to travel in Russia now, unfortunately, but on my channel I will continue sharing life and cultures of different regions of Russia, and traveling to remote places. Also, some very unique content. I also travel to places that usual tourists can't go, because I'm a documentary filmmaker for the Russian Geographical Society, so stay tuned. And of course, my view of different countries as a Russian too. See you soon! Пока-пока! Do you believe that this was water this whole time?