(no subject)

[kittydesade]

Russian has two "asking" verbs: спрашивать/спросить-to inquire, to ask a question, and просить/попросить- to request (note "proposition", heh.), to ask for a favor.

Мы спросили друга, как он чувствует себя. We asked our friend how he felt.
Он сказал, что ему плохо, и он пропросил нас купить ему лекарство. He said he felt bad and asked us to buy him some medicine.
Сосед по комнате спросил, есть ли у тебя все учебники. Your roommate asked if (whether) you have all your textbooks.
Сосед по комнате попросил нас передать тебе учебники. Your roommate asked us to pass along your textbooks.

спрашивать: спрашиваю, спрашиваешь, спрашивает, спрашиваем, спрашиваете, спрашивают
спросить: спрошу, спросишь, спросит, спросим, спросите, спросят
просить: прошу, просишь, просит, просим, просите, просят
попросить: пропошу, пропосишь, пропосит, пропосим, пропосите, пропосят

The verb просить/по-, like the verb хотеть, can be used with a чтобы clause since one person is asking someone else to do something. Unlike the other verbs that express requests, the verb просить/по- can also take an infinitive. The following pairs of Russian sentences have the same meaning.

Врач пропосил меня не курить. Врач пропосил, чтобы я не курил(а). The doctor asked me not to smoke.
Катя просит подругу позвонить. Катя просит подругу, чтобы она позвонила. Katya asks her friend to call.
Мы попросим соседа нам помочь. Мы попросим, чтобы сосед нам помог. We'll ask our neighbor to help us.

With other verbs expressing requests, you cannot use an infinitive. You can only use чтобы.

Врач сказал, чтобы я не курил. The doctor told me not to smoke.

1. Зине плохо. Она пропосила мужа вызвать врача. Муж спросил, что у неё болит.
2. Врач всегда спрашивает о здоровье. Он просит всех заниматься спортом, не курить и правильно есть.
3. Если я завтра не почувствую себя лучше, я попрошу врача выписать мне лекарство. Она, наверное, будет спрашивать, какая у меня температура.
4. Эд упал и сломал ногу. Он лежит в больнице. Оксана его спрашивает, что случилось.
5. Эд упал и смолал ногу. Он лежит в больнице. Сосед по комнате попросил, чтобы Оксана передала ему учебники.


In retrospect, I really should have just moved on to the next book of Japanese. Rrgh. Other life lessons learned over the past few days? Pike 90s make crunches so goddamn much easier. Ooh. New plan. Start the new (ish) Japanese book tonight, then make time over the weekend to review the problematic stuff left in the old book. Maybe that'll work better. And I can ponder why reviewing for long periods of time bores me to the point of massive belligerence. Learning psychology how do you work.

I'm actually managing to both make a whistle quiver and remember to blog pretty frequently. This is a minor miracle. I even uploaded a picture to the blog for my profile picture, for a profile picture that's more relevant than my usual one. The whistle quiver is almost half done, and pretty soon there will be pictures of that as well. Or at least, it's almost done bar the strap. I have yet to figure out what I'm doing as far as straps go for it. Internets, help me decide! Do I do a giant macrame friendship bracelet type thing, or do I just cut a longish strip of leather or cloth and sew it on? Do I embellish it or do I keep it plain? I could use shaker tape, I guess. Help!

And now, I bring you a scene from last night's guitar playing, and a bizarre example of why I'm much kinder on myself when I'm not talking to myself in my own voice.

Me: PLAY ALL THE THINGS.
Amber (Also-Me): Start with your scales.
Me: Awww...
Amber: Scale practice is good for you. Here, we'll start with a C blues scale. Yes. That's good, you're getting better. One more time. Now go to a D, I know you hate it, but try.
Me: *plays her scales like a good girl*
Amber: See? You are getting better. So there. Now let's try some chords. Remember your posture.
Me: *plays chords*
Amber: Start with your As. A, Am, A7, do you remember A7? Okay, do that again. And again. And we'll skip B for now and move on to C. Look, C7 is easy. So we'll do that three more times, and then do just the As and the Cs...

I swear, I'm a lot nicer to myself when I'm not talking to myself in my own voice, when I'm using a character to do it. Admittedly, she's written to be a coach and music teacher and so on, but it's kind of funny. That said, I managed the first four or so lines of Somebody to love almost at speed last night, and the biggest reason why it wasn't at speed was because I was trying to play quietly so the boy wouldn't wake up. And that said, ow my goddamn fingertips.

I also have this urge to make jewelry out of guitar picks.

Right. Lunch, work, too many damn projects, but at least the sample's almost knit. Then I go back to friendship bracelet samples, and dick around with my whistle case. Today looks at least relatively light in terms of incoming, despite the deceptively large number of boxes. Maybe I can kick my own dumb ass into doing the filing I so desperately need to do. Heh. Probably not.