I'm a journalist as well, although for the past 8 years I've mostly just translated stuff. If you feel bored enough, we can send some messages :)

Hi Kate please accept my request.

Hi can we be a Friend?

Hey - maybe! I like the sound of Tomsk- it has a nice ring to it.

hiiiii kate..
thanks for the reply dear
well its getting late....
so perhaps..there'll be other time, where we can share news on daily, right
so have a wonderful day,sweet, cute lady

o hiii there, pretty Kate
thank you for visiting, dear
well wishing you here...a bless night
have a wonderful time, young friend

Hello
Thanks for the visit

hi my beautiflu

Hello Kate:

Thanks very much for your detailed explanation! Your explanation is probably the best yet that I've read; it's so good that it almost, just almost, made me understand how to use 'есть' properly :)))))))

No, your English isn't pidgin:) I think it's pretty good, and I have no trouble understanding your writing :)

"Russian is very variable language."
By variable I assume you mean flexible. That's a rather good point you made. In my relatively short time of getting acquainted with your language, I did in fact notice Russian is somewhat less strict in its sentence construction than, for example, German, which is fanatically rule-driven. Every German sentence seems to have to obey a set of mathematical formulas for it to be considered acceptable :)

When it comes to flexibility, I think Chinese also has quite a bit of it, perhaps even more so than Russian. But that's just my own (biased) opinion, myself being a native speaker.

Another interesting thing about Russian, which I just discovered, is that there seems to be some tie to the Japanese language, which to me was totally unexpected. I started compiling a list of words that are very similar in Russian and in Japanese, and I hope to add more to the list as my Russian vocabulary grows :)

I understand you're a journalist, and therefore must spend a good deal of time writing stuff - good quality stuff, of course :) I would imagine you have a more acute sense of the nuances hidden in words and phrases, than the average person. That means you could make a good Russian language teacher :))) Have you in fact received special training in linguistics?

Cheers,
Chin.

P.S. Any time you have questions about the use of English 'articles', feel free to ask :)

P.P.S. I also sent a copy of this to your Inbox:)

Hello Kate:

I'm now 6 weeks into my study of the Russian language. As I discovered rather unpleasantly, Russian is the language that has difficult grammar! ( Hahaha... Please forgive my sarcastic sense of humor:)))
But I'm sure we'll both agree: grammar is a difficult thing for anyone learning ANY foreign language:)

English 'articles'. Of course it's always good to use the article if you're emphatic about something. Other than that there's no hard and fast rule when one should use it. You'll know its proper usage once you've read and listened to enough English:)

Similar thing happened in my study of Russian:

У меня есть борода.
У него (X есть X) приятный голос.
У нас есть большая квартира.
У неё (X есть X) выходной.

No one can tell me what the rules are for when to use "есть" and when not to use it. lol.

Have fun!