Learn Russian online: Meeting a Russian girl

Dialog

Podcast

Vocabulary

Closer look

Как дела? – How are things?

Although "Как дела?" is the same as "How are you?" Russians tend to expect a more honest and detailed answer than "Fine". And there should always be an answer, never just a returned "How are you?" Here are a couple of typical reactions if one doesn't want to retell his or her life:

Хорошо´. – All's well.
Норма´льно. – It'll do.
Пло´хо. – Bad.

Russian first names

Let's collect the names we saw in our dialog:

Ю´ля
О´ля
Ма´ша

All these female names are actually short versions of the formal first names:

If you are on informal terms with someone, you will usually use his or her short name. The full form is used in business conversations or as a part of a formal, polite address. 

Grammar

No "to be" in the Present tense

Have a look at these sentences once again:

Как дела´? – How are things?
Наве´рное, Юля. – It's probably Yulya.
Ты дура´к. – You are an idiot.

In Russian, we never use a link verb ("to be") in the Present tense, only in Past and Future tenses. In Present tense, it's just: "You – idiot." "How things?" etc. 

"Как тебя зовут?"

When we say "What's your name?" – "My name is…" in Russian, we literally mean: "How do they call you" – "They call me…" and in this case personal pronouns "я" (I), "ты" (you) et al. change their form:

Как тебя´ зову´т? – "How [do they] call you?"
Меня´ зову´т Ма´ша. – My name is Masha (=[They] call me Masha).

Advanced:

In the table, you see how other singular personal pronouns look in "Как тебя зовут?" соnstruction:

Cultural Tips

May we get acquainted?

"Hello, my name is…" is the first thing one learns in any new language, but what is one supposed to do with this phrase?

Let's imagine that you want to get acquainted with a nice person. On one hand, it would be pretty weird to begin with "Hello, what's up, what is your name?" like the character of our dialog did. On the other hand, there are indeed no specifically Russian pick-up lines that will immediately warm up those acclaimed long-legged beauties or nice chaps to you. The only typical phrase is: "Мо´жно с ва´ми познако´миться?" – "May I get acquainted to you?" It is a bit trite, but still useful.

As usual, it's better to look for some clever, or better, naturally occurring pretexts, or to be introduced to a person by someone else. After the first barrier is taken, it's good to remember some general rules of Russian introduction rituals, like:

Introduction advice

Usually, you don't shake hands with a woman: It's against the etiquette if she doesn't initiate it herself. Which in Russia she almost never does, unless it's a business meeting where hand-shaking takes place regardless of gender.

A cheek-kiss is not impossible, but not every woman will like it. Also, there is this eternal question about how many times you're supposed to kiss each other. Each cheek once (or rather a region somewhere next to your ear) is acceptable, but then, suddenly, somebody will remember that it's a Russian tradition to kiss three times, which can lead to all sorts of confusion.

A hand-kiss is traditional, but you'd better leave it to suave older folks. And by the way, a nice smile can do wonders without any physical exertions: Russians are by nature not very smiling people, so it's a good way to surprise them in a most pleasant way.

Useful links:

Dating sites are quite popular in Russia. Here are the three most famous of them:

Mamba

Loveplanet

Dating

To find their significant other, some people also use Vkontakte - the Russian version of Facebook.