podcast #2: putinology and don’t exaggerate on your resume

In this week’s podcast, the focus is on the Russian language.  There are those names of leaders: Putin, Stalin, Medvedev. They all mean – or at least connote – concrete things to Russians. (A lot of non-Russians, btw, have great trouble pronouncing Medvedev. ) Then we enter the linguistic world of outgoing president Vladimir Putin. The man likes to juice up his rhetoric with a mix of 19th century Russian poetry and hardcore street talk.  We end with the confessions of a hopelessly unqualified Israeli government speechwriter whose exaggerated claim of fluency in French is tested at the highest diplomatic levels.  Listen to the cast in iTunes or  here.