tymur levitin

What insults reveal about language, culture, and thinking In Russian and several other Slavic languages, calling someone a ram is a direct insult.It is sharp, personal, and degrading.It implies not only stubbornness, but intellectual blindness — a person who does not think, does not learn, and refuses to understand. In Italian, this logic simply does […]

The Most Dangerous German Word You’ll Never See in a Textbook Some words don’t just sound wrong.They sound like you’re about to be banned from the conversation. Let’s talk about “durchnageln.”A word that might appear in a rap song, in a locker room, or behind the closed doors of an adult film set —but never, […]

Some phrases are short.But the consequences they trigger aren’t. Let’s take one of the most deceptively simple expressions in German — “Scheiß drauf.”You’ll find it everywhere: It seems casual. Fun. A little rebellious.You might even think it’s the German version of “Whatever” or “I don’t care.” But if you say it — especially as a […]

Language doesn’t just describe. It acts.And if you don’t know what kind of action your words trigger — you’re not speaking a language. You’re walking into a trap. Let me tell you a story. It didn’t really happen. Or maybe it did. It happens often enough for me to turn it into a fictional example […]

🔗 Choose your language: https://levitintymur.com/#languages It’s Not About Language. It’s About Understanding. To an outsider, it might look like we’re just chatting. Not a lesson. Not grammar. Not vocabulary. Just some open-ended talk. But the truth is: this is the lesson. Because real teaching doesn’t start with content. It starts with connection. It starts with […]

One small mistake. One big message. 🔗 Choose your language What Students Say. What the World Hears. Every teacher knows this moment:A student says, “You was there yesterday.” Or worse: “What you is?” It’s a small slip.It seems harmless.And most people would just say, “Oops, wrong verb form.” But here’s what I tell my students: […]

An Author’s Column by Tymur Levitin People ask this question constantly — sometimes openly, sometimes silently: When are you ready to teach? Is it when you’re young?When you’re experienced?When you’ve collected enough diplomas, certificates, hours, years? The honest answer is uncomfortable: There is no formula. And that’s exactly why this question matters. Age Is a […]

Before we talk about money as economics, we should admit something uncomfortable:money is first a word, and only then a number. Every culture names its currency, its smallest unit, its “nothing,” its “almost free.”And those names are never neutral. They encode how a society understands value, loss, effort, progress, and scale. This article is not […]

What a Coin Name Reveals About Language, Memory, and Measure Before money becomes a matter of economics, it is a matter of language.Every currency reform begins not with coins, but with words — and words never change neutrally. The recent Ukrainian discussion about replacing kopiika with shah as the name of the smallest monetary unit […]

Where do you feel “at home”?Not where your name is registered. Not the house you bought.But the place — or feeling — where you belong. As a language teacher, I’ve seen students hesitate when translating the word дом or дім. They ask: “Should I say house or home?”And I always reply:“Depends. What do you mean […]