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This article considers the sphere of linguistic humour, specifically the linguistic structure of the so-called ‘chernomyrdinki’. Chernomyrdinki are written fixations of spontaneous oral statements by Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, a Soviet and post-Soviet statesman (1938–2010), which have become aphorisms. Chernomyrdinki are regularly reproduced and have not lost their popularity. Chernomyrdinki are, for the most part, Chernomyrdin’s spontaneous reactions to typical questions from journalists. The task of this study is to show that the not fully conscious, spontaneous statements by V. Chernomyrdin and the speech of Mikhail Zoshchenko’s heroes, deliberately constructed by the author in the course of the creative process, have much in common in their techniques of the comic and are at times identical. This study is based on the classification of “humour” in the speech of the heroes of M. Zoshchenko, developed by Mikhail Kreps.

As in any human action, motivation is playing a key role in learning foreign languages. There are different types of motivation – one of them is curiosity. Curiosity is one of the strongest motivators, since it is based in the human character. Psychologists call curiosity the core of motivation. In my paper I will address a new learning technique, which consists of two didactic concepts at the same time: Learning by teaching and subject orientated learning. Subject orientated learning means the combination of a specific content to be learnt and a given person.