I’ve been sleeping my way through this morning. Tired and confused, I just woke up on a domestic flight half-way between Moscow and Murmansk.
(Eating oyster till 2am isn’t wise when you have get up at 5 to catch an early plane, but who can resist when it’s ready and served?)
I grabbed the Aeroflot magazine from the seat pocket in front of me, just scanning through it, looking at the pictures. I don’t understand Russian, unfortunately. Long time ago I wanted to learn it, to read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in Russian. I gave it up. It’s too damn hard.
I got as far as to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. That’s easy, and it’s convenient to be able to read signs with street names and stuff like that. There are all these s-like letters (pronounced sh- and ch- and tch- and ts- and so on) that I never get control on. Bit except from that, the Cyrillic alphabet is basically a mix of the Latin and the Greek (I know the Greek letters because they are frequently used as mathematical symbols, pi and phi and delta and so on).
The English dictionaries (Webster and Oxford unabridged) are big, no doubt, but the Russian dictionaries are even bigger. Rich languages, with lots of synonyms and many words of slightly different meanings, give big dictionaries. The Nordic languages are simple in comparison; few words and easy grammar (some local dialects are exceptions).
The number of letters in each word is another issue. Right in front of me I have this sign which says, in Russian and in English:
“Fasten seat belt while seated”
“Life vest under your seat”
I suppose it’s the same meaning, in both languages. Counting the total number of letters, I find:
English version: 25+21=46 letters
Russian version: 43+44=87 letters
No wonder the Russian dictionaries become big
(In the picture above you can check my figures. I took it using myu cell phone, in flight mode of course. Sorry about the poor picture quality.)
i can't help but think oyster is a euphemism here, but maybe that's because i could easily resist oysters. :)
ReplyDeletei took a russian film course in college and was jealous of all the russian kids in the class who didn't have to read the subtitles, they'd always know what was going on a moment before i would. so i briefly wanted to learn russian too.
you fluently speak more than one language right? i always like to ask people with that ability how they think...meaning are your thoughts formed in one language or the other, or are they just thoughts and you can't really describe what language they are in? i can elaborate if i'm not making sense, it's just something that intrigues me.
When we were in Croatia we went to an opera in the beautiful Zagreb Opera House and they had those ticker tape screens above the stage. The opera was in French, and the ticker tape had the English and Croatian sub titles. I tried to correlate the two languages and also found it impossible. The Russian language looks just as complicated to learn as the Croatian language.
ReplyDeleteBTW - I could *easily* resist oysters at any time of the day. Like lentils and snails and sushi, oyster will not pass my lips! :)
Judy, South Africa
Try Chinese, it's easy to recognise. *wink*
ReplyDeleteChemical Fusion
I've always wanted to speak a second language. In high school, I took Spanish. In college, I took French. I can speak English. The other two, not so much. You'd think since I live in Texas that I would have lots of opportunity to practice Spanish, but I don't. And that, I think, is the key. You have to practice the language.
ReplyDeleteI've heard Russian is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Chinese is difficult as well - there's over a thousand symbols.
ReplyDeleteid: You're right about the oysters. I think in both my my native language and in English, but it depends on the context. When writing English, I think in English, and usually when I'm doing science stuff I think in English, since it's quite international. All the science books and journals are in English, and in many cases I only know the international/English terms.
ReplyDeleteJudy: I was in Zagreb many years ago, before the split-up of Yugoslavia. Nice city. I'm a bg fan of opera, in particular Italian opera, in addition to my addiction to heavy metal >:)
Enid: China is one of the countries I would really like to visit. Hope I get the chance to go there some time. In China I would probably become completely illiterate. Maybe you can come along to be my translator >;)
Helen: Yes, that's true. You need to practise to keep language skills alive. I'm starting to pick up some Russian phrases now; the simple stuff, like "hello", "goodbye" and "cheers".
Alex: Yes, Russian is damn difficult, but it's at least expressed in terms of an alphabet. Chinese looks impossible to me.
Interesting about the dictionaries--since my brother-in-law is from Nordic descent, I'm going to take great pleasure in pointing out to him how simple the language is. He's American but still hasn't mastered the English language. Too much dope during the formative years.
ReplyDeleteOysters, accompanied by a cold lager, are irresistible. ;)
Jayne: Nordic languages have a simple grammar, no complicated casuses, same conjugation in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person. The special thing is that definite article is put at the end of the noun rather than before. Many words are similar to the English counterpart. Very easy >:)
ReplyDelete