Topic: Hey ivan! (Read 1481 times)

Wunderkind · « **on:** June 25, 2011, 12:18:50 AM »

We recently hired a new waitress who's only been in the US for a year and a half, she's a legal resident from Russia. Her English is okay, but I have some questions about Russian.

Are there separate identifiers as in English, like 'this' 'that' 'there', or is it all one word like 'desu' in Japanese?

Is the sentence structure similar to English, like noun-verb-object, or is it more like the Asian noun-object-verb?

Is there a way to say "It's okay, the people at that table are just assholes." in Russian? Actually just teach me 'asshole' in Russian. And 'idiot'. Just because I want to know how to say 'idiot' in yet another language.

Just curious to know how specific I need to be and if there's anything I can do to help her understand me better because I speak zero Russian. If I'm running around saying 'put this over there next to that' and she needs me to be more 'put the cup on the counter next to the tea urn', I can just need to know. Also, loving that I'm not the only one in the restaurant asking questions like they're statements anymore. "What can I get for you." Fuck your goddamned questioning tones I'll tell you what I can get for you, bitch!

This is public because every geek needs yet another way to call a person an asshole and an idiot. I'm doing all of you a public service.

ivan · « **Reply #1 on:** June 25, 2011, 06:30:43 PM »

There are identifiers, and they are gender-specific. And they are declined. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_grammar#Demonstrative_pronouns

Russian sentence structure is similar to English, but I think more flexible. You can say either "Put it there" or "There it put". You'd use the second form to emphasize the "there" part.

"Idiot" is идиот. It's the same word, and is used by Russians in the same way with the same frequency as by Americans. In Russian, it's pronounced ee-d'ee-ote. The d is soft. The o is longish, almost as long as in "tote" The stress is on the final syllable. To make it plural, add an ы to the end. That letter is a diphthong that sounds like the i in "ick" with just a hint of an "ee" sound at the end.

Ничего, они просто идиоты.

The first word (pr. N'ee-che-VOH) means "nothing", but has many additional meanings. One of them is close to "It's OK", as in "It's nothing, no big deal". The second word (pr. ah-n'EE) is "they". The third (pr. PRO-stoh) means "simple" or "simply". The last is "idiots".

That's how you'd say, "It's ok, they're just idiots".

You can also just say the last word by itself -- the rest would be implied.

Copy-paste that Russian phrase into Google Translate, and listen to it using the "Listen" button. (By the way, I couldn't get any sound using Firefox 4, but IE worked fine.)

As for "assholes", I'm not sure. Let me think on that.

Wunderkind · « **Reply #2 on:** June 26, 2011, 01:30:09 AM »

Wow. Not a single hairball in the entire sentence.
|>

So it might be easier for her, if I beat-repeat a directive? "There. Put it over there."

I usually end up being the go-to person for anyone who comes in with English as a second language, but Spanish and a handful of Asian languages I'm familiar enough with that I can make English make sense. Russian... yeah, this is a new on me, but everyone is still "Rose, explain this to her" and now she's "Rose, explain this to me". That link is awesome, didn't want to blindly trust wikipedia, but if I can get a handle on what she's translating English into from, I can understand her better (which makes us understand each other better which equals happiness all around - everyone hold hands now and sing with me). All of this is with the added difficulties of working in the South where people talk with heavy accents, quickly, over top of one another, loudly, and without pauses between their words. But that rant goes over in some other forum.

Thanks a bunch!

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Author Topic: Hey ivan! (Read 1481 times)

Wunderkind

Hey ivan!

ivan

Re: Hey ivan!

Wunderkind

Re: Hey ivan!