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Ohhh, *now* I get it....
Sep. 15th, 2008 11:35 amI am, I must admit, learning more French and Russian than I am learning Chinese, over here.
Because, of course, I spend 8-10 hours a day working with Quebecois and Russians. And the Quebecois mostly speak good English, but are happy to speak French to me. And the russians, of course, mostly pretend not to speak English at all.
So I've picked up a few phrases, and forgotten more, but now that I'm back on day crew, I'm working with Sasha[0], so I can get her to start really teaching me Russian. Which is one good way to remember - practice practice practice. But the other thing that helps, of course, is little mnemonics. The russian for "How are you?", for example, I can only remember because it sounds like "Cock delight". Except without the "t" sound at the end. "Cock Delah", kinda. I didn't say they were *great* mnemonics. but they work.
So today I learned the russian for "I'm fine". I already knew "normana", which is a generic "good", or "OK", but "Fine" is "horesha" (and all you Russian speakers are cringing at my transliterations, but a) I don't know the Cyrillic, and b) if I did, no-one else would get it anyway). So I was trying to come up with a mnemonic for "horesha", and it occurred to me, it kinda sounds like "horrorshow".
Lightbulb.
"Odd bits of old rhyming slang; a bit of gypsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav propaganda. Subliminal penetration." If I have to explain, you wouldn't get it.
Next time I see Shurik, I'm going to call him Droog, and try not to laugh hysterically :)
jai.
.
[0]This Sasha is a female rigger. Sasha is the most popular short form of Alexander/Alexandra, which means a hell of a lot of Russians are called Sasha. Of the 5 catchers in the aerial act, 3 are called Sasha. Actually, 2 are called Sanyok and 1 is called Shurik [1], because otherwise they'd all be called Sasha, but they all answer to Sasha. Anastasya, of course, answers to Nastya. But then, she would.
[1] I'm not sure if everyone calls him Shurik. I do, and he answers, but it really does translate as "Little Sasha". And he's 6'6" and a fucking aerial catcher. He is not a small man. I called him Shurik at the Gala premier in front of the hot russian babes who seem to materialise out of thin air for these events, and they all giggled behind their hands a lot. Megan says Sasha[2] calls him Shurik too, but I don't know if they all adopted that because they find it hilarious that I call him Shurik, or if I lucked out and independently came up with the same joke.
[2] Both of them, probably.
Because, of course, I spend 8-10 hours a day working with Quebecois and Russians. And the Quebecois mostly speak good English, but are happy to speak French to me. And the russians, of course, mostly pretend not to speak English at all.
So I've picked up a few phrases, and forgotten more, but now that I'm back on day crew, I'm working with Sasha[0], so I can get her to start really teaching me Russian. Which is one good way to remember - practice practice practice. But the other thing that helps, of course, is little mnemonics. The russian for "How are you?", for example, I can only remember because it sounds like "Cock delight". Except without the "t" sound at the end. "Cock Delah", kinda. I didn't say they were *great* mnemonics. but they work.
So today I learned the russian for "I'm fine". I already knew "normana", which is a generic "good", or "OK", but "Fine" is "horesha" (and all you Russian speakers are cringing at my transliterations, but a) I don't know the Cyrillic, and b) if I did, no-one else would get it anyway). So I was trying to come up with a mnemonic for "horesha", and it occurred to me, it kinda sounds like "horrorshow".
Lightbulb.
"Odd bits of old rhyming slang; a bit of gypsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav propaganda. Subliminal penetration." If I have to explain, you wouldn't get it.
Next time I see Shurik, I'm going to call him Droog, and try not to laugh hysterically :)
jai.
.
[0]This Sasha is a female rigger. Sasha is the most popular short form of Alexander/Alexandra, which means a hell of a lot of Russians are called Sasha. Of the 5 catchers in the aerial act, 3 are called Sasha. Actually, 2 are called Sanyok and 1 is called Shurik [1], because otherwise they'd all be called Sasha, but they all answer to Sasha. Anastasya, of course, answers to Nastya. But then, she would.
[1] I'm not sure if everyone calls him Shurik. I do, and he answers, but it really does translate as "Little Sasha". And he's 6'6" and a fucking aerial catcher. He is not a small man. I called him Shurik at the Gala premier in front of the hot russian babes who seem to materialise out of thin air for these events, and they all giggled behind their hands a lot. Megan says Sasha[2] calls him Shurik too, but I don't know if they all adopted that because they find it hilarious that I call him Shurik, or if I lucked out and independently came up with the same joke.
[2] Both of them, probably.