World quilt help

On 25 May 2004 05:44:42 -0700, (Adviser N1)
wrote:

Dear Bogus,

If you meant a future passive subjunctive for the Russian verb "to
go",
this form exists, but... the meaning of it in Russian is such, that
I cannot cite it in a forum where so much women.
Literally it is: "menya bi poshli" which is not used in Russian.
There is a little alterated form: "menya bi poslali" (I would be
sent).
Where to? (!!!) It's a problem [ ;-) ].
Sorry, I cannot explain it (sure, if the women would close
their eyes, and would not read, "where to" somebody would be gone
(sent)).
I suppose that men has already guessed "where to" somebody is intended
to be sent [ ;-) ].
Though, "menya bi poslali kupit' piva" ( I would be sent to buy
some beer )
sounds absolutely virginal. But, again, the expression "menya bi
poslali"
without following adverbial modifier of place is always comprehended
in a Russian conversation as an oath.

Andrew

Direct contact: http://www.megaone.com/scientist45/contact.html

How funny! Though my brain is tired now. I had the oral exam today
-- it seemed to pass quickly. Just 20 minutes of part a) general
conversation and part b) extemporary translations, with me as the
translator between the two examiners. All the way back to Dundee, all
I could think about were my mistakes.
Believe me, I could use a piva now.


-- Jo in Scotland

On Mon, 24 May 2004 14:31:38 -0400, (Denise G.)
wrote:

Jo, I've followed with interest the reports of your Russian language
tests, but I guess I missed the reason for the exams and your upcoming
move to Russia. Could you fill me in?

I crave adventure. Life in western Europe or north America is nice
and safe, and hence a bit static. We have not suffered the way the
Russians have; it makes them very interesting. I am ready for more
excitement in my life, and I want to improve my Russian. So I've been
taking a postgraduate Russian language course since October, and will
go to Russia in August to work for a year as an English teacher. I
did think my Russian would be better than it is by now.. and I don't
know if I expected too much of the course or what. I just want the
exams to end so I actually have time to do more reading in Russian.
Of course, we are all just trying to get through the exams now.
Tomorrow is 3 hours of translating from Russian into English; it
will be a newspaper article or something.
Thursday is the last day, and the only thing in English (!) We have
to write 3 short essays from a short list of 10 topics, including
Stalin, Perestroika, Gorbachev, Putin, etc. I don't know why they
don't have us write these in Russian, I mean we wrote an essay in
Russian last week, so why not? I do hate the way I forget all my most
juicy, savoury verbs when I sit down. I think I'm just tired....


-- Jo in Scotland

On 24 May 2004 11:27:03 -0700, (Adviser N1)
wrote:

http://www.angelfire.com/wizard2/exp...sian_les2.html

I had a wee look at your second lesson, and I note that you say
there is no equivalent of the familiar "you" (ti) in Russian. If you
consider the Southern US y'all (contraction of "you all") then you can
explain this phenomenon in English. Then you in English is the same
as Russian ti, and y'all is the same as Russian vi. It's not great,
but it is a real phenomenon and thus the Southern US dialect provides
more grammatical scope than other American dialects.
Similarly, in Shakespearean English, there was "thee" and "thou"
respectively, was there not? Similar to the "ti" and "vi" in Russian.
Off to quilt a bit before the next exam... number 8 out of 9...


-- Jo in Scotland

Johanna Gibson wrote:
I had a wee look at your second lesson, and I note that you say
there is no equivalent of the familiar "you" (ti) in Russian.

I thought "thee" was the accusative case of "thou," and it's more along
the lines of: "thou" is singular and "you" is plural; and that over time
we've dropped the second person singular.

I don't much like Southern, but I lived in the South for quite a while
and as much as I hate it, "y'all" is just too convenient to ignore once
you've gotten used to it. I do tend to say "you all" rather than
"y'all" though. I was born in Illinois, grew up in southern California,
{went on to spend way too much time in the South} and now I live in
upstate New York -- I'm just much too yankified to say "y'all." *shudder*

You know, this guy has a heavy dose of "Americans are too stupid to
understand foreign language" in his lessons. "Step aside, you might get
mad" indeed!

Maybe he was just trying to be funny, but my college Russian professor
was like this so I'm sensitized to it -- she *clearly* didn't think
American students could handle anything demanding (it took her 3 weeks
just to teach us the alphabet, for crying out loud), and when I asked
for an intensive summer course, she patted me on the head. While I
acknowledge that there are deficiencies in the US educational system,
that does NOT mean we are all dimwits. I have a very strong talent for
foreign language, and a very good ear for it, and I really resented
being told I couldn't handle Russian. I went on to surprise the heck
out of her by doing my second semester of Russian *on my own* while on
bedrest during a difficult pregnancy. I came back and aced every exam
she threw at me, and thanks to tapes, my spoken Russian was still
acceptable.

I've since seen this attitude in enough eastern European professors to
suspect that it's a common prejudice. It's really aggravating.

*mutter* I despise being treated like a second-rate student merely
because I'm an American. *grr*

--
the black rose, wench with a wrench
proud to be owned by a yorkie
http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts

On Tue, 25 May 2004 15:46:20 GMT, the black rose
wrote:


I thought "thee" was the accusative case of "thou," and it's more along
the lines of: "thou" is singular and "you" is plural; and that over time
we've dropped the second person singular.

I don't much like Southern, but I lived in the South for quite a while
and as much as I hate it, "y'all" is just too convenient to ignore once
you've gotten used to it. I do tend to say "you all" rather than
"y'all" though. I was born in Illinois, grew up in southern California,
{went on to spend way too much time in the South} and now I live in
upstate New York -- I'm just much too yankified to say "y'all." *shudder*

You know, this guy has a heavy dose of "Americans are too stupid to
understand foreign language" in his lessons. "Step aside, you might get
mad" indeed!

Maybe he was just trying to be funny, but my college Russian professor
was like this so I'm sensitized to it -- she *clearly* didn't think
American students could handle anything demanding (it took her 3 weeks
just to teach us the alphabet, for crying out loud), and when I asked
for an intensive summer course, she patted me on the head. While I
acknowledge that there are deficiencies in the US educational system,
that does NOT mean we are all dimwits. I have a very strong talent for
foreign language, and a very good ear for it, and I really resented
being told I couldn't handle Russian. I went on to surprise the heck
out of her by doing my second semester of Russian *on my own* while on
bedrest during a difficult pregnancy. I came back and aced every exam
she threw at me, and thanks to tapes, my spoken Russian was still
acceptable.

I've since seen this attitude in enough eastern European professors to
suspect that it's a common prejudice. It's really aggravating.

*mutter* I despise being treated like a second-rate student merely
because I'm an American. *grr*

Well, stereotypes aren't very fun. Like I said, it's not a great
time to be an American abroad.
As for stereotypes in my class just now, the common one seems to be
that the Americans (there are 2 of us out of the 10) ask for more
homework and have higher expectations of what we can achieve than the
other people. This is the impression we get from the teachers.
Also, there's nothing like "showing someone" in order to make you
achieve! I know I do well when I want to make a point.


-- Jo in Scotland

So true :-)

Shona who can use some day brightening at the moment in NZ

"Diana Curtis" wrote in message
...
But Shona! If I posted a spew warning then my little sillinesses wouldnt
take you by surprise and brighten your day and force you to clean your
monitor occasionally.
Diana

"Shona in NZ" wrote in message
...
Diana! You could have at least given us a spew warning here. Now my
screen
is a mess and my office mates think I have really really lost my
marboils.

Shona who really should learn that a posting by Diana comes with an
automatic spew warning in NZ

"Diana Curtis" wrote in message
...
No regular verbs? Someone might want to send them some serious fibre.
Diana...

"bogus address" wrote
And the free-form art-quilter's language has to be Ket (unrelated
to any other language in the world and only spoken by a few hundred
people in Siberia). It has been described as having *no* regular
verbs.



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how about those clicking languages in Africa? those are different from
everything else, uh?

Marissa
who used to say that when she got old and retired she'd get a second
master's degree, in linguistics this time...

bogus address wrote:

And the free-form art-quilter's language has to be Ket (unrelated
to any other language in the world and only spoken by a few hundred
people in Siberia). It has been described as having *no* regular
verbs.
--
Dr. Quilter
Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)

I think this guy has an odd idea of us quilters. He probably thinks we
are a bunch of nice ladies that would blush at the mention of certain
subjects. Little does he know! )

Adviser N1 wrote:

Dear Bogus,

If you meant a future passive subjunctive for the Russian verb "to
go",
this form exists, but... the meaning of it in Russian is such, that
I cannot cite it in a forum where so much women.
(SNIP)
Sorry, I cannot explain it (sure, if the women would close
their eyes, and would not read, "where to" somebody would be gone
(sent)).
--
Dr. Quilter
Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)

On Wed, 26 May 2004 10:28:39 -0700, "Dr. Quilter"
wrote:

I think this guy has an odd idea of us quilters. He probably thinks we
are a bunch of nice ladies that would blush at the mention of certain
subjects. Little does he know! )

I had a Russian boyfriend years ago (remember, I began to study
Russian at age 14, so I've been at this for some time).. so I already
knew one way to say what this guy was on about. He has however, just
enlarged my slang vocabulary, which is pitifully small. Our lecturers
like to pretend that there are no bad words in Russian, and that all
Russians sit at home of an evening reading Pushkin. For myself, I'd
like to at least understand if someone is swearing at me, when I do go
to Russia...


-- Jo in Scotland

Johanna Gibson wrote:
Our lecturers
like to pretend that there are no bad words in Russian, and that all
Russians sit at home of an evening reading Pushkin.

Ha. A college friend of mine who studied advanced Russian had a book
called, "A Dictionary of Russion Invective." The language was really
*quite* colorful. Russians are just as inventive with their insults as
we are.

One of my favorites translated roughly, "All he's good for is swinging
elephant balls."

--
the black rose, wench with a wrench
proud to be owned by a yorkie
http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts