Russian Word of the Day: Форточка...doesn't quite translate, read below

Форточка-fOrtochka

A small window above the main window.

Alright, you're thinking, "why would I ever need to know this word?"  Once you've lived in Russia during the winter you'll understand.

THIS IS A ФОРТОЧКА, YOU IGNORANT FOOLS!

Wikipedia describes the форточка as a 'предназначенная для вентиляции' ('part of the window designated for ventillation) and that it's 'характернa для стран с холодным климатом, где есть необходимость проветривать помещение, не охлаждая его чрезмерно' (characteristic of countries with a cold climate where it is necessary to air out the place without cooling down the room too much).

As you might know, Russians are very wary of drafts and cold air (which is why even when it's 100 degrees outside people refuse to open windows on the steamy, stinky and crowded buses).  Thus, the форточка is up high so that cold air doesn't flow directly on you.  Furthermore, in apartment buildings with a boiler system you don't have control over how hot your apartment gets and it can get really warm.  So these little форточки are very handy.

One time my friend Pasha, whom I've mentioned in many posts on this blog, was trying to tell me some story.  But I don't really remember why he was telling me that story or even what the story entailed because we got so caught up on the impossible translation of the word форточка.

If I remember right it was something about a bird flying in through the форточка. But Pasha didn't know how to translate форточка and kept saying, "you know, that little window at the top that you open". We don't have these in America where I live so I didn't know what he was talking about.  He got increasingly more irritated when I insisted that we don't have those in America.  He kept saying, "Well what do you do in the winter when it gets hot inside?" Umm, you just turn down the heat. He was not satisfied with this answer and just got so irritated that we couldn't see eye to eye on this matter that he just dropped the subject altogether. To this day I don't know the end of his story about the bird that flew in through the 'little window at the top', but I do know the moral of it: Be culturally sensitive--know what a форточка is.

Russian Word of the Day: Блин-pancake, crap

Блин- bleen - a pancake or 'crap' as in an exclamation

Русские блины Russian crepe-like pancakes. They definitely don't taste like crap.

When I first lived in Russia I taught English at a school where wrestlers were training.  After my classes I would hang out with these wrestlers and just shoot the breeze and try and learn Russian. Well one word that I heard these wrestlers saying all the time was (one of many) Russian f-words  and it begins with БЛ... Well, I heard them saying it CONSTANTLY, felt like it was obviously a very important part of Russian speech and so I asked what it meant.  One of the wrestlers tried to explain (they didn't speak English at all) by picking up a book and dropping it on the floor and then casually saying "БЛ***".  So I thought to myself, "Oh, it's like what you say when you drop something or something not good happens. Easy enough".  So I went around saying that when even the tiniest misfortune befell me.

It wasn't until many months later when I was back home in America with a new set of sportsman that I was acting as a chauffeur and host for, that I took a wrong turn and casually said, "БЛ***". These boys exclaimed/giggled. They explained, "не надо сказать такое слово, лучше сказать БЛИН" (Don't say that word, it's better to say 'crap').  So just like 'fudge' is a euphemism for "f***" simply because the first part of it sounds the same as the bad word, Блин is a euphemism for a much more offensive, similar-sounding word.  So that's how I came to learn the word блин as a much more appropriate word to say when you drop something, take a wrong turn, or when something not good happens.

Russian Word of the Day: Наесться-to be full, to eat ones fill

Наесться- nayest'sya

Я наелся (for males)/наелась(for females)- ya nayelsya/ naelas'

When you see the prefix "HA" plus the reflexive ending "ся" it has the meaning of to have one's fill of something.  Add it to the word есть which means to eat and you get the very genius and useful word наесться. It's typically said in the past tense or if you, for some reason, have an insatiable appetite you might say, "Я просто не могу наесться" (I just can't get enough food). Some of my most favorite Russian verbs use this construction.  I'll post them some day.

Babushka Zhana. The sweet little babushka that I lived with in Moscow for a few months.

Oh the many tummy aches I've had at a Russian table in my life because I had not yet learned the key to refusing food.  When I first lived in Russia, I lived with a little babushka that I was paying rent to.  She would feed me every night.  I didn't speak Russian hardly at all at the time.  Our communication consisted of me looking up a word in the dictionary, me trying to pronounce it and her trying to guess what I was saying. Because I was new to the whole language learning thing I made the mistake of thinking I could just look up a word in English and its translation would convey the meaning I wanted perfectly.

So it was a major epiphany when I learned how to say "Нет, спасибо. Я наелась" (No thank you, I'm full).  Up until I learned that genius word, babushka would try to give me more and more food and I would say, "Нет, я полная". Полный does mean full but not in the sense of being full of food.  I was actually saying to babushka "No, I'm plump." Which was also true but was not conveying to her that I wanted her to stop giving me food so that I could hopefully become less plump.

In the Details-My Photography of Russia

My favorite book when I was young was called, The Fool of the World and The Flying Ship, it was a gift from my grandmother. I just found it for the first time a little while ago. Having read fairy tales in my adult studies of Russian, I realized that this was an English translation of a famous Russian fairy tale. I went back through and flipped through the pages, and I remembered the magical enchanment that I felt as a child reading this book, looking at the details of the onion domed churches and bright colors and intricate embroidery on the characters’ costumes. Every thing seemed so rich and so completely different than what I could even imagine.

This was my favorite book long before I had ever been to Russia. But as I made my way, traveling through Russia as an adult, I felt that same magical enchantment. These are my photos of some of the charming little details that I found in cemetaries, on old gravestones, or on little ornamental details–all of it so rich and so foreign.

One of my favorite things to do while I was studying in Moscow was taking my little Nikkomat(it was my grandpa’s SLR from the 50’s) out and about on photo excursions. I was completely charmed by Russia by the beauty of Russia before I had even set foot on Russian soil. I remember looking out the window of our airplane as we flew in to Moscow, and I could feel this kind of aching pit in my heart. As I look at the little red roofed dachas, black soil and deep green patches of forrest, I thought, “Uh-oh, I’m not going to be able to let go of this place.” And that deep, aching adoration for the place has only intensified.

So here are a few of the scapes that I found so charming. Maybe it takes a fellow russophile to think so.

This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but all of the old headstones are covered in a beautiful green moss. I come from a desert so moss is a strange and beautiful thing for me. The inscription on this headstone is in old Russian(before the alphabet reform in 1919).

Novodevichy Cemetery was my favorite place in Moscow. Maybe I’m morbid for think that cemeteries are one of the most beautiful and interesting places in any city, but this one is so beautiful. You learn a lot about a society from their ccemeteries. I went to Russia the first time not even knowing the alphabet, so just to see the letters engraved on headstones was rich and foreign for me.

Autumn is my favorite season. I remember the first time I heard Pushkin’s name was when I was going for a walk with a Russian friend(within a month of my arrival) and I sighed and said how much I loved the fall. And Sergey replied, “Yes, Pushkin loved the fall as well, he wrote many poems about it."

One of my other favorite places in Moscow is ВДНХ, Выставка достижений народного хозяйства, or a rough translation: Exhibition of the Peoples Agricultural Achievments It was a place where people from the 15 different republics could come to show off their agricultural achievements. Every republic had its’ own building and they were built and adorned with ornament native to that republic. I think I’ll do an entire blog on this place sometime because it is really incredible.

This is the entrance to the center. True Russian architecture is so unique and intricate. But don’t get me wrong, I am just a fascinated and impressed by that good old fashion Soviet Empire style. I love the drab colors and the stark grandeur of the soviet era.

The ornamentation here is not frivolous, it is a celebration of socialist labor. This was where the people could come to celebrate the contributions to the mighty soviet empire.

One of the most ornately designed and decorated buildings is the Ukraine building. You can by the metro station dedicated to Kiev and by this building that the Russians felt that Ukraine represented every thing that was rich in detail and culture.

This is just a strip of mosaic that runs along the outside of the Ukraine building. The whole building is decorated with traditional ornament and folk designs of the country.

The park is huge and just when you think that you have wandered out of the park and into some far away forest, you will stumble upon yet another building with a sign that says something like “House of Honey Cultivation” or some other random aspect of agriculture you didn’t even know existed. It is kind of like a ghost town, a representation of what the country was left with after Communism.

This is the side wall of a building we found way back in the forest. The building was closed up and had been vandalized. I love the colors and style. It’s so soviet and I can imagine that it must have been a very hip and exciting design, but now practically no one sees it, which is said considering that the words say ”Выставочный Центр”, or ”Display Center”.

It is eerie to picture our bustling centers of capitalism, our triumphant symbols of all our hard work, like this…empty, useless, except to remind us that all great empires must come to an end. I just pity that the Soviets had to see it come, shine and fizzle all on their lifetime. It’s no wonder older Russians get depressed when they come to this park.

So maybe in the end the cemetery was not that different from the park. Whether it’s once inhabited bodies or buildings, I’ve always been fascinated by abandoned things and the stories they enclose. I love eerie unresolved plots and histories, and perhaps that is why I am so drawn in by Russia.

Etymology and Slavic Mythology

Slavic Mythology-Every Word Tells a Tale It’s easy to look at a language and never see the marks of ancient beliefs and systems. In English we have several words that are derived from ancient pagan beliefs, I’ve listed a few to get those wheels in your head turning:

Aphrodisiac: Something that makes one want some lovin’ appropriately comes from the name of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

Venereal(disease): Describing anything that comes from sexual indulgence comes from VENUS, the Roman equivalent of Aphrodite.

Museum- A places of learning, comes from the Muses, the sister goddesses who represented all that is culturally elevated.

Saturday- Named after the Roman god, Saturn, the supreme god.

So today I’m going to this fun little breakdown and analysis of the mark that Slavic Mythology has left on the Russian language. Just like in English, pagan beliefs influenced and even created the entire Slavic lexicon, preserving the religion in the modern day language.

Slavic mythologic-etymological roots differ from the Greek and Roman ones, in that many words in the Slavic vocabulary contain the names of Gods. Because both the language and the mythology were born and living long before a written language was, it’s had to know which came first, the myth or the word. You could argue both ways. Unlike the Greeks, the Slavs lacked a written language in which to write epic tales of their pantheon. So the traditions and tales have been passed orally, and can be hard to source.

As a linguist I love knowing why we say what we do and the connections between the culture and the language we use to describe it. These are some of the fun little lingua-cultural ties that I have been studying:

In the beginning…

1. РОД, ROD-There was the son of the highest god, РОД, Rod, who was appointed to create the visible world, it would be of him, that all other gods would be born. Everything that has to do with birth and life and family carries his name:

Родить- Give birth to Родители-Parents Родственники-Relatives Родина- Native land Природа- Nature

Rod separates his creation into three departments: The Heavens, The Earth, The Underworld(or the world of the past).

Правь- The heavens, inhabited by gods who behave themselves, who govern and enforce justice. There are a plethora of words connected to this heavenly place, all having to do with rightness, justice, truth, guidance and all other good things that a higher power ordains to be good:

Правда- Truth Право- Right (hand) Правительсто-governing body Правильно- Correct Справедливость-Justice

Явь- The second kingdom was the kingdom of Явь, or the visible world, or earth. This is the root in words which have to do with visibility, becoming, or appearing, or concretely existing.

Явь-Reality Явный- Evident Являться-to exist as/to be Появиться-to appear Заявление-declaration

Навь-The underworld, whose offspring vocabulary are no longer in use in everyday Russian. But according to the great lexicographer, Dal’s dictionary, it appeared in many dialects as a euphemism for death and hell.

The grandson of the god, Rod, is one whose name turns up often in the lexicon. Ярило, оr Yarilo, is one of the god of the springtime sun, the harvest, as well as war. The words connected with him tend to take three categories:

Light and warmth of the spring: Яркий-Bright Яр-Heat Vegetation and harvest: Ярица- Wheat field Яровое-Seeds that are sown in the spring Passion, youth and unrestrained strength Разъяриться-to fly into a rage Яроводье-Nasty flood that wipes everything out.

Велес/Волос/ or Veles, is known by slightly different variants of this name in Slavic languages. He is the god of livestock and wealth. He is often portrayed as a bear. Bears are hairy and maybe that’s why he got the name(which means hair in Russian) Strangely enough the words connected with him have to do not only with “hair” but “power” as well. The connection between hairiness and power makes the tale of Sampson make more sense.

Волхв-Magician/soothsayer Власть-power Великий-mighty/powerful

Slavic mythology is closely tied with the Proto-Indo-European pantheon, so you could probably find similar ties in the Russian names to the originals. I didn’t have time to investigate that. It always fills me with glee to find connections and origins of words. It’s hard, of course, to know which came first the god, or the words to describe them. It’s like the chicken and the egg, which is literally the beginning of the mythology. The creation story in Slavic mythology begins with a chicken, Ряба, laying a golden egg which would become the earth. If you’re interested in more mythology, here are a couple of links: http://www.duhra.ru/article/duhra/ (in Russian) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_mythology

What has the October Revolution done for you lately?

On the 7th of November Russia recognized(I don’t say celebrate because I don’t know that people were, in fact) the 90th Anniversary of the Mighty October Revolution(which would be considered the Mighty November Revolution according to our calendars). With all of the changes that are taking place in Russia today, and the threat of more political instability on the horizon, many Russians spent the day contemplating their “mighty” history. Lenin’s plans were mighty, but the system was not. Ask any aged Russian on the street Moscow about whether they prefer communist life or “democratic” life, and they will most likely shake their head in disgust and refer to the good ole days nostalgically. The west, at any given moment, has a plethora of bones to pick with communism, but do we give it enough credit for the good that it did do. The old people on the street seem to think that communist living was much better, they didn’t have to worry about tomorrow. And now, even though the 7th of November is supposed to be a day of celebration, many of these pensioners consider it a day of mourning for the promises of security that were never realized, a day when they question all that they knew to be mighty and sure. So I choose to humor these nostalgic communists on their holiday. Today we will try and think not of 90 years of oppression and corruption, but of development, work, and purpose.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of good things that communism did for the country is the educational system. I studied in Moscow for a year under teachers who were educated in pedagogy in the Brezhnev era. They took such pride in their work, they cared for their students, they spent extra time to make sure that the students were reaching their full potential. Students are celebrated and take their work very seriously. I can only imagine how much more invigorated with zeal and excitement students(pioneers, as they are called in Soviet times) must have been when they felt like their education was a mighty contribution to the mightiest of institutions, that they, themselves, could make old Uncle Lenin proud.

Учиться, учиться, а еще раз…учиться! –Ленин (русскому языку, чтобы это понять)

Lenin had hoped that communism would go on for much longer than just 90 years. In this declaration Lenin introduces the NEP, New Economic Policy, НЭП, Новый Экономический План, in it he identifies the three enemies of Communism, one of which, the new Communist educational system did a great job at eliminating: "The Three Chief Enemies In my opinion, three chief enemies now confront one, irrespective of one’s departmental functions; these tasks confront the political educationalist, if he is a Communist—and most of the political educationalists are. The three chief enemies that confront him are the following: the first is communist conceit; the second—illiteracy, and the third—bribery.

-The First Enemy—Communist Conceit A member of the Communist Party, who has not yet been combed out, and who imagines he can solve all his problems by issuing communist decrees, is guilty of communist conceit. That is only communist conceit. The point is to learn to impart political knowledge; but that we have not yet learnt; we have not yet learnt how to approach the subject properly.

-The Second Enemy—Illiteracy As regards the second enemy, illiteracy, I can say that so long as there is such a thing as illiteracy in our country it is too much to talk about political education. This is not a political problem; it is a condition without which it is useless talking about politics. An illiterate person stands outside politics, he must first learn his ABC. Without that there can be no politics; without that there are rumours, gossip, fairy-tales and prejudices, but not politics.

-The Third Enemy—Bribery Lastly, if such a thing as bribery is possible it is no use talking about politics. Here we have not even an approach to politics; here it is impossible to pursue politics, because all measures are left hanging in the air and produce absolutely no results. A law applied in conditions which permit of widespread bribery can only make things worse. "

Delivered: 17 October, 1921; First Published: Published in the Vtoroi Vserossiishy syezd politprosvetov. Bulleten syezda (Bulletin of the Second All-Russia Congress of Political Education Departments) No. 2, October 19, 1921; Published according to the Bulletin proofs corrected by Lenin

Before the revolution approximately 25% of the population was illiterate. Lenin, being the son of a school inspector was particularly aware of this enemy in Russian society. He made it among his top priorities to educate the people. Communist doctrine and propaganda is useless to the people whose minds have not been elevated above an animal-like existence. In 1919 the Narkompros, issued a decree that all citizens between the ages of 7 and 50 were required to go to school, if they had not yet done so. So babushka and grandson would sit together in school learning to read. In addition, systems were set up so that factory workers (usually the most uneducated) could be good communist workers and still have time to get an education in a particular vocation(typically industrial and agricultural vocations).

By 1939, according to the population census, the literacy rate had risen to 87.4%, and today even after the fall of communism, Russia’s literacy rate is near perfect at 99% and 40% of adults have finished higher education. (Unfortunately this number is decreasing because of the rising cost of education) * http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/russia_statistics.html

Today, you could stop any average person on the street, young or old, and all of them could recite a few lines of Pushkin's poetry, or rattle off a line of square root numbers(I was going to give an example of what I mean, but I don't really know how to do that part of math). Many of my Russian friends laughed to see the math that we do here on a university level, "Oh, we did this in 5th grade."

See, the revolution was not in vain. And though many of its systems are now collapsing under the winds of change, the legacy of Lenin can live in on in our hearts. So in the days after a mighty revolution's anniversary, if you find your self trying to make sense of all that came to be, rather than feeling despair at the course the mighty plan took, put your hand over your heart and sing a song from your days as a Komsomol:

Вместе с Комсомолом навсегда!

Музыка: Ю.Чичков Слова: М.Пляцковский

Мы глядим в грядущее уверенно,

В жизни цель - прекрасна и светла.

И недаром Родина доверила

Нам, ребята, важные дела.

И недаром Родина доверила-

Нам, ребята, важные дела.

We look to the future, certain,

Our goal in life is bright and beautiful.

Our motherland has not trustued us in vain

We've got important work to do, guys.

Chorus:

Галстук пионерский на груди,

Новые дороги впереди.

Для победы, счастья и труда,

Вместе с комсомолом - навсегда!

With our pioneer tie on our chest,

There are new roads ahead.

For vicory, happiness and work,

Pioneers and Komsomols FOREVER!

Ah, Lenin would be so proud.

Запас Слов Communism brought with it an abundance of these abbreviated and compounded words, they can somethimes be hard to find in a dictionary, but they're kind of fun to know. -Ликбез-ликвидация безграммотности, the campaign launched in 1920 to eliminate illiteracy. -Наркомпрос-Народный комиссариат просвещения, People's Commissarat for Enlightening or The branch of government in charge of Ликбез

-Комсомол-Коммунистический союз Молодежи, Communist Youth Group,kind of like scouts but more intense. Колхоз-Коллективное хозяйство, communal farms