Month: July 2017

I stumbled upon some interesting statistics. By 2030, according to UN projections, Russia will see a population decline of six million people. Out of 232 countries, 31 have a negative population growth rate projected for 2030, with seven of those being former Soviet republics. Among these 31 countries, Russia ranks first in terms of absolute population decline, but this is likely because we are the 11th most populous country in the world. It might come as a surprise to some that Nigeria has one and a half times the population of Russia, and by 2030, it will be twice as large, despite being the size of the Tomsk region in terms of area. African countries are growing the fastest: in terms of relative growth, they occupy the entire top of the list. https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/Key_Findings_WPP_2015.pdf

Funny. I just stumbled upon this: in SAP hybris config, you can specify not only TRUE, “1”, ON, or YES, but also JAWOLL, which in German means “yes” in military slang (like “roger that!”, “yes, commander!” and all that)

If someone is looking for a series with simple English, which can be watched without subtitles at an upper-intermediate level, then Blindspot might be a decent choice. It’s quite clichéd and flat in terms of plot (good guys make superhuman efforts to save the world at the last moment, which in this case means a mysterious girl is involved). However, for the first “series without subtitles,” it will probably be much better than HBO and Showtime TV shows.

https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/894877/

I’ll take a thought from the comments into a post:

From my observations, there are at least three types of English:

1) the one written (the simplest),

2) the one spoken to you as a foreigner (next in simplicity),

3) the one natives use among themselves, paying no attention to you (the most complex).

In the best case scenario, almost any language courses or teachers can help with the second and the basics of the first. The third, and to some extent, the first can only be mastered independently, by reading books, watching movies, listening to the radio, (umm, and what about the verb “write”? Well, essentially, that’s why I started this blog) and so on.

Here I am, sitting at Brussels airport understanding all the announcements in French. And I understood the taxi driver on the way here. Because this is “French for foreigners”. But if I turn on the radio, it’s complete gibberish to me. I can only recognize articles and names.

My experience shows that watching movies with subtitles trains the eyes, not the ears. After watching TV series in their original language – probably totaling around eighty episodes – and a large number of feature films, I can say that I’ve become better at quickly reading and understanding words and sentences from subtitles, but only slightly better at understanding spoken language. It might be different for each individual though. Nonetheless, I recommend beginners watch series like Mind Your Language and Extra without subtitles. The latter is really for beginners. They are both British, but that’s a minor detail. If you don’t understand something, it’s better to stop the video, read the transcript, put it aside, and watch the segment again. If needed, repeat the process.

And one more thing. I have a theory explaining why Russians find English more challenging compared to Europeans. Yes, they are surrounded by tourists and business travelers, and that helps. In Russia, if you don’t speak good Russian and you’re not a “foreign guest,” most people will automatically lump you into the uneducated category, or even as second-class citizens (unless they are themselves from that category). Of course, there are always exceptions, but the general attitude is as such. Apparently, this is because people with accents indeed often come from poorer regions of the Caucasus. And once we go abroad, we put ourselves in the shoes of these “uneducated” and expect to be treated similarly based on our language. In reality, abroad, no one cares. It’s every second person there, and they have all grown accustomed to hearing broken language since childhood. Moreover, we are “foreign guests” there and are forgiven more.

#English #pronunciation #notes

Funny. Today I learned that a “vasistas” in French, which originates from the German “was ist das,” meaning “what is this nonsense?”.. Reminded me of the origins of the words “kangaroo” and “sharamyzhniki”…

https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/11/vasistas.html

Could you please provide the text you need translated? You mentioned an HTML format with a date but did not include the content to be translated.

In Brussels, Russian speech is hardly heard. Lots of Chinese, and of course, Germans, Dutch, and French. Americans. It reflects in a certain way

About 100,000 WWII veterans were still alive in Russia and about 500,000 in the USA as of 2017. These are people older than 85 years.

Oh, I highly recommend reading this. A colleague discusses how business operates in the USA, the text is about construction, but I would say “using construction as an example.” Very useful.

https://america.d3.ru/tri-porosenka-stroiat-dom-ili-populiarno-o-stroike-v-amerike-1416889/

Brussels just now.

Reading the brochure “Employee Code of Ethics” of the client, to whom I came here. The brochure is in French. It includes a phrase about the company taking action in case of law violation – in French, this is prendre des mesures. Literally, it translates directly. Came home to Google, wondering what measures (mesure) have to do with it. The word “measure” clearly relates to measuring, and prendre means to take. In English, there’s a similar phrase: to take measures. The internet doesn’t answer why measuring something means doing something to fix something. Maybe you know?

I recalled another interesting example, I wrote about it sometime. The word au lieu means “instead,” where au=at, and “leau” – place. Interestingly, in English, instead is built similarly (stead means “place,” which is related to stadt in German, meaning city). So, it’s a calque as well.

Became interested in the question of linguistic “calques” and found a few more. Have you ever thought that department literally means “parting,” and influence – where in = in, and fluence = flow. As for the word “переворот” (coup) – it’s a calque from revolution, as revolve means to turn. Also interesting is the word “трогательный” (touching) – translated as touchant. Actually, it arrived into Russian from there. les personnages les plus touchant 🙂