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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Vi-Ki-Newt

Forgot to share this nice memory, but it happened sometime in Fall. My host sister asked how to translate Russian verb "vi-ki-newt" into English. I told her that it translated as "to put it (something) in the trash", and she repeated it several times quickly. But one time she discarded "the" and slurred the "it", so the phrase became something close to "put in trash". I told her how slightly offensive it might be to say this in Russian public. I'll let you figure this one out, about why we afterwards laughed at this. Well no, maybe I should be more straight forward:

Put it in the Trash.... Now that sounds really bad right? I personally wouldn't  want to insult any politician.

After reflection, I realized that I could have said "discarded" or "to throw out" as possible translations, but this was just perfect for a funny moment. Funny that we had no intentions other than to teach each other English and Russian, and this is how it turned out.

I spent the day writing cultural notes about Russia in my "tetrad" journal, but I don't think I'll publicise a list over the net. It's something you could personally ask me about, since some of it borders on stereotypes and generalizations. I feel that it's better to think of each person as an individual than to make assumptions first, and secondly, I don't want to impose any politically incorrect views on readers here.

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