Description
The book will sure find its way into the classroom. — Publishing Trends
A quirky, opinionated, sometimes hilarious yet always thoughtful and authoritative guide, Michele A. Berdy looks at Russia's changing culture, politics, and daily life through language and the art of translation. She explores the language of popular and youth culture, politics, the workplace, culture (high and low), and the comical struggle of expats trying to cope with a foreign language and culture. The entries in this book are grouped thematically, and with the forty-eight page index, it can be used as a dictionary.
The Russian Word's Worth is essential reading for students and teachers of Russian, translators, Russia-watchers, and anyone who wants to understand Russia today.
About the Author
Michele A. Berdy, a resident of Moscow for the better part of the last 33
years, is the author of the popular weekly column The Word's Worth in The
Moscow Times. She is a translator with several books, hundreds of articles
and short stories to her credit, and specializes in subtitling feature and
documentary films. She has co-authored a Russian-English dictionary and been
the lead or sole writer of four books about Moscow, St. Petersburg and
Russia. Her articles on culture, current events and various aspects of
intercultural communication appear in the Russian and English-language
press.
It is a series of lessons interspersed with socio-political observation and a lot of human-interest stories which would be worth reading in their own right, even if they were not used to sugar the pill of language learning. Each section is graced with an introductory page or two which sets that part of the book in a personal context.
Combined with a willingness to look Russia in the face and report candidly what she sees, Michele's writing is also distinguished by a gentle wit which is very appealing.
It is hard to imagine anyone who would not find something to savour, something to learn or something to chuckle at in this unprecedented book.—Passport magazine
For those of us in the States dealing with contemporary Russian — newspapers, magazines, novels, movies — Michele Berdy's columns are so good, they've become addictive, providing in-depth insight into what's new, what's different, and what's stayed the same in today's language. Russian is changing at lightning speed, and her insider knowledge of how Russians actually speak is second to no one's. If I can't be on the streets of Moscow or Petersburg myself, at least I have Michele Berdy to be my eyes and ears. — Marian Schwartz
Michele Berdy is to the Russian language what Julia Child was to French cooking: the same juicy, humorous approach, the same demystification of a daunting subject, the same message that \' if I can do this, so can you'. — Joanne Turnbull
Michele has a truly unique gift for articulating the difficulties that Russians and English-speakers encounter while trying to understand each other's worlds. Her work is as entertaining as it is profound, and it will prove equally useful to beginning students and to advanced professionals. — Robert Chandler
Contents
Introduction
Great and Powerful
Annoying Little Words
Nouns Abound
Verbs I Have Loved
So Very, Very&
Buzzwords
Torture the Translator
Russians, Others, and the Russian World
Russians Up Close and Personal
Others
The Animal Kingdom
Looking out the Window (on the Russian World)
Capitals North and South
Life Maintenance
Getting Around Town in Russian
Ya just gotta laugh
Politics as Usual
Elections and the Electorate
The Language of Leaders (Mr. P's Russian Lessons)
A Foreigner's Forays into Forrest of Russian Politics
Higher Matters
Soul food
Good, Bad, and Sad
Time Flies
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Resolute Resolutions
Expressing Time
Lost in Time
Slang
Kids These Days!
Slang Old and New
Specialist Slang
Just for Fun
Jokes and Quotes
Having Fun
American Columnist Cracks Up
On the language of politics
Right now in post-Soviet Russia, politics and political life don't really exist anymore. Oh, decisions are made, people are elected, laws are passed, parties appear and disappear. But all this happens without much contact with the folks affected by all this, i.e., the citizens — aka the electorate. Politics happen somewhere else, behind closed doors, in a black box.
In general I'd say the Black Box model of politics is a Bad Thing. But there are several benefits to the system. First, it places very few obligations on citizens. You don't have to spend hours pouring over party platforms or studying laws or analyzing government strategy papers, because even if you understand them and disagree with them, there's nothing you can do about them. This frees up a lot of time for shopping and TV-watching. Second, since no one really knows how any political decision is made, it allows you to hold whatever opinion you want about current events. If President Medvedev gives a speech denouncing legal nihilism, you can argue this means 1) he's giving a warning to corrupt judges, cops, and politicians; 2) he's wooing the West, but nothing will change; 3) he's throwing down the gauntlet to his prime minister; 4) he is playing his role in the good cop-bad cop dynamic duo at the top; 5) he actually thinks a corrupt legal system is a bad thing; 6) he only thinks a corrupt legal system is a bad thing when it involves his political adversaries; 7) who the heck cares what he says? This makes for the best kind of arguments arguments that are not based on facts. Facts are just so bothersome, you know.
In the early years of this century, I was quite interested in politics and elections because, well, they existed. Then I was very interested in the rising tide of anti-Americanism and anti-West, because, well, I wondered when it was time to get out. While today my interest in Russian politics waxes and wanes, or rather waxes and collapses, I'm always interested in the language of politics and politicians.
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