And how could I forget to mention Chekhov?
2
@Bill Я не знаю :)
1
My wife...Natasha (named in Phil's segment), my daughters and I all enjoyed the Russian emersion as much as the students. A very interesting parade of immigrants dined with us regularly resulting from Boris and Natasha's extended Russian family including many babushkas (and ours...daughters named "Babu" for short). Russians have "soul" coming from their tough lives during WW2 and after. Our experiences with Boris and the Russian community have made our lives far richer than you can imagine. Thank you Boris!
3
Many years ago I accompanied a trade mission to then-Soviet Union. No one in the group, business executives mostly, spoke a word of Russian, but one enterprising fellow, a manufacturer of conveyor systems, had printed brochures in Russian to handout.
I was there when he handed out the brochures. Looks of consternation, followed by chuckles, and then wholesale, side splitting laughter. After everyone calmed down, a government translator spotted the problem. The brochure advised those who were interested in learning more about the conveyor systems to "get a good lay"
The embarrassed executive could have used one of Boris' "islands."
I was there when he handed out the brochures. Looks of consternation, followed by chuckles, and then wholesale, side splitting laughter. After everyone calmed down, a government translator spotted the problem. The brochure advised those who were interested in learning more about the conveyor systems to "get a good lay"
The embarrassed executive could have used one of Boris' "islands."
3
Boris Badenov was based on Akim Tamiroff, Russian veteran of the Moscow Arts Theatre. He and Maria Ouspenskaya came to the US to escape Stalin's Soviet Union.
7
I was luckier than most. Instead of Boris, who was great, I got Natasha Fatale as my teacher.
DD
Manhattan
DD
Manhattan
1
Thank you for sharing Mr. Shekhtman's story. One of life's greatest adventures begins with learning a new language, which offers a unique threshold to understanding the world.
Goethe remarked that no man can master his own language until he has mastered another. For journalists, whose work can reflect language applied to its greatest purpose, the opportunity to have learned a foreign tongue with such a thoughtful teacher must have been transformational both to their craft as well as to their personal sensibility. It is fitting that the NYT should share this man's contribution through the words of the professionals he helped.
Goethe remarked that no man can master his own language until he has mastered another. For journalists, whose work can reflect language applied to its greatest purpose, the opportunity to have learned a foreign tongue with such a thoughtful teacher must have been transformational both to their craft as well as to their personal sensibility. It is fitting that the NYT should share this man's contribution through the words of the professionals he helped.
7
This reminds me of my wonderful experience in my first year of high school, when I took my first foreign language class, Russian, in Monmouth Regional High School in New Jersey. My teacher was Gospodzin Calabrese (sorry, don't know how to get the Russian letters in here).
His teaching style pretty much burned Russian into my brain, and I remember every single word I learned back then. I studied Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese after that, and to this day, when I am trying to come up with a word in those languages, the first thing that pops into my mind is the Russian word. He was an expert in mime, and that is how he taught us.
Starting the first class, he held up a pencil and said: Eto karandash. Then he said "Shto eto?" And we all knew the answer was "eto karandash." That is how we learned.
Off topic, but watch the movie "2010: The Year We Make Contact." It will endear you to Russian and Russians. It's a good HIGHLY RELEVANT tall tale too!
His teaching style pretty much burned Russian into my brain, and I remember every single word I learned back then. I studied Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese after that, and to this day, when I am trying to come up with a word in those languages, the first thing that pops into my mind is the Russian word. He was an expert in mime, and that is how he taught us.
Starting the first class, he held up a pencil and said: Eto karandash. Then he said "Shto eto?" And we all knew the answer was "eto karandash." That is how we learned.
Off topic, but watch the movie "2010: The Year We Make Contact." It will endear you to Russian and Russians. It's a good HIGHLY RELEVANT tall tale too!
2
The only effective Russian language teachers are despots. There is no alternative.
2
Nothing like learning another language well. That is not the goal of the learning of "scripts" by soon-to-be foreign correspondents in Russia, but nothing wrong with learning the scripts, if that is the best that one can do under the circumstance. Better than nothing certainly. Learning the fundamentals - hard, but rewarding - is the route to any level of fluency. Nice tributes to this person on his death. I hope he heard similar before dying. Russian, yes, a fabulous language with a fabulous literature. Russians themselves delightful as well.
2
I love stories like this, since I love to learn about foreign languages. Russian is a very good language in many respects - phonetic spelling, and so on. It has its complicated aspects, as all languages do, but if you listen to Russian speakers you may be pleasantly surprised to notice that you can hear the words clearly, even if you do not understand their meaning. All the letters are pronounced.
12
Russian spelling is not quite phonetic. It's better than phonetic: it's phonemic. The spelling of the basic elements of words nearly always remains the same, even though an individual sound may change due such factors as a shift of stress or adjacent sounds. You need to internalize a few easy, low-level phonemic rules, but in a highly inflected language such as Russian, the phonemic (as opposed to a purely phonetic) orthography, by preserving the basic shape of the elements of words, is a big help in learning the language and in reading.
4
An excellent and true insights in learning and apparently quite successfully cramming in Russian language skills during the Cold War era.
I wish to be one of those free-bed-and-board volunteers at that Bethany Beach cottage:)
Then, Shekhtman's teaching method looks like very effective one. It's also truth: If it is not fun ... forget it.
I wish to be one of those free-bed-and-board volunteers at that Bethany Beach cottage:)
Then, Shekhtman's teaching method looks like very effective one. It's also truth: If it is not fun ... forget it.
8
I wonder if Donald Trump ever benefited from these lessons. After all, he just tweeted about the Bannon demotion this way: "FAKE NEWS! All lies from Moose and Squirrel!!"
12
Was just going to ask that -- which of the subjects was "Moose" and which one "Squirrel?"
Squirrel walks down street. I drop safe on him like every self-respecting villain; who gets hit? ME! I send lady spy with package which is really bomb; who gets blown up? me.
1
I'm partial to Russian teachers. I remember with great fondness my own Russian teachers, emigres from several epochs of Russian history, who gave me a very solid foundation at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, when I was in the Army, in 1969. They were not despots, though, but it was nevertheless a superb and rigorous program. I can still read Russian with substantial fluency today, though I've had little opportunity to use the language orally in the intervening years.
But I've kept up through reading, mostly 19th and early 20th c. literature, so my vocabulary is a little out of date. Being able to read Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Tyuchev, Fet, Pasternak, Akhmatova, Bulgakov, and so many others in the original is a priceless and lifelong gift my Russian teachers (and the Army) gave me.