As we have been attempting to develop our skills in the Russian language, we have come across a few interesting dissimilarities to our native tongue. Marina, our language teacher, has offered her reasoning why certain things (that we are accustomed to saying) are inappropriate to say in the Russian language. Here are two of the things I have found most interesting.
The Russian language uses a lot of passive voice, especially when dealing with emotions. For instance, instead of saying: “I am sad.” Russian speakers say: “[It] is sad to me (the ‘it’ is oftentimes an open reference).” I know that that sounds like a small difference, but it takes the control away from the subject. Marina believes that the culture has affected the linguistics (or vice-versa) and people truly are not in control of their emotions. It is interesting to think about the implications of us not being in control of our feelings.
The other instance that I have found very interesting is that Russian speakers don’t say: “I have a pencil.” Instead, they say: “A pencil exists with me.” It is a bit more passive as well. Marina believes that (again the culture influenced the linguistics) it stems from a mindset that you can’t really have anything… another interesting thought to ponder.
Well, I could go into more detail, but I noticed how long my last blog was. I don’t want to establish a trend and scare away those of you with short attention spans.
-Dave
