Awwww....

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

Speaking of end-of-the-year stuff, my Russian professor sent us this e-mail. (I'm totally overworked; I can tell, because it almost made me cry. It IS super-sweet, though...)


Вот и закончились наши занятия русским языком.

Мы недолго занимались вместе, но я с большим удовольствием работала с вами. Я видела, как серьезно и много вы работали и добились неплохих результатов.

Я не сомневаюсь в том, что вы будете укреплять дружественные связи между Америкой и Россией, а также, как первоклассные специалисты по НАТО, по ВТО, по СНГ, по выборам, по экономике, по ЕС и т.д., будете способствовать разрядке международной напряженности.

От всей души поздравляю вас с окончанием очередного семестра в XXXXе и с успехами на экзаменах.

Я желаю вам всего самого доброго. Я желаю вам здоровья и счастья.

Я хочу, чтобы всё у вас было хорошо. И я знаю, что у вас всё будет прекрасно и на работе, и дома, и в личной жизни.

Если вам когда-нибудь будет нужна моя помощь, с радостью вам помогу.

С большим уважением ко всем вам,

Светлана

Comments

[mystache.livejournal.com]

I hate to be a burden, but could you provide a translation? I'm either not advanced enough or am too lazy to get through on it on my own.

[belacane.livejournal.com]

here a translation for you.....kind of rough, but you get the idea yeah? (the more translation I do, the more difficult it is to really make it flow between languages):

dear students,

and so our russian classes have ended.

we didn't study together for long, but It was a great pleasure to work with you. I saw how hard and how seriously you worked, and attained good results.

I do not doubt that you will strengthen friendly connections between russia and america, just like first class specialists from NATO (I don't know what the other two acronyms stand for), on elections, economics...etc.
you will promote the dispersion of international tension.

from all my soul, i congratulate you with the completion of the semester and your success on the exam.

I wish you all the best. I wish for you health and happiness.

I want/hope/wish that everything by you is well. And I know that by you everything will be excellent in work, at home, and in your personal life.

If you need my help with anything, I will gladly help you.

With huge respect to all of you.

- svetlana

[cema.livejournal.com]

What strikes me is that she was able to put so much passion in a text written in very simple Russian.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, Russian proverb says that "краткость - сестра таланта" (brevity is the sister of talent.)

[jesuschrist2k1.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is insane!

Мою профессору тоже зовут Светлана! Мир тесен!

[jesuschrist2k1.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute...Is профессора the female form of профессор? Or should it just be профессор for either?

[photofreedom.livejournal.com]

Yes, it should be профессор. Some students use word профессорша, but this is a kind of joke-rudness :)

[photofreedom.livejournal.com]

i mean rudeness.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

The word профессор in Russian is strictly masculine (there's a bunch of words like that - водитель, пешеход, врач, доктор, etc.) - so you can't use a feminine form, there's simply no such form.
Therefore,
Моего профессора тоже зовут Светлана.
This contradiction is a source of endless jokes even between us Russians (for instance, "молодая пешеход добежал до переход" -- which sounds completely illiterate and broken only because the masculine "пешеход" [pedestrian] is used with the feminine adjective "молодая" [young] which destroys the whole sentence).

[ob-ivan.livejournal.com]

but the most interesting point is that here the word professor states for преподователь, not профессор

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, this is normal for Americans :)) They think that if they call a kindergarten teacher a professor, the rest of the word does just the same :))

[belacane.livejournal.com]

since when does america call kindergarten teachers professors?

this is new =) =)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, that was hyperbolic, which was marked by smileys.

The truth is that in Russia, a профессор is only a full-time university professor. Not any university professor (leave alone the profssors of lower-level educational institutions) is a профессор. There's a comples system of professor degrees in Russian universities - преподаватель, старший преподаватель, доцент, профессор; and this does not correspond with the scientific degrees, which starts with кандидат наук (Ph.D. in American system,) then goes доктор наук, and then академик (who, in his turn, may be член-корреспондент Академии Наук or действительный член Академии Наук). So the same guy may be профессор and доктор наук, or доцент and кандидат наук, etc.etc.etc.

But no high school teacher would be ever called a профессор :))

[ducking.livejournal.com]

See David Lodge's "Changing Places" for the examination of that confusion.

[jesuschrist2k1.livejournal.com]

No, I have a Russian профессор. But I've learned my lesson!

[uncle-becher.livejournal.com]

Моего провессора тоже зовут Светлана, you get the gender ending from the professor not from the name.

[speckius.livejournal.com]

It is inappropriate to use "Мир тесен" there because they are two different people (even with the same name), not the same person.

[sai17.livejournal.com]

variant:
Мою профессоршу тоже зовут Светлана
:)

but профессорша is mostly vulgar (familar) form.

but it looks better:

Мою преподавательницу тоже зовут Светлана

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Профессорша exists (as well as докторша, and even - in some rural dialects - учительша), but this is very colloquial, almost illiterate, and I don't recommend its use.

[oncogene.livejournal.com]

Russian professors are the best. I was originally only going to take it as a language requirement, but all the Russian faculty are such excellent examples of the human race that many of us were sucked into double majoring in Russian.

[egh0st.livejournal.com]

I'll take it as a compliment to russians :)

[jeknuts.livejournal.com]

that same thing happened to me!!
start off as a business major, end up a Russian History and Russian Language double major... :-P