(no subject)

[drevo-obezyani.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to describe a friend who really likes anime and manga in a letter to a Russian, and I'm kind of stuck. I put down японские мултьфилмы for anime, but my dictionary has several different words for "comic" and no word that seems to specifically mean "comic book." Could I say комические книги, or would some other word be better?

On a completely unrelated note, what does Я всегда жду чуда mean? I understand Я всегда жду as "I always wait" but чуда confuses me. The best I can figure is it means something like "I always await the miracle" but in the context (talking about how New Year's is her favourite holiday and how much she loves the decorations) it seems a little odd. Unless there's some big miraculous thing that happens every year in St. Petersburg that I just don't know about.

Comments

[xnrrn.livejournal.com]

Well, word комикс also includes comic books. Комические книги has a diffrent meaning, describing funny and humorous books (and I don't think it is used anywhere I ever encountered).

The second phrase means something "I always await for miracle [to happen]".

It is that New Year's Eve is beleived to be realy miracolous time, and a lot of wonders happen around 31rd Dec/1st Jan.

[nataxxa.livejournal.com]

Comic books are комиксы.
And "я всегда жду чуда" - I'm always waiting for the miracle (during New year's eve), because that time is considered miraculous itself.

[hellga.livejournal.com]

"I always expect a miracle" is closer in meaning and spirit of the phrase.

[fczfcz.livejournal.com]

I guess 'expect' has a shade of rational in its meaning, and this wait is completely irrational.

[aka-lacerda.livejournal.com]

For 'anime' and 'manga' you can freely use «аниме» and «манга» respectively. In fact, I think no one would call them the other way.

[ashalynd.livejournal.com]

In Soviet Union, Christmas has not been officially celebrated. It so happened that New Year's Eve has taken the place of Christmas Eve, and some mythology got wound up around it. Russian kids are waiting for Grandpa Frost (Дед Мороз) and his granddaughter, Snow-girl (Снегурочка) to bring them the presents at midnight when the New Year comes into being or at the next morning (depending on the parents' inventiveness of course). There is a number of children fairy tales, cartoons and films about the miracles happening "when the withered Old Year goes away and the young New Year comes in his place". That is why the New Year's Eve became the most favorite holiday for all people in Soviet Union, being completely stripped of any political or religious meaning and only supposed to fill everybody's longing for the time when miracles have the right to happen.

Anime is just called аниме, manga is called манга, and comics are called комиксы (this is the plural form; the singular is комикс, but the word is mostly used in its plural form). The dictionaries are usually a bit outdated for words like these.

[korolyeva525.livejournal.com]

Total and complete icon love. I have a Russian friend who's always starting out sentences with "Actually..." and I know I'm in for a lesson on how the Russians do it better/faster/first