(no subject)

[hunc-tu-caveto.livejournal.com]

How would I say "At Salisbury University there is a department of history?"

В университете Солсбери есть факультет истории. Does this sound ok?

Comments

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

исторический факультет sounds better.

[hunc-tu-caveto.livejournal.com]

So would В университете Солсбери есть факультет испанского языка work for saying that there is a spanish language department?

[gera.livejournal.com]

Sounds quite all right.

[aristophan.livejournal.com]

приемлемо )))

[gera.livejournal.com]

Yes, and факультет истории would work too.
Actually it's even better for a more formal context.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

You'd better say В университете Солсбери есть кафедра испанского языка.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

We usually say исторический факультет, not факультет истории. Believe me, I've spent several years in the MSU history faculty...

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

I've just realised that getting the difference between факультет and кафедра could be a bit weird. As a general rule, факультет is bigger, while кафедра is usually concerned with a sole subject (consider исторический факультет vs кафедра истории средних веков, history faculty vs medieval history department).

[hunc-tu-caveto.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH I was trying to figure out the difference between the two. Thank you for the explanation.

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

But everyone else uses факультет истории, факультет права, факультет радиоэлектроники летательных аппаратов, etc.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

Humm... Well, at least in Moscow we normally say юридический, исторический, филологический, экономический, физический, строительный, etc. On the other hand, when it's радиоэлектроника летательных аппаратов, there is no room for manoeuvre.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, you're from Moscow, too :)

But nevertheless my department defines itself as исторический факультет, not факультет истории. And that's true for all other Russian universities I know.

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

O those humanists! All the faculties are officially called so, errm, for example, in MAI: факультет конструирования летательных аппаратов, факультет авиационных двигателей, факультет систем управления etc. MIPHI has his faculties named like факультет автоматики и электроники, факультет информационной безопасности, факультет кибернетики etc. Bauman university has it's departments named the same way.
All the prestigious technical universities use this naming principle.

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

I've posted some examples above.
It your MSU spoiling the statistics, yep.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

Sure, because you technicians cannot name faculties but using two or more words :)))) Arts people like me can manage using only one word!!!

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

Same story for RGGU, MGIMO, High School of Economics, etc. :P

I think we've found the rule.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

you're welcome :)

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

I imagine the posts' author searchong the ruzone to find if the university she's talking about is technical or not, and get a bit scared.

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

searching, of course.

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

Nope, it's 'cause our subjects are much more complex.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Right, and кафедра is normally the part of факультет, unless it's межфакультетская кафедра (there are some of those at Moscow State.)

[alamar.livejournal.com]

А вот и не подеретесь.
I bet you wouldn't fight.

[petich.livejournal.com]

I guess it has more to do with the traditions of the university, not the complexity of the subjects studied. In MSU most faculties have the word "факультет" in the end of the title. I mean <какой-то> факультет, not факультет <чего-то>. You can see the titles here (http://www.msu.ru/resources/msu-ws1.html).

I hope you won't argue that мехмат which is Механико-математический факультет or физфак (Физический факультет) has rather complex subjects =)

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but better not tell it, otherwise the author will go mad :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Why? Education systems in Russia and in the U.S. differ dramatically. I could go mad when I asked U.S. students who attended my guest lectures at University of Idaho what they specialized at. The answers like "I'm majoring in veterinary and minoring in music history" could drive me REALLY mad, especially since my lectures were at the School of Journalism :) But they didn't, since I understood that I encountered a different education system, nothing else...

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

I've worked out the following rule.

If the subject is a noun or two 'equitable' nouns (механика и математика, история, юриспруденция), you can readily transform them into an adjective and therefore it will be механико-математический/исторический/юридический факультет. If the name of the subjet already contains an adjective (i.e., иностранные языки) or a noun 'subordinated' to another noun (системы (чего?) управления), you cannot transform it into an adjective and therefore you should say факультет иностранных языков or факультет систем управления.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

You're right :)

Well, i.e. межфакультетская кафедра истории teaches history to students outside of the history faculty.

[azulejos.livejournal.com]

You win :))))

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Right, and межфакультетская кафедра иностранных языков teaches foreign languages to those outside of philology school (филологический факультет) - like they taught it to us Journalism students.

[divine-1987.livejournal.com]

I'd rather say исторический факультет, because факультет истории sounds too formal and literary.

[j-croix.livejournal.com]

Same in my Academy - судоводительский, арктический, электромеханический, арктический and so on.