(no subject)

[clownshoes.livejournal.com]

Having some problems with review questions for my Russian Culture final. Hoping someone here can help.

Translate and describe the cultural concepts beyond the literal meanings of these words/expressions:
тоска, душа, духовность, друг/дружба, одну минуточку

I know that душа is spirit, духовность is spirituality, друг/дружба is friend/friendship, and that одну минуточку is "one minute" (and I assume that this is referring to the Russian's emphasis on the event, not the actual time that the event starts... the meeting is at 7; a Russian will arrive around then... I don't care if you guys think this is acurate or not, the teacher said it's how it is, and I won't disagree with her on the final). However, I do not know what тоска means and what it entails.

How is the Russian attitude toward celebration of the New Year's Day different from the American way?

List 2-3 Russian proverbs, and how do they tell us about cultural values?

What words/expressions do you konw in Russian that express Russian culture and are hard to translate into other languages?

I figured to just pick бит (sp?) for this one, but if anyone knows another, please let me know.


Thanks guys.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Why don't you look up тоска in the dictionary? Wonderful invention, dictionaries
http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?l1=1&l2=2&HL=2&EXT=0&s=%F2%EE%F1%EA%E0

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. What's бит and what does it have to do with Russian culture? The only бит I know is a binary thing that can take a value of 0 or 1 and it is by no means specific to Russian culture.

[clownshoes.livejournal.com]

OK, so what does melancholy; anxiety; grief; yearning; boredom; depression; longing; wrench; blues have to do with Russian cultural concepts? They're always like this?

Your comments never help, so why bother leaving them?

[clownshoes.livejournal.com]

"Byt."

[oryx_and_crake]

I, being Russian, am not aware of any cultural concepts beyond тоска (or друг, for that matter). Those are just words that have some English translations. You can see the list of these translations in the dictionary. As far as I know, there isn't anything mysterious in them, no occult meaning. I am sorry if my comments seem unhelpful. I will not comment your postings from now on, if you mind.

[clownshoes.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I can't put on the test "yo, this Russian guy online said these words don't mean shit; sorry" and expect to receive full credit.

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

It's not "some Russian guy online's" job to give you the answers to the test.

I am dimly aware of the fact that тоска is considered an important emotion to the "Russian Soul" by those who wish to define it. How many Russians really feel this importance is up for debate. So if it's not in your class notes, you might be out of luck.
Pray for another "Russian Soul" fetishist to be online before the test... I for one can't remember why тоска is so damn important.

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

быт

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

Одну минуточку = wait a minute

[hound-lancer.livejournal.com]

I guess what is meant here by the concept of Russian тоска (like "Celtic sadness") is a romantic perception of the intense controversy between a person’s actual state of being (often coinciding with “byt”) and lust for a different (better?) life. A clash between the richer emotional inner world and dull miserable existence. Whether it is peculiar to the Russian nation and culture, is debatable, but may be enough for the final.

As for the New Year, I thing the teacher would want to hear that it is the main event of the Christmas holidays, as long as for many years the secular holiday has been prevailing. You might as well go into details and say that now the Russians start celebrating on Dec 24 through the 31 Dec-1 Jan over to 7 Jan (Orthodox Christmas) and until 13-14 Jan (so called “Old New Year”).

Proverbs. You must’ve had a list of them. Pick any you think appropriate.

Words hard to explain. Pick дача (dacha) and интеллигент (intellectual) for the matter. If you manage to explain the latter, I bet you’ll pass. :-D

[hound-lancer.livejournal.com]

yeah, одну минуточку is indeed "one moment, please" or "wait a minute, please". It can as well be used when arguing to stop the opponent's speech and try to evaluate a particular thesis.

[mr-uef.livejournal.com]

тоска = yearning would probably be a good and adequate translation. The key 'tint' of this word is the meaning of a loss, of a something you long to have but there's simply no way to, at least here and now.

As for the New Year, it largely resembles the spirit of Christmas the way it is celebrated in the West. Long and joyful preparation, gifts, expectation of a small miracle, a family get-together, all that. Plus, there's a sense of renewal. Also, no New Year resolutions. Rather, Russians tend to expect something new and good to come along by itself. And something new does happen, just like the New Year resolutions are always fulfilled ;)

[vicnaum.livejournal.com]

эх... тоска зеленая...

[phineus892.livejournal.com]

New Year's a very important celebration in Russia I think. My mum says how you spend the New Year's Night is how you'll spend the rest of that year...

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

To refine others' comments a bit, I've seen "toska" (sorry no cyrillic on this pc) defined as "longing for something lost or far away" and "nostalgic sadness." If you are looking for its application to Russian culture, you could attribute this to the collapse of the USSR, although it was certainly considered a Russian cultural trait before this happened. At least this might give you something concrete to say about this rather vague concept.

[oryx_and_crake]

That's hogwash, pardon my French. If you really think someone may be sad about the collapse of USSR (we are not talking a few freaks but a sufficient number of people to consider that a national trait or concept) then you are way, way off base.

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

"What words/expressions do you konw in Russian that express Russian culture and are hard to translate into other languages?"

"Есть женщины в русских деревнях,

Их бабами нежно зовут.

Коня на скаку остановят,

В горящую избу войдут."

Тоска is a sad feelind that occurs when you miss something or someone that you can't have now.

Since we don't selebrate Christmas that much, New Year combines both events. It is the most important selebration in the year. It is ment to be a family event more than a party.

[zhp.livejournal.com]

Check out the works by Anna Wierzbicka. She is a Polish-born Australian linguist who studied cultural concepts in Russian culture. I suppose your teacher got her list out of her books (or of some textbook that quoted Wierzbicka)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

A frequently-cited survey was conducted in 1999 in which 60+ % of Russians interviewed said they would prefer to live in the Soviet Union. I don't have a link to it offhand but it should be easy enough to find with a google search.

[zhp.livejournal.com]

so what? how is it connected with тоска?

[zhp.livejournal.com]

тоска is a pretty intense feeling of loss and sadness for something that is unattainable, as in тоска по родине, which is a severe case of nostalgia. It can also mean a vague feeling of yearning and sort of boredom when there is a feeling that there is nothing to do or that whatever could be done is simply not worth the effort, as in тоска зеленая (which is slightly ironic)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

This is a concrete example of it, though maybe not a great one. And I posted the comment about the survey to refute Oryx's statement that Russians are not nostalgic for the USSR.

[zhp.livejournal.com]

it is not тоска. If you say that the population тоскует по СССР it would mean that people spend their days doing nothing, suffering inwardly and feeling a great yearning for those times. Тоска is a personal feeling, you are emotionally very connected to whatever you feel it for. THe USSR is not that sort of subject although some people can feel nostalgic about their life there (especially in 1999, right after the 1998 crisis when all the people's savings were lost and the prices sky-rocketed)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

So when someone misses their homeland, as in тоска по родине, do they sit at home and spend their days doing nothing but yearning? Seems like splitting hairs and your point really seems to be that longing for life in the Soviet Union is not as intense or widespread as other types of longing--which may or may not be true.

[zhp.livejournal.com]

well - тоска по родине is indeed a feeling which would seriously interfere with normal life. This expression is used when talking about emigres who could not return for some reason and it caused some deep spiritual suffering, like, "Он так и не смог прижиться на чужбине и умер всего через два года после отъезда. Родные говорили, что его сгубила тоска по родине". My point is that in тоска ther is a strong sense of emotional involvement. People just wouldn't use the word in your example, it's a point of usage. If there is so much disagreement and misunderstanding about it, then, maybe, cultural concepts do really exist.

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

Ok, point taken.