(no subject)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

A lot of Russians say "To my mind..." when speaking English. This phrase sounds strange to me in English and it seems like a direct translation from something Russian (or maybe it's British and I just don't know it). Does anyone know what it's from? The closest direct translations I could think of are

"С моей точки зрения..." 
"Я имею в виду.." 

but neither seem close enough. Where does this come from??

Comments

[hope1972.livejournal.com]

Я думаю...
Мне кажется...

[doch-rasbojnika.livejournal.com]

you also can say
по-моему...

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

I've never heard anyone saying something like this so I can only guess they meant "по моему мнению", мнение stems from мыслить and for a Russian with basic English knowledge everything related to thinking is "mind" in English.

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

There are a few ways that people express this. "To my mind" is not one of the common ways. It doesn't sound terrible, just a little strange and foreign. Here are more common ways:

In my opinion...
I think...
I believe...
I suppose...

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

I know the phrases "Ya dumaju, chto..." of course. I'm asking for the most literal translation of "To my mind..." I'm trying to understand why Russians say this so much, considering that it is not a common phrase in (at least American) English. I assumed it was a direct translation of something Russian.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

There you go, upthera44 -- see? They teach them at schools to say so! Arrrgh, the Bloody KGB Regime :)))

[alon_68]

In schools we were also taught, that in English they say "how do you do" and don't have a reply to "thank you". And we could imagine that Anglophones say "Bon appetit" so frequently as we say "Приятного аппетита" :)

[spiritrc.livejournal.com]

What a strange school was that where you were taught not to reply to "thank you" with something like "you're welcome" or "not at all" ? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that they indeed say "how do you do" in _English_. Not in American though where it's mostly "how are you" or "howdy" with the latter obviously being derived from "how do you do".

[night-in-light.livejournal.com]

Many russians use phrase "По-моему" very often. I think it's the most literal translation.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>I'm trying to understand why Russians say this so much

Seriously, I don't get it, too. Must be an obscure sentence from a 6th grade textbook for Soviet hight schools. Those textbooks were quite strange, seriously. The language they described was badly distorted British English from 1920-1930s, and the examples they gave were mostly about komsomol, kolkhoz, machine and tractor station, friendship of peoples, struggle for peace, advantages of the socialist economy, Soviet superiority in space flights, how to use Moscow Metro, and other topics indeed very important when you study a foreign language. No wonder they might state that "to my mind" was a nice way to start your English sentence in the cases you would say "Я думаю, что..." in Russian.

The thing about those textbooks was that they were intended to prepare Soviet schoolchildren to welcome progressive Western tourists (probably members of their countries' Young Communist Leagues) in the U.S.S.R., not to travel behind the Iron Curtain. Nobody could even imagine that an average Soviet teenager would ever be able to travel somewhere farther than Moldavia :)

[oryx_and_crake]

I remember it from school, too. Must be a KGB conspiracy against correct English.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Bloody Reds. They killed Kenny!

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

Yea, in looking at some of the teaching materials used by English programs here (I'm an English teacher in Russia at the moment), it seems that sometimes there are some errors or outdated language being taught. In this case though I guess "To my mind" is a British phrase -- someone else posted a link proving that. How much it is actually used by British people, I couldn't say. But to me, an American, it sounds a bit awkward.

[jim-24601.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha. I have somewhere at home something that calls itself a "краткий граматический справочник (английский язык)" that is much as you describe--although the grammar content is mostly (not entirely) accurate, the examples are interesting to say the least. Nothing about the Moscow metro, but a lot about Comrade N. and his tank division, and even a brief mention of the Morning Star (http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/)...

[kapabas.livejournal.com]

maybe it is british

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/to+my+mind

[adri-nwnderland.livejournal.com]

I taught students in the FSU who learned this phrase from the book Plahkotnik, which also has a lot of false 'English' phrases based on this one guys limited English and some stuff he made up. So I think it's a think English teachers who never went abroad taught to their students, and then when things opened up the students continued to say it because no one told them it was awkward. I let my german exchange student say 'make a picture' for over a year because I thought it was cute.

[max-first.livejournal.com]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/learnit/learnitv281.shtml

So it seems like it is British after all. In Russian schools they have tried to teach us British English :)

[jim-24601.livejournal.com]

It does seem so. From the point of view of a native English speaker from England, it's not a particularly common expression, but it's a perfectly valid idiom. Not archaic so much as bookish and a bit pretentious.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

Tried but largely failed. I remember very little British from all my studies in class. Somehow all the truly British stuff was lacking. I also wonder how much is lost in other countries, I mean, are they really trying to follow British or American, or is it some kind of a mix? 'Coz it's the words, grammar, pronunciation and cultural peculiarities that make a language stand out and be a distinct language.

[zhp.livejournal.com]

It comes from our English textbooks and is not connected to anything Russian

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

It must come from one of those Russian-written English textbooks.

[swiggett.livejournal.com]

I'm a native English speaker, and the phrase "To my mind..." doesn't sound odd to me.

I second that

[nikitapopovich.livejournal.com]

I’m one, too, and I second that. The only thing I can figure out is that “to my mind” might sound somewhat formal to some Americans for a conversation in an informal setting. The expression would probably hardly be used in a dialogue among American youngsters. Looking at Soviet dictionaries more than 40 years old, I discover that “по-моему” and “на мой взгляд“ are often rendered as “to my mind.” In a regular conversation Americans would probably just use “I think” and overwork that in the way such usage is often overdone. Language, of course, is always linked to culture, and some Americans, especially men, are sensitive to some words and expressions. I can imagine many an American macho shrinking from the use of “I suppose” as in “I suppose Bob’s sick” because he may think it sounds sissy. He’d probably stick to “I think Bob’s sick.”

Anthony

Re: I second that

[eavanmoore.livejournal.com]

Ditto that.

[no-access.livejournal.com]

may be "to my mind" comes from "на мой взгляд"?

[merry1978.livejournal.com]

The dictionaries give "To my mind" as a translation for Russian "по моему мнению". As far as I can see, it is rather adequate, as the Russian "по моему мнению" is also a bit bookish and not really used in informal spoken language.

It's definitely not a translation, as this idiom is known in Britain since 1500s (see here (http://www.answers.com/To%20my%20mind)).

[xameleon-nr.livejournal.com]

Yes, as far as i remember, it comes from schools and universities - the teachers really say that it`s a good way to start a sentence. And we usually use "To my mind" as "По-моему".

As for me, i`d rather use "as for me" :)

btw, what is it better to say than "To my mind". What phrase (phrases?) is common in that case?

[adri-nwnderland.livejournal.com]

it seems so much more natural to say ' In my opinion' or if it is just a thought and not an opinion on an issue 'I think that... ' But both are understandable and not worth stressing about.