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Repelling the English Invasion
Lately in Russian there’s been a lot of talk about агрессия английского языка (the aggression of the English language): the huge influx of English words into Russian. In this battle I’m fully on the side of the Russians. First, because all these English words are understood by Russians variously, so the politician who talks about транспарантность бизнеса (transparency of business) is understood by one person to mean open accounting and records, and by another to mean using clear plastic packaging. The second reason is that it’s just not fair. Imagine how your Aunt Mary in Springfield would react if she were watching the news and heard: “Tonight’s special report is on pokhischeniye lyudei.” Well, that’s about how тетя Маша in Tula feels when the newscaster says, “Сегодня наш специальный репортаж – киднэппинг.”
Where I disagree is on who’s to blame. As far as I know, the US and British embassies don’t call up the TV stations and demand they say экзит-пол (exit poll) or хит сезона (season hit). I don’t think it’s so much агрессия as заимствование (borrowing). It makes sense when the object or concept did not exist in Russian, but it doesn’t make sense when there are perfectly good Russian words at your fingertips.
So if you are a boss, please don’t call yourself супервайзер; refer to yourself as руководитель or начальник. And don’t even think of saying, Я супервизирую отдел рекламы. Try: Я возглавляю отдел (I head the ad department) or Я отвечаю за работу отдела (I’m responsible for the department). Neither should you call a стаф-митинг – for one thing, митинг in Russian is a rally or street demonstration – probably not what you want in your conference room. Call it a совещание or even летучка – the Russian word for a short meeting “on the fly.”
When you are inviting people for a job interview, don’t say, Приглашаю на интервью. That really means “I’m asking to interview you for an article.” Say instead: Приглашаю на собеседование. And when you can’t get along with one of your co-workers, don’t ever say, С тобой совершенно невозможно коммуникировать! (It’s impossible to communicate with you!) The last time I checked, the Russian word говорить still means “to talk.”
Refer to your office foyer as the приемная not ресепшн (reception). When you have a new product, say: Мы собираемся активно продвигать его на рынок. (We are planning to promote it aggressively.) Please don’t use the non-word промотировать!
Маркетинг has entered the language as the process didn’t entirely exist in Soviet Russia, but there’s nothing wrong with saying анализ рынка (market analysis) when you are talking about one aspect of it. And please, please, please, don’t use the fake word актор in the dreadful phrase, Он один из акторов на мировой политической сцене. (He’s one of the actors in the global political arena.) There’s nothing wrong with the Russian word фигура or even игрок if you want the sense of “player.”
There’s one small linguistic domain where both English and Russian have been equally compromised: the world of Turkish resorts. Anyone who has spent time on the fair shores of that country knows that “animation” (анимация) is not a form of filmmaking, but rather an entertainment program in which, after a fair amount of local beer, vacationers do a lot of silly dancing and play-acting. I don’t know why they didn’t call it развлекательная программа, an entertainment program, but the Turks didn’t, and as a result, we don’t. В этом отеле отличная анимация! can be translated as, “That hotel has great animation!”
At least everyone has got it wrong.
(By Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.)
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The Russian language seems ... Politicians and businessmen tend ... Imagine how sb would react if ... You’d better refrain from ... Neither should you ... There’s nothing wrong with ... Both English and Russian seem ...