When English is Not a DUer's First Language, [View all]

[MineralMan]

a little slack should be given when a word usage or sentence structure seems off. It's easy to assume that most DUers are native English speakers, but that's not necessarily the case.

Here's a story that demonstrates what can happen when you're trying to communicate in a non-native language. Many years ago, when the USAF decided that teaching me Russian was a good idea, I was part of an intensive Russian Language program at Syracuse University. During that program, no other language was allowed to be used in classes, and only Russian was supposed to be used in our barracks, mess hall, and other areas. The system worked very well, and we learned Russian quickly. However, 9 months is not enough to become fluent, by any means.

Having been assigned by one of our Russian native-speaking instructors to write an essay in Russian about our future life plans, I decided to treat it as a bit of a lark, and declared in my opening sentence that my goal was to be a bum.

Now, that word was not one that was taught in our classes, so I turned to my handy-dandy English to Russian dictionary. It was always at hand, and I had purchased it from a local bookstore to complement my other Russian language resources. The word I found in that dictionary was, transliterated, "zadnitsa." So I wrote my paper, describing all of the benefits of being a "zadnitsa," having opened the first paragraph with a sentence saying, "In my life, I would like to be a bum." In Russian, of course.

Well, after turning the essay in, the instructor passed the papers back to us the next day, having graded them on several aspects. Mine got a B. Then, she asked us, one at a time, to read our essays aloud, in Russian, to the class. She called on me first. So, I began reading.

As soon as I finished the first sentence, the teacher began sputtering, seemingly trying to suppress outright laughter. I failed to see the humor.

In Russian, she said, "Zadnitsa. Not a nice word, Airman. Not nice."
I said, in Russian, "I don't understand, Mrs. Smirnoff. What is funny?"

She stood up, pointed at her rear end and said, "Zadnitsa."

Suddenly, I got it. It seems that my English to Russian dictionary was actually a British to Russian dictionary. "Bum," in England, means butt, fundament, or ass." Sure enough, the dictionary had a London origin on the title page. I had unintentionally made an "ass" of myself as my career goal.

So, when someone on DU uses a word inappropriately, it could just be that the DUer is not a native English-speaker. A little slack should be given, I think.

ETA: After Mrs. Smirnoff explained the error, everyone, including me, broke out in laughter. It was damn funny.