Language Difficulties
The English tend to be very lazy when it comes to learning foreign languages. This could be a result of being an insular island nation — but is probably more a feature of the fact that English is more or less accepted everywhere accepted as the modern “lingua franca” — the universal language of business, entertainment, the internet, and so on. Why should we waste our time learning other languages when everyone speaks English?
This isn’t just chauvinism — it seems to be an accepted fact of life.
And it’s not just the that think the whole world speaks English. I often try to persuade the authorities and the tour companies here in Bishkek that we should try and produce some literature about Kyrgyzstan in different languages. There is plenty of material available in Russian, and a certain amount in English — but I suggest that we should also try and produce leaflets in French, German, Japanese etc. They reply that everyone speaks English. Even some consultants from the European Union, (Germans), said the same thing.
I once had a Japanese client, who obviously thought that Ian was a Russian or Kyrgyz name, who asked me in an email “Where did you learn your English?, it is almost as good as mine.”
What’s even worse is that, sometimes, we don’t know even know our own language very well. I have been somewhat embarrassed when young Kyrgyz students have pointed out my mistakes, or when they seem to know the rules of English grammar better than I do.
Now, I would not claim to be brilliant at languages. It took me three attempts to get a CSE Grade 1 in French. (In fact, I learnt most of my grammar at school in French classes.) At college I sat through six weeks of Greek — but gave that up and chose a different option as soon as I could. I am tempted to use the old clichй — “It was all Greek to me.” When I went abroad on holiday I made the effort to learn a few phrases in the local language — things like: “I am sorry, I don’t speak French/German/Greek/Turkish …” or “Two beers, please”
When I knew that I was coming to Kyrgyzstan I made an effort to learn some Russian. I sometimes joke that I knew about six words — Da, Nyet, Pravda, Izvestia, Glaznost and Perestroika — although that was a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe I knew the words, but I didn’t really know what they meant, (apart from the first two). On arrival, I started taking lessons — two hours a day, every day (Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays included), from a teacher who spoke virtually no English — so we talked in Russian all the time. She gave me loads, and loads, of homework. I went shopping, I watched local TV and I took every opportunity to try speaking Russian. It wasn’t easy, but I got by.
My methodology was simple. Knowing how bad I was at learning languages — I wasn’t going to worry too much about getting things perfect. I am not a secret agent trying to pretend that I am a local — and I wasn’t intending to become an interpreter, so I decided that it was best to just get on with it … people would understand that I was an “ignorant foreigner” and make allowances. If they really wanted to understand me, they probably would — and if they didn’t want to … well, I was at least trying.
It works, but it may not be a method to recommend to others. It helps that I am here and so I have to speak Russian every day.
My one regret is that I have never been able to learn Kyrgyz apart from a few simple phrases. The problem is that, here in Bishkek, everybody speaks Russian, and many of the locals want to speak English — for the practice. Although it is not universal, I am actually very impressed at how well some people do speak English. There are several that I have mistaken for Brits, or Americans, on first meeting them.
My limit is speaking. I tend to speak badly, in simple language (using lots of words when perhaps one or two more complicated words would do) and with lots of mistakes, but as I predicted — most people appreciate the point that I am trying and can usually understand me. I don’t try and write in Russian — except for very simple things.
Of course some people whom I see every day understand me more easily than new acquaintances. There was one time when three of us were sitting round a table: Me, Costa (who knew me quite well) and Andrei (whom I was meeting for the first time). You can imaging how I felt when after trying to say something in Russian, Andrei would laugh and then turn to Costa and ask “Shto on skazal?” — “What did he say?” What made it so upsetting was that Costa would repeat exactly what I had said, word for word, and Andrei would understand completely. I was left bemused, thinking: “No, ya tak skazal” — “But that’s what I said”.
Russian is quite an interesting language — although complex and full of traps for the unwary foreigner. One of the first words, I suppose, that people learn in any new language is “Hello”. In Russian it is “zdrastvuitye” — try getting your tongue round those consonants at the beginning of that! Also, there are some letters of the Cyrillic alphabet which I have difficulty when speaking. I think coping with my accent is one of the biggest problems people have when trying to understand me.
The various word endings are quite infuriating … whereas in English where we may have one word (for example “red”), Russian can have up to 24 different versions of the same word — krasni, krasnaya, krasnoye, krasniye, krasnoy, krasnovo, krasnom krasnomy … and so on. It doesn’t help that some of them are the same … if you get the wrong one then it is possible to convey the wrong meaning. Having said that, once you get used to them the structure is very logical and it is surprising how much meaning a single word can convey.
Anyway, I can now get by, most of the time, without an interpreter. I understand enough and I am not shy about asking people to repeat what they?ve said if I don’t understand something in particular. If they speak slowly and use simple language I can understand about, say, 70—80% of what’s being said and can guess the rest from the context.
There are some phrases that I loathe to hear. The people I work with know that I don’t like them — and it is best not to use them when I am around — although I have to be honest and admit that I have been known to use them myself. The reason I don’t like them is that that they never seem to mean what they say — they can have a number of meanings … and you have to get used to putting them into context.
For example:
“Shas“: — the word is literally translated as “an hour” — but, when used to answer the question “when?” it can mean anything from — “now” to “within the hour”, “after an hour”, “soon”, “sometime today” — or even as an equivalent of the Spanish: “Manana”
“Vsye” — literally, this means “everything” — in practice it means nothing. One of my favourite stories involves trying to buy some fruit juice. “What sort would you like?”, I was asked. “What have you got?” Back came the reply: “Vsye” — everything (???). I asked for Apple — “Sorry, we haven’t got that.” “How about Grape?” “No, we haven’t got that either.” — after a couple of more attempts, I asked: “What have you got?. “Orange and Tomato” — “But you said you had ‘Vsye?” — “Well, that’s ‘vsye? that we?ve got.”
“Pie-dyot” — which means “it?ll do”. Actually, it seems to be a symptom of Soviet life — when resources were scarce and so people tended to “make do”. Unfortunately, in our business (tourism and hospitality) where people have paid good money for services — “‘it?ll do?, just simply won’t do”
“Obyazatelstvo” — “without fail”, “Nahda” and “Nuzhen”, which basically mean “It is necessary”, “dolzhen” which means “a debt” but can be used to mean “must” … they all carry a sense of obligation — and then there is the opposite: “Nilzya” — “it’s impossible”. Unfortunately, they are very strong words which seem to have very black and white meanings in a world full of grays — and they are often used in such a way that they are simply meant to add stress. So, whenever I hear these words I tend to ask — “Just what do mean, exactly, on a scale of 0 to 10, where:
Scale: Russian Meaning 0 Nilzya never — it’s impossible 1 ochen ni rekomendiraiyu it is really not recommended 2 ni rekomendiraiyu it is not recommended 3 ni zhelano it’s is not desirable 4 ni horoshi it’s not a good idea 5 mozhno it’s OK — you can do this 6 horosho it would be a good 7 zheltano it is desirable 8 rekomendiraiyu it is recommended 9 ochen rekomendiraiyu it is highly recommended 10 Obyazatelstvo absolutely necessary, “without fail”
Even so, I tend to get an answer of 9 — when it really should be a 6!
“Eto nye telephonie razgovor” — “It’s not for a telephone conversation” — which basically means “I want to ask you for money”.
“Vas ustraiyet?” — when talking about prices it means “will that price be OK for you” — especially when followed by: “No, deshevliye chem v Londonye” — which means “but it’s cheaper than in London”. As soon as I hear this — I know I am being overcharged.
Bishkek