When you are studying a foreign language you sometimes meet words that are the same or similar to words in your own language. Sometimes the meaning is the same such as in the case of (so-called) international words like television, computer, and democracy. Sometimes, however the meanings are completely different. In this case they are known as faux amis or false friends of the translator. A good example of this is the English word accurate and the Russian word аккуратный (akkuratny). In English, accurate means precise, exact, or correct (точный) e.g., We were drunk when we wrote the report, so the results of the final analysis were not very accurate.
Another example of this is the English confuse and the Russian конфуз (konfuz). If you say I'm confused in English, you mean that you are mixed up or you don't know what to do. However, in Russian У меня конфуз means that you are embarrassed. I made this mistake when I first moved to Moscow in 1997. At that time, there were no traditional self-serve supermarkets. If you wanted to buy some cheese, for example, you first had to ask the person to weigh it and he or she (usually the latter) would tell you how much it cost. You had to remember this price and then go to a cashier's booth to pay. It was difficult enough just to remember the price, but there were even more questions from the cashier such as какой отдел? (which section?) Which should have been clear since I told her it was for cheese, but I was forced to name the correct section anyway. In frustration I said "У меня конфуз" I wanted to say that I was confused and all mixed up, but what I actually said was that I was embarrassed, and from the look the cashier gave me (like I was from another planet) I immediately realized my mistake.
These are examples of when the meaning is completely different, but there are other cases when the basic meaning is the same, but the connotation is different. Connotation is a linguistic and stylistic term that means the coloring or feeling of a word. It's the picture in our head and the feeling we get when we hear a word. A good example of this is the word cottage, a word that has found its way into the Russian language as коттедж. This is the first image you get when you google image the word cottage:
In fact, most definitions on the Internet define a cottage as a small, modest single-story house. I personally picture small cottages with grass thatched roofs in English countryside.
However, in Russian the word коттедж has a much different connotation. Here is the first google image you get when you enter коттедж in Russian:
It's what I would call a mansion, worlds apart from the modest English cottage.
When I ask my Russian speaking students what they think of when they hear the word cottage in Russian, they all basically describe a big expensive house in the suburbs.
Linguistically, this is all very interesting. One important lesson that should be learned is to always pay attention to words and how they are used in a foreign language and never assume that they are the same as in your native tongue.
Another example of this is the English confuse and the Russian конфуз (konfuz). If you say I'm confused in English, you mean that you are mixed up or you don't know what to do. However, in Russian У меня конфуз means that you are embarrassed. I made this mistake when I first moved to Moscow in 1997. At that time, there were no traditional self-serve supermarkets. If you wanted to buy some cheese, for example, you first had to ask the person to weigh it and he or she (usually the latter) would tell you how much it cost. You had to remember this price and then go to a cashier's booth to pay. It was difficult enough just to remember the price, but there were even more questions from the cashier such as какой отдел? (which section?) Which should have been clear since I told her it was for cheese, but I was forced to name the correct section anyway. In frustration I said "У меня конфуз" I wanted to say that I was confused and all mixed up, but what I actually said was that I was embarrassed, and from the look the cashier gave me (like I was from another planet) I immediately realized my mistake.
These are examples of when the meaning is completely different, but there are other cases when the basic meaning is the same, but the connotation is different. Connotation is a linguistic and stylistic term that means the coloring or feeling of a word. It's the picture in our head and the feeling we get when we hear a word. A good example of this is the word cottage, a word that has found its way into the Russian language as коттедж. This is the first image you get when you google image the word cottage:
In fact, most definitions on the Internet define a cottage as a small, modest single-story house. I personally picture small cottages with grass thatched roofs in English countryside.
However, in Russian the word коттедж has a much different connotation. Here is the first google image you get when you enter коттедж in Russian:
It's what I would call a mansion, worlds apart from the modest English cottage.
When I ask my Russian speaking students what they think of when they hear the word cottage in Russian, they all basically describe a big expensive house in the suburbs.
Linguistically, this is all very interesting. One important lesson that should be learned is to always pay attention to words and how they are used in a foreign language and never assume that they are the same as in your native tongue.
