TRANSLATION PROBLEMS: REPLIES

[Yoshimasa Tsuji]

>> Avid readers of Russia's bul'varnaja pressa will
>> know that the Russian for boyfriend is 'bojfrend'.
>
>Hm, if this is so, then I anxiously await the appearance of
>'bojfrendka' for girlfriend...

Yes, indeed. I have heard bojfrend several times in the last
five years. (But not bojfrendka; "gelfrend" not yet, but is likely).

>I had heard the term "prijatel' " in the sense of "boyfriend." Conversely,
>the term "podruzhka" was girlfriend, as opposed to "podruga," which just
>meant a friend who was a girl.

I have heard "podruga" being used in the sense of a girlfriend
several times, as matter of fact.
  Prijatel' in the sense of a boyfriend is pretty common, but as my
exposure to vernacular Russian is limited only for the last nine years,
I am not sure how all this was previously.

Going back to the original query, one word that embarrasses me is the
word for "my landlady" -- a widow or divorcee who has an extra room
to let me. Whenever I say "moja khozjajka", people think I have
a Russian wife... I would have thought Raskol'nikov did not kill
his wife... They say they are not used to hearing it in that sense.

Regarding to odd expressions in Russian, I have recently had
disputes with my proof readers: when I wrote "pravye socialisty
i bol'shinstvo bol'shevikov", they invariably corrected the
expression to "bol`shinstvo pravykh socialistov i bol'sheviki".
At first I imagined that they had been misconceived in thinking that
right socialists are always divided but Communists monolithic.
But as it turned out, expressions like "bol'shinstvo bol'shevikov"
or "men'shinstvo men'shevikov" sounded odd in Russian. So, in the
end, I chose the expression "bol'shaja chast' bol'shevikov" although
"bol'shinstvo bol'shevikov" is perfectly OK in my ear. (It is very
nice of proof readers here in Russia to read the text aloud and check
whether or not the text reads smooth.)

Cheers,
Tsuji

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