Diploma terminology

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Edward M. Dumanis wrote:

> On Thu, 21 Aug 2003, Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
> 
>>On an Appendix to Diploma (that's a grade transcript for you 
>>non-clairvoyants) from Rostov State Medical University, I see the 
>>following entries (Windows 1251 encoding):
>>
>>Вступительные испытания   выдержала
>>
>>Поступил(а) в             Ростовском Государственном
>>                           медицинском инситуте в 1991 году
>>
>>Завершила обучение в      Ростовском Государственном
>>                           медицинском университете в 1997 году
>>
>>The first I take to be "entrance tests" (not exams, right?),
> 
> Вступительные испытания used to be a combination of written tests and oral
> exams. So, unless this practice has changed, I'd use "entrance tests and
> exams," or, rather just "entrance exams."

Rather than open up a can of worms over зачеты и экзамены, I'll just say 
"entrance examinations." I mostly wanted to know whether испытания was 
significantly different *for purposes of this document* from экзамены.

>>"passed" (not "withstood" or "survived," right?),
> 
> For выдержала, I'd use "succesfully passed."

For an American reader, this sounds redundant, because we never use 
"pass an exam" (sc. imperfective) to mean "take an exam." "Passed" can 
only mean сдал(а), never сдавал(а).

>>and the second is obviously "Enrolled in: Rostov State Medical
>>Institute" (the former name of the institution).
> 
> I would try to avoid this combination as ambiguous. Cf. Alabama State
> University, New York State University, etc., with the latter clearly
> not pointing at the City of New York as its location. There is no
> State called Rostov on Russia which might be not known to potential
> readers of this document. So I'd rather use "State Medical Institute
> at Rostov," or put parentheses "(State)," or drop it off entirely
> because all the universities in Russia were state universities.
 > The last suggestion is maybe too strong at this time when new
 > independent universities are formed there.

Ah, yes, the familiar trap of "государственный" not = "state 
(штатский)." I don't see how your proposed solutions help, though.

I've seen plenty of mentions of "Moscow/Leningrad/St. Petersburg/Kiev 
etc. State University," and it never fazed me, so I may have to hold my 
nose and trust that the reader (a medical board) is indifferent to this 
nuance.

>>How about the third entry? Is this specifically "Graduated from"? The 
>>dates on the Appendix and the attached Diploma are both June 27, 1997, 
>>which seems to suggest that this is precisely the same as "окончил(а)."
> 
> There is absolutely no flaw in this logic.

Thanks for your confirmation.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------