birds vs. plants

[Genevra Gerhart]

The suggestion that Russians don't know birds is close to blasphemy; they
commonly recognize about 55 different birds as part of nature. What they
don't do is go birding, at least to the extent that this is an excuse to
walk in the US.

Genevra Gerhart
 
ggerhart at comcast.net
 
www.genevragerhart.com
www.russiancommonknowledge.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 5:08 PM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] birds vs. plants

Maybe there is a philosophical twist: Russians know mushrooms, plants  
and wild flowers, but rarely birds and vice versa. An (adult) student  
of mine recently complained that when his Russian counterparts arrive  
in the US and he has to take them to the botanical garden, they know  
all the names, but "for us (he said) it's - tree, bush, plant".


On Apr 26, 2007, at 12:50 PM, Meredig, John wrote:

> As a follow-up to Prof. Rancour-Laferriere's last post, I have a  
> little story to share. Since amateur birding is essentially unknown  
> in Russia (and given that in the Soviet era wandering around remote  
> natural areas with a pair of binoculars might not be such a great  
> idea for anyone, let alone a foreigner), I often got rather  
> perplexed and suspicious looks from Russians while birding, for  
> example, in Izmailovsky Park in Moscow. My favorite, though, was in  
> the woods near a friend's dacha outside of Moscow. As I passed a  
> couple muzhiks on a little footpath with my binoculars  
> conspicuously dangling from my neck, I overheard the one comment to  
> the other in an utterly dismissive tone: "Ха! Грибов биноклем ищет!"
>

Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




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