birds vs. plants

[pscotto at MTHOLYOKE.EDU]

Just try reading the first paragraph of "Zapiski okhotnika" without 
knowing your bird names!

Peter Scotto

> 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: "??! ?????? ???????? ????!"
>>
>
> 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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