Brat ’ ili ne brat’?

[Alina Israeli]

It is an Anglicism, although the speed with which Anglicisms have  
been pouring into the Russian language may render it less and less  
offensive with each passing day.

However, the more traditional way of saying the same thing would be  
записаться на курс or слушать курс.

Брать уроки works only for private lessons, not if one goes to  
evening course at the local club, for example, let alone a university.

Instead of что вы изучаете в этом семестре, which is stilted, you  
could say: какие курсы вы слушаете?

Would I let my students use "брат курсы"? Not at the first or at the  
fifth level, but at the third year level I would let them; there are  
more important issues that have to be ironed out at that level. But I  
certainly will not say it in the class myself under any circumstances.

AI

On Aug 13, 2010, at 2:54 PM, Evelina Mendelevich wrote:

> Dear SEELANGers,
>
> I hope you will help me answer the question raised in one of my  
> Russian for
> Heritage Speakers classes. We had a long discussion, but we didn't  
> arrive to
> a definite conclusion. A tutor corrected one of the students when  
> he used
> the expression "В этом семестре я беру физику и статистику."  He  
> instructed
> the student to use "изучаю" instead. Although "изучаю" appears to  
> be the
> official version, it seems to me that "брать предмет" is not  
> Anglicism but
> an appropriate way of reflecting American university system in  
> which the
> student indeed "takes," or chooses, his or her "предметы." Since  
> Russian has
> the expression "брать уроки," as in "брать уроки по гитаре," the  
> choice of
> the verb appears to be dictated by the context (discretionary vs.
> mandatory). My question is, do you (or would you) allow students  
> the use of
>  "брать" when they talk about their college courses? Somehow, "что вы
> изучаете в этом семестре" doesn't sound right for me in this  
> context , while
> " какие предметы вы берете" does. Thank you in advance!
>
>
> -- 
> All the Best,
> Evelina Mendelevich

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





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