Brat ’ ili ne brat’?

[Melissa Smith]

It strikes me that, along with all the other linguistic explanations, 
брать курс suggests the experience is a kind of дегустация. We speakers 
of American English have not had the same kind of vocational 
preparation associated with the "liberal arts" curriculum. We have 
encouraged a kind of picking and choosing akin to a food buffet. It 
will be interesting to see of current economic transitions lead to a 
linguistic shift in our own language!

Melissa Smith

On 8/13/10 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
> 
> 
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------------------------------------

Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and 
Literatures  
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3462

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