klass

[Lilya Kaganovsky]

As an emigre who came here when I was ten, but who has since both studied
"standard" Russian and spent some time back in Moscow, I would say that
both "klast' tarelki na stol" and calling college classes "klass" and
"shkola" are typical emigre "mistakes" and are a sign of direct
translation from English rather than of alternate usage. (One of the best
versions of this I've ever heard is "u menia na tarelke bol'she net
komnaty"). As someone who's made mistakes saying both of the above to
speakers in Moscow, I can attest that neither is acceptable there.
So it seems to me a matter of pedagogical decision whether to accept
emigre speech as a "corruption" of standard Russian or as an interesting
linguistic variation. It also seems to me that British English in
particular has not yet lost its obsession with language as determinate of
class--otherwise the joke in "My Fair Lady" that Prof. Higgins can place
someone in London within a block of where they grew up would no longer be
funny or understandable.

        -Lilya Kaganovsky
        UC Berkeley




On Sat, 10 Apr 1999, Emily Tall wrote:

> Ben Rifkin's posting has reminded me of something I've been wondering
> about. My emigre students all say they are going to "klass" and "shkola."
> I know "shkola" is wrong and I try to make them say "zaniatiia," but now
> I've heard a visiting teacher of Russian use it as well. Is it used in
> Russia at all to speak of college classes? Several of them have used
> "ikhnii" and "lozhit" (instead of kladyot) as well. Is the sanest approach
> just to point out
> that those are "unacceptable" forms and leave it at that? When I do point
> it out they give me these strange looks...Emily Tall
>