klass

[Anna Rakityanskaya]

>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?

When I was a student at the Moscow State University "shkola" was a slang
term for "the university". "Ia zavtra ne poidu v shkolu" meant "I am not
going to school/classes/campus tomorrow". The term was used only between
students and would never be used in a conversation with a professor.

I am not saying that your students carried the slang over from Russia, and
I don't know if they perceive it as slang at all. If they are using it in
class (in an official setting) then it's wrong from every point of view. If
they use these words just between themselves then it's OK.

Anna Rakityanskaya
University of Texas at Austin