Pronouciation of "Zdravstvyuitye"

[William Ryan]

I was not recommending it for use in your class, which I am sure is very 
well behaved, simply indulging in a little reminiscence and philological 
rumination in support of the posting by Mr Langran. If this mnemonic was 
indeed used in classes by British sailors, it would probably have been 
they and not their tutors, who were mostly not British, who invented it. 
It was by no means the most indecorous.

In fact there is a long history of ribaldry in mnemonics - it is what 
makes them memorable and it chimes with classroom humour. I recommend  
Medico Mnemonica: A Collection of Fun, Ribald, Irreverent and Quite 
Witty Mnemonics for Medical Students by E. S. Marlowe (2002). There is 
also a history of objection to mnemonics - I quote from Wikipedia (s.v. 
Mnemonic major system):

    According to the wiki article on the method of loci
    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci>, which is easily
    combined with the major system, that method was routinely taught to
    schoolchildren for centuries, at least until 1584, when a huge
    controversy over the method broke out in England as the Puritans
    attacked it as impious because it calls up absurd and obscene
    thoughts. The same objection can be made over the major system, with
    or without the method of loci. Mental images are generally easier to
    remember if they are insulting, violent, or obscene (see Von
    Restorff effect <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Restorff_effect>).

Will Ryan

~~

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Emeritus Professor W. F. Ryan FBA, FSA
Warburg Institute
(School of Advanced Study, University of London)
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MOLLY V. PEENEY wrote:
> "Zdravstvujte!" is a formal Russian greeting.  "Does your ass fit yer?" not only fails to approximate the formal Russian greeting in terms of correct pronunciation and intonation (imperative vs. interrogative), it also introduces an element of ribaldry, to use your term, into, again, a -formal- greeting that I expect my students to use with me in class every day.  I can easily list a number of students in my past who would have unceremoniously cried out "Does your ass fit yer?!" in very plain English, without the least concern for pronouncing the greeting correctly, to me and others, and those students would essentially have been given license to do so if they learned this phrase in the textbook.  I find this rude.
>
> It's unprofessional because I have not spent a good portion of my life learning this language and how to teach it in order to reduce my ability to teach students how to properly pronounce "zdravstvujte," or any for word for that matter, by teaching them a phrase that does not really come close to the correct pronunciation at all.  I use backward building and lots of repetition to teach the pronunciation of "zdravstvujte," and I find it works beautifully.  This is not to say I have anything against mnemonic devices in general, but this one, in my opinion, does not fit our (cl)ass of pedagogy.
>
> Sincerely, Molly Peeney
>
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