Another "boxwood" anecdote

[Meredig, John]

Nathan Longan's delightful "boxwood" story reminded me of a similar occurrence when I was in third-year Russian oh so many years ago. (WARNING! Anyone offended by overt ribaldry--delete message now!) The teacher had written a long compound sentence on the board, which was held together by a particular conjunction (unfortunately I can't remember the sentence itself, just the relevant conjunction). As we all sat there intently trying to make sense out of this syntactic monstrosity, an exasperated young lady finally raised her hand and said: "I just don't see how the как fits in!" 

Much merriment ensued.

John Meredig


-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Nathan Longan
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 3:03 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Pronunciation of "Zdravstvyuitye"


As for funny pronunciation coincidences, how about the Russian word for "boxwood"?  That made for one of the funniest English language excursions ever.  The young guide couldn't remember the name of the wood that a certain piece of furniture was made from so she just stuck the Russian word in, hoping that it might fit.  It certainly fit, but not the way she thought it
would:

"Here we have an excellent example of a cabinet from a French workshop of the 18th century.  The cabinet and all the details were painstakingly carved from..., carved from ..., they were carved from, from, from ... самшит, for a beautiful effect."

Well, the effect was indeed spectacular, and everyone learned (later) how to say "boxwood" in Russian.  Boxwood (buxus) is just a bush so I'm not sure how they actually built a cabinet from it, but it definitely livened up the excursion.


Nathan Longan, PhD
Resident Director
CIEE Study Center
St. Petersburg, Russia

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------