[lit-ideas] Re: Colloquial Russian: Nyet!

  • From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 20:41:22 EST

 
<<In  all my life, I have never heard the expression, "How's it hanging?"  >> 
It's a little antiquated now and  pretty rural, but a very frequent greeting 
in Missouri.  One of those  things that started with adolescents using a 
phrase they thought was cool, the  phrase getting co-opted by adults who wanted 
to 
be hip and happenin', which made  the adolescents largely drop it. 
Julie Krueger 



========Original  Message========     Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: Colloquial 
Russian: Nyet!  Date: 2/7/06 3:31:50 P.M. Central Standard Time  From: 
_aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)   To: 
_lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
(mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)   Sent on:    
In all my life, I have never heard the expression,  "How's it hanging?" 
Hanging in there, hanging out, hanging around, let's  hang, but never how's
it hanging?  I admit to not being on top of slang,  but how's it hanging
doesn't even sound English.  So, Robert Paul, how's  it hanging?  I mean
your macrame potted plant.  (That's how it  would translate into Russian, it
would make no sense at all.)  Maybe  Andreas heard how's it hanging, hanging
as he does in California, which  always starts the trends, the ones that
don't start in NYC.   



> [Original Message]
> From:  <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>  Date: 2/7/2006 3:34:28 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Colloquial Russian:  Nyet!
>
> "Kak dsela?" is nowhere near the American expression  "How's it hanging?"
Were a
> Russian to ask the latter question, (s)he  would say: "Kak eto byecit?" Of
> course, no Russian would understand the  colloquialism embedded in that
> expression, unless (s)he had satellite TV  and could access Seinfeld.
(We're a
> hopelessly romantic people, but  our sexual imageries are typically
subdued by a
>  sublime/transcendental sense of propriety and good taste.)
>
>  Vladimir Gavrilov Mihaylovitch Okshevsky
> Minsk School of Translation  Services And Food Preparation
>
>
>
> Quoting Robert  Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>:
>
> > I'm watching the  beginning of what may turn out to be a spy movie
> > on AMC.
>  > 
> > One character to another: Alexi, kak delya?
> >  
> > Subtitle: Alexi, how's it hanging?
> > 
> >  Robert Paul
> > multi-tasking somewhere south of
> > Reed  College
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>
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