Re: Scandal growing in Latvia over language textbook for schools.

I don't doubt that they _do_ know what "petukh" means... kids are fast
learners, especially when it comes to "dirty" words.

Part of the reason Latvian is so polluted with Russian (and now
English) slang is that expletives are used much more frequently in
Russian (and in Western movies), and they tend to be "worse." Many
Latvians use Russian when cursing because it is more effective; my
parents' generation was very polite and sometimes didn't even pass down
the juicier Lettish curses, or was blissfully unaware of them -- my
mother, for instance, didn't even know what some quite common
"forbidden" words meant. Cursing in public was subject to a fine -- as
it is again now.

Just last night, on my way to the kiosk, a rather dapper-looking
Russian gentleman shouted at some kids who were "skiing" by hanging
onto the back of a streetcar -- what came out was a string of
typically vile language, of course, and the man was holding his own
kids' hands. As my wife put it, he wouldn't get through to the "skiers"
otherwise... but the fact is that many Russophones use "uncensored"
words as punctuation, emptied of meaning, much as many less "cultured"
people in the States do.

Jānis Elsbergs' Latvian translation of _Trainspotting_ had to resort
to Russian to be "real," and narcoslang is almost entirely
Russian-based.

An amusing incident -- a demonstration organized by the National
Bolsheviks included a babushka bearing a sign that said "FUCK NATO"
(the babushka indicated that she didn't understand what it meant, when
asked). This ended up with the police's "language expert," who
pronounced that it is not a forbidden word because it is not in a
language that's understood.

As to this part: "Especially problematic are history books, where the
kids are offered to read about ostensible autrocities of czarist Russia
on Latvian territory or crimes committed by the Soviet Union." What a
perfect conclusion for this pathetic article! "_Ostensible_
'autrocities'" -- oh my, the poor kids' development must be seriously
impeded by any portrayals of Russian imperialists as anything other
than angelic Kulturträger, _bliad_!

Regards,
/P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Peteris_Cedrins

.

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