TSA speaks broken Russian

[Larry]

‘I speak broken Russian’

I was in the Detroit airport yesterday, and saw a Transportation Security Agency sign in the Detroit airport that says “I speak …” (in English) and then says “I speak [language]” in various languages (e.g., “Ich spreche Deutsch” and “Yo hablo español”).

One of the languages is Russian, but the supposed Russian version of “I speak Russian,” while accurately translated word for word (“Я говорю Русский”), is not grammatical: In Russian, you would say, “Я говорю по-русски”; “по” means different things in different contexts, but here it is an idiom used to refer to speaking a particular language.

So the sign conveys that someone in the Detroit airport’s TSA branch speaks not very good Russian — though maybe that’s good enough for this sort of government work.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/06/16/i-speak-broken-russian/



The author of this piece is Eugene Volokh, who immigrated from The Soviet Union to the US with his family when he was young.  He started working as a computer programmer when he was 12 years old and graduated from UCLA (Univ. of California at Los Angeles) with a double major in Math and Computer Science at age 15.  He is now a law professor at UCLA, specializing in First Amendment issues.

The short piece quoted above is from the popular and influential legal blog he began some years ago.  I think the blog was even cited in a US Supreme Court decision.

[mendeleyev]

He's right. The sign should read Я говорю по-русски. At least they conjugated the verb, говорю, correctly.




русский for example is how you might say something is Russian like русский  язык (Russian language).  Also, русский is the way you'd identify a Russian male with русская being a Russian female.

Isn't Detroit a hub from the USA to Russia (SVO or DME)? I'd think they have a fair amount of Russian speaking traffic if that is the case.

[WestCoast]

It's probably a typo from the sign maker. When I worked in the banking industry we had signs delivered to the bank with spelling errors. It's hard to believe but it's not uncommon for a sign maker to deliver signs with typos.

[Larry]

Isn't Detroit a hub from the USA to Russia (SVO or DME)? I'd think they have a fair amount of Russian speaking traffic if that is the case.

Detroit has lots of regular nonstop flights to and from Domodedovo, Sheremetevo, and Vnukovo airports in Moscow.

[Slumba]

It's probably a typo from the sign maker. When I worked in the banking industry we had signs delivered to the bank with spelling errors. It's hard to believe but it's not uncommon for a sign maker to deliver signs with typos.

That is why the printer gives you a "blue line" or other copy of the ad, which you are supposed to sign off on, as the proof that the ad is accepted.  So clearly the person in charge of doing that, didn't do his or her job, prior to giving the go ahead to make the signs.

[Fashionista]

It doesn't look like a typo, a typo would be one letter changed, not the whole word used incorrectly in a sentence. I don't usually mind though, it's a source of constant entertainment. Hollywood is the best at it, one would think there is enough Russian speaking people to proofread movie scripts.  Compare with "I speaks England very best"   

[Larry]

Fashionista,

I see that this is your first post on RUA.  Welcome to the forum.

[Fashionista]

Thank you
The "other" forum dried out, and someone gave me a link to this one. Lotsa familiar names 

[Larry]

I was almost certain that you were the same "Fashionista" from the other forum. 

[WestCoast]

Thank you
The "other" forum dried out, and someone gave me a link to this one. Lotsa familiar names 

Welcome. Always good to see another Canadian on the forum. There's no such thing as too many Canadians.