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June 13, 2005
Feeling curmudgeonly
At the Taste of Russia grocery store in Brooklyn, many people order potatoes by asking for "potyaytoaz."
Article in today's New York Times on Brighton Beach Runglish, featuring a number of incorrect transliterations ("khartoshka") - but then I am just a big hairy pedant. So much promise in this this premise, but the article is lazily researched and falls a bit flat. Also, I don't think the Russian accent is represented very accurately.
Starbucks - that latter-day emblem of American culture - seemed a sensible place to witness Runglish being spoken. After all, one can assume there is no direct translation for a venti latte with soy milk.At the Starbucks on Brighton Beach Avenue and Brighton 6th Street, the patrons did indeed Runglicize their orders. Calls went out for "tyall cyawfeh" with the Russian word for milk and for "white chedyah chiz bree-yoach." "At first there was a culture clash," said one employee, his voice low because he was breaking Starbucks' policy of not speaking with the news media. "But they adopted pretty fast."
Ok, I've been to this Starbucks, and I don't remember seeing a single employee who wasn't latino - why a Russian immigrant would say "s molokom" to a Puerto Rican is beyond me. Furthermore, Starbucks has a self-service milk/sugar bar so I am thinking that maybe the reporter is making this one up. Also, "white chedyah chiz bree-yoach" is not really "Runglicized", is it? The speaker just has an accent.
Bleh. An "exotic" theme is not an excuse for a surface-skimming article.
Posted by michele at June 13, 2005 10:07 AM
Comments
From the same article:
"English is easier. It's short." Yeah, I bet those funny foreigners are so glad they don't have to speak their weird mother tongue no more, being as it is so difficult. And what the hell kind of lame effort is "cyawfeh"? Bozhe moj.
Posted by: Calum at June 13, 2005 1:18 PM