CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS : LANGUAGE HUMOR You know, I massacre the Russian language

CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS : LANGUAGE HUMOR

You know, I massacre the Russian language daily. It’s a source of laughter for everyone in the company. And of course, the retail staff we’re friendly with in the neighborhood. The people at the bakery just laugh no matter what I say.

Reminds me of all the silly things small children pronounce as they learn to speak. Christian had a number of them. Avocado as ‘ah-do-DAH-do’ was priceless every time. Partly because he was pretty articulate and these things were rarities. I kept wanting to use his pronunciation myself. It seemed so appropriate for some reason.

Russian language is still full of animal metaphor. My favorite is the nonsense about crazy squirrels distracting the inebriated, which I’ve written about here on FB before. (and I am accused of all the time, because I’m so silly.)

And, to make matters worse, whenever Veronika says “squirrel”, or phonetically, “SKWER-el” she pronounces it “SKREW-el”.

Which, reminds me of ‘screws-loose’, which in turn forces me to recall the crazy squirrel story, besides the obvious sexual references at the same time – a jumble of humorously related symbolism in a martini shaker that I suggests a pattern but I can’t sort it out.

Makes me laugh every time. Every single time. And it doesn’t get old.

It’s the little things that make life joyous. That’s the heart of conservatism: joy in present goods over future perfections. 🙂