Not Russian, but 35 years ago there was a widely repeated translation joke: The slogan “come alive with the Pepsi generation” was translated into Chinese, but it literally meant “Pepsi revives your dead ancestors.”
That example may be apocryphal, but translations are interesting. It’s something to be mindful of when talking with otherwise fluent ESL people.
I had a very intelligent and fluent coworker who knew the English phrase “to shag” from the Austin Powers movies. She completely misinterpreted the meaning of “a shag carpet,” though. It was so funny (and came up so infrequently) that no one ever corrected her.
Not Russian, but 35 years ago there was a widely repeated translation joke: The slogan “come alive with the Pepsi generation” was translated into Chinese, but it literally meant “Pepsi revives your dead ancestors.”
That example may be apocryphal, but translations are interesting. It’s something to be mindful of when talking with otherwise fluent ESL people.
I had a very intelligent and fluent coworker who knew the English phrase “to shag” from the Austin Powers movies. She completely misinterpreted the meaning of “a shag carpet,” though. It was so funny (and came up so infrequently) that no one ever corrected her.