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   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2021-10-08   
      
   Hi, Ardith Hinton! -> Alexander Koryagin   
   I read your message from 30.09.2021 23:36   
      
    ak>> I am not sure I know the correct word. In Russia we use the   
    ak>> word "a male goat" as an idiomatic sleng word meaning absence of   
    ak>> respect, or when you have a resentment to somebody.   
      
    AH> When I looked up "twit" in THE FREE DICTIONARY I found quite a lot   
    AH> of stuff you might find useful, including definitions & synonyms.   
    AH> In summary... a twit is a foolish, stupid, annoying, and/or   
    AH> insignificant person. I'm guessing that is more or less what you   
    AH> were thinking of here.   
      
   Did you use "twit" as "beep" when somebody on TV swears? Is "goat" so   
   indecent?   
      
    ak>> Does the following story sound funny in English and can it be   
    ak>> improved?   
      
    AH> Yes, on both counts. Long explanation to follow... [grin].   
      
    ak>> Three men from the USA delegation came to Russia and went to a big   
    ak>> plant to sign a contract. The director sees them into his cabinet   
      
    AH>                                                     |private office   
      
   Yea, there are many words in Russian when we are sure that they mean the   
   same in English. :)   
      
    AH> Why not use the same verb tense throughout the story? I know we   
    AH> have discussed this issue already... but a tense change in mid-   
    AH> paragraph, unless the logic is obvious to me, still sounds wrong   
    AH> according to what I was taught.: - Q   
      
   I agree. Although I saw many examples of it in the modern literature. It   
   looks like as if we put the reader into the situation we are telling   
   him. So, we have a kind of innuendo "once upon a time ..." And next we   
   are as if present at the place. Probably this can make the story more   
   vivid. Of maybe it can be considered as a free informal style?   
      
    ak>> and says to his secretary girl, "Well dear --   
    AH> |female secretary   
      
   Although such informal "dear" can be applied to the girl only.   
      
    ak>> one glass of cognac for me and three tea for these goats."   
      
    AH> IOW he's such an important person he can drink alcoholic beverages   
    AH> on the job without offering any to persons he regards as inferior   
    AH> to himself... or at least he thinks he is. My sympathies lie with   
    AH> the translator already. :-))   
      
   He knows that American businessmen don't drink at work. How foolish of   
   them! ;-)   
      
    ak>> One man from the delegation says, "two tea, please, I am a   
    ak>> translator."   
      
    AH> Ah... so this story is not a commentary on the status of women. But   
    AH> to be fair, I'm writing as if the translator could be male or   
    AH> female.   
      
    AH> On a sociological level, the translator may be thinking s/he works   
    AH> as hard as (and probably gets paid less than) other folk attending   
    AH> this meeting... yet, like the secretary, s/he is a highly skilled   
    AH> individual without whose help these guys would be unable to do   
    AH> their jobs. And if s/he's expected to talk as much as all of them   
    AH> do the need to wet his/her whistle may be greater.   
      
   I think the story mostly tells us that Russians like to drink alcohol   
   everywhere. So we find out actually that the translator is a Russian and   
   he probably doesn't mind to have a shot too.   
      
    AH>     In English, the translator's response could be a play on words too:   
      
    AH> * I often hear young servers nowadays saying e.g. "two coffees" or   
    AH>   "two teas" when they mean "two cups of [whatever]".  Perhaps the   
    AH>   translator has noticed this phenomenon as well.  Either way, two   
    AH>   or more generally --> pluralization of a noun or pronoun.   
      
   I noted it. :)   
      
    AH> * When people have more than one variety of tea in stock, they may   
    AH>   ask which a guest prefers.  My mother-in-law used to offer China   
    AH>   tea or India tea.  I reckon that in such situations a translator   
    AH>   might say "One cup of each, please... I'm bilingual."   
      
   I see.   
      
    AH> * Depending on the intonation, and on whether s/he's addressing the   
    AH>   secretary or the director, the translator's reply could be heard   
    AH>   as "to tease"... an allusion to the director's bad manners.  And   
    AH>   s/he sets a good example by adding "please", which he didn't do.   
      
   The boss certainly was not an example of a good person.   
      
    AH> I see the translator's response as amusing when I think of   
    AH> situations in which e.g. a male teacher nearing retirement   
    AH> disagreed with our principal at staff meetings from time to time. I   
    AH> also notice that the actual words could be interpreted in more than   
    AH> one way, as is very common with jokes in English.   
      
   Yes. It is not necessary that the translator wanted to drink alcohol.   
   The understanding depends on our feeling of black humour. :)   
      
      
   Bye, Ardith!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   english_tutor 2021   
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