On Friendship and Enmity

I answer a request from one of my viewers about the words for friend in Russian, and an analysis of what friendship is all about. What insights do Russian and other languages give us? This contains both a philological and a philosophical look at the question of what a friend is.

This is the only case, by the way, in which its safe to say 'yes' to 'drugs'!

As a bit of a philosophical discussion is developing, maybe it is more comfortable to continue this in a thread on the google group - no pressure, I am happy either way, but there is no 500 character limit there, and post loss, etc.

The link to that again is http://www.groups.google.com/group/huliganov

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Kot
• Leopold
• Friend
• enemy
• Russian
• language
• friendship
• enmity
• blueclue57

[MelancholiaImpact]

You are a good teacher,but I'm going have to disagree with you on the friendship between men and women.

(I'm Russian I know what I'm talking about)  ;)

A man can say this is " moja podruga" and not mean anything sexual or romantic by it, just like he would say it is "moj drug" it simply means friend,but if the man was to say it is (moja devushka) then it implies that their relationship is more than just that of friendship. In this case a woman would say (moj paren')

Great lessons tough :)

[MelancholiaImpact]

P.S I've seen you reply to some comments in German before and if your German is as good as your Russian then would you consider making some German lessons? I'm completely in LOVE with German language :D,but can't find such great lessons :(

[usenetposts]

The persona for that would be Sproey von Weytzentrenner, whom you are welcome to look up on my channel, but I am far from sure that he would be popular among the Germans, who usually describe him as "brisant".

[usenetposts]

I think these are usages that vary from generation to generation and class to class. I have certainly seen "podruga" imply romantix in Russian poetry and I have known Russians talking about their daughters as "moya devushka".

[ColKorn1965]

@MelancholiaImpact Does "podruga" change meaning regionally? My Russian teacher is female and from Moscow, If I , being an American male say "podruga" to her she concludes it is a "female love interest".

[usenetposts]

@ColKorn1965 That's within the range of meanings. And let's be clear that Russian men rarely make simple friends across the sexes. Not while they are young anyway. If a man and woman are spending time together, people in Russia are not going to be assuming that it's platonic.

[samuraimacisthebest]

You really made me laugh with the sex change part and the philosopher joke. LMAO!

[ColKorn1965]

@MelancholiaImpact Yes,Thanks, your explanation helps. I am constanly trying to make my cross-cultural skills better. As of next month I will travel to Moscow with a female friend of my teacher, or my teacher herself, and I don't want to make a major mistake.

[MelancholiaImpact]

@ColKorn1965 use a more general plural word druz'ja ... it means friends.

If you have a lot of friends both male and female,just male or just female .. it is the best word to use that won't cause you any trouble :)

Hope my explanation is good.

[MelancholiaImpact]

@ColKorn1965 No it really doesn't unless someone is being a little sarcastic and sort of has a laugh at the idea of men and women being "friends"

There is some very subtle humour that can go with it.

If you're absolutely serious about someone actually being your friend and nothing more.. podruga is fine to use,but be careful using word podrugi/ podruzhki(diminitive form) which is a plural of podruga which can imply that you're a little bit of a playboy.... :P

[tkambo]

Thanks for the lesson

[MelancholiaImpact]

Ohhh.... ha ha .... I think I found the VERY "brisant" German teacher :O

[MelancholiaImpact]

Yes you are right in poetry or literature perhaps,and I'm sure many generations ago it was so,but now in an every day life it is just a friend.

Also a parent would call their daughter "moja devOCHka" but never "moja devUSHka" because the latter is inappropriate. O.o

Thanks for the recomindation I don't care if he's "brisant" ha ha.... As long as he can teach German and explain,either in Russian or English so that I can understand :)