WDB
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Apr 3, 2017 10:05:20 GMT
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Post by WDB on Apr 3, 2017 10:05:20 GMT
I know it means 'station' in Russian, and that there are stories of varying credibility to explain this.
But yesterday (Sunday) we were in the vicinity of the bridge of the same name. We'd been to Tate Britain for a second look at the Hockney retrospective, and crossed the bridge in search of some lunch. Not much was open, and what was was sparsely populated, but we found an 'American' steak and burger place on St George Wharf, with a big, sunlit terrace looking out at the river.
The food was unremarkable, but it was a surprise that, of half a dozen other parties on the terrace, all but one seemed to be - or at least speak - Russian. Even to the staff, who responded in kind.
Coincidence that we were so close to the MI6 building? Or just that the other buildings round there are mostly upmarket flats, and a lot of Russian money has gone into buying them? And how much of the price of our lunch in now lining the pockets of Moscow Mafiosi?
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Apr 3, 2017 10:35:05 GMT
Post by Alanović on Apr 3, 2017 10:35:05 GMT
The amount if Russian spoken around London is indeed staggering. I hear it every time I go up town. Must be because they're in the EU. Oh hang on........
Actually there's a scintilla of truth in that - lot's of ethnic Russian from the Baltic countries seek work in the UK etc with their EU passports, but these tend to be poorer, working class people, unlike the rich real Russians you have just encountered.
I doubt you've stumbled on a spy ring targeting MI6, as we can see from the US situation they're far cleverer than that and do their nefarious work mostly online these days. Many wealthy Russians still se a big risk in keeping their money in Russia, and see London property as a fine place to stash it, although some are no doubt in the process of getting a nasty shock as property values are starting to head south, ad the pound is holding its value against the rouble - I think I read the other it's one of two currencies against which the pound is strong, the other being the Nigerian Whateveritis.
Well done on the Cyrillics. How much Russian do you have? I was taught at University that the origin of the word Vokzal in Russian was down to an Emissary of the Tsar arriving in London and passing Vauxhall station, getting it wrong and taking the word back to the Tsar who was encouraging the construction of the first Russian railaways at the time. If memory serves, it's the only Slavic language which uses Vokzal, so it may well be true. All the others use a variation of 'stanice, stantsiya' etc, including the most closely related languages to Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian.
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WDB
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Apr 3, 2017 10:53:46 GMT
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Post by WDB on Apr 3, 2017 10:53:46 GMT
My Russian is minimal - I learned a few words for what turned out to be a one-off visit in 2011. But I can cope with Cyrillics because I studied classical Greek to O-level and the similarities are strong enough to let me read signs like PECTOPAH.
I do have many Russian colleagues, though, and the sound of the language is unmistakable. And you're right: these were properly rich, high-gloss Russians, used to getting their own way.
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Apr 3, 2017 11:50:12 GMT
Post by Alanović on Apr 3, 2017 11:50:12 GMT
Those are the worst kind. They even existed in Soviet times, although of course they were utterly broke by Western standards but had the "svyazi" (contacts, the word usually accompanied by a crossed fingers gesture) to get whatever they wanted.
I stumbled across a bunch of labourers speaking Russian in southern Spain some years ago and wondered how they had managed to get work visas etc. Of course, on speaking to them it turned out they were ethnic Russians from Lithuania. Those sorts of Russians often have quite a story of dispossession and hankering for the old days - they were often people/families who were moved to the Republics from mother Russia in Soviet times to "balance" the local population and prevent rumblings of discontent against the State. that worked out well, then. They are now often discriminated against in their adopted countries and can't move to Russia, usually they are second, third generation these days.
When I first went to the Soviet Union in 1985 I didn't speak any Russian and was motivated to start learning by the signs on ice-cream kiosks in Moscow and Leningrad with the famous Russian "spidery" character in the middle of the word. Those are the sort which throw those with some Greek - the ones Cyril and Methodius dreamt up out of nowhere, like the even more famous backwards R. PECTOPAH was a very rare word indeed when I studied there, the aforementioned "svyazi" being key to getting inside one, or a suitable quantities of "valyuta", dollars preferred. Different world there these days of course.
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Apr 3, 2017 12:05:14 GMT
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Post by Humph on Apr 3, 2017 12:05:14 GMT
Now I like this thread ! Bit like watching QI, I've learned something about a subject I previously knew nothing of. Thanks chaps !
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Apr 3, 2017 13:01:54 GMT
Post by Alanović on Apr 3, 2017 13:01:54 GMT
With this afternoon's dreadful news from St Petersburg, I am reminded that Vokzal only applies to mainline railway stations, not such things as metro stations which use "stantsiya". What a sad day. I used to travel the Moscow and Leningrad (and Kiev come to that) metros with utter confidence in safety, didn't even cross my mind that something would go wrong. Always the innocent who suffer, yet again.
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Deleted
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Apr 3, 2017 13:37:00 GMT
Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2017 13:37:00 GMT
If I was part of the group responsible for that bombing I'd think long and hard about claiming responsibility for it. Unlike the West, Russia is just as likely to bomb the crap out of whoever they think to be repsonsible.
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