Language

Russian is a fascinating language. So fascinating that my years of off-and-on amateurish, spare-time study of it got me only to the alphabet and a few important words. One word was “mozhna,” which means “may I;” only when I arrived in Moscow did I learn how useful it was. The m word can get you almost anything and anywhere: if you say it while pointing at a dumpling, it means “may I have that dumpling,” and its repetition back to you means “yes, you may,” and you will then most likely receive the dumpling. If you say it while standing in the middle of a store for instance, you will then most likely receive a funny stare, which is always a fun thing. Your conversant may then say “mozhna shto?” meaning “may you what?” Your replay could be “mozhna skazat mozhna” meaning “may I say ‘mozhna’.” This is useful for precisely nothing more than confusing people, especially children.

But I’ve raised my voice in the real world, to some effect. Many times, it seems, even the laziest novice can get by just fine by muttering sounds or grunting at the right moments. As when one rides the marshrutka to work. The phrase that will get the van to stop at the next stop (assuming the brakes are functioning) is “na stanovky” a phrase whose grammatical structure we haven’t quite pieced together. But all one need do inside that pop-music filled, tired peopled van, is utter a simple “nast” or “key” or “pushkin,” or anything really. The hard part is getting out, which requires a particular body language that I always mangle.