Quote:
Originally Posted by Slasher
Found women's names bloody confusing. Alyonka was known
as Lenochka by her mates and introduced to me by a bouncer
as Elena. And I'm buggered how you get "Valya" out of Tina.
|
Oh Slash, mate, you didn't have to have girls introduced by the bouncer. Did you tip him RUR 1,000 first ? ..... oh well. Anyway, yes, everyone (blokes as well) has multiple versions of their name depending on how well you know them, starting with extreme formality of the Patronymic name (which you will have written on your immigration card) down to very familiar. Part of this seems to come from there not being too many names around so you need some differentiation; half the blokes in St Petersburg seem to be called Alexander, of which there are various alternatives. Socialist days tried to stamp much of this out and everyone became Tovarich (in theory - HaHa) but it has all come back again surprisingly quickly since then. Generally if it ends in "...chka" then you are doing well. Looks like the bouncer himself wasn't in with much of a chance, then !
Eastern Slavic naming customs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On a separate note, is the Tu124 at Monino still laying there right in the middle of the museum display partly burnt out ? It's been there like that for years since tramps broke in one cold night for shelter and then managed to set fire to it ...... only in Russia, all of this !
