Only funny if you know Russian and are kind of geeky about it

[beowabbit]

Well, OK, the photo itself is very mildly funny anyway, but the sign in the photo is only funny if you know Russian and are kind of geeky about it.



Click to embiggen. The sign says “Cultural Oligarch Restaurant”, and the funny thing is that it’s supposed to be written in old-fashioned (pre-revolutionary) spelling, but they got it appallingly wrong. I guess if you’re a cultural oligarch you get to make up your own spelling.

EDIT: Actually, I think a better translation than “cultural” in this context would be “cultured” or “civilized” or maybe even “educated”.

Comments

[beowabbit]

Um, took a summer course during high school (or might have been junior high; I don’t remember) and then took Russian every year during my seven years as an undergraduate. Also took Chinese and what was then still called Serbo-Croatian as well as a bunch of languages more commonly studied here. I was a linguistics major, partly because I was interested in linguistics, but also largely because that meant I got to take all the foreign languages I could find time in my schedule to squeeze in and apply them to my major.)

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Because foreign languages are like potato chips; you can't stop at just one! :-)

Coincidentally enough, I posted about foreign languages in my own journal today.