Russian Word of the Day

The generic Russian word for doctor is врач. It is an end-stressed, first declension noun:

	Sg	Pl
Nom	врач	врачи
Acc	врача	врачей
Gen
Pre	враче	врачах
Dat	врачу	врачам
Ins	врачом	врачами

Russia has some great doctors. Although they often do not have access to the latest Western equipment, they have profound clinical experience, and I have never regretted sending my students to Russian doctors when they are ailing. Twice this last summer I had to take students to the doctor or hospital, and, to the best my eye can tell, they did exactly the things necessary for the students' conditions. Here are a few sample sentences:

—Сколько врачей здесь работает? — Здесь работает четыре врача.	“How many doctors work here?” “Four doctors work here.”
Мы с Мариной только что обсудили нового врача. Он такой красивый!	Marina and I were just talking about the new doctor. He is so handsome.
Медсестра подошла к врачу и передала ему документы.	The nurse walked up to the doctor and handed him the documents.
— Я хочу быть врачом. — Ты вообще не умеешь учиться. Лучше становись терапевтом-массажистом.	“I want to be a doctor.” “You don't have any idea how to study. It would be better for you to become a massage therapist.”

Actually, that last line is potentially misleading. The word терапевт, when used by itself, is often the equivalent of ‘general practitioner,’ so just because someone is called a терапевт does not mean he are not a physician.

One last comment... although the example sentences assumed a male doctor, most doctors in Russia are actually women.

Whenever you go on a plane, the person who makes it a safe and pleasant flight is the flight attendant. In Russian you would call her стюардесса. The literal translation is stewardess,but that hasn't been politically correct in the U.S. since the late 70s.

Стюардесса приветсвует пассажиров.

The flight attendant greets the passengers.

Стюардессы спасли всех пассажиров!

The flight attendants saved all the passengers!

As you may have noticed, стюардесса is a feminine term. The proper word for a male flight attendant is, бортпроводник But sometimes you might hear, стюард.

Бортпроводник принесёт нам вино.

The flight attendant will bring us wine.

Пожалуйста, обратитесь к бортпроводнику.

Please ask the flight attendant.

Since I became a stewardess some 6 years ago, a friend of my mother's likes to quote a line from a song by Vladimir Vysotsky's Moscow to Odessa. whenever he sees me:

«А вот прошла вся в синем стюардесса, как принцесса...»
“There goes the blue-clad stewardess, like a princess...”

On Saturday I was sitting just outside the men's section of the place where I get my hair cut here in Kazan, when a guy walked up and asked «Сколько там мастеров?» A second-year student of Russian would probably have translated the sentence "How many masters are there?" and would then have no idea what it meant. Here's the scoop. The word мастер in Russian often bears the meaning "someone qualified in a particular trade." In other words, he wanted to know how many barbers there were there that day.

The word itself is one of those that have a stressed -а in the nominative plural, and thus is end-stressed through the plural instead of stem-stressed:

	Sg	Pl
Nom	мастер	мастера
Acc	мастера	мастеров
Gen
Pre	мастере	мастерах
Dat	мастеру	мастерам
Ins	мастером	мастерами

There is no commonly used word in English that is quite as general as мастер in this sense, so when translating it, it is best to substitute the common name of the tradesman who practices the trade in question. Thus, if you are sitting outside an establishment that cuts men's hair with the old-fashioned standard cuts, the phrase «Сколько там мастеров?» is best translated "How many barbers are there?" The lovely and willowy Розанна who cuts my hair also does women's hair and can color hair as well. She would probably object to the word barber, and in fact someone with all those skills in the States would be better labeled a "hair stylist," so in this case the best translation may be "How many hair stylists are there?" or "How many stylists are there?"

I was in the dormitory of Moscow State University in 1986. My bathroom sink began to come out of the wall. The floor attendant said «Я вызову мастера». In this case she meant the guy who takes care of the dorm's minor maintenance requests, so her sentence would be best translated as "I'll call the handyman" or "I'll call the maintenance man." (BTW, when he showed up, he simply took a look at the sink, shoved it bank into the wall and smeared some cement over the screw and brace that held it in place. The wall was cinderblock. And the sink was anchored to the cinderblock by a screw... The word мастер struck me as completely ridiculous in that context.)

Thus if you summon a мастер to fix the plumbing, translate мастер as plumber. If you summon a мастер to fix your electrical outlet, translate it "handy man" or "electrician," depending on just how qualified the guy is.

The word ботаник means botanist. It declines perfectly regularly, assuming of course you know the seven-letter spelling rule:

	Sg	Pl
Nom	ботаник	ботаники
Acc	ботаника	ботаников
Gen
Pre	ботанике	ботаниках
Dat	ботанику	ботаникам
Ins	ботаником	ботаниками

A ботаник is a person who studies ботаника botany. (Note that the nominative singular ботаника ‘botany’ is written the same way as the accusative/genitive singular of ботаник ‘botanist.’) The definition of ботаник on ru.wikitionary.org runs something like this:

Ботаник — человек, имеющий образование в области ботаники или профессионально занимающийся этой наукой.

A botanist is a person educated in the field of botany or one who is a professional in that science.

Some botanists have extraordinary lives:

Мой дядя — ботаник, который специализируется по растительности амазонских джунглей. Он ползает по лесам, собирая образцы и стараясь избегать внимания местных людоедов.

My uncle is a botanist who specializes in the vegetation of the Amazonian jungles. He crawls around the forests gathering samples and trying to avoid the attention of the local cannibals.

That, however, is not the image associated with the word in Russian pop culture. There a ботаник is someone who is involved in completely uninteresting and testosterone-deficient activities, in other words a geek or a nerd:

— Лен, мне очень понравился твой Саша. Какой он красавец! — Ты шутишь? Он полнейший ботаник, всё время дома сидит, перелистывая энциклопедию. Как только вернётся Паша, я Сашку наверно брошу.

“Lena, I really liked your boyfriend, Alexandr. He's a real stud!” “Are you kidding? He's a complete geek. He just stays at home all the time, leafing through the encylopedia. As soon as Pavel gets back, I'm probably going to dump Aleksandr.”

The Russian phrase for dentist is зубной врач. As a child, I loved to eat candy конфеты and failed to properly brush my teeth afterwards. As a result I found myself visiting the dentist more often then I should have. Every time I had a toothache, I said «Мама, у меня болит зуб!» “Mama, my tooth hurts!” and my mom answered by saying «Тогда нам надо к зубному врачу» “Then we need to go to the dentist”. I hated going to the dentist because I was terribly afraid of having to sit in a chair for such a long time while the dentist poked my gums with needles and drilled holes in my teeth.

One time, my mother took me to the dentist and I screamed and cried so loud that everyone in the office stared, and I found myself at the center of attention. When my mom finally put me into the chair, I stopped crying and a great wave of fear came over me. The dentist came to me and said «Сейчас я сделаю укол и боль пройдёт» “Now I will give you a shot and the pain will pass”. I felt like giving the dentist a shot myself to see how she would feel in my situation. With tears in my eyes I said «Я боюсь уколов!» “I'm scared of shots!” but she did not seem to care much about my concern. When the dentist finally finished fixing my cavity, she said «Вот и всё! Ты свободна, иди» “That’s it! You are free, go.” Relieved, I ran out the door with my mom and went home where I began my candy eating cycle all over again within a few days.