CTR in Russian

[toughdee]

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to put this thread. I couldn't think of another one that would work.

I am going to Russia Rostov-na-Donu on my mission and my bishop got me a Russian CTR ring. I am confused though because the ring says "ви." When I type Choose the Right into a translator I get a direct translation of "выберите право." Where is the и coming from on the ring. Is there another meaning to it other than the exact words Choose The Right? Thanks.

[MarginOfError]

выберите право means "Choose to the right [direction]." If you said that to a Russian native, they'd look to their right and wonder what this crazy American is talking about.

выберите истинo, on the other hand, means "Choose the truth," which is much closer to the intent of "Choose the Right" than what your translator gave you.

[beefche]

Choose the Right is in command form. In English, the "you" is implied (meaning, You Choose the Right). It could be that in Russian, they are putting in the "you" (ви means you in the formal sense or plural).

Congrats! I love Slavic languages!

[beefche]

Ahh, I forgot MOE served Russian speaking. Teach us, MOE!

[toughdee]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not saying translators are perfect but playing around with what you said isn't working still haha. I tried...

English to Russian: Choose the Truth, You Choose the Truth

Russian to English: выберите истинo

In the translation to Russian it is still giving me words that don't start with и. The translation to English is not recognizing истинo. выберите does seem to be translating to select or in other words "choose."

Thanks for the replies so far. Any other ideas as to perfect translation, or is MarginOfError correct and the translator wrong? haha

[Dravin]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not saying translators are perfect but playing around with what you said isn't working still haha. I tried...

English to Russian: Choose the Truth, You Choose the Truth

Russian to English: выберите истинo

In the translation to Russian it is still giving me words that don't start with и. The translation to English is not recognizing истинo. выберите does seem to be translating to select or in other words "choose."

Thanks for the replies so far. Any other ideas as to perfect translation, or is MarginOfError correct and the translator wrong? haha

Google Translate gives "истинo" as one of options for truth. What translator are you using?

Edited September 6, 2011 by Dravin

[MarginOfError]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not saying translators are perfect but playing around with what you said isn't working still haha. I tried...

English to Russian: Choose the Truth, You Choose the Truth

Russian to English: выберите истинo

In the translation to Russian it is still giving me words that don't start with и. The translation to English is not recognizing истинo. выберите does seem to be translating to select or in other words "choose."

Thanks for the replies so far. Any other ideas as to perfect translation, or is MarginOfError correct and the translator wrong? haha

Try this:

Go to translate.google.com

Set the translator to convert English into Russian

Type in "Choose the Right"

Click on the word правда to see some synonyms

As I think about it more, I seem to recall that правда could have another interpretation--justice. So you could say "выберите правда," but that isn't quite the same as saying "Make the right choice" (which is, essentially what choose the right is meant to convey).

The issue is that translators have a hard time decoding short phrases meant to express broad themes. These translations require a fair amount of local understanding of language and conversational use. Add to that the scrutiny with which the Church makes translations and the decisions that are made by the Church will often be different than those made by Google's translation algorithms*.

Also, истинo isn't really a word a translator would recognize out of context. The base form of the word is истина. It takes the o under certain cases. There's a lot of things about Russian language you don't understand just yet, and so a lot of the translations just aren't going to make sense. Trust me when I say that there has been a lot of thought put into the decisions regarding these translations.

* When I was serving, the Church issued instruction to discontinue the use of the Ukrainian baptismal prayer because there was concern that the form of one word fell under Russian grammar rules and not Ukrainian grammar rules, thus making the prayer nonsensical. It was purely an intellectual debate because almost everyone understood what the word was supposed to mean. There was just disagreement about the actual spelling (and hence pronunciation) of the word.

Also, Ukrainian has no word for 'partake' and so there was a months long debate about how to translate the phrase "and those souls of all those who partake of it." The First Presidency had to approve the use of the word that was selected because--well, the because is an entirely different lesson altogether.

[MarginOfError]

(ви means you in the formal sense or plural).

Actually, it's Вы (that's two letters) in Russian. ви is the Ukrainian version.

Ahh, I forgot MOE served Russian speaking. Teach us, MOE!

I was Ukrainian speaking, but had to learn Russian since no one speaks Ukrainian where I lived.

[beefche]

That's right! I took 2 years of Russian in college, but forgot quite a bit after my mission due to speaking a sister language.

[MarginOfError]

That's right! I took 2 years of Russian in college, but forgot quite a bit after my mission due to speaking a sister language.

You spoke a sister language of Russian? Now I feel bad for having spoken in such simplistic terms. sorry about that.

What did you speak?

[toughdee]

Google Translate gives "истинo" as one of options for truth. What translator are you using?

You're right, except I get истина. Thanks for pointing that out. I was using a different one.

[toughdee]

By the way can you give me a pronunciation of выберите истинo. To the best of my understanding it would be Vib-yehr-eet-yeh ee-stee-noe. Would that be pretty close? Where are the accents?

[beefche]

I spoke Bulgarian. I can understand many Slavic languages because so many words are similar.

[Dravin]

You're right, except I get истина. Thanks for pointing that out. I was using a different one.

If you click on the translation it'll pull up different options than those you find if you just look to the right hand of the page and down a bit under noun/verb/adjective.... Trying a phrase in Bulgarian (since I know a couple words) I note that the alternatives it gives you can be more than a simple thesaurus type option. Translating "I love you" from English to Bulgarian gives you Обичам те, but if you click on "Обичам те" it gives you the additional options of:

аз те обичам

Обичам ви

Rather neat even if the utility is limited in that you'd need some sort of grasp of things to pick one over the other.

Edited September 6, 2011 by Dravin

[beefche]

It could be a grammatical thing too.

истинo in bulgarian would be a neutral word. To make it plural it would likely become истина.

It could be a matter of it being the object of the sentence which could change it from an -o ending to an -a ending (or another grammatical reason). Russian has a lot of grammatical rules which you will learn and get an instinct for once you learn and get involved in the language.

[MarginOfError]

By the way can you give me a pronunciation of выберите истинo. To the best of my understanding it would be Vib-yehr-eet-yeh ee-stee-noe. Would that be pretty close? Where are the accents?

Vee-byer-EE-tye EEs-tee-na

ы and и make very similar sounds, but the difference between the sounds is pretty important. I won't try to get you to understand other than to say the EE sound of ы comes from your throat and the EE sound of и comes off your palate. You'll get the hang of it about 25 months into your mission.

The Russian e makes a 'ye' sound. It's hideous.

The Russian o only makes an 'o' sound when it has the emphasis. Otherwise, it makes and 'ah' sound.

Don't even think about trying to understand the Russian g's pronunciation. It makes about as much sense as a mormon on magic mushrooms.

[beefche]

Oh, MOE...don't scare him. He'll likely always have an American accent, but he will do fine.

Languages are so much fun! It's fun to learn and that moment when you realize that you are thinking/dreaming in language is a great feeling.

[toughdee]

You'll get the hang of it about 25 months into your mission.

haha

[Guest Ivo_G]

here's a Russian LDS forum: Ôîðóì LDS Friend -> there's an English language sub-forum and it could be a good place to ask questions about the language or anything else you may want to know about Russia and the region in general :)

[toughdee]

here's a Russian LDS forum: Ôîðóì LDS Friend -> there's an English language sub-forum and it could be a good place to ask questions about the language or anything else you may want to know about Russia and the region in general :)

thanks I'll have to check it out

[scsquishysc]

Just have to chime in here and say that you're going to a really awesome place! My husband served there about 6-8 yrs ago and LOVED it! Shoot me a message if you'd like some insight from him! Congrats!

**I DO know the language came much easier once he was in the field and practicing in "real life" so if you get a bit discouraged in the MTC with the classes and lack of progress (this may or may not happen to you!), don't worry....it'll come!! :)

[toughdee]

Just have to chime in here and say that you're going to a really awesome place! My husband served there about 6-8 yrs ago and LOVED it! Shoot me a message if you'd like some insight from him! Congrats!

YES for sure! Check your messages. :)

[scsquishysc]

I sent you something back! When do you leave?