Русский как иностранный, или Лучшее лекарство от перхоти (часть 2)

Пока мы корпим над английскими неправильными глаголами, артиклями и фразеологизмами, мы можем взглянуть на проблему с другой стороны – как англичане (американцы, австралийцы) изучают русский. Улыбнемся их трудностям, выучим некоторые идиомы, просто немножко передохнем. Жирным выделены русские идиомы и пословицы, постарайтесь найти их эквивалент в контексте.

The Best Dandruff Cure. Part 2

Russians have long been prejudiced against their bald countrymen – the лысые were the butt of many jokes and funny proverbs. Of someone who is bald or has bad hair, one would say ‘волос от волоса не слыхать и голоса’ (‘you can’t hear one’s voice from each piece of hair – so rare it is’ – here comparison is made to rare trees in a forest, but it is mostly a funny rhyme). And when someone has been unjustly ignored (not invited, not been given something, etc.) this person could retort, ‘А я что, лысый что ли?’ (‘Am I bald or something?’ – the equivalent of the English, ‘What am I, chopped liver?’).

Ironically, today the stereotypical bald-shaven New Russian has a positive connotation (at least among younger generations). Yet back in the 1970s, when I was a teenager, we boys all dreamed of having long hair. We fought with our tutors and teachers over the right to носить длинные волосы (wear our hair long), so that we could try to look like our rock star idols. The older generation denigrated us for our патлы (a pejorative for ‘long hair’), and long-haired youth were called ‘патлатые’ or ‘волосатики’.

Back then, Dal’s old proverb – previously applied only to women – was used on men with long hair: волос долог да ум короток (long-haired but short on brains). I even remember how a student from our group was dragged to a парикмахерская (hairdresser) by an officer from the military department, who demanded that the hairdresser подстригла его под Котовского (give him a Kotovsky-style haircut; civil war hero Grigory Kotovsky was completely bald). The hairdresser complied, much to the amusement of my schoolmates. The guy was ready to рвать на себе волосы (tear his hair out) out of despair, but of course there was nothing left to tear...

(to be continued...)