Funny Stories

[slim 1,525]

Wow Slim you actually have an American Manufacturing job! Now that is funny story in itself, since I was under the impression we sent all of those jobs oversees.

They've done what they can to ship jobs overseas. High tariffs and import taxes have ensured a lot of the simple plastics jobs have stayed here. However, since they can't ship the jobs overseas, more and more of the employees are becoming foreigners. Just in my company alone, they've started two new production facilities overseas and a significant number of our new-hires are non-USCs with green cards. (It's not so much that the company is looking for them, it's just that they're willing to work long hours in hot, dirty conditions whereas their American counterparts are increasingly not.)

I honestly believe the only thing keeping my job alive here in the U.S. is the very thing threatening to ship it overseas... the shipping! It costs so much to ship a pallet full of bags that it's cheaper to produce it locally (at a significantly higher cost) than to produce it overseas and ship it in. Cars, TVs, etc., relatively complex and expensive things to manufacture will always be worth shipping in. However, plastic bags that are 20 for a penny (but weigh a pound) are going to be significantly cheaper the closer to home they can be produced.

I actually make pretty complex (I say that loosely... these are plastic bags, afterall) security bags for use by banks and other money-related industries. As of now, they can't be produced overseas to the same quality standard that we have here. That, and they weigh a ton! (Literally, a pallet full of these bags weighs over a ton!)

If it all goes well, maybe someday I'll be living the easy life as plant manager in China.

haha...... are you and Slim willing to share what your Sweeties said..... or how they looked? I have not made this mistake yet but now I am little bit apprehensive about it.

Google "baba yaga" and that'll give you a pretty good idea of what I saw. What I heard was something to the effect of a shriek followed by quite a few blats and a pizdets or two.... or 30. (For those not in the know..... although those words are quite common in Russian language, they're not exactly good.) There were some other words in there, but for the most part, those two were the stars of the show! I think the grand finale was a "tooie, tooie, tooie" spitting imitation.

I would like to say that was a long time ago.... but it was this morning.

We were getting ready to go out to dinner or something, and while she was combing her hair and doing some last minute make-upping, I sat down on the bed to put my shoes on. Not sure why I did it this way, usually I just slipped them on by the door. So I sat the shoes on the bed, and I remember her watching this through the mirror. She stopped what she was doing, her eyes grew wide, and she spun around and walked over to me. I got the pointer-finger of death aimed right at me and then the shoes. It's a little hazy after that...she yelled a bunch of stuff in Russian. I picked 'em up real quick, and she calmed down enough to finish chewing my ### in English. Something about how everything that was on the street now being on the bed, do I know how filthy the bottoms of my shoes are, and just generally being incredulous about how I could possibly have thought putting my shoes on the bed was a good idea. You'd have thought I'd just taken a dump right in the middle of the bed, which I suppose was the next worse thing as far as she was concerned. 30 seconds later it was over. She stopped and just went back to getting ready, leaving me completely bewildered. I spent a long time waiting for the (no pun intended) other shoe to drop, but she was back to sweet little Nadya. We had housekeeping replace the bedspread while we were out.

Yeah...gonna be good times ahead...

I was just kidding about this morning, that was several years ago although there have been similar "atrocities commited" on my part with similar results on hers. My "shoes on the bed" story was pretty close to the above story except I just plopped down on the bed, ready to go, waiting for her to finish make-up and the ten million other things she does to get ready. Since I hadn't been "trained" yet, of course I had my shoes on.... I was ready to go!

Well, I must admit, I do the same thing.

What makes me wonder is why would you ever put your shoes on the bed? why?

Yeah, and please tell me why don't people take their shoes off when they come in? this is disgusting!

It's just dirt! Years and years of conditioning have de-sensitized us to keeping things "clean." Most people have rules in their home like "no feet on the coffee table" or something to that effect. But, in the average American home, shoes are just as much for inside as they are for outside. Funny, when I was younger, I used to wear my shoes EVERYWHERE, I felt naked without them. Now, I feel funny when I go to someone else's house and don't take my shoes off. I actually caught myself tip-toeing around my buddies house when I helped him move his T.V. one day. This is just a cultural difference but we all know who's going to win!

Better to slip the shoes off than to face the wrath!

....and then I said, "Don't worry in the US I takes all of these shirts to the dry cleaners and they wash and press (iron) them all for $0.99 each." Suddenly her mood perked up and she resumed ironing and said, "Ok, then I will marry." I know I'm not capturing the whole effect, as I'm an awful stroy teller, but I was crying I was laughing so hard.

My wife had a similar expectation, and then she showed up to a home with no washer/dryer. She still does some of the laundry by hand and hangs it up (then irons the important stuff) but most of it is done by me when I take my mountain of dirty clothes to the laundromat on the weekends.

She has plans of hiring someone to do the laundry for us (by hand, I guess) after we win that Mega Millions jackpot. I support her on that one.

[mox 298]

I think the grand finale was a "tooie, tooie, tooie" spitting imitation.

LOL! I completely forgot that. And now I remember why. Because when I pointed out that spitting was probably just as unsanitary......you know what, I don't think that's a memory I particularly want to remember. Forget I said anything.

[Buck and Natalia 0]

I think the grand finale was a "tooie, tooie, tooie" spitting imitation.

LOL! I completely forgot that. And now I remember why. Because when I pointed out that spitting was probably just as unsanitary......you know what, I don't think that's a memory I particularly want to remember. Forget I said anything.

hahaha........ I love the "tooie, tooie, tooie" spitting imitation. Want a laugh? Ask them what noise a pig makes. From my fiancee I get this very cute "haarrrruuuu haarrruuu haaruuuuu" sound.

[katya_and_besik 0]

One thing I found interesting was that most Russian people I know who have washing machines have no set place to situate them. Some were in bathrooms, some in kitchens, others in living rooms

This is true, the so-called "Khrushchovkas" (panelled or brick 3-5-storied apartment buildings without elevators, introduced in Nikita Khrushchev's time) were very poorly designed. Combined bathrooms and tiny kitchens... no space for washing machines and dish-washers

[katya_and_besik 0]

I've gotta know, Katya, how on earth do you Russian ladies turn your anger on and off so quick? It's freaking scary!!

Let's just say it's a "Russian Thing" lol

[Brian & Elena 0]

I think the grand finale was a "tooie, tooie, tooie" spitting imitation.

LOL! I completely forgot that. And now I remember why. Because when I pointed out that spitting was probably just as unsanitary......you know what, I don't think that's a memory I particularly want to remember. Forget I said anything.

hahaha........ I love the "tooie, tooie, tooie" spitting imitation. Want a laugh? Ask them what noise a pig makes. From my fiancee I get this very cute "haarrrruuuu haarrruuu haaruuuuu" sound.

Yeah....ask them what sound a frog makes too....I have another story on that one later....oh yeah and a horse...and many other animals too...

[mox 298]

There are two onomatopoeia's my other half does that are pretty cute. One was when it started raining a little bit, and she was trying to remember the English word for rain. So she made a little "raining" motion with her hands and said "what is...cop-cop-cop?" She emphasized each "cop" like a raindrop hitting the ground. It was cute.

The other was when we were in a restaurant with an aquarium right next to us. She discovered that if she tapped her straw against the glass, the fish would follow it. By the end of dinner she had 'em trained pretty well. Whenever she tapped the straw she would say "took took took." I think it must be the equivalent of the little kissing sounds we make when interacting with a pet or something.

[slim 1,525]

Whenever she tapped the straw she would say "took took took." I think it must be the equivalent of the little kissing sounds we make when interacting with a pet or something.

"Took took took" is like "knock knock knock."

I get that a lot with the - "Durak. Primitivny muzh" (starts to knock against the wall, or my head) "took took took."

[Satellite 1]

She emphasized each "cop" like a raindrop hitting the ground. It was cute.

Actually she wasn't being cute with you. The word for water drop or rain drop is капля. And "кап", "кап", "кап" is how someone would emphasize what the rain drops are doing, i.e, falling.

Whenever she tapped the straw she would say "took took took." I think it must be the equivalent of the little kissing sounds we make when interacting with a pet or something.

Again you are wrong. тук-тук is an actual word for knock-knock or rat-tat (a series of short sharp taps (as made by strokes on a drum or knocks on a door).

[katya_and_besik 0]

I get that a lot with the - "Durak. Primitivny muzh" (starts to knock against the wall, or my head) "took took took."

LOL You guys are so funny

[mox 298]

"Took took took" is like "knock knock knock."

I get that a lot with the - "Durak. Primitivny muzh" (starts to knock against the wall, or my head) "took took took."

LOL!

Again you are wrong....

Yeah, she says that a lot too.

Cool info on the "took took"'s and the "cop cop"'s. One of the cool side-effects of having a Russian SO is that I'm learning all kinds of new stuff.

[Buck and Natalia 0]

I think the grand finale was a "tooie, tooie, tooie" spitting imitation.

LOL! I completely forgot that. And now I remember why. Because when I pointed out that spitting was probably just as unsanitary......you know what, I don't think that's a memory I particularly want to remember. Forget I said anything.

hahaha........ I love the "tooie, tooie, tooie" spitting imitation. Want a laugh? Ask them what noise a pig makes. From my fiancee I get this very cute "haarrrruuuu haarrruuu haaruuuuu" sound.

Yeah....ask them what sound a frog makes too....I have another story on that one later....oh yeah and a horse...and many other animals too...

LOL...... you were right. I asked her to make the frog sound.......... absolutely hilarious...... "kvaaaaaaaaaaaaa...aaaa...aaaaa." She was a real good sport about it too. I totally adore her. Now tell us your frog story.........

[slim 1,525]

One of the cool side-effects of having a Russian SO is that I'm learning all kinds of new stuff.

You will learn a lot of new stuff, and you'll see that the language you speak at home is not exactly the language you learn through the book and tape sets. It is important to try to learn some Russian language, but remember, the vast majority of conversational Russian you will use will be in "familiar" settings. So, don't be too hard on yourself if you can't learn 100% of your book and tape sets or whatever you're using.

Like the "took took took" and other things, you'll learn what you need to know through interaction with her.

However, you still shoud get going on the book and tape set or whatever else you can use to try to learn as much Russian as possible. "Took took took" does you no good when you're at the deli and she wants something that you have no idea what it is. Not that I really know anyway, but at least I can read it and try to remember what it is for next time.

[mox 298]

However, you still shoud get going on the book and tape set or whatever else you can use to try to learn as much Russian as possible. "Took took took" does you no good when you're at the deli and she wants something that you have no idea what it is. Not that I really know anyway, but at least I can read it and try to remember what it is for next time.

I picked up some books and tapes, but the one that seems to have helped me the most is Rosetta Stone. I know some people like it and some don't, but for me the connection between reading the word, hearing it, and seeing a visual to go with it really help for the word to stick. I figure I've built a 100 word vocabulary over the last month using Rosetta almost exclusively. I'm not quite at the point where I could order a *specific* sandwich from a deli (unless you happen to serve kushka, loshad, or sabaka sandwiches... ), but I could point to one and say "buterbrod" and then smile like an idiot. And by golly if you ever need me to tell you what color your bicycle is, I'm there for you. As long as it's white, black, blue, green, or yellow. Otherwise I got not nothin.

[katya_and_besik 0]

Since you guys can read Russian so well, check out these pics of Nasha Russia (Our Russia)

May be looking at these pictures will make you remember some more funny stories :)

http://trinixy.ru/2007/10/04/nasha_rasha_c..._169_shtuk.html

my personal favorite is the escalator that goes straight into the ceiling

Edited October 27, 2007 by katya_and_besik