No because it IS hot
Queen stuff
Can someone translate what she said
“Oh really? YOU’RE going to teach me Russian? Well you better bring the vodka and caviar, *sweetheart*.” -Translation from @cripplepunk-sylveon
I love the way people’s voice changes when they switch languages.
This a legit thing. I speak Japanese at a noticeably higher pitch than I do English. Different intonation too.
Spanish I speak at the same pitch more or less but my tone and rhythm are different.
Heard one of my classmates speak in English class, her pronunciation was absolutely perfect and her vocabulary was on the level of a native speaker, but her intonation was Czech and it sounded so uncanny
It is, though! OK, so—there is actually a very reasonable explanation behind the interaction described in the video, though it’s unlikely the two parties involved were really aware of the linguistic complexities. Obviously, as a native Russian-speaker, the woman in the video Katya was using the Russian version of the word. And since Katya knew of the beet soup in question—which originated in Ukraine—as a major cultural staple, it was totally logical for her to presume the English-speaking waitress was just outright mispronouncing a Russian word, and then stupidly correcting a genuine Russophone. But that’s not exactly right. Yes, the waitress did correct her for using a perfectly accurate Russian pronunciation, and that’s annoying. However, the waitress wasn’t using a Russian word—the waitress was saying the word in YIDDISH.
Now, I’m not suggesting the waitress was actually a Yiddish-speaker. In fact, it’s unlikely the waitress had any idea she was using a Yiddish word at all. But, as noted by food writer Andrew Evans: “the common English spelling of borscht (with a “t”) derives from the Yiddish transliteration, since the soup was introduced to the west primarily by Jewish refugees fleeing Eastern Europe. Food travels with people, which is why borsch is now popular worldwide.”
In Yiddish (which uses the Hebrew alphabet), borscht is spelt באָרשט; that last letter (ט) makes a “T” sound. So yes, in Yiddish it is pronounced “borscht”! And because of migration and, well… antisemitism, most English-speakers now use the Yiddish pronunciation of the word. Neither Katya nor the waitress were wrong. They were just saying the word in different languages, without realising other languages even had varied pronunciations to refer to the same beet soup.
It is борщ and it is באָרשט and probably several other things depending on your region. It’s all accurate—and great with sour cream.
At the Aula Cafe in Vilna in 2008, it was šaltibarščiai, and you’d better order it that way, or say “cold beet soup.” If you ordered борщ, you’d get a stony glare from the waiters.
Except.
Julius. Julius was a university student, working as a waiter at the Aula for his summer job, easy on the eyes, and a Yiddish-speaking Jewish boychik. Julius would absolutely let you order באָרשט. And he’d smile when you did.
Julius absolutely cleaned up in tips from the Yiddish-school students that summer. Everyone went to the Aula for lunch, and everyone learned that the Aula’s beet soup was excellent, and that, if Julius was your waiter, you could order באָרשט.
Aaannnnnd with that, this post is a wrap, great job everyone.
Tasting History with Max Miller just did an episode on this, and the many different ways this dish is pronounced!
