Thread: Help, I can't speak English anymore!

So, I was at the bookmarket today, and one of the kiosks was selling reprints of old Soviet propaganda posters. Naturally, I had to buy several.

I'm having some trouble translating this one:

В странаx капитализма, дорога таланта...в стране социализма, дорогу талантам.

The meaning in this one is obvious - next to the first part of the sentence, there's a picture of this kid with a violin living the life of a homeless waif on a creepy US street, and next to the second slogan, the kid is happily playing a solo with a full orchestra, and above the stage hangs a hammer and sickle. But I'm not sure what the sentence means literally. Is it something like, "In capitalist countries, the road leads away from talent; in the socialist country, it leads to talent"?

Also, there's this bad boy:
Долой кyхонное рабство даешь новый быт

Which I understand, but for some reason, just cannot make into a sentence in English. Living in Russia has eaten the English-speaking part of my brain, dammit. Aiee!

The first part can be interpreted in several ways:
1)In capitalist countries a road to success is
very long and hard for a talented person (if he is poor, of course).
2)A talented person has to make his living in the street.
3)What you see in this picture is a typical instance of life the
talented people lead in capitalist countries (it's their usual way)

"дорогу (кому-либо)!" is an appeal which means "make way (for smb)", "don't stand in one's way" and is often used in
slogans. And here it means that in socialist country no one
is standing in the talented person's way and he can take any road he likes.

Originally Posted by Линдзи

Долой кyхонное рабство даешь новый быт

Maybe something like that "Away with kitchen slavery, long live the new household"?

Friendly, you're a sweetie. Thanks

I have that problem...writing and reading russian all the time I now naturally write my R's and N's backwards....really frustrating

Originally Posted by vbouldr

I have that problem...writing and reading russian all the time I now naturally write my R's and N's backwards....really frustrating

I like writing my R's like Я's just to irritate my teachers (except in English class). Only problems I've really had was with с. I remember looking up a (English) word that had "des" in the beginning and when I realized I was in the "dec" section.

I only have it with the N/И... Really stupid.

It's funny, but only few Russians have the same problem when they begin learning foreign languages, however, they often write Я as R and И as N when they learn to write their own language....

Верно, Айболит.

Иногда бывает так запаришься, что волей-неволей останавливаешься перед написанием И. Особенно когда пишешь какое-нибудь важное поздравление, где нельзя ошибиться

Да, точно, когда что-нить важное. Бывает, вдруг задумаешься, в какую же сторону Я или И поворачивать. Сидишь, тупишь несколько секунд, вспоминаешь алфавит