Thread: Graduation, degrees, etc.

I am trying to explain to my Russian pen pal what I am doing in my life but I have no idea how to say these things in Russian...

1. I just got my bachelor's degree in accounting

2. I am going to grad school in the fall to get a masters of accounting

3. I am planning to become a CPA (certified public accountant)

4. A CPA prepares financial statements, prepares tax returns, and conducts audits

yes I know this is terribly boring but unfortunately it is what I am going to do.

Originally Posted by Biancca

1. I just got my bachelor's degree in accounting

Я только что получила степень бакалавра бухгалтерского дела.

2. I am going to grad school in the fall to get a masters of accounting

Я собираюсь закончить школу осенью и получить степень магистра бухгалтерского дела.

3. I am planning to become a CPA (certified public accountant)

Я планирую/собираюсь стать сертифицированным государственным бухгалтером.(oh Jesus! It's better don't translate CPA into Russian )

4. A CPA prepares financial statements, prepares tax returns, and conducts audits

CPA готовит финансовые отчеты, налоговые декларации и руководит аудитом (or руководит проверкой отчетности).

I'm not quite sure that CPA = сертифицированный государственный бухгалтер, because in Russian государственный бухгалтер sounds a bit funnily (IMHO)
Maybe общественный бухгалтер is more correct. My dictionary translates public as общественный or государственный, and in your case I can't choose right variant

Originally Posted by pranki

Originally Posted by Biancca

2. I am going to grad school in the fall to get a masters of accounting

Я собираюсь закончить школу осенью и получить степень магистра бухгалтерского дела.

pranki, she is saying I will be attending graduate school in the fall. We commonly say grad-school which is short for graduate study. I think it would be

я буду учитсься в аспирантуру осенью чтобы получить степень магистра бухгалтерского дела.

Originally Posted by pranki

It's better don't translate CPA into Russian

A little correction, if I may: "It's better not to translate CPA into Russian" or "You better don't translate CPA into Russian" (I think the former suits more here though)

Originally Posted by pranki

I'm not quite sure that CPA = сертифицированный государственный бухгалтер, because in Russian государственный бухгалтер sounds a bit funnily (IMHO)
Maybe общественный бухгалтер is more correct. My dictionary translates public as общественный or государственный, and in your case I can't choose right variant

Yes, I also think that the word государственный doesn't really suit here. Lingvo translates it simply as "дипломированный бухгалтер".

Originally Posted by drew881

я буду учитсься в аспирантуру осенью чтобы получить степень магистра бухгалтерского дела.

я буду учитсься в аспирантуре осенью чтобы получить степень магистра бухгалтерского дела.

Originally Posted by Friendy

Originally Posted by pranki

It's better don't translate CPA into Russian

A little correction, if I may: "It's better not to translate CPA into Russian" or "You better don't translate CPA into Russian" (I think the former suits more here though).

"You better don't translate CPA into Russian" is ungrammatical.
"You'd better not translate CPA into Russian" sounds too much like a threat.
Maybe the phrasing you're thinking of is "You'd be best not to translate CPA into Russian".

Thank you all for the help.

I think you are all right -- I wont translate CPA, I think she will get the idea anyway.

Now if only I can write the rest of the letter in Russian

Originally Posted by Biancca

Thank you all for the help.

I think you are all right -- I wont translate CPA, I think she will get the idea anyway.

Now if only I can write the rest of the letter in Russian

If you are talking about physically writing it, I would sugesst learning cursive cyrillic letters as soon as possible. It really sucks printing and looks bad, and is slow.

Oh! I think that the cursive is untidy looking and the printing is much cooler.

I'd say "you'd better not"

I believe "certified" means "дипломировнный". Think of it.

Originally Posted by Ядерное лицо

"You better don't translate CPA into Russian" is ungrammatical.

But nevertheless I get the impression that it is used a lot by native speakers instead of "You'd better..." Is it true? Does anybody here do it?

Originally Posted by Ядерное лицо

"You'd better not translate CPA into Russian" sounds too much like a threat.

Yes, that's why I said that it suits here les.

I would have said:

"it would be better if you didn't translate..."

or

"I would't translate..."

I would never say "you better don't" though, that sounds wrong to me.

Anyway I am going to type the letter. I can write in Russian cursive too but my writing is really horrendous so I think I should stick with typing.

I can't write a decent ж.

If you are from certain less accessible parts of America:

You bettern't be translatin'...

But please don't repeat this unless you are looking for a laugh.

Besides, I think plain-old stylistically neutral would be:

You shouldn't translate this...

Using "better not" constructions makes it sound like you are going to follow it up with an admonition. Like...

"You'd better not translate this, or the computer will catch on fire"

Originally Posted by DDT

Oh! I think that the cursive is untidy looking and the printing is much cooler.

americanized russian cursive isnt great, its maybe not italicized enough it seems. But good handwriting in russian can look pretty cool. If its bad it can be a nightmare to read

Originally Posted by drew881

americanized russian cursive isnt great, its maybe not italicized enough it seems. But good handwriting in russian can look pretty cool. If its bad it can be a nightmare to read

I think that Russian cursive is so much easier to write than English cursive. I don't exactly know why, but I have much better handwriting in Russian than in English, and I have been writing English for 15 more years than Russian. Maybe I just take it slower in Russian. By Americanized Russian cursive don't you mean Anglicized Russian cursive?

Originally Posted by DDT

Oh! I think that the cursive is untidy looking and the printing is much cooler.

And how often English-speaking people use cursive hand-writing?

Most use it rarely at best. I sign my name in cursive and that's it. My Mom made me learn cursive English years ago, but once I discovered that she didn't really make me use it, I promptly forgot it all. I have to think really hard now to remember some of the capital letters. And do you know, I wish now that I hadn't been so lazy . Good cursive handwriting in any language is just beautiful.

My handwriting is terrible in English and Russian, but nonetheless I love the Russian cursive way of handwriting! Our teacher taught it to us in the first couple of lessons in our programme, and I've stuck with it ever since. Printing takes too long when you want to take notes quickly. I've even used Russian in my course notes for my degree in Chemical Engineering, just because it's so easy to use once you get used to it!

I even use g for d even though the curly d is legitimate, just because I've got used to it now. I still sometimes have troubles with ж, and ш, щ and ц when written next to и looks dodgy, but I'm certainly an advocate of learning Russian cursive handwriting properly. I even use Russian m sometimes when writing in English because it's so much clearer.

I can write calligraphically in Russian, but this ability much depends on my mood or circumstances. Blocklettering is somewhat painstaking and time-stealing.

However, in English I'm pretty fast with block letters. In Russia, we used to have lessons on English handwriting, but now no one will teach you that.