Thread: School Vocabulary

We all had teachers who were rude or blunt and then there are teachers who are nice and polite. Teachers are allowed to be blunt or rude to some extent in certain situations in the USA. Is it the same in Russia? On the other hand, teachers are expected to be polite most of the time. Which of the following would be considered A) POLITE, B) RUDE, BUT ACCEPTABLE, and C) TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE in a Russian elementary school situation (student ages seven to eleven)? Also if the constructs are inaccurate, please indicate a correctly equivalent construct. Thanks!
Заткнись - shut your mouth

закрой свой рот - shut your mouth

Закрой варежку! - Shut up!

Замолчи! - Shut up!

Довольно! - Enough!

Попридержи язык! - Hold your tongue!

Слушайте внимательно. - Listen carefully

Слушайте! - Listen!

Молчать! - Silence!

Молчи! - Be quiet!

Молчите! - Silence!

Did anyone on this message board attend elementary school in Russia? There must be someone. Please inspect the phrases and let me know the status of each. A) POLITE, B) RUDE, BUT ACCEPTABLE, and C) TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE

Thanks!

Originally Posted by bobert

Teachers are allowed to be blunt or rude to some extent in certain situations in the USA. Is it the same in Russia? On the other hand, teachers are expected to be polite most of the time.

I think, that is true in Russia too.


In my opinion,

Заткнись — totally unacceptable
закрой свой рот — rude (something between acceptable and unacceptable)
Закрой варежку! — totally unacceptable
Замолчи! — rude but acceptable
Довольно! — polite or neutral, bookish
Попридержи язык! — a bit rude, bookish
Слушайте внимательно — polite or neutral
Слушайте! — neutral
Молчать! — neutral or rude but acceptable depending on the situation
Молчи! — neutral or rude but acceptable depending on the situation
Молчите! — neutral or rude but acceptable depending on the situation

If it’s useful for you, I can think of some other similar phrases:

хватит! ‘enough!’ — neutral
тихо! ‘silence!’ — neutral
тишина! ‘silence!’ — neutral
прекратить разговоры! ‘stop talking’ — strict but not rude
минуточку внимания! ‘a minute of attention’ — polite

Imho:

These words need no attention at all:
A) Замолчи! (Stop talking)
A) Довольно!
A) Слушайте внимательно.
A) Слушайте!
A) Молчать!
A) Молчи!
A) Молчите!
All of them are usual every-day speech. Some level of rudeness can be applied by intonation and situation though.


B) Заткнись
B) закрой свой рот
These are 'B's in my opinion, but child has to be real annoying pain in the ass.
A) Закрой варежку!
It's soften version of "закрой свой рот". It's not polite if child didn't deserve it, but it's more polite than (B) in case of annoying child. Also can be said jokinly.
A) Попридержи язык!
Same as above - polite word for 'problem child', not appropriate for normal discussion.

So, if there is a child who disrupts the class and refuses to comply with reasonable expectations, what is the discipline procedure? In the USA disruptive students may be sent to the office with a referral and the principal deals with the child. Alternatively, the teacher may call the child's parents and explain the issue and ask for the parents to help motivate the student to comply with classroom behavioral expectations. It's probably the case that similar options are used in Russia. Do schools have principals? Probably they are called something else. What would that be?

Would these be reasonable terms which might apply to this situation:
подрывным студент - disruptive student
Ожидания в классе - classroom expectations
Школьная атмосфера - school atmosphere
Поведенческие стимулы - behavioral incentives
любимчик учителя - teacher's pet
Учитель дает нам слишком много домашних заданий! - The teacher gives us too much homework!
Я не делал этого! - I didn't do it!
Она подло! - She is mean!

подрывным студент - disruptive student

This is incorrect. I don't know an analog in Russian, but it may be студент (if it's college/university)/ученик (if it's school) с неподобающим поведением
Студент с неподобающим оведением
Ученик с неподобающим поведением
May be с девиантным поведением.

Ожидания в классе - classroom expectations

I don't understand what is this.

Школьная атмосфера - school atmosphere

Is correct

Поведенческие стимулы - behavioral incentives

It can be used.

любимчик учителя - teacher's pet

Is correct

Учитель дает нам слишком много домашних заданий! - The teacher gives us too much homework!

Is correct

Я не делал этого! - I didn't do it!

Is correct

Она подло! - She is mean!

Incorrect. Подлый/подлая (but no "подло"! Подло is an adverb) = vile. She is mean = Она злая/плохая/дурацкая

In Russian, подлый is sly + evil. It can be used if you describe a man who does something bad to fool. If your "mean" in this case = that, you can use it.

Do schools have principals? Probably they are called something else. What would that be?

Yes, in Russia they are called директор школы. In universities - ректор.

In the USA disruptive students may be sent to the office with a referral and the principal deals with the child. Alternatively, the teacher may call the child's parents and explain the issue and ask for the parents to help motivate the student to comply with classroom behavioral expectations. It's probably the case that similar options are used in Russia.

Yes, there is absolutely same methods in Russia) Only I don't know what is "the office" in this case.

And a question to you: how must I write: Is correct or Is correctly?

Thanks!
"Is correct" works.
"The office" is the office for the school (elementary, middle school, or high school). There at a minimum will be found the secretary and principal, plus sometimes a counselor and possibly vice principals. Large schools in the USA may have several secretaries and a number of counselors.

More fully:
Ожидания в классе - classroom expectations
Every teacher has classroom rules or "classroom behavioral expectations." Classroom rules probably translates to either правила класса or Правила в классе, right?

And a question to you: how must I write: Is correct or Is correctly?

Examples:
She correctly translated the sentence.
She translated the sentence correctly.

The translation is correct.
The answer is correct.

Classroom rules probably translates to either правила класса or Правила в классе, right?

Правила класса is better.

"The office" is the office for the school (elementary, middle school, or high school). There at a minimum will be found the secretary and principal, plus sometimes a counselor and possibly vice principals. Large schools in the USA may have several secretaries and a number of counselors.

I think, analog in Russia is учительская. Yes, a teacher can bring there a pupils who have bad behavior. In учительская you can find teachers (учителя), head teachers (заучи - usually, pupils are most afraid of they) and sometimes secretaries and директор (principal).

If it is a university, it will be named кафедра of institute. Rector is in ректорат. For example, our university has more than 5 institutes and each has it own кафедра - кафедра психологии, кафедра физмата (физико-математический институт) etc.

Classroom rules - broadly used term is правила поведения в школе (lit. school behaviour rules, implying classroom rules too), or правила поведения в классе - this makes sense too. Hence classroom expectations - can be translated as правила поведения в классе.

disruptive student - ученик с плохим поведением. Make sure you get the idea that AmEngl 'student' corresponds to Russian ученик (ученица) from elementary to high school, but it's студент/студентка if it's some college or university ABOVE high school.
She is mean! - one of the examples that's difficult to translate into Russian. Roughly can be translated as Она злая - but sounds a bit childish. Or you can say Я ей не нравлюсь (she doesn't like me, she's mean to ME).

заучи is an interesting word. Neither wiktionary.org or Google Translate knows that one! However, Google Translate does recognize завучи as "head teachers" along with "Главные учителя." Are заучи and завучи interchangeable or was заучи just an inadvertent typographical error?

So the hierarchical structure at and elementary school for the teaching staff is teacher (учитель), head teacher (заучи/завучи), and principal (директор), right? Here in the USA very few schools have recognized "head teachers." However, senior teachers (those who have been around for awhile) are generally recognized, implicitly, as having a bit more authority. What about instructional aids? Many schools have instructional aids working in the classroom. Usually these are people with very little formal training and with no teaching credential. First of all, are there paid instructional aids in Russian classrooms? Secondly, if so, what are they called?

Завуч = заведующий учебной частью, lit. teacher responsible for study and learning section (higher authority than just teacher).
Зауч - might be some student slang, but this spelling is incorrect, one letter is missing and it looks very informal.
Instructional aids - probably they exist on pre-school level (still they have some pre-school working qualification), but there's no popular name for them I think (though of course there's some official name, but in an elementary school it's just ONE teacher in a room doing all the job).

Зауч

I didn't know it until now that зауч is incorrect and correct is завуч

First of all, are there paid instructional aids in Russian classrooms?

Now all paid items are prohibited, but sometimes teachers demand from pupils to buy various books. When I was studying in my school, we bought books at our own expense, but now it's illegal and disappears in the past.

instructional aids

What is this? I have used google to find it and google says that it's various notes etc., but not live people. But you writes about it like it's live people named "instructional aids". I don't understand this))

i guess it must be 'aide'

Originally Posted by alexsms

i guess it must be 'aide'

Может быть, методический материал, методички?

It seems that I understood what he says about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraprofessional_educator
A paraprofessional educator, alternatively known as a para, para-pro, paraeducator, instructional assistant, educational assistant, teacher's aide or classroom assistant,

There aren't that characters in Russia))

Yeah, my bad, instructional aide or paraprofessional is what I was writing about. They get called so many things and the "e" is quite often left off of "aide". Sorry for the ambiguity and thanks for all the responses!

Are these reasonable translations?
Перейдите на страницу двадцать один и прочитайте первый абзац.
(Turn to page twenty-one and read the first paragraph.)



Ваше эссе будет в пятницу. (Your essay will be due on Friday.)



Просроченная книга (overdue book)



предельный срок, крайний срок - deadline



Выстроить тихо в дверь. (Line up quietly at the door.)



Сегодня вечером не будет домашнего задания.

(Tonight there will be no homework assignment.)



В пятницу состоится викторина.

Там будет викторина в пятницу.

(There will be a quiz on Friday.)

Originally Posted by bobert

Перейдите на страницу двадцать один и прочитайте первый абзац.
(Turn to page twenty-one and read the first paragraph.)

OK.
You can also say «Откройте страницу 21…».

Originally Posted by bobert

Ваше эссе будет в пятницу. (Your essay will be due on Friday.)

«Вы должны сдать рефераты (or, maybe, сочинения) к пятнице».

I don’t know what an essay is like. In our Russian school we didn’t use the word эссе.
Сочинение is when you are supposed to write your own thoughts about something (usually, a work of literature).
Реферат is when you are supposed to make a library research, find some sources on the topic and write a brief summary.

Originally Posted by bobert

Просроченная книга (overdue book)

OK.

Originally Posted by bobert

предельный срок, крайний срок - deadline

OK.

Originally Posted by bobert

Выстроить тихо в дверь. (Line up quietly at the door.)

«Тихо выстроиться у двери» or «Тихо встать в очередь перед дверью».

Originally Posted by bobert

Сегодня вечером не будет домашнего задания.
(Tonight there will be no homework assignment.)

«Сегодня не будет домашнего задания» or «На следующее занятие дамашнего задания не будет».
Вечером sounds weird here.

Originally Posted by bobert

В пятницу состоится викторина.
Там будет викторина в пятницу.
(There will be a quiz on Friday.)

«В пятницу состоится тест» or «В пятницу будет проверочная работа».

Викторина is a kind of game, something extracurricular and entertaining. Not a kind of things students are given grades for.

Originally Posted by Soft sign

I don’t know what an essay is like. In our Russian school we didn’t use the word эссе.
Сочинение is when you are supposed to write your own thoughts about something (usually, a work of literature).
Реферат is when you are supposed to make a library research, find some sources on the topic and write a brief summary.

An essay is a short piece of writing on a specific topic. Common topics which might be assigned in a public school setting include "Should Homework Be Abolished?" "Why Should You Brush Your Teeth," "What Is Your Favorite Place To Go On Vacation," "What Can We Do To Save Water/Energy," etc. Usually essays are one to three pages in length. Students simply make a thesis statement (usually state an opinion) and then defend that opinion by providing evidence or coherent reasons why the opinion is valid. It sounds like Сочинение captures the basic idea of essay.

In fact... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%8...BD%D0%B8%D0%B5

Thanks!