Thread: "Воспитание" in English.

Recently I have read an article by an American teacher where he compares US and Russian educational systems. In that article, he claims the Russian word for "воспитание" has no exact English equivalent. He mentions the Russian schools provide children with not only "education", but with "воспитание" as well.
That surprised me a lot. I checked my dictionary and I discovered there are two basic translations into English: "education" and "upbringing".

"Education" would not fit well, since it also means "образование" or "обучение" in Russian. We distinguish between two different concepts: "обучение" as giving some general knowledge (mostly sciences, and some practical skills too) and "воспитание" as developing one's attitude to life: good manners, behaviour, what's good and what's bad, taste, values, etc.

I wonder if "upbringing" would be a proper word to convey the same meaning? Or does it also invlove other activities, not related to "воспитание" (like providing one's children with life conditions, food etc.)?

In Russian, sometimes we say: "Моё воспитание не позволяет мне сделать что-либо". How can I translate it into English?

multitran.ru translates upbringing only as воспитание

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

I wonder if "upbringing" would be a proper word to convey the same meaning? Or does it also invlove other activities, not related to "воспитание" (like providing one's children with life conditions, food etc.)?

In Russian, sometimes we say: "Моё воспитание не позволяет мне сделать что-либо". How can I translate it into English?

Take your pick:

"My upbringing doesn't allow me to do that."
"That's against my upbringing."
"That's not how I was brought up."
"That's not how I was raised."
"I wasn't raised to do such things."

I don't know what the American teacher was talking about -- based on your explanation of what воспитание conceptually includes and excludes, "upbringing" is exactly the right one-word translation. On top of that, American schools DO include воспитание as part of their educational curriculum -- students (here meaning ученики) receive a separate set of grades for their "social skills", which are sometimes taught under the heading of "Civics" (which, at the elementary-school level, means being a more or less polite and well-behaved young child who can work in a team with others and play by fair rules).

Here I can translate Your Russian Sentence to English Language.

"Моё воспитание не позволяет мне сделать что-либо" - "My upbringing did not allow me to do anything"

I could add this,

'Воспитание' in Russian has 3 basic meanings.

1) Process of teaching a child basics of behavior at different levels (at any facility, school, etc.), somewhat close to 'civics' mentioned above (but i think in States civics has some relation to being a proper citizen as well, correct me if i'm wrong; in Russia it's more like general rules of behavior, what's good and what's bad); and this is very, very close in meaning to English 'upbringing' to my mind

2) Process of acquiring some skill, strength (in job, sport, and so on). E.g., 'воспитание характера', 'воспитание духа (воли)' (in this sense it sounds and is perceived a bit philosophical, I'd say). The equivalents could be something like 'building your character', 'training', 'working on some skills'... (correct me, if i put something awkward).

3) Manners. As in 'хорошее воспитание' (good manners), 'плохое воспитание' (bad manners), 'дурное воспитание' (awful manners), 'великолепное воспитание' (splendid manners). Here 'воспитание' means that a person has good or bad manners as a result of upbringing and general education.