Thread: "Is of Russian and German decent"

This phrase is from a list of facts about one celebrity with pretty face, but very funny surname (for ear of a spoilt Russian teenager ). So the question is obvious: what does it mean?

P.S. Who can guess what celebrity I am talking about?

descent — происхождение

Originally Posted by pranki

P.S. Who can guess what celebrity I am talking about?

You're killing us here: cough it up already!

Билл Гей - тс-с-с!

Barmaley, make Google search "Is of Russian and German decent" (quotes are necessary), and you'll get the answer But after that, if you are not a Russian, I'll give you a hard task: to say, why this surname is funny for ear of a young Russian blockhead like me

Originally Posted by mishau_

Билл Гей - тс-с-с!

Do you really think Gates has a pretty face and Russian origin? I'm shoked

actually i never heard who that guy Trachtenburg was, so I concentrated on funny names of celebrities.

Never heard of her... Michelle Christine Trachtenberg (putting Barmaley out of his misery)

Oh, she played in Buffy the vampire slayer? I think I saw that show once... and immediately regretted it

I can now see the humor in her last name (especially when reading the other thread about russian swear words)

@mishau (it's not a guy )

Originally Posted by pranki

Originally Posted by mishau_

Билл Гей - тс-с-с!

Do you really think Gates has a pretty face and Russian origin? I'm shoked

You couldn't really say he's decent either.......

..... but he must have descended from somewhere.....



(PS: "shocked" )

Never heard of her... Michelle Christine Trachtenberg (putting Barmaley out of his misery)

Never try to persuade me that the world lies on 3 whales, cuz lies on 3 elephants

ТРАХТЕНБЕРГ Иосиф Адольфович (1883-1960), российский экономист, академик АН СССР (1939). Труды в области денежного обращения и кредита, теории и истории экономических кризисов.
http://encycl.accoona.ru/?id=63732


ТРАХТЕНБЕРГ Юрий Меерович (9.08.1936, Москва – 22.09.1994, Челябинск), инженер-металлург, общест. деятель, лауреат пр. Сов. Мин. СССР (1985).

http://www.book-chel.ru/ind.php?what=card&id=3807

I am not so sure Pranki was talking about some old dead Russian engineer or economist with a pretty face

Heh, you all have a good sense of humour

As for "celebrity" word, from my provincial point of view anyone from Hollywood is a celebrity
And this surname... It's noticeable not only because of accidental coincidence with Russian abusive word, but because there is a dirty scoundrel Roman Trachtenberg, who specializes in "vomitive" humour (ok, I don't know how to say in English "рвотно-пердильный юмор" or "юмор ниже пояса" ) and has some popularity among young Russian blockheads

Originally Posted by pranki

Heh, you all have a good sense of humour

As for "celebrity" word, from my provincial point of view anyone from Hollywood is a celebrity
And this surname... It's noticeable not only because of accidental coincidence with Russian abusive word, but because there is a dirty scoundrel Roman Trachtenberg, who specializes in "vomitive" humour (ok, I don't know how to say in English "рвотно-пердильный юмор" or "юмор ниже пояса" ) and has some popularity among young Russian blockheads

Haha. I actually did try googling it and came up with nothing right away. My guess was Madchik Amir. I think that to call Trachtenberg a celebrity is a stretch -- as far as I know she was a child actor on the kiddie Nickelodeon network and then, in a desperate plea for work, went topless in "Eurotrip." But then again, how many of us will ever actually encounter even a B-list actress?

Originally Posted by Barmaley

Haha. I actually did try googling it and came up with nothing right away. My guess was Madchik Amir. I think that to call Trachtenberg a celebrity is a stretch -- as far as I know she was a child actor on the kiddie Nickelodeon network and then, in a desperate plea for work, went topless in "Eurotrip." But then again, how many of us will ever actually encounter even a B-list actress?

I dunno.
I was searching for an English movie for improving my language in our local network and found an unknown (for me) Disney picture "Ice Princess" with Trachtenberg in the key role. But, since I'm just a little blockhead, the phrase "В главной роли Мишель Трахтенберг" (ok, there were 2 audio streams -- English and Russian, so this phrase is from Russian one ) made me laugh, and I decided to discover who she is.
After that I knew she speaks Russian, and this knowledge totally confused my little blockhead head, because if I had such surname and knew what surname I have, my life would be far more funny
Excuse me, all German (or Jewish?) people, I know there is nothing funny in this surname. Don't think all Russians are as stupid as I am Actually, this phrase ("В главной роли Мишель Трахтенберг") were sounded by a voice which is very similar to Arnold VeryComplicatedGermanSurname's voice when he spoke "I'll be back". Maybe, this fact made me laugh, not the surname itself

P.S. Oh, such a long post! I'm sure, it's full of mistakes and will be very thankful if anyone correct them.

Originally Posted by pranki

I dunno.
I was searching for an English movie to improve my English in our local network and found an unknown (for me) Disney picture "Ice Princess" with Trachtenberg in the key role. But, since I'm just a little blockhead, the phrase "В главной роли Мишель Трахтенберг" (ok, there were 2 audio streams -- English and Russian, so this phrase is from Russian one ) made me laugh, and I decided to discover/find out who she is.
After that I knew she spoke Russian, and this knowledge totally confused my little blockhead head, because if I had such a surname and knew what surname I have(you might want to rephrase this), my life would be far more funny
Excuse me, all German (or Jewish?) people, I know there is nothing funny about this surname. Don't think all Russians are as stupid as I am Actually, this phrase ("В главной роли Мишель Трахтенберг") was spoken by a voice very similar to Arnold VeryComplicatedGermanSurname's voice when he spoke "I'll be back". Maybe, this fact made me laugh, not the surname itself

P.S. Oh, such a long post! I'm sure, it's full of mistakes and will be very thankful if anyone corrects them.

Here are a few corrections. Well done

Originally Posted by basurero

Here are a few corrections. Well done

Thank you very much! But why did you write "she spoke Russian"?

I don’t know exactly why but as the verb “know” is in the past tense, it sounds better if “speak” is in the past tense aswell. It just makes it more natural.

Originally Posted by pranki

Originally Posted by basurero

Here are a few corrections. Well done

Thank you very much! But why did you write "she spoke Russian"?

You are talking about something that happened in the past so you have to use the past tense "spoke". It is one of those funny things about English. "She spoke Russian" could imply that she doesn't speak Russian now.

Here are a couple of other things.

Originally Posted by pranki

... in our local network

"... on our local network"

Originally Posted by pranki

I decided to discover/find out who she is

I decided to find out who she was.
It is not good to end a sentence with "was" or "is".

Originally Posted by pranki

my life would be far more funny

This sounds a bit strange. Maybe "my life would be a lot funnier".

Originally Posted by pranki

... he spoke "I'll be back".

"... he said "I'll be back".