Thread: Привіт всім

Waxwing but столовая is not an old-fashioned word, it is widely used now.

Right. I can accept that. If I was American, I would agree that diner is a pretty good translation.
Here's the thing- canteen is very much an institutional word, if you understand that. I think the main places that have canteens are schools and Universities. There is no small eating place on the street, a private business, that would call itself a "canteen". And I do know that in Russia that such places do exist, so I think I understand your point.
But, скажи, какая разница между "кафе" и "столовой"?

Originally Posted by waxwing

Right. I can accept that. If I was American, I would agree that diner is a pretty good translation.
Here's the thing- canteen is very much an institutional word, if you understand that. I think the main places that have canteens are schools and Universities. There is no small eating place on the street, a private business, that would call itself a "canteen". And I do know that in Russia that such places do exist, so I think I understand your point.
But, скажи, какая разница между "кафе" и "столовой"?

"кафе" - it's more like a small restaurant
"столовая" is usually located at places where large number of people are learning, working etc and usually have a fixed set of meals for each particular weekday. So it's like a "take it or leave it" kind of place. And столовая is usually open for breakfast/lunch only unlike "кафе".

Well yes, that's exactly as I remember it from the places I saw and ate in, and that was exactly the point I was trying to make.
столовая has the connotation of usually being an institutional eatery - and that's exactly why IMHO canteen is the best translation despite its significant flaw that all of us have outlined (so I won't write it again..).
.. а JJ ещё не согласен?

I speak AmE and I think "cafeteria" would probably be the best translation of it for us. A "cafeteria", in the strictest sense of the word, is a place that offerse one or two meals every day; you don't have much of a selection besides what they decide to cook that day. An example would be Luby's Cafeteria. But it is usually used to talk about a dining hall for a school or workplace. Although they both involve pushing a tray around and getting food, cafeterias and all-you-can-eat buffets are usually never mixed up; a place like Golden Corral might offer the exact same food every day, but a wide selection thereof. And although this isn't true for all cafeterias, most of them involve service people who give food to you, as opposed to buffets where you (usually) get the food yourself.

Anyways. I say В.

Привіт! Я б теж хотіла листуватися українською, та здаеться не дуже багато тут людей хто був би зацікавлен чи знав цю мову. Все ж таки буду сподіватися що хтось відгукнеться.