Member-only story
One Fast Way to Experience the Power of a Wrong Word
Turns out, that a stupid idea, in any other language, is still stupid.
I’m on a bus in northern Russia.
Our small group consisted of my future mother-in-law, a friend named George, and me. We were headed somewhere in town.
My Russian skills then, like now, were nonexistent, but I want to tell my mother-in-law something.
I needed to tell her the one thing that all women worldwide appreciate hearing from a man.
I want to tell her to calm down because well, she did need to.
Or so I thought.
I turn to George.
“George, what’s the Russian word for “relax?”
Because what could go wrong?
Am I right?
We were both single, so neither had any real substantive thought process going for us.
George says, ‘tell her, “расслабиться’ (rasslabit’sya).
I repeat it softly until I feel comfortable with a louder pronunciation.
‘Rasslabit’sya.’
After a few minutes, I garner the courage and say, “Muza, rasslabit’sya.”
And I’m telling you folks, this grown Russian woman for reasons I’ll never know, did…
