English puzzles me

[upupa_epops]

I'm reading "Clockwork Orange" for class, and it's so full of strange words I actually started doubting my English skills. But then I got curious, because some of the words look more strange than other (in a "huh, this is familiar" way), and I thought I'd make a poll. Anyone cares to play?

Poll Words

Poll

Comments

[sa_da_ko]

Not playing, because duh - I had a lot of fun reading this book (which I did few months ago, for a class I took here), but figuring out some of the words required reading them out loud ;)

[upupa_epops]

Yep, reading out loud helps XD. On the bright side: this is still less tricky than reading Alexadre Dumas transcribing Russian insults using French spelling.

[sa_da_ko]

I believe xDDDD

[vergoldung]

omg that must have been fun to decode!!!

[cranmers]

We've already established that you speak better English than me, lol

I knew the last two! But... everything else = BAFFLEMENT!

[upupa_epops]

If it makes you feel any better, my spellcheck doesn't know them either XD. Those are all Russian words (some, incidentally, are identical to Polish words), and FYI, they all come from the first 3 pages of the novel.

[Clockwork Orange to English Dictionary]
moloko - milk
mozg - brain
devotchka - girl
chelloveck - person (in this context - a middle-aged man)
litso - face
pletchoes - shoulders
kartoffel - potato
slovo - word

[cranmers]

Ah I see! Perhaps one day I will read it! And do other adult stuff, lol.

I do feel better! I also feel much better seeing that wheatear doesn't know them, so...

[Ominous Word Cut]

I knew 'kartoffel' because they microwaveable potatoe, sort of grid-shaped chip things and Marks and Spencer? You might have caught sight of them when you lived here?

And I had a crazy bitch of an Eng lit teacher once upon a time who constantly used 'slovo'.

The other ones though... are words?! In English as well as Russian and Polish?! -- News to me! D:

[woobloo]

I'm actually feeling proud of myself because I knew the last two.... just from ~around I guess.

I've never actually read Clockwork Orange, though. Right now I'm reading Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen, which is aesthetically wonderful and very underread imo, and also very long, but maybe I'll read Clockwork Orange next. :)

[upupa_epops]

For some reason the idea of reading Clockwork Orange right after Faerie Queen cracks me up a bit ;). But then, I've never read Faerie Queen!

[woobloo]

IKR? But then again, I've spent most of the past year between Chaucer and Milton, reading-wise; it's good for me to break my patterns. XD

[wheatear]

I don't know any of them, and I've read A Clockwork Orange. It definitely wasn't the easiest book to understand.

[upupa_epops]

At first I was frustrated that I needed a dictionary, then I took a good look at the words and figured I'm probably not the only one ;).

[upupa_epops]

The first five pages were then most difficult, then I learned some key words and things got easier ;).