Tuesday, September 04, 2007
#? @!
The Electric Company taught me well. Punctuation certainly is a language unto itself.
Seconds after I got off the plane in St. Petersburg, Russia, I entered the immigration line only to find ads like what appears above. When I've traveled to Japan with students who don't know the language, they express a sense of bewilderment from being completely stripped of the ability to read letters. Oddly, everything seems so familiar here in Russia, as the letterforms look vaguely familiar--but not.
I am thankful for the power of punctuation marks. I know that a question or sense of doubt is expressed about "BMW?" ... only to be returned with an emphatic response "EBPOC....!" The ad makes me feel desperate to overhear the fictional conversation that has transpired, even though I know that it's just a simple means to get me to the local dealership. Luckily I can't drive here ...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
Well, the Advertisement reads:
BMW?
???????!
The second line is pronounced "Yevrosib!" Also in the small letters at the bottom left you can read "??????? ??????," "Yebrosiv Service." It is then logical to assume that "Yevrosib" is merely a name and carries no meaning by itself.
The Cyrillic alphabet is actually quite easy to learn once you finally accept the fact that the "?"(in reality an R) is not a "P"(which looks like this "?"). Once you read "????????" as "Restoran" instead of "Pec-toh-pah," you're good to go.
Mr. Queasy, ...
11/11/2007
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