Far away in Moscow

Chapter 247
"That must be because you didn't go to class at that time." Sergei shook his head politely: "This is the content of the first grade class. Don't forget, now is the graduation exam, and all the knowledge you have learned before is in within the scope of investigation."

"Well, you are right, this is something that should be mastered." Hu Yi used meaningless nonsense to delay the time slowly, thinking hard about the countermeasures in his mind: "But you should understand, this problem is very important to me. It’s not fair. Although Russian and Ukrainian are very close, we never learned Ukrainian and don’t understand the differences.”

"To answer this question, you don't need to master Ukrainian." The old professor replied calmly: "I have already mentioned the content in it, and the main thing to examine is the students' ability to understand and apply relevant knowledge. It’s used as a reference for comparison, even if you don’t understand it, it doesn’t matter. As long as you have studied it carefully, you must be familiar with the answer, at least you have a clear idea of ​​​​the answer.”

"Yes, of course I...cough..." Hu Yi put his heart on hold, and said bravely: "But... I have my own ideas and opinions on this issue, can I talk about it?"

"Of course, please." Professor Sergey shrugged at him: "This is an open subject, and what I asked is also an open question. If your answer is reasonable, I will give you a score as appropriate of."

As long as you can say whatever you want, there is a lot of room for development.Hu Yi raised his brows with joy and was ready to break the shackles of the question itself first: "To analyze the influence of national culture, I don't think Ukrainian is a good reference object. Because they have a high relationship with Russia in terms of language itself and other aspects. Similarity, like...like...well...KFC and McDonald's, although there are differences, but not prominent, it is impossible to conduct a thorough comparison and analysis, and naturally it is impossible to draw a strong point of view."

"Then what are you going to do?" Sergey was a little surprised. The questions he asked involved limited theoretical depth at the undergraduate level, and the common answers were often to draw existing conclusions by combining the knowledge he had learned with specific examples.

Although the answering method is open and the answers are not fixed and uniform, he only used Ukrainian as an example in the classroom for comparative explanations. Once this reference object is replaced, he has to construct another set of answering ideas.

"Since the analysis is based on differences, I think we should choose a language with more obvious differences." Hu Yi smiled confidently: "Let's use Chinese for comparison and reference, do you think it's okay?"

"Chinese?!" Professor Sergey shook his head and laughed loudly: "No, you are too cunning. Chinese is not even within the teaching scope of the language department, and I don't know anything about this language."

"It doesn't matter, you don't need to master Chinese to analyze this problem." Hu Yi smiled and imitated the tone of the old professor just now: "The main thing to investigate is my understanding and application of this problem, and Chinese is only used as a comparison."

"But... since I don't understand this language, I can't judge whether your arguments are true and your analysis is reasonable. Maybe you are just talking nonsense to fool me."

"No, please don't worry. I only analyze the most simple and direct appearance, and I will definitely make you understand." Hu Yi didn't wait for the old professor to express his position, and hurriedly changed the subject: "I think even if you don't understand Chinese, you must have seen it." Chinese characters, right?"

"That's right, I went to China with a delegation for an educational exchange visit many years ago, and I went to Harbin and Shanghai." Sergey's mood changed quickly: "Oh, Harbin, a beautiful city, and I It’s very similar to my hometown.”

"That's great. So you are no stranger to Chinese characters?" Hu Yi casually said. He looked confident on the surface, but in fact his brain was only two seconds faster than his mouth, and he was always trying to think about how to cut into the problem.

"Of course, I have seen a lot of Chinese characters, but I just don't understand their meanings." Although Sergei had some doubts about Hu Yi's choice of Chinese as a reference, he didn't seem to resist the topic itself: "For us, Chinese is completely It is a language from another world. The basis of learning Russian is to master 33 letters, while French and English only need 26. To learn Chinese, you must first memorize many square Chinese characters. So many! God, it is a nightmare. "

"Haha, you're right, that's right..." Hu Yi suddenly found that the old professor had inadvertently provided himself with a clear entry point, so he had an idea and said following his words: "This is exactly what I want to say , Many foreigners—including you—put the Chinese characters and the Russian alphabet together, which is actually a big mistake.”

"Oh? I would like to hear more about it." Sergey was indeed a little interested.

"In Russian—in fact, all Slavic languages ​​and even the entire Indo-European language family, let's take Russian as an example—the alphabet is the most basic element. The letters themselves generally do not express any meaning, but are combined in various ways become words to express meaning."

"That's right, isn't Chinese also combining single square characters into words?"

"No! The mistake is here! The square characters in Chinese can express one or even multiple meanings! Sorry, please allow me—" Hu Yi reached for a pen and paper: "Look, the basic elements of Chinese are not Square characters, but...some simple...symbols, we call them strokes, such as horizontal, vertical, left, right, dot, horizontal hook, vertical hook...etc, there are about...about ten types in total!"

"Hmm... I seem to understand a little bit." Professor Sergey stroked his chin lightly: "You mean, all the complex square Chinese characters are composed of these simple symbols?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Hu Yi thought for a while, picked up a pen and brushed a word on the paper: "Look, this word means 'I', and it contains many kinds of strokes, which are very representative. combination."

"It's interesting." Sergey picked up the paper and looked at it for a moment, then raised the corner of his mouth slightly: "But this matter has nothing to do with the question I raised, and it doesn't reflect the differences brought about by national culture."

"Don't worry, I'll talk about it soon." Hu Yi casually wrote a few Chinese characters and a few Russian words on the paper: "Look, the way Russian words are combined is that multiple letters are in different orders from left to right. right in a row; while the writing of square Chinese characters overlaps each other in multiple ways in one area. Do you see any difference?"

"It must be different." Professor Sergey narrowed his eyes and looked carefully: "Are you referring to their arrangement?"

"That's right, it is the different arrangements that reflect the differences brought about by the national culture." Hu Yi thought for a while, and said loudly with his head held high: "Next, I will briefly analyze it for you from several aspects. Take a look at this question."

(End of this chapter)