About Olga Expertise I can answer questions about contemporary dance, ballet, travelling around Russia, Russian history, Russian traditions, Russian art. I have very vague knowledge about politics, cuisine, pop-music, night-clubs so I cant answer those questions.
Experience I used to work as a journalist for more than 10 year and I still working as a photographer and dancer.
Publications many russian magazines
Education/Credentials magister degree in applied mathematics
magister degree in cinema
Question Olga,
I've been slowly learning Russian as a way to keep my mind active and healthy, and I thought it would be interesting to translate my English name into Russian. I've figured out what my given name and patronymic would be (my father's name is also James), but the last name is giving me problems. My last name is Burwell, which is the name of a village located in Cambridgeshire, England. Wikipedia indicates that Burwell means 'Spring by the Fort', for the incomplete castle located in the village.
Short of making up my own Russian last name, which seems to be a bit of a cop-out, I wanted to translate my own last name into Russian. I'm sure there isn't a direct translation for the village name itself, and the Google translation of the phrase 'Spring by the Fort' is Весна в Форт -, which I'm not able to translate at this time. I suppose I should learn to read Cyrillic while I'm learning to speak Russian, wouldn't you say?
Thank you for your help on this subject.
James R Burwell
Answer HI, James!
Cyrillic is essential when you learning Russian and it is not difficult. We study Latin alphabet for the math classes and feel OK so why not to learn the Cyrillic.
But it is not obligatory as many people who try to speak Japanese never learn their kandzi.
Spring has 2 meanings in Russian - one is season, "vesna", another one is small river, "roochiey". Google has given just the first one, but I think that correct translation is connected with the second. So it is "Roochiey u Kreposti". The Russian word "Krepost'" means fortress, but for this case translation would be wrong because in 18 century the correct word for fortress was "Ostrog". Which meant anyplace surrounded by fortification.
so we have "Roochiey u Ostroga".
It does not sound Russian-way so if we will look for real Russian analog it will be something like "Roochiev - Ostrogovskyi".
I am not philologist but I think it's something like this.
Good luck with your studies.
Olga
