4

Mon frère a vraiment envie de parcourir le monde entier. J’imagine que c’est un truc de garçon.

То express the idea of "It's more of a boys' thing (than a girls')" in the sense of "It's one of those things that boys are far more likely to take an interest in than girls", in French the almost literally translated phrase "C’est un truc de garçon / fille / Japonais / etc" perfectly works -- with just a singular-plural difference.

У моего брата заветная мечта побывать во всех странах мира. Наверное, это чисто мужское?

In Russian, I wonder if I can say something like this with the implied "занятие/дело" at the end: "Наверное, это чисто мужское (занятие/дело)".

As another example:

Pourquoi toujours vouloir 'rivaliser'... c'est un truc de Japonais, ça.

... which means "It's a Japanese thing", "It's a Japanese people's thing", "It's typical of Japanese people". In this case, can you say:

С какой стати все всегда должно крутиться вокруг конкуренции? Наверное, это чисто японское.

How is this idea commonly/idiomatically expressed in Russian?

Improve this question
10
  • (A) I don't speak French. Please, clarify what the focus of [un truc de garçon] is. 1) Is the focus on gender [man vs woman], 2) Is the focus on age [boy vs man]? (B) In my personal philosophy and understanding of reality I do not understand the meaning of your example at all. 1) I do not belive that visiting is something men can wish and woman can not wish. They both can wish. 2) I do not belive that the visiting is what young people can think of and grown-ups can not think of. They all can wish it. So, I just do not understand the whole meaning of the example. Do you have more examples?
    – Tchibi-kun
    Jun 16, 2019 at 18:18
  • [Наверное, это чисто мужское?] is 100% correct and widely used phrase, but I just do not understand why you use it about wish to visit all countries of the world. I give you 100% guarantee there are thousands of women who wish just the same. So [Наверное, это чисто мужское?] as Russian language wording is 100% ok. Just do not understand why to use for this case (for saying about visiting countries).
    – Tchibi-kun
    Jun 16, 2019 at 18:22
  • @Tchibi-kun Hi. It's just as explained in the first few lines of my question: "more of a boys' thing (than a girls')". And... you're reading too much into things! :) It's just that some people think this way, while others don't. Boys are generally said to be a dreamer, dreaming about, for instance, travelling far and wide across the globe, wheras girls are more down-to-earth.
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Jun 16, 2019 at 18:33
  • [Boys are generally said to be a dreamer, dreaming about, for instance, travelling far and wide across the globe, wheras girls are more down-to-earth.] Pardon, but I 100% disagree. Maybe in France it is so, but in Russia and in Japan girls are more dreamers about traveling around that world, than boys and men. Anyway, as I see your focus is on age, not on gender. Therefore in Russian I would say [Наверное, это чисто детское] or [Наверное, это чисто юношеское]. Grammatically it is 100% ok. But I still disagree with meaning. I belive that visiting countries is for any age and for any gender.
    – Tchibi-kun
    Jun 16, 2019 at 18:43
  • 1
    If you want to have a noun/subject denoting the act of doing something, I would use something like "У моего брата... странах мира. Это должно быть что-то чисто мальчишеское." "Мальчишеское" has more focus on male gender whereas "мальчуковое" seems to focus more of young age. If there's a bit of "brutality of streets" implied, one might use the word "пацанское".
    – Ben Usman
    Jun 16, 2019 at 19:25

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
1

С какой стати все всегда должно крутиться вокруг конкуренции? Наверное, это чисто японское.

First of all, you can say in that way from grammatical point of view and it sounds ok.

I even would put trinity dots instead of a dot.

Наверное, это чисто японское...

.. which means "It's a Japanese thing", "It's a Japanese people's thing", "It's typical of Japanese people". In this case, can you say:

Russian ideomatic construction for that case is [тема].

  • С какой стати все всегда должно крутиться вокруг конкуренции? Наверное, это чисто японская тема.
  • У моего брата заветная мечта побывать во всех странах мира. Наверное, это чисто мужская тема.
  • У моего брата заветная мечта побывать во всех странах мира. Наверное, это чисто подростковая тема.
  • У моего брата заветная мечта побывать во всех странах мира. Наверное, это чисто пацанская тема.

More examples on this pattern.

  • Наверное, красить губы - это чисто женская тема.
  • Наверное, есть свежую сырую рыбу - это чисто японская тема.
  • Наверное, выпивать два бокала вина каждый день - это чисто французская тема.

There are 2 tools of close meaning.
They are [фишка] and [прикол].

[фишка] = [trick]
[прикол] = [joke]

In fact, both [фишка] and [прикол] are often used as synonims and mean [mix of trick + joke] at the same time.

(A) Трахать мозг сразу после секса - это чисто женское.

The most general meaning.
Creates philosophical mood.
No judjing is expressed.
Focus on the fact without attitude.
Welcome for discussion.
Sence of [we must accept the nature of women as it is].
Sence of [you may like it or not, but it is there and just exists].

(B) Трахать мозг сразу после секса - это чисто женская тема.

Rooted in (A), but [женское] does not include willing cognitive personality which might have some due to responsibility.

[женская тема] is about personality. [женская тема] is included that there is someone behind this, not just general [женское].

[женская тема] corresponds to [женщина]
[женское] corresponds to [женская природа] [женское начало]

[женская тема] means they want to do it by will.
[женское] means they do it by nature, just because they are women.

[женская тема] has some sence of subjective pleasure.
It is supposed, that by doing [~ тема] ~ is feeling something good.

[женская тема] has some sence of self-identification.
It is supposed, that by doing this, they can be identified by this.
This is something, that clearly distigueshes them from others.

(C) Трахать мозг сразу после секса - это чисто женская фишка.

[женская фишка] is close to [женская тема].

[женская фишка] is a tool, is about tactics.
[женская тема] is direction, is about strategy.

  • To fuck men's brain just right after sex as [женская фишка] is a tool to get some present, a new car for example or 2 weeks vacation on Bali.

  • To fuck men's brain just right after sex as [женская тема] is a strategic tool to keep a man under the heel in general.

(D) Трахать мозг сразу после секса - это чисто женский прикол такой.

[женская фишка] is close to [женская фишка].

[женская фишка] is a tool, is about tactics and meeting some goal.
[женский прикол] is a tool, is about having fun without any exact goal.

  • To fuck men's brain just right after sex as [женская фишка] is a tool to get some present, a new car for example or 2 weeks vacation on Bali.

  • To fuck men's brain just right after sex as [женский прикол] is a tool to release some internal strain and to use a man as active listening machine, like a free of charge psycotherapist session.

Just taking in account, that the meaning of your second (Japanese) example was to me also pretty discussable and arguble from philosophical, not grammatical point.
So I can say, that using this pattern [-ое/тема/фишка/прикол] is better to add [наверное] [probably] [to my optinion] [as it seams to me].

For me, it is just strange to say, that competition is [японская тема].
I'm really totaly surprised to read it.
I do know that in USA competition is very high too.
I do know that in India competition is very high too.
I do know that in China competition is very high too.
In every global megapolis with population over 3m competition is very high by default.
Therefore to say, that [competition] = 100% [японская тема] I think is a mistake.

Therefore, in using [-ое/тема/фишка/прикол] they often add [чисто].

  • Есть сырую рыбу - это чисто японская тема.
  • Пить вино за обедом - это чисто французская тема.
  • Обвинять во всем русских - это чисто американская тема.

And the problem is, that this pattern with [чисто] was used so often, that when you say without [чисто], it is heard or meant as if you have told with [чисто].

  • [Есть сырую рыбу - это японская тема.]
    means Japanese eat raw fish. But they are not the only who does.

  • [Есть сырую рыбу - это чисто японская тема.]
    means only Japanese eat raw fish. And no one else does.

The problem is, that to Russian ear by meaning they sound the same, but of course from grammatical (or even legal documentary) they are different.

That's why, when you said, that travelling around the globe is [пацанская тема], my Russian brain thought [чисто пацанская тема] and therefore I had to argue, no that it not, girls do travel around the globe too and according to statistics they are major part of global travelers than men.

Improve this answer
1

there is no idiomatic phrase in Russion to express this idea. You can just say:

Воевать - это мужское дело.

This would be enough.

Many variants are possible: "не плачь - это не по-мужски", "Сынок играет в машинки, как всякий мальчик", " ... - чисто мальчиковое", etc.

Each particular case needs its own translation.

P.S. and yes - each of these variants is somewhat universal: "... по-японски", "..., как всякий японец", " - чисто японское", etc.

Improve this answer
0

Quite often the word "мальчиковое" or "мальшическое" (boyish) is used in such cases. The thing is that "чисто мужское [занятие]" is also used however in some cases the latter might have additional undesired pathetic connotation, that's why in some cases ironical "мальчиковый" is preferred. So it can be something like:

У моего брата заветная мечта побывать во всех странах мира. Наверное, это чисто мальчиковое.

Here are some real-life usages I've just googled:

  • Не натягивай сову на глобус интересы личные выше интересов общих - это чисто мальчиковое. (link)

  • Дабы не превращать рассказ о Моргане, в чисто мальчиковое чтиво, добавлю немного романтики. (link)

Improve this answer
6
  • In Russian, is it better to drop a noun "занятие/дело/etc" corresponding to "thing"?
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Jun 16, 2019 at 14:55
  • @Con-gras-tue-les-chiens not necessarily however one thing for sure - one better not translate thing as «вещь».
    – shabunc ♦
    Jun 16, 2019 at 14:58
  • Ah yes, «вещь / дело», material or immaterial. I guess I was in two minds about whether to add some noun at the end, perhaps influenced by: "Побывать во всех странах мира – вот мое дело".
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Jun 16, 2019 at 15:11
  • on the other hand мальчиковое has the undesirable infantile connotation unless it's about children, to me мужское sounds more natural, i myself would never say мальчиковое or rather мальчУковое as i pronounce it
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Jun 16, 2019 at 15:32
  • 1
    @Con-gras-tue-les-chiens nah, i get it, my issue was specifically with the choice in favor of мальчуковое over мужское when the topic or activity implies grown men and not boys, мальчуковое is a feminine vocabulary, Ben Usman's above comment in this respect is really on point... your stab at it is idiomatic enough, in slang one would most likely add прикол or тема after the adjective мужская тема / мужской прикол, японская тема / японский прикол
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Jun 16, 2019 at 21:21

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.