Just a Minute

So you think a minute consists of 60 seconds? Hah! If you’re thinking in Russian, think again. Russian and American time concepts are as different as the words время and “time.” Time in the United States is a linear progression of specific units, a strictly regulated frame for behavior. Russian time is more elastic, a vaguely flowing continuum that defies definition. In American, “Just a minute, I’m coming” means exactly that. In Russian, минуточку (a little minute), сию минуту (this minute) or сейчас (right away) can mean ten or fifteen minutes or longer. “Time is money,” goes the American saying; Поспешишь, людей насмешишь (“Hurry and you’ll make people laugh”) replies the Russian proverb.

“Let’s have lunch three weeks from Tuesday at one-thirty at that Italian place on the corner” would be, for an American, a perfectly normal invitation to a friend. But to a Russian it would sound outlandish. Three weeks ahead? Who knows what судьба (fate) may have in store for him that far in the future? If the date is not for the next day or the day after, he will suggest that you and he could созвониться (call each other), a highly puzzling verb for English speakers, since it is perfectly unclear as to who is to call whom.

“Момент – сейчас приду” (“Just a minute/moment, I’ll be there right away”) can imply a point in time or a period of unspecified length. And момент can be much longer than a moment. With the Russian word’s several meanings, a важный момент в докладе is an “important point in a report,” момент в жизни is an “event” or “stage” in someone’s life, and нужно учесть этот момент means the matter must be taken into account. And if something is done оперативно it is not done operationally but quickly or efficiently.

Apart from the elastic words, there are the flexible concepts. Во второй половине дня means “the second half of the day,” but when in the afternoon – suppose someone is to call you – is left to the workings of fate and the mood of the caller. После обеда means not simply “after lunch,” but the entire postlunch period. How long a period? An American couple living in Moscow were nonplussed when their four-year-old son’s Russian няня (nurse) told them she was worried, since “после обеда Джонни ничего не ел” (“Johnny didn’t eat anything after lunch”). Why in the world, thought the parents, should the kid eat something right after a big lunch?

To avoid being hours late some place you’ve been invited, it is well to remember that вечернее заседание (evening meeting) or вечерний сеанс (evening showing) may refer to an event set for the afternoon. And if you are wondering why your Russian guests are so often late, reflect on how reversing the order of “в шесть часов” to часов в шесть” changes the meaning from “at six o’clock” to “around” or “approximately” six.

And the expression уже седьмой час – (literally “It’s already the seventh hour”) means “It’s already past six.” It could be be 6:01 or 6:30. So much for the souffle you had in the oven for your dinner guests.

Then there is that truly Janus-faced expression, на днях. It could mean “a few days ago,” or it could mean “in a few days.” “Я об этом узнал на днях” means “I found out about it a few days ago,” while “На днях он Вам даст ответ” tells you that “He’ll answer you in the next few days.”

So, if you find yourself still waiting, past the hour, for friends who’d told you they’d be arriving часов в восемь or that they’d call you во второй половине дня, just wait a минуточку, resist the urge to созвониться and remember that your American 60 seconds may well stretch out to a Russian sixty minutes, more or less.