Thursday, April 28, 2011

For Better or For Worse...For Richer or For Baby

The topic in my Russian conversation group last night was "Marriage, For Better or Worse?"

One of the questions in the topic was "What do you think are the top 3 reasons people get married?"

My devushkas answer with their list:

1. Money
2. To have baby and his name on birth certificate so you can get child support
3. to not be alone (please see above, as they believe baby also solves this problem)

4. (Alternate answer, also accepted) To increase status
5. (Alternate answer #2 also accepted) To make your friends jealous

One of my particularly soviet-ish girls elaborated on points #3 and #2. She goes on to say,

"If you have baby you are not alone or lonely and then you will not kill yourself. Better, if man marries you and you have baby, then you have baby and you have money and then those people really don't kill yourself"

We have a lot to work on with her English, sure, but obviously, language acquisition is the last of her worries.

Love is simply not a factor in marriage for these women. Nobody's list included love as a reason to get married. I don't know whether to be sad for them, applaud their honesty, or respect their practicality.

Before leaving I had the pleasure of teaching the girls the American colloquialism, “Shot-gun wedding”. One girl was excited to announce that she has a shot-gun wedding, and all of the girls were very excited to use the phrase. Maybe they are excited to use the phrase, or maybe they are excited at the idea of someone forcing their groom into a wedding if they get pregnant. This was not determined.


1 comment:

  1. I realize I should probably find this sad, but I'm too busy laughing.

    ReplyDelete