Manager??

[Wolf]

  This is my first question to the forum. I have seen a lot of girls use manager as their occupation in the profiles. What do they mean about it? Because I find it very strange so many managers. I understand manager as the director of a business, perhaps my English doesn´t include all the meanings it can have
   

[Misha]

  This is my first question to the forum. I have seen a lot of girls use manager as their occupation in the profiles. What do they mean about it? Because I find it very strange so many managers. I understand manager as the director of a business, perhaps my English doesn´t include all the meanings it can have
   

I answered this in a previous post. The definition is now included in the Russglish glossary: Manager: Equivalent of a Western higher-level office worker, often just a glorified clerk.

[Lily]

Wolf,

Russians seem just to love this word. Local companies use this title here and there and everywhere.

It is often no high level at all. It is used just for a sounding good, like Cleaning Manager It does not mean supervising people, at least not in many cases.

To me a bare word manager would sometimes mean that the title holder is not a professional.

[Jazzyclassy]

Yeah I agree with Lily

like manager can be anything, manager of cars washing, manager of the door opening and so on

I am not a manager am an assistant and I always use this word, am simple assistant of the managing director of our Company , usually Manager it is someone who is Managing people that is how I understand this word

[Turboguy]

My understanding of the word would be similar to Jazzy's with one exception. 

To me a "Manager" is someone who manages people or facilities.   It would be what we would call a supervisor.  It could also be a facility.   Someone in charge of a store for example would be a manager, even if the store was really a one person kiosk.

[Stirlitz]

Manager is a bright example of a misnomer that is so typical for Russians who know two or three English words and want to show off with their ‘knowledge’.

For some reason, here it is just anyone who takes orders and is bossed around by anybody. It is anything but supervisor or executive actually. In fact, real executives are never referred to as managers here. Mainly directors. ‘Managers’ usually work at an office dealing with computers and papers, taking phone calls, making arrangements, etc and do not usually do anything with their hands other than writing and typing (contrary to the original meaning of the word manage which comes from Latin ‘man’ meaning ‘hand’).

I guess it can be translated as ‘office employee/worker’ or possibly ‘clerk’.

Another example is a notebook. Russians would call any portable computer a notebook. Even quite a big one. While real notebooks are not very popular, few people have them, it is mostly laptops that are referred to as notebooks.

I can think of many more examples. Remember: Russian English is probably as far from American English as British English

[SANDRO43]

Remember: Russian English is probably as far from American English as British English

Which is why we have a Russglish Glossary in our RWDpedia (http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/mwiki/index.php?title=Russglish_Glossary) .

[kievstar]

My experience is no matter the country manager, director, vice president, and president mean nothing.  Better to ask how many people work for you, what is your department budget $'s your in charge of, how big is the division or company in $'s you work for, what you really do.  This will tell you more than title.

I find most girls profiles are wrong once you talk to them about what they do.  Girls ususally do not fill it out - agency makes the error but errors on the side to make them look better career wise to get more letters. 

[Lit_1nce]

Wish I had come across this terminology issue before, as I am a manager.. didn't realize I was selling myself short.. I have also run across the term "chief" a few times, and I assume this to actually be what we think of as a manager.

[OlgaH]

Oh this fancy word "manager" 

One day a woman came to me to apply for a job. I looked through her work-book (a work-book is a book with the records when and where a person worked and what his/her job was. Stirlitz will explain better then I with my English    ) There was a record in her work-book - менеджер по уборке помещений - "office cleaning manager". So I asked her if she was working as a chief of a cleaning department in an organization that made that record in her work-book. She answered "no". So I asked her what her job was, and she told me she was just cleaning offices.

When the word manager appeared in Russia it was used in so different ways by some talented and ingenious new businessmen who started to open their companies  and they just loved to use "new beautiful words" and the real meaning of a foreign word did not bother them at all 

[possum]

One day a woman came to me to apply for a job. I looked through her work-book (a work-book is a book with the records when and where a person worked and what his/her job was. Stirlitz will explain better then I with my English    )

The term you're looking for is 'employment record book'.. Although, I suggest you drop the whole book part and just say 'employment records'..

[OlgaH]

The term you're looking for is 'employment record book'.. Although, I suggest you drop the whole book part and just say 'employment records'..

thank you, possum so much for your help  In my dictionary and even in Russian-English online dictionary I just could find the "work-book".

Again thanks.

[steviej]

You mean in my last job when I was "Senior Executive Consulting Manager" I wasn't that important ?? ??   

I noticed over my career that the fewer people I had working for me, the fancier my title .. LOL .  In the job above, it was only ME !! (I will say, I got paid big bucks for it 

[Stirlitz]

thank you, possum so much for your help  In my dictionary and even in Russian-English online dictionary I just could find the "work-book".

Another vivid example of how unreliable Russian-English dictionaries are.

[2tallbill]

This is not only a Russian phenomenon. Everyone who does fixes windows and doors for us (service) is a "Service Manager" they are managing our customers service, which we consider very important.

[possum]

thank you, possum so much for your help  In my dictionary and even in Russian-English online dictionary I just could find the "work-book".

Again thanks.

You're welcome, Olga.. When it comes to cultural nuances like trudovaya knizhka, those bi-lingual dictionaries are of little use.. Occasionally, you'll find a correct translation in some of them, but for the most part their crap.. And that goes for every single Russian-English dictionary I have seen, including the much revered Multitran dictionary.. NOw, there are some very good technical dictionaries out there, but that's a whole different subject..

[ConnerVT]

Between high school and attending college, I was once employed as an Intra-office Information Transfer Specialist for a subsidy of Viacom Communications International.

I was an office boy for the local cable television company.      

My wife was an accountant, who managed about 20 people in several offices throughout the oblast.  She always refered to herself as the Head Accountant or the Boss Accountant.

Her boss, who managed the whole organization, she typically refered to as the Boss.

Your mileage may vary...   

[SANDRO43]

NOw, there are some very good technical dictionaries out there, but that's a whole different subject..

That's because usually there is an almost one-to-one correspondence between technical terms across different languages .

[dneid]

Off topic......
Hey, 2tall,
I noticed the new avatar...  either you are pulling your pants down while wearing a white belt (Herb Tarlick - WKRP....) or you are enjoying a nice spanking 

[Stirlitz]

Off topic too. I still remember that party

[2tallbill]

Off topic......
Hey, 2tall,
I noticed the new avatar...  either you are pulling your pants down while wearing a white belt (Herb Tarlick - WKRP....) or you are enjoying a nice spanking 

It's off topic but this topic died anyway, so here's the story.

I am at a New Years party and they ask all the single men to come to the front of the
room (in Russian). Stirlitz was there and told me to go to the front of the room.
Then the guy in the Santa Hat gives a series of long detailed instructions in Russian, which
I don't understand. He holds a microphone to my mouth and I say "ya ne panymayo po Ruskiy"

Me and the other men have this tu tu type thing and a bonnet to wear and I am chosen to
go first. I didn't know what to do until a woman who spoke English came up to me and said
I was supposed to do a "fake" strip tease.



And what did my "friend" Stirlitz do during this embarrassing time? He took a bunch of photos
to commemorate the event. (who needs all this support?) LOL

I didn't win the competition (it was rigged I think) but I was given a red t shirt for my efforts.

[Stirlitz]

And what did my "friend" Stirlitz do during this embarrassing time? He took a bunch of photos to commemorate the event. (who needs all this support?) LOL

I was more aiming at the blonde in red than at you. I just caught you accidentally in the picture. But… What if you become the US president one day? I need some stuff to blackmail you

[2tallbill]

I was more aiming at the blonde in red than at you. I just caught you accidentally in the picture. But… What if you become the US president one day? I need some stuff to blackmail you

Igor, I have way too many skeletons in my closet, and too many witnesses 

but I wouldn't change it for anything.