Tomsk is not a very large city. Tomsk is not a very complicated city (it's a grid). I live at the intersection of two major streets. As a result, my friends and I (one korean, one russian) found it slightly silly when we got into a cab this friday and the driver was sporting a brand-spanking new GPS device. We found it even sillier when after I told him my address (the tomsk equivalent of saying 'broad and pine') he attempted to put it into his GPS. Sillier yet was the fact that my address was not in the GPS, but the next address on the street (54 instead of 52) was. Upon pulling up next to my house, the following exchange resulted between myself and the cab driver
Me: You can let us out here, this is good
Cabbie: but this isn't where the GPS said it is, Gagarina 54
Me: Yes, I know, but my house is there, I can see it next to us. I know better than 'Sputnik'.
(laughter, departure from vehicle, utterances of well wishing etc.)
You see, the reason why I used the word 'Sputnik' was in reference to the now famous first satellite in space, I thought the reason why everyone found my joke funny was because I had referenced this specific moment and history, and that reference plus my being a foreigner made the joke funny. Moments later I found out that the word 'sputnik' in Russian really is literally the word for 'satellite', but the joke was still funny due to my claim of better geographical knowledge of the immediate area than the man-made celestial objects orbiting above us.
Think in general it's really interesting in situations like this when things most certainly get lost in the translation but somehow retain their general meaning, or acquire a new one.
