This week was a great week for me because during it a great progress was made in my Russian life – I finally received a new «пропуск» [pass; permit, pl. пропуска], something that I’ve been craving for over a year and a half now. It does, as a matter of fact, have another, more official, name, though colloquially it is called just «пропуск» as all other types of ‘passes’ and ‘permits’ here in Russia – «удостоверение преподавателя» [teacher’s identification card]. Even though I am a «преподаватель шведского языка» [teacher of Swedish] since October 2007, which means that «я преподаю шведский язык в университете» [I teach Swedish at the university], I had not been given any official documents for various reasons until this week. This is after all Russia. The reasons could have been of any kind and all sorts. It could’ve be because I’m also a student and I already have a «студенческий билет» [student id-card] and they might have considered that enough for one person. But a student can’t do all the things a teacher can do at a university, like, for example, go get keys to various auditoriums. Before, since I have to get keys on three evenings a week, I would always have to go hunt different faculties for some professors I knew to do it for me. In one way that was good – after a year and a half of doing that I got to be on good personal terms with many professors and they all call me «Джозефиночка» now. However, at 6.30 pm most faculties are rather empty and sometimes I would not be so lucky as to find someone straight away, but had to begin my hunt an hour or so before class, running up and down and up and down the four floors again and again throughout the whole building. I suppose I trimmed my thighs somewhat by this behavior, but there was also another problem – not all my students study at my university (my course is the only of its kind in the Urals), yet only a teacher can «пропускать» [here: let in] students from other universities. And the «охранники» [guards] at Ural State aren’t the type to take your word for it… On Tuesday I realized that «будет с меня!» [a wonderful, yet little archaic version of the popular expression «с меня хватит»: I’ve had enough; or ‘enough is enough!’] after running around in a clearly abandoned by humanity building against time to find someone to fetch the key for my auditorium and let in a couple of my students simultaneously. As Russia is a country clearly freed from any sort of logic, it was easier done than said to receive the necessary document – already on Thursday morning I had the magic tiny piece of plastic in my hand! Now let’s take a closer look at our word of the week…

Here’s my collection of the four «разного рода пропуска» [different kinds of ‘permits’] that I must carry on my person on a daily basis to make life in Russia a little bit smoother. Above in the bigger pink case is my «паспорт» [passport], in the smaller is my «студенческий билет» [student id-card] (yes, partly my passionate devotion to this country comes from the fact that one can buy leather cases like these almost everywhere at a cheap price… and every time I cross an international border I’m blissfully happy to be a citizen of a country with pink passports!), my «читательский билет» [from the verb «читать» – to read: library card for the university library] and at last – my «удостоверение преподавателя» [from the verb «удостоверять» – to certify; to attest; to witness (to a signature): teacher’s identification card].

The word «пропуск» [n. 1. admission; admittance, 2. passing through; letting through, 3. omission, 4. failure to attend; absence, 5. blank; gap, 6. pass; permit, 7. password] has many meanings, as is clearly visible from the seven numbers above, and comes from the verb «пропускать» [impf., pf: «пропустить» – 1. to admit; let in; let pass; let through, 2. to pass through; run through; put through, 3. to let in (water, light, etc), 4. sports to allow (a goal, a point to be scored, etc), 5. to omit; leave out, 6. to skip; pass over, 7. to miss; to fail to attend; 8. to miss; let slip by]. Here are a couple of sentences to illustrate different ways of using this word – and a short demonstration of what all those six cases can do to it!

(nominative, sing.) «У вас есть пропуск, девушка/молодой человек?» [Do you have a permit (pass), miss/mr?]

(nominative, pl.) «У меня есть два пропуска – один в больницу, другой в медицинскую академию, поскольку я и работаю врачом, и читаю лекции по медицине» [I have two passes – one to the hospital, the other to the Medical Academy since I work both as a doctor as well as give lectures on medicine.]

(genetive, pl.) «У тебя много пропусков, наверное, у тебя не будет доступа к сессии» [You have a lot of absence (i.e. failed to attend many lectures; classes), you probably won’t get access to the exam (i.e. won’t be allowed to take the exam).]

(accusative, sing.) «Покажите, пожалуйста, ваш пропуск» [Please show me your pass.]

(accusative, pl.) «Необходимо отмечать все пропуски у студентов для того, чтобы узнать действительную посещаемость» [It is essential to mark all the absence of the students in order to find out the real attendance.]

(dative, sing.) «Да, туда можно приходить по временному пропуску» [Yes, it is possible to get in there on a temporary pass.]

(dative, pl.) «Проход только по пропускам» [Passage only with passes.]

(genitive, sing.) «Меня лишили пропуска» [They deprived me of my permit (i.e. my permit was taken from me).]

(genetive, pl.) «Никаких пропусков не надо – я вас пропущу просто так, по знакомству!» [There’s no need for any permits, I’ll let you in just like that, because we’re friends!]

(instrumental, sing.) «Он ходит с пропуском в кармане» [He walks with his permit in his pocket.]

(instrumental, pl.) «Не ходите с пропусками в руках, вдруг потеряете!» [Don’t walk with your permits in your hands, what if you’ll (suddenly) loose them!]

(locative, sing.) «Что на пропуске написано?» [What’s written on the pass?]

(locative, pl.) «Фотография обязательна на всех пропусках» [A picture is necessary on all permits.]

The more I learn Russian language, the more I love this language. How about you guys?