Letter of Unhappiness

Rough Translation

NPR

Society & Culture, Social Sciences, News, News Commentary, Science

4.8 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2022

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Naira calls her parents back home in Russia to talk about the war in Ukraine, they treat her as an outsider and a threat. She finds a way to break through the propaganda wall, with inspiration from a chain letter.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Rough Translation from NPR.
0:03.2	On the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
0:05.7	Nyra Davishyan called her parents back home in Russia.
0:09.2	At first, just wanting to comfort her mom's voice.
0:11.8	It couldn't get through to my mom, so I called my dad.
0:14.8	Nyra lives in France because of the pandemic
0:17.1	she hadn't seen her family in more than two years.
0:19.6	And when she got through to her dad,
0:20.9	she expected him to act shocked.
0:22.4	Like, oh my God, what the hell is happening?
0:25.5	Why is Russia bombing Ukraine?
0:27.7	How terrible it is.
0:29.1	That was my expectation.
0:31.1	And the reality was like, oh, but this NATO,
0:34.8	did you hear what Stoltenberg said?
0:37.6	Do you know?
0:38.8	That's NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
0:41.8	What's your Stoltenberg saying?
0:43.7	I'm like, he's not my Stoltenberg, okay?
0:46.3	In this conversation where they were both speaking Russian,
0:48.8	of course, her dad had switched his word for you,
0:52.4	not you, the singular familiar form, but you.
	...

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