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Comment posted on Interview in German Newspaper by gio74

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My translation:

Philology can be that sexy

Internet celebrity Marina Orlova explains the origin of words via Youtube – an interview

The topic

Every week up to 5 million users click her videos in Youtube. She is blonde, she is dressed with wide decollete – and she is an educated philologist: Marina Orlova.
The Russian born is a true celebrity in internet. With her Youtube channel the 28-years-old explains the origin of everyday life words in a charming and exciting way.
“The sexiest philologist in the world” was a recent title of the “New York magazine”. Brain and curves – that’s her recipe to success.

By Kira Frenk

Q: Miss Orlova, you explain the words’ origin via Youtube videos. How did you come to that idea?

ORLOVA: I gave once a class in linguistics, to some 20 students. That was back in Russia. When a mate showed me Youtube, I thought: “Hey, instead of 20 people I can teach to thousands. I’d have never thought that they would become 150 millions.

Q: But honestly: what did drive you really? Did you want to become rich or to spread knowledge?

ORLOVA: I wanted, and want, to teach to as many people as possible. I am just convinced that etimology – i.e. the science about the words’ origin – can fascinate a lot of people. One has just to introduce people to that.
For most young people I knew, it was just ok to be non-educated. And instead of learning, they would move from party to party all day all night. I’d like to motivate to learn. In order to get the young willing to switch on their brain. The brain is like a muscle: if you do not train it, it deteriorates. Use your brain, then something ignites suddenly: then you want to know more and more.

Q: Well, then you have thought of a rather unconventional way to motivate students. Considering your outfits, one doubts whether your audience is interested primarily in knowledge…

ORLOVA: Well, if I had proposed to the viewers just to attend videos with the explanation of words, they would likely react like “For God’s sake!” or so. Origin of words – that sounds boring as such. But if you show a sexy woman in the video, who gives funny and entertaining lessons, then the young people stay tuned. Slowly the words seep into their brain, and there it is: they have learned something, without even noticing it. I am doing just that.

Q: What work did you work on recently?

ORLOVA: Lately I explained the concept of the “Ponzi scheme”. Since the American investor Bernard Madoff had thrown 50 billion dollars in the sand, I was asked about the origin oh that concept. Charles Ponzi had lost 100 billion dollars in 1920 by selling post loans. Since then there is the Ponzi scheme.

Q: Poster of yours, fan articles, a proper merchandising: do you earn enough with the videos and the rest?

ORLOVA: Youtube is meanwhile a full time job. I earn enough money with it. Now I spend all of my time for the videos and the marketing. It took me one year, before the project paid off. At the time I produced videos daily. Now I can afford a rather comfortable life.

Q: How many languages do you master?

ORLOVA: Only Russian and English, but I have studied Latin and Greek as well.

Q: Do you plan to use your knowledge for something different from Youtube in some future?

ORLOVA: I do that already. I have just written a book about etimology, it is going to appear in a few months. Besides I am working at a computer game. But I simply love it. To make videos. And after all, I am viewed by three to five million people every week. Not bad, is it?

Q: Definitely. And therefore now a topical question: the association “Deutsche Sprache” (German language) chose the concept “X-mas” as the most redundant and the most annoying word of the century. In German the word is loaned from English. Please explain something about ist origin.

ORLOVA: X-Mas is short for the English Christmas. It has been used often over the last years due to politically correctness. Not to irritate people that do not celebrate the christian Christmas when exchanging wishes. The concept is being, in fact, abused. But one should know that it existed already 500 years ago. In Greek the word Christ begins with X. Already the ancient Greeks used the X as short for Christ.

Marina Orlova in the web:
www.hotforwords.com
www.youtube.com/hotforwords

About the person

Marina Orlova (28) was born in Russia. She studied philology at the university of Nischni Nowgorod, in the subjects linguistics and etimology (see keywords), accomplishing two degrees. Special subject: the origin of words. After her degree she has been teaching English and literature for a short time in Moscow, before she moved to the USA in 2003 as au-pair girl. Early in 2007 she published her first videos in her Youtube channel “Horforwords”. Orlova is single: “I have no time for a boyfriend”, she said to Spiegel online. She has just written a book and she plans to have a TV show. Her videos are produced this way: first she investigates the origin of the words. Finally she writes a plot, then it is recorded – she does all that by herself. The concepts explained are requested by the users.

Keywords
Philology is in its widest meaning the science of language and literature. She is splitted into linguistics and literature.
Etimology deals with the origin and the history of words, moreover with the development of words in their meaning and form.
Neidisch, Kumpel?
Gern geschehen!!
Ok, after all I translated it all and I just sent it to Marina!
Anybody already working on the translation? If not, I can do questions & answers 1-3

Recent comments by gio74

Jennifer Moss Pics
Fantastic photos, my teacher! I was always browsing regularly the web to get more from these sets, I had patiently collected some, but these are just great quality!! And a lot of them. Jennifer Moss is a genius, almost like you . Great outfits, wonderful poses, the perfect synthesis of your philosophy “Intelligence is sexy”
Pics from Comic-Con
Fantastic photos, Marina! You are really a wonderful teacher. I hope you had fun there (it looks you did). What a luck you all vistors!
Nerd Word of the Day: Geeksploitation
Marina, you say you geeksploit yourself. Well, you could just geeksploit us as well!! There are many geeks worldwide dreaming for you to take advantage of them. Aren’t we all wannabe-teacher’s pets?
Nerd Word of the Day: Cleave-dar
ok, I admit it
Interview in Switzerland’s Blick Newspaper
Dear all,
once again Marina triumphed in the German speaking world! It is then my pleasure to provide a translation which, at least, is definitely better than google (ok I admit it is not that difficult )
=============
Marina from Moscow
“That’s how English for beginners should look like”
By Gabriel Brönnimann

She teaches English – and she has 183000 students just on Youtube: BLICK spoke with the most popular teacher in the world.

BLICK: Where does your passion for the English language come from?
Marina Orlova: I have two university degrees: one in Russian and world literature and one in English philology. Philology is about the study of the origin of words – this has always fascinated me. And I learned English because I thought that it is useful, in case I leave Russia.

BLICK: How many languages do you speak then?
Marina Orlova: Only Russian and English. But I know also Latin and Greek – however only reading, not speaking.

BLICK: Why did you move to America?
Marina Orlova: Originally to improve my English. I have applied within an au-pair exchange program and I watched after an autistic child for two years. At the same time I attended universirty here. Now I have been here for five years.

BLICK: You are welcome in Switzerland anytime. We have very special dialects and words with marvellous etymology.
Marina Orlova: I LOVE Switzerland – and what your country represents in history. I want to visit the country at any rate – Youtube has finally incredibly wonderful offices in Zürich, there are stored most of my videos. I have heard that there are fire-brigade poles between floors – you don’t need any lift!

BLICK: Why did you make your Youtube channel? Really to teach people, or to become famous?
Marina Orlova: I always wanted to become a teacher. In Russia I had a class of about 20 children. In December 2006 somebody sent me an e-mail and he told me: “Hey, look this Youtube stuff here!”. I thought, maybe in this way I can reach a couple of thousands instead of just 20 people. I’d had never thought that they would become 165 millions, never in my life!

BLICK: You are now a true Internet celebrity. Why is it? Can you still go around as before, or do you have to hide yourself like many Hollywood stars?
Marina Orlova: Well, I am ALWAYS working. From the morning to the night I am sitting in front of my PC and I answer comments and e-mails. My videos are watched several thousands times a day, therefore I try to answer as many comments as possible. I collect reqeusts and suggestions for new words, I write the script for new videos, I record new videos, I cut them I upload them. Every day there is a new video – this keeps me very bust! Therefore I hardly go out of my house. But if I do, then I get recognized. Yesterday for instance it was the gatekeeper of a club. And in that club a girl said she loves my videos. That’s cool, I should go out more often.

BLICK: How do you go around? Dressed like in your clips?
Marina Orlova: When I am not recording, I wear comfortable shorts, a T-shirt, no make-up and a cup of tea near my PC. But when I go out I wear similarly as I do for my clips.

BLICK: You are certainly aware that many of your fans do not wish primarily to learn English – but rather enjoy you and your outfits.
Marina Orlova: Sure, it is the specific of my channel. The people would hardly click a video if they knew that it is about the origin of words. It sounds quite boring. But if they know that there is a hot cheek to watch, then they click. And when I have their attention, then they notice that the meaning of words is in fact a very exciting thing!
There is also the prejudice, that boys like stupid girls. A lot of girls think so. I try to show that the opposite is true. It is cool to be intelligent, it is cool tu use the brain!

BLICK: Should maybe more teachers dress like you do? As to keep them motivated in the English course for beginners?
Marina Orlova: In the primary school I would say ‘no’, there it is not convenient. But 90% of my fans is beyond 21 and 30% beyond 40! The way I dress attracts people at the beginning. So it is meaningful to dress like I do.

BLICK: Any reaction from angry feminists?
Marina Orlova: No, they do not attack me. Honestly I receive a lot of congratulations from women that thank me for making intelligence sexy! If there were no substance behind what I do, then there would be certainly some critics. The people do think indeed, at the beginning, that I am a sort of silly “babe”, but after a couple of videos they realise what it is all about.
Of course there are a few women that call me a whore on Youtube. But they do so with all women, you learn simply to ignore that and to focus on the positive comments.

BLICK: Talking about bad comments – do you receive many of those? How do you deal with that?
Marina Orlova: One of the most difficult things for women that get famous in Internet is the amount of ‘hate mail’ they get. Because Internet allows the people to comment anonymously – so they can say the nastiest thing, without fearing any consequences. At the beginning this got me down – they called me “old”, “whore”, they said they hated my Russian accent, and so on – but the 14-years-old son of a friend of mine taught me something valuable. He told me that kids of his age would do all that sort of things only to obtain a reaction. They do not even really believe what they say. As I realised that I had to laugh. I read ALL my comments myself. The good and the bad ones.

BLICK: What would you like to do in future?
Marina Orlova: I’d definitely like to continue with the Hotforwords stuff! I simply LOVE it! And I have just written a book at HarperCollins – it is coming out at the end of August. A Game-Show with myself is also planned. As long as I love it, I will continue doing that!

BLICK: If you sit the whole day at the PC and never go out – do you have a boyfriend?
Marina Orlova: I am very single! Since I work so hard and hardly leave my house, it is difficult to meet anybody. So, men, contact me on my webpage www.hotforwords.com. Maybe I’ll break my rule and I will date somebody I get in touch with via Internet.