*** SPOILER ALERT *** Don't keep reading if you love the character Huliganov!!
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For anyone who has progressed a little with Russian, the first giveaway is Huliganov's name, Хулиганов (hoo-li-ga-nov). In Russian, a хулиган has the same meaning as a "hooligan" in English - "a rough lawless young person". Adding an ов to the end turns it into a Russian surname, where ов means 'of' (actually the genitive plural of хулиган!).
Хулиганов might well be a real Russian surname for someone in Russia, but in English it would probably sound somewhat similar to "Harry Hooligan", which might make you think it's possibly a pseudonym!
What many of Huliganov's fans don't realise is that it is in fact a pseudonym, and Viktor Huliganov is a persona devised in May 2006 by a clever Englishman, an accountant named David. Some of you won't believe me - you'll say "No, no way, that is a real Russian in those videos". And I would agree with you that his accent and typical Russian-English 'slip-ups' are remarkable. He does a marvelous job at impersonating a Russian, and my guess is he had some exposure to the Russian language when he was young.
But really, it doesn't matter - what Viktor teaches is correct, and the laughs he gives are real too. He has a great knowledge of Russian language and culture and we are grateful that he decided to share his work with the world.
Long live Huliganov!!
More Huliganov?
To see more videos by Huliganov you can subscribe to his YouTube video channel. Simply double-click a video screen on any of these pages to open the link, and then click on his username "Usenetposts".
