My parents' Russian friends gave DC a soft toy when they came visiting Malaysia recently. It is called Cheburashka and is apparently a popular toy figure in Russia.
Here's the origin of Cheburashka as described in Wikipedia :
According to the story, Cheburashka is a funny little creature, unknown to science, who lives in the tropical forest. He accidentally gets into a crate of oranges, eats his fill, and falls asleep. The crate is eventually delivered to a grocery store in an unnamed Russian city (by some facts it may be Moscow) where the rest of the main story unfolds. Cheburashka is a name given to the character by the puzzled store manager who finds the creature in the crate when he opens it. The salesman takes the animal out and sits him on the table, but his paws are numb after the long time spent in the crate, and he tumbles down ("cheburakhnulsya" (чебурахнулся), a Russian colloquialism, "tumbled" in English) from the table onto the chair and then from the chair, where he could not sit, for the same reason, onto the floor. The store manager, who witnesses the scene, called him Cheburashka. Words with this root were archaic in Russian; Uspensky gave them a new lease on life.
The Cheburashka given by my parents' Russian friends is a talking toy. Press on its belly and it will speak some random phrases in Russian.
Based on their translation, here's what Cheburashka can say :
- Come play with me
- You are my real friend
- I love you
- Hi to all. My name is Cheburashka
- Let's sing a song together
- (Singing) Once I was a strange toy without a name and nobody came to me in a toy shop. Now I am Cheburashka and every dog gives me a "Pow"when meeting
- Take me with you
- Oh, oranges! (laughing)
- Will you not play with you if you don't know who I am?
- It would be great to be taken to the children to be a toy
- I was unlucky first and it could happen nobody came to my birthday party. But now I'm with my friend, he/she is the best in the world!
I think it's a very cute toy though I won't let DC play with it first as now she is in the "Everything also put into the mouth" stage. Maybe she can learn Russian too, LOL!
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