Dear Readers,
I thought that you might enjoy a more humourous post.
Last night I was sitting at the kitchen table with my host sisters, their cousin Olena (around 13 I'm guessing), my host mother, and host grandmother.
We were playing our vocabulary game again (we tell each other what things are in Ukrainian and English), and Halya asked how to say 'shirt' in English. So, I said 'shirt.'
I guess that 'shirt' is a rather difficult word to say for Ukrainians, because neither the 'i' nor the 'r' sounds in 'shirt' exist in Ukrainian. My host sisters sort of got it by replacing that weird 'i' sound in 'shirt' with a Ukrainian 'e' and by rolling the 'r'.
Anyway, my grandmother was really struggling, and she starting saying something like 'шит', and kept saying 'шит' when I tried to help her prounounce 'shirt'. This was mildly amusing for me, of course, because in Ukrainian, ш = 'sh', и = 'i' as in 'bit'', and т = 't'. So, here was this elderly lady saying "шит, шит, huh, шит?" It was about 10:00 at night, and I was tired...I found it amusing. I had to try hard to hold myself from laughing.
Side note:
'Shirt' in Ukrainian is 'майка', which last week confused me because it is remarkably close to 'Майкл': my name in English transcribed into cyrillic (as opposed to 'Michael' translated to Ukrainian, that's Mykhailo-Михайло). So, when Marta was pointing at my shirt saying 'майка, майка,' I responded by saying 'Ні, Я Майкл,' (No, I am Michael). Needless to say, Marta and Hanusia found that very funny, and we all laughed at me.
Another side note:
Hanusia's actual name is 'Anna', but everyone calls her 'Hanusia.' I have no idea why.
Until next time,
Michael
About Me
- Michael Hayes
- I am a third year student at the University of Toronto-St. Michael's College doing a double major in philosophy and Christianity and culture. This summer I will go to Ukraine for three months to work with Faith and Light--an international community bringing together people with disabilities. This is an integral part of the Intercordia program in which I am enrolled. I will use this blog to record my progress. Intercordia is a registered charity. BN# 833547870RR0001
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Yay wiki
Hannah is a personal name, also spelt Hanna, Hana, or Chana, deriving from the Hebrew language חַנָּה (Channah), meaning "He (God) has favoured me/favours me (i.e. with a child)." The name is biblical as it is the name of the mother of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 1:2), and their associated story is how the name gets its meaning. The 'Hannah' spelling of the name was taken up as a given name by the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries and has always been a common Jewish name. Hanna is also a surname; see Hannah (surname). Ann (and Anne, Anna etc) are derived from Hannah.
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