Slavic Languages - Blog Posts

Do Europeans (and do Ukrainians) criticize for low foreign language skills?

Today, I found a post of a non-European who complained about how the Spanish criticized foreigners for nor speaking Spanish. It reminds me of posts about how Europeans hate when Americans are not bilingual or are not speaking their mother tongue.

As an Eastern European, specifically, as a Ukrainian, I personally give no sheesh whether you speak Ukrainian or not. However...

First, not all Ukrainians speak English/Spanish/French/German etc.

You cannot simply come here and expect us to speak English fluently. Elder generations speak English badly, my generation (um...actually, I am not gen Z according to our generation theory...I am Y...uummmm...however!) also refuses to speak (but learns), the youngest gen Alpha cannot speak English yet. Why? Because we cannot practice it, we have no extra money to travel all around the world (even before the war, ye know), and as an English language teacher, I have to say the methods of teaching English in Ukraine are...particularly ineffective. Same situations with less spreaded languages.

Second, we want you to speak Ukrainian.

It is a common situation (especially before the war) when a foreigner surely learns French or German but thinks English will be enough in Ukraine. You may say that is because Slavic languages are hard to (at least) speak, but many of you choose russian to learn. Moreover, there are absolutely brainless and somehow pragmatic people (yeah, Chinese, I am speaking about you) thinking it is enough to speak russian in Ukraine, the mother language of Ukrainians does not matter.

We want you to speak Ukrainian. We do not really care how bad you speak. We will surely (try to) understand you and correct if it is necessary. Our language is unique, and we want not only all the Ukrainians to speak it but also foreigners to learn.

btw how did I learn English...? well...I am a philologist of English and Chinese languages, and I have a bachelor degree (yet).

теє-то, кулєги, поширюйте допис, я пітнів і без перекладача писав, як справжній профі!

wise words, fellas, I dare you to read it all.

more of my yapping about the fandom-given hetalia Ukraine name

I don't like the Katyusha Ukraine because in my opinion it doesn't suit her, and people constantly use the name incorrectly. basically, Katyusha is like a playful version of "Kateryna/Katya", but people write it like a formal first name pretty often (Katyusha Chernenko), no blame since it comes from a place of unfamiliarity with slavic languages, it's just a bit annoying. plus the word is associated with that one russian song that became popular during World War II god it just doesn't suit her at all in my opinion 😭

"Katyusha" is a diminutive form of the name Kateryna, except it's of russian origin; in Ukrainian the diminutive forms of the name are "Katrusya", "Katerynka", or less commonly "Katrunya"

historically, the russian empire and later the soviet union promoted russian at the expense of Ukrainian, leading to the suppression of Ukrainian culture and language. of course, some Ukrainians use Katyush/Katyusha as playful nicknames, because the blending of Ukrainian and russian, that's been caused by reoccurring russification, migration, and political influence, lead to mixed usage in everyday speech – it's a normal thing (surzhyk). it's not a crime to use this word or anything, I just find it ironic that the character that represents a nation constantly oppressed by russian imperialism, in hetalia only exists as a dependant and less important character to give russia more endearing relationships and make him more interesting, and then the Japanese fandom coincidentally has also chosen the russian word for her name (I assume it's after that popular soviet song)

really I feel there's not much Ukrainian about canon hetalia Ukraine, which seems to be a very common feeling among many of my Ukrainian friends who know about the character :/ they think she's cute and pretty, but when it comes to national identity and culture, she is not relatable even on a stereotypical level, and has little depth as a character

anyway, if you want some Ukrainian first names, here's a list of the ones I think sound fitting (SUBJECTIVE OPINION 😡)

🇺🇦🔱🌻🍲🇺🇦🌾🌻🍞🇺🇦🍲🌾

Myroslava (love this one) - slavic origin, a combination of мир and слава, meaning peace and glory. it suits resilient and strong people

Olha/Olya (ОЛЯ UA!!!!!!!) - scandinavian origin (ukr. variant of Hélga). yea it's a really old and really common name that associates with the Kyivan Rus era, anyway I use it because of a meme and due to every Olya I've met building this collective Olya in my head that's literally how I also see Ukraine. she's such an Olya. it's hard to explain

Olena (not Olyena) - greek origin (ukr. variant of Helénē) came to Ukrainian through Church Slavic "Yelena" (not Yelyena)

Lesya - Ukrainian name deriving from "Olesya" which in turn derives from "Oleksandra". I'm very biased about it because it's one of my favourite female names, and also many Ukrainians associate it with Lesya Ukrayinka, which is the self-given title of an outstanding Ukrainian writer, translator and cultural figure

Halyna - likely greek origin and comes from "galēnē". I like it because I get to call her Halynka/Halya, I think it sounds cute

Tetyana - common slavic name, likely of roman origin, it just has a tender and pretty sound to it

these names are common in some or all other slavic languages, differing in varied phonetics

😑 I am NOT gatekeeping people from calling her "Kateryna", I just personally dislike Katyusha or russian Yekatyerina for her, and in my opinion the old russian-speaking fandom did a better job naming her Olha, even if that popularized the russian transcription for this same name (Olga)

my Ukraine is named Olha Tkachenko. I just like it the most and I've kind of grown used to it. whateva

I will kiss you.

I was scrolling Instagram Reels and everything was fine, until I saw a video of a Ukrainian girl dubbing anime.

Honestly, I forgot what a pleasure is communication with not all Russians

She’s a cool girl but why she doesn’t speak Russian?

Well, I don’t know. Because other languages exist? Oh, wait

And now write in a human language

Explanation: a human language is any other language that is not Ukrainian, cause you know, Ukrainian language is an animal language

The Ukrainian language is a rural Russian. That’s why a lot of people find it funny. We haven’t been to the village, haven’t heard «бурак» (a twisted Ukrainian word for beetroot) and «кавун» (a Ukrainian word for watermelon).

The good old Russian belief that Ukrainian is a language of uneducated people from the countryside

South Slavic forms of Russian are quite similar to each other, do you also laugh at Serbian language or South Western Czech language?

It seems this person was trying to talk some sense into the previous user but South Western Czech is a South Slavic form of Russian????

Actually, no politics or something, but Ukrainian sounds somehow, I don’t know, like a rural language

A few moments later

500k dead pigs. It’s not enough, we need more

What did happened to ‘no politics’?

It’s common for Russians to call Ukrainians pigs, by the way

The most useless dubbing

It’s useless because it’s Ukrainian. Nothing new

Who might find the rural language, which only makes you laugh and smile, useful? You, even the Ukrainians themselves, don’t speak it

There are only two types of Russians: who thinks that no people speak Ukrainian in Ukraine, and who thinks that evil people who speak Ukrainian violate rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine

Weird, I’m so accustomed to reading such comments for all these years that I don’t have any emotional response to the insults.