Observations on Ukrainian Culture
Now for what you all have been waiting for....(drum roll please)
Here in Ukraine, men always greet one another with a shake of the hand, even if you are mildly acquainted with the person. This leads me to believe that if you were acquainted with many people in a small town, you would have to allow extra time to travel to wherever it was that you are going.
Women should not whistle, as it is a sign of a loose woman, or worse-prostitution. This I did not know until whistling in public and getting strange looks from people. I can only imagine what they were thinking… “With those comfortable fitting jeans and those two sweaters on, she doesn’t look like a prostitute, but then again she is whistling.” They must have had trouble wrapping their brains around it!
I read that chewing gum is considered crass behavior. Apparently this news hasn’t come to the people of Ukraine, because you can purchase numerous varieties of it at every store imaginable. The chewing gum market is most definitely not suffering here.
The most interesting cultural differences are the smallest ones, the things that you would never think of. For instance, one would not usually ask “How does one peel a banana here?” or “With what utensil do you eat your cake?” These aren’t things that you think of asking. We have discovered here that Ukrainians peel a banana from the ‘bottom’ up, towards the stem, so as to use the stem as a handle for eating the banana. Ukrainians also eat cake with a spoon, to them it is the strangest thing that we eat our cake using a fork!
NEVER wish someone “Happy Birthday!” until the day of their birthday, or after the fact. Doing so will cause the person whose birthday it is to have an early death. So if you really wish someone to die, wish them a happy birthday when their birthday isn’t for another two months!
Here in Ukraine, men always greet one another with a shake of the hand, even if you are mildly acquainted with the person. This leads me to believe that if you were acquainted with many people in a small town, you would have to allow extra time to travel to wherever it was that you are going.
Women should not whistle, as it is a sign of a loose woman, or worse-prostitution. This I did not know until whistling in public and getting strange looks from people. I can only imagine what they were thinking… “With those comfortable fitting jeans and those two sweaters on, she doesn’t look like a prostitute, but then again she is whistling.” They must have had trouble wrapping their brains around it!
I read that chewing gum is considered crass behavior. Apparently this news hasn’t come to the people of Ukraine, because you can purchase numerous varieties of it at every store imaginable. The chewing gum market is most definitely not suffering here.
The most interesting cultural differences are the smallest ones, the things that you would never think of. For instance, one would not usually ask “How does one peel a banana here?” or “With what utensil do you eat your cake?” These aren’t things that you think of asking. We have discovered here that Ukrainians peel a banana from the ‘bottom’ up, towards the stem, so as to use the stem as a handle for eating the banana. Ukrainians also eat cake with a spoon, to them it is the strangest thing that we eat our cake using a fork!
NEVER wish someone “Happy Birthday!” until the day of their birthday, or after the fact. Doing so will cause the person whose birthday it is to have an early death. So if you really wish someone to die, wish them a happy birthday when their birthday isn’t for another two months!
posted by Sarah C | 12:45 PM
2 Comments:
I had to chuckle at this one. When we traveled to Uzbekistan which is Muslim, the cultural differences were abundant, and many of them were tied up in some "Folk Islamic" practices - mostly superstitions that had become entangled into their daily practice of Islam.
For example, one day one of the ex-pats with whom we were traveling who had lived there for 9 years and I were waiting in the market for another of our party, and growing tired of standing, I went to sit down on the cement curb. "Don't sit down!" exclaimed my friend. " He went on to explain that sitting on cement meant that I would never have any children. Already being the parent of five children, from that point forward, I sat on every piece of cement I could find! (smile)
It was also totally inappropriate to comment that someone's baby was beautiful. This was to invite the evil spirits in to attack the child, and this was very, very bad.
Hang in there, though. You'll find - if you haven't already - that the people will be very forgiving of your mistakes, as long as you remain open, keep trying to learn their ways, and stay humble.
hmm...after reading this, i'm remembering a few incidences when i wished children in my english classes an early "happy birthday." oops. how come nobody told me about this one earlier?
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