I met a girl this weekend who had just returned from a two-year Peace Corps stint in the Ukraine. She had the following informative morsel to share:
The word Ukraine roughly translates into English as The Outskirts. I don't know if that's a translation from Russian or Ukrainian, though I spent nearly four minutes "researching" online before getting flustered and bored and giving up. Also, I didn't know Russian and Ukrainian were two separate languages until the same girl told me so this weekend. Also, she told me that the word Veselka, the name of a great Ukrainian restaurant in my neighborhood which I've always imagined to mean Beautiful Ukrainian Princess, actually means Fork.
But anyway, I maintain that this translation of Ukraine into The Outskirts deserves attention for the following reason: we Americans generally refer to the country as The Ukraine.
Example: "Hey Joey, have you ever been to the Ukraine?"
We think we're being all globo-culturally enlightened, but what we're actually asking is: "Hey Joey, have you ever been to the the Outskirts?" And Joey has every right to feel confused and angry.
To correct this redundancy, I suggest we start calling it The Ukraine The The. At least when we translate that, it'll look a little more balanced.
This got me thinking about other stupid language-stumbles. ATM machine and PIN number are the more obvious ones. Are there any others? (No googling, you google jerks.)
Monday, January 10, 2005
The The The The The Ukraine
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5 comments:
There is of course "the La Brea tar pits." Which is extra hilarious because it translates into "the the tar tar pits." This was a family favorite for years. And we still sometimes say it to make each other giggle.
Alright! I got a bank reference in there without even realizing it. I totally fucking rock.
there's my family favorite - ABS brakes...
The Department of Redundancy Department!
there was some talk recently about changing the name of the baseball team "The Anaheim Angels" to "The Los Angeles Angels," which means, translated, their name would be "The The Angels Angels."
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