Ukrainian Class Notes - May 15, 2023
Translating between Chinese and Ukrainian, and just how good is pre-intermediate?
My teacher has also previously lived and studied in China before so we can share some of the experiences of the life in the country. Although she is back in Ukraine, she maintains her Chinese language abilities, though I’m not sure how often. We agreed that some of the things that are said in Chinese (is, formulaic chunks such as “对不对”， “没有问题”) are difficult to directly translate into other languages. One example with 胃有问题/没问题 is that it translates into “no problem”, but saying that in Ukrainian may indicate that there was a problem before, so we would use “нема питань” instead.
Here’s today’s word list:
Привіт! - Hello!
п'ять рівнів - five levels
рівень - level
Минулого року я склав 5-й рівень - I passed level 5 last year
розрахуватися - settle
багато років тому - many years ago
чи не так? - is it not?
нема питань - no question
Я намагався - I tried
Звісно, може бути краще - Of course, it could be better
Спрощені слова - simplified words
прості слова - simple words
учні - students
одне питання - one question
як вам це вдається? - how do you do it?
дві книги - two books
це небезпечно - it is dangerous
я повторю запитання - I will repeat the question
словниковий запас - vocabulary
поки - while
охоронець - guardian
цього літа - this summer
воно того не варте - it’s not worth it
дуже далеко - very far
метро дуже брудне - the subway is very dirty
повітря - air
смог - smog
вологість повітря - humidity
Finally, I watched some fairy tales in Ukrainian on YouTube. Of course didn’t catch it all but it is a good reminder of all the language I forgot from my childhood!
The channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/@UkrainianFairyTales
Hope you’re well and your language studies are continuing.
Let me know if I can help.
-Steve