The Ukrainian Placenames And Language You See On Street Signs

 

 Ukrainian Flag

The Ukrainian language might be new to you as it is to me. On photographs you can sometimes see street names. You also see the street and city names on maps. I always wanted to visit the capital, Kiev, which sounds so romantic and had the great, green, onion-shaped roofs on the famous Cathedral. 

I also like chicken Kiev. Chicken breast with moistening butter and tasty garlic. A surprise when you cut into it in Italian restaurants which proliferated in London, England. A quick meal, and still a novelty meal, now that it is sold ready-made in supermarkets such as Tesco in the UK. The alternative spelling is Kyiv.

Odessa is also well-known. The hundreds of steps are a memorable dramatic scene in the classic film, Battleship Potemkin. Ship, port, seaside city. On the sea. Far south.

The third city which is nearest to the UK is Lvov, or Lviv, or Lemberg. Like Leo, all starting with the letter L, the word for lion. After leader or king Leo, the lion king.

The word Ukraine means on the border, as I learned from the video whose link I found in duolingo.

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

https://www.duolingo.com/skill/uk/lhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQLM62r5nLIreposiitonal caseetters-1/tips-and-notes

Video about the language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76SHvlLS5I

More details on verbs and comparisons between Russian and Ukrainian

It helps to remind yourself of the English words

genitive, cognate, vocative, pluperfect, nominative, prepositional case, perfective prefix, pro-drop languages

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Yes, It's Still Hanukah. Where to see hanukiahs and why 44 candles?

Hanukiah in Singapore. Photo taken on day three of Hanukah showing three (electric) candles lit. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

What is a Hanukiah
Once you know what a hanukiah is you will recognize it. Three others walking with me went past this Hanukiah without noticing it. I saw it and was delighted. I hanukiah is a nine candle candlestick for Hanukah festival, celebrating the oil lasting eight days when the second temple in Jerusalem was re-dedicated. The Hanukiah is for the festival of light around Christmas time, and the Hindu festival of lights.

What is a Menorah?
The Menorah with fewer branches, only 7, is used throughout the year on the sabbath. Menorah simply means lamp in Hebrew. Firstly, a reminder that a simple menorah is a seven branch candle-holder, three semi-circles, for the seven days of the week. It is lit at dusk on Friday night. The first electric light in homes was in the 1880s, the time of my late father's grandfather.

The Hanukiah's Helper
However, a festival hanukiah is larger, eight candles for the eight days of Hanukah, plus the one extra candle, the helper or servant, in the middle to light the others.

Why 44 Candles?
When a friend gave me a hanukiah, the nine branch candlestick used to celebrate Hanukah, I also received a pack of 44 candles.

My guest told me, "You always get 44 candles."

"Why 44?" I asked.

"You need lots of candles. You need to light one on the first night, plus the central candle used to light the others. Two on the second night, plus the one to light the others, up to eight on the last night.
You always get 44. I don't know why. But it's the right number. It works out."

Counting To 44 On Fingers
That night as I lay in bed, in the dark, falling asleep I tried to add up the numbers in my head. I dozed off and lost count a few times but eventually added it up the total.

Night one 1 +1=2. Night one you used two. Always one extra candle to light the others.
Night two 2+ 2+1.

Simple Maths
Maths, we say in the UK. We say math in the USA.

Let's make it simpler.
Night one is 2 candles. Night 2 is 3 candles.
So the total number is
2 +3+4+5+7+7+8+9.

I added 2 and 3 and made 5. Then what?  Add four, or three or five?

I was in the dark, half asleep, but I eventally added up the numbers by folding down the fingers of my left hand. When do you stop counting? All the fingers on your right hand except the last because the hanukiah has nine candles.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

If it's easier, start with the big numbers folding down the fingers on your right hand. Nine and eight, which is, twice eight which is 6, add one, is 17. 17.

You now have only two finger on your right hand upright. Five on the left hand and two on the right hand is seven. Added to what? I yawned. Start again. 17 and 3 is 20 so 17 and 7 is 24.

From then on it's easier. 24 and 6 is 20. Doesn't sound like we will reach 44. But keep going.  Twenty and five is 25. 25 and 4 is 29. 29 and 3 is 32. And two is 34. The answer should be 44. I have lost it. Start again to check.

I am ten out. Sounds like it must be my arithmetic. I have lost ten somewhere.
9=*+17
17+7 +24
24 +6+30
305 =35
add 4 39

24 and 6 is not 20 it is 30. Ah.

Correcting Math(s) Mistakes
Always count up and down a column so you don't make the same mistake twice.

2
2 plus 3 is 5
5 = 4 is 9
9 and 5 is 14
14 and 6 is 20
20 and 7 is 27
27 and 8 is 35
35 and 9 is 44.

Add 7. 14, plus one is 24. yes, big numbers.

I went to sleep happy. You need 44 candles, exactly the number I had been told. I shall now always remember that if you add the numbers 2 to 9 (to light a hanukiah) you get 44. If  you were to add the number 1 to 9 you would get 45.

If you add 1 to ten you would get 55.

My husband is a statistician. He knows that sort of thing. I am not a stastician. Interesting mathematical problem for children. Fun with numbers.

You could do this count with smarties or M and Ms, or beads, or as I did it, on my fingers.

Where To Buy 44 Candles
Where could you buy a pack of 44 Hanukah candles? If you want to buy candles, you can go into a Jewish shop, a supermarket in a Jewish area, or buy online, or ask somebody going to Israel or New York or a city with Jewish or Israeli goods to look for a pack of 44 Hanukah candles.

Order Online Dripless Ond Other Varieties Of Candles
You can buy online dripless candles, blue candles, rainbow candles, silver candles, pink candles for a cause.

Doctor Your Delivery Address
When I typed in from a laptop in Singapore, set to a Singapore delivery address, I got an amazon Singapore result. If you log in from elsewhere in the world, you will get results either for your home country, or the coutnry where you are logging in. to reduce postal costs, and delivery times, try to find a supplier in the country of delivery, or a supplier from somewhere such as China where many companies offer delivery worldwide for free.

Which Spelling?
Finally, Hanukah or Chanukah or Chanukkah? It depends on whether you are translating the word said with an H or a gutteral ch as in the Scottish word loch.

Where To See Hanukiahs After Hanukah?
The hanukah display in Singapore will be no longer visible after the end of Hanukah. However, you can see hanukiahs and menorahs in many places such as the Jewish Museum of New York.

USA - The Ukrainian Hanukiah
I was intrigued to see that museum had a hanukiah from Lemberg in what was then the Austria-Hungarian empire, now in Ukraine.

From the Wikipedia article on Hanukah.

I was also intrigued to see all the recent presidents at the White House presiding over a Hanukah party, Bush, Reagan, Obama and Trump.

Useful Websites
https://www.amazon.sg/Ner-Mitzvah-Colorful-Chanukah-Candles/
https://www.amazon.sg/Zion-Judaica-Hanukkah-Menorah-Silverplated
Dripfree candles:
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/g23652651/hanukkah-candles/
singaporeair.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Hanukkah_Party

See my later post about the Hanukiah outside the synagogue in Waterloo Street, with a photo.

About the author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Learning Ukrainian - First steps

Problem
Ukrainian is in the Cyrillic script like Russian.
How do I learn the letters?
How do I type them?
How do I recognise and remember Ukrainian words?

Answers
I searched on the internet for a website with a Ukrainian keyboard and found yluhovy.com

UKRAINIAN KEYBOARD
With the help of a family member I downloaded the ap and found keyboard on my laptop and installed it. I now have the Ukrainian flag symbol in the list of flags which coma up as options in a drop down box when I clock on the UK flag for British English keyboard.

So far, so good. But how do I know which letter on my keyboard to type to get the Ukrainian equivalent.

My first thought was to type the English alphabet. But I didn't know what the Ukrainian equivalents were, nor where to find them.

QWERTY
So I typed out querty, the top line of my UK keyboard.

The only trouble was I had just clicked on the Ukrainian, so I got all the Ukrainian letters first, then the English keyboard.

My first thought was to type the Ukrainian letters followed by the English not he same line.

However, typing the Ukrainian underneath the Qwerty, or above, made comparison of one letter and another easier for learning easier. It was also easier to find the equivalent letter to type it.

I looked at the three lines and thought that was too many letters together and too muddling for my eyes. So I typed it again, larger, with the three keyboard lines separated by a space.

I printed it out, intending to cut out the largest version and stick it only my laptop.

Display
If you don't want to deface your laptop, you could make yourself an upright card, or even a card the size of a business card and display it in a business card holder, or the top of a business card box.

Now it is easy to see which letters are identical: Most of the vowels: aeio .

A few consonants: KXM.

Some letters are almost the same.

wш

mм

бb

тt

Story
I want to visit Ukraine because my late father's grandfather came from Ukraine and I am writing a novel inspired by research into my family history, based on the city of Lemberg, as it was known under the Austro-Hungarian empire. The city of Lemberg is also known as Lvov or Lviv.

Tips

Ukrainian - English
The Ukrainian word for son looks like sin, but spelled with a C to start. C pronounced S the same as in the English words place and p a l a c e and p o l i c e . The son who sins.

The Ukrainian word for garden looks like sad, starting with the letter c for sad. The garden is sad.

The word for juice looks like sick, shortened to SIK, starting with the letter c for S.   The juice is sick or made me sick.

Not very pretty pictures, but effective in teaching me to recognize and remember the words and the letters.

More Tips On Languages
www.duolingo.com

Video on numbers:
https://www.linguajunkie.com/learn-bulgarian

Flights to Ukraine
https://www.cheapflights.co.uk/find-flights/to-Ukraine/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts and tips on learning languages, also travels to Cambodia, Italy, Romania, the UK, USA and the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.

America in the 18oos - wagons, trains and the Donner party

When I went to the USA in the 1900s I heard about American history. The British were fond of saying, "America has no history." Absolutely not true.

The Donner Party
One of the dramatic stories I heard for the first time when I visited the USA was about the Donner party disaster. When was it? I just looked it up. 1846.

I am now writing a novel set in 1880, the time when my great grandfather in Europe would have been deciding whether to emigrate from Lemberg (Lvov, or Lviv) in Ukraine, to the UK or USA? What would have influenced his decision? How fast could he have travelled?

The pioneer Donner party were travelling overland to California, in a series of wagons.

The journey would have taken four to six months. That wasn't from New York to California. That was just the last leg of the journey.

Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City is a place everybody has hard of. Most tourists see the city but don't think much about the salt or the lake. The Donner party got caught in the salt flats which took much longer to cross than they'd expected. My family read a book about this and recall reading, "The people ran out of water. The wagons got bogged down in the salt. The horses went mad from dehydrating after licking on the salt."

One man killed another and was sent off to ride alone into the wilderness. He said. He survived.

Snow
The others were caught up in the winter snow before they could cross the mountains. Out of water and food. They started dying.

Cannibalism
The survivors resorted to cannibalism.

Railway Revolution
So what was the situation a couple of decades later? The railways were the revolution. America built more railways than anywhere else in the world.

In the time of my great grandfather, a train from New York could travel, leaving New York state on a Monday, arriving by Thursday night.

Travel Time
As my family point out, trains could travel overnight. Horses and drivers of wagons had to stop every night.

Only the rich travelled in comfort. According to an article in Wikipedia, the rich might be on business or pleasure, sitting in style on padded seats, made up into padded beds at night.

Seating and Bedding
The poorer emigrants sat on wooden benches. They slept at night on the wood, I presume. Even so a lot better than the wagon trains 1946.

Comfortable Modern Trains
Now you can travel in style by train, in cars designed to give grand views to tourists who are not in a hurry, across the USA or Canada. Again, its a scenic and comfortable journey, if you can afford it.

Cheaper By Bus?
I travelled on a Greyhound bus as a student. I loved it. I would not do that now. Even so, it's a lot better by bus than overland like the Donner party.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Author of twenty books. To be published shortly: The Tailor And The Spy; The Tailor's Travels.