Ukrainian Language Day, 9 November 2007

A good Ukrainian Language and Writing Day to everyone.

I am at the stage of learning a language where I can follow a meeting and lose a joke completely. Humour is the last thing to arrive and the clearest measure of how far you actually are.

What I have noticed is that Ukrainian humour relies heavily on diminutives and on understatement, which means the joke is often carried by a suffix rather than by the content. You can know every word in a sentence and miss the entire point of it.

That is humbling and it is a useful thing for a foreigner to be reminded of regularly.

To the teachers, editors and translators: today is yours.