Good luck reading street signs (or any sign for that matter) if you don’t know a little about the Russian alphabet. Sure, you can make a successful adoption trip to Odessa without knowing Russian or how to read a street sign. Your facilitator/translator/driver will lead you around and take care of everything for you. However, I found it helpful to at least try and learn the Russian alphabet and pronunciation of each letter.
When you arrive in Ukraine, you are a stranger in a strange land. I found that if I could do something as simple as read a sign, suddenly, I felt a little less stress and a little more connected to my environment. Your facilitator will not be able to be with you every time you need to run to the market or go out to eat. For example, when you are hungry, it is nice to know the store with the sign reading, “Pectopah” is actually a “restaurant.” Or, when reading the name tag of the person waiting on your table, you understand their name to be, “Sasha” and not “Cawa”. ;-)
Tip
I went to rustran.com and found a cool cheat sheet listing the Russian letter (cap and lower case), how to pronounce it and an example as used in a word. I carried this sheet in my back pocket and referenced it quite often the first week or two of my stay. It became a game to try and read every sign I saw. Since I am a graphic artist, I like letter-types, logos and enjoy looking at signs in any language. By profession, I am predisposed to think this is fun.
Soon, my little game became more of an obsession. Holding the crumpled cheat sheet in my hands while riding in the taxi--eyes darting back and forth from sign to sheet, then sheet to sign. Eyes squinting. Lips moving without making a sound. I looked like Forrest Gump on a European Vacation. I finally had to leave the cheat sheet at home. (I’m past the obsession stage.)
Even if you don’t have a cheat sheet, here are a few tips to get you started.
The first thing you need to know: The Russian alphabet has nothing in common with our English alphabet. The fact that a few letters (A, K, M, O, T) of both alphabets look the same and are pronounced the same is strictly coincidence.
This next tip is a warning: Some letters of the Russian alphabet look familiar to us but are pronounced very differently. In Russian, a “c” makes a sound like an “s”. A capital “B” makes the “V” sound as in “vine”. But, a lower case “b” (with a flag pointing right) makes the “b” sound as in “bit.” What looks like an “H” to us is really an “N”. Or, a lower case “r” is really a “G”. It goes on…
The Russian alphabet appears to borrow a few letters from the Greek alphabet. For those of you who pledged Greek in your college days, you’ll see some old friends. The symbol for “Pi” is the letter representing the “P” sound and the symbol for “Phi” makes the “F” sound.
For added interest, the Russian alphabet throws in a few “picture-like” letters. For example, they have a letter that looks like a little Dutch house that makes the “D” sound as in “domicile” (get it?). And, a spider-looking letter called, “zheh” that makes the “zh” sound as in “pleasure”. For added confusion, the Russian alphabet takes some of our English letters and numbers and flips them backward! A backward “R” makes the “yah” as in “yard”. A backward number “3” makes the “z” sound as in “zoo”.
On second thought, maybe you are better off just ignoring the Russian alphabet and let a professional take care of it for you. If your facilitator is away and you need a translator in Odessa, contact Julia Baskova at jbaskova@yahoo.com
Oh, by the way, the street sign in the picture at the top of this post marks the corner of “Gretskaya" and “Preobrashenskaya" streets--or, something pretty close to that. My apologies if I am wrong. ;-)
When you arrive in Ukraine, you are a stranger in a strange land. I found that if I could do something as simple as read a sign, suddenly, I felt a little less stress and a little more connected to my environment. Your facilitator will not be able to be with you every time you need to run to the market or go out to eat. For example, when you are hungry, it is nice to know the store with the sign reading, “Pectopah” is actually a “restaurant.” Or, when reading the name tag of the person waiting on your table, you understand their name to be, “Sasha” and not “Cawa”. ;-)
Tip
I went to rustran.com and found a cool cheat sheet listing the Russian letter (cap and lower case), how to pronounce it and an example as used in a word. I carried this sheet in my back pocket and referenced it quite often the first week or two of my stay. It became a game to try and read every sign I saw. Since I am a graphic artist, I like letter-types, logos and enjoy looking at signs in any language. By profession, I am predisposed to think this is fun.
Soon, my little game became more of an obsession. Holding the crumpled cheat sheet in my hands while riding in the taxi--eyes darting back and forth from sign to sheet, then sheet to sign. Eyes squinting. Lips moving without making a sound. I looked like Forrest Gump on a European Vacation. I finally had to leave the cheat sheet at home. (I’m past the obsession stage.)
Even if you don’t have a cheat sheet, here are a few tips to get you started.
The first thing you need to know: The Russian alphabet has nothing in common with our English alphabet. The fact that a few letters (A, K, M, O, T) of both alphabets look the same and are pronounced the same is strictly coincidence.
This next tip is a warning: Some letters of the Russian alphabet look familiar to us but are pronounced very differently. In Russian, a “c” makes a sound like an “s”. A capital “B” makes the “V” sound as in “vine”. But, a lower case “b” (with a flag pointing right) makes the “b” sound as in “bit.” What looks like an “H” to us is really an “N”. Or, a lower case “r” is really a “G”. It goes on…
The Russian alphabet appears to borrow a few letters from the Greek alphabet. For those of you who pledged Greek in your college days, you’ll see some old friends. The symbol for “Pi” is the letter representing the “P” sound and the symbol for “Phi” makes the “F” sound.
For added interest, the Russian alphabet throws in a few “picture-like” letters. For example, they have a letter that looks like a little Dutch house that makes the “D” sound as in “domicile” (get it?). And, a spider-looking letter called, “zheh” that makes the “zh” sound as in “pleasure”. For added confusion, the Russian alphabet takes some of our English letters and numbers and flips them backward! A backward “R” makes the “yah” as in “yard”. A backward number “3” makes the “z” sound as in “zoo”.
On second thought, maybe you are better off just ignoring the Russian alphabet and let a professional take care of it for you. If your facilitator is away and you need a translator in Odessa, contact Julia Baskova at jbaskova@yahoo.com
Oh, by the way, the street sign in the picture at the top of this post marks the corner of “Gretskaya" and “Preobrashenskaya" streets--or, something pretty close to that. My apologies if I am wrong. ;-)
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