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The whole last week I was processing the samples for the new project - pieces of moss and soil from all around the world. Got a guest, a colleague from Minsk, Belarus (now emigrated to avoid political prosecution). I proposed him an experiment - me speaking Ukrainian that he doesn't know, and him speaking Belorussian, and (not surprisingly) we had no problem understanding each other.
There are many almost identical words in Ukrainian and Belorussian (no wonder, our countries were one big country way before Moscow was built), also we've got beautiful names for the months derived from nature and human agricultural activities - same as in most Slavic languages, but unlike in Russian where they are just Latin words that mean nothing for a Slavic person. For example, "жнивень" in Belorussian and "серпень" in Ukrainian both mean the time of harvesting wheat and rye, while Russian "сентябрь-september" does not sound any way familiar. Same way as in Ukrainian, in Belorussian Participles I are not used (and in Russian they are, sometimes in a very stupid and confusing way).
Laughed a lot about reciprocal stereotypes - Belorussians see Ukrainians as furious and chaotic, while we see them as too quiet and soft, maybe way too rational, and rather tight-fisted.
We could be great friends as nations if not for the Russian neo-empire who de-facto turned their country into a complete satellite without its own will and culture, serving as a training ground for their army. And they did it using incredible cruelty - there are people who have been killed, gone missing, were tortured and raped by the police.
Friday evening horrible news arrived - Russia bombed my country again, killing 9 little children in Krivy Rih town. Ukrainian internet is full of mourning and pictures of the playgrounds with peluches - for the memory of the diseased kids.
There are many almost identical words in Ukrainian and Belorussian (no wonder, our countries were one big country way before Moscow was built), also we've got beautiful names for the months derived from nature and human agricultural activities - same as in most Slavic languages, but unlike in Russian where they are just Latin words that mean nothing for a Slavic person. For example, "жнивень" in Belorussian and "серпень" in Ukrainian both mean the time of harvesting wheat and rye, while Russian "сентябрь-september" does not sound any way familiar. Same way as in Ukrainian, in Belorussian Participles I are not used (and in Russian they are, sometimes in a very stupid and confusing way).
Laughed a lot about reciprocal stereotypes - Belorussians see Ukrainians as furious and chaotic, while we see them as too quiet and soft, maybe way too rational, and rather tight-fisted.
We could be great friends as nations if not for the Russian neo-empire who de-facto turned their country into a complete satellite without its own will and culture, serving as a training ground for their army. And they did it using incredible cruelty - there are people who have been killed, gone missing, were tortured and raped by the police.
Friday evening horrible news arrived - Russia bombed my country again, killing 9 little children in Krivy Rih town. Ukrainian internet is full of mourning and pictures of the playgrounds with peluches - for the memory of the diseased kids.