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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Tymoshenko Credits Herself With Undue Criticism

Критикувати чи кредитувати: that is the question.

In Ukrainian, krytykuvaty means to criticize; kredytuvaty means to lend. In Tymoshenkian, the two words can be hilariously confusing — and food for Freudian slip lovers.



PM Yulia Tymoshenko: No matter how much they criticize my government and me personally — well, maybe they don’t know what to кредитувати...критикувати [quickly corrects herself] me for — so they criticize me for two things (thank God, there's nothing else to criticize me for): for my dresses and for the Ministry of Defense. Two extremes, aren’t they? As for the Ministry of Defense, I would like to make a point of how unfounded this criticism is.

She works hard for the money
So hard for it honey
She works hard for the money
So you better treat her right





Videos uploaded from:
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/132963.html
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/133246.html
Original sources:
http://tsn.ua
http://stb.ua

7 comments:

Unknown said...

All politicians are criticised regardless what they do.
A sidenote for your previous post. Our Prime Minister Bajnai Gordon) will go to the US for an official trip and it seems he won't even meet with Obama (maybe he is not that important :D ). He will held a lecture about economy in an university and will meet with local Hungarians.

We also have these words which are almost the same but means entirely different things: csikló-csukló (clitoris-joint).

elmer said...

критикую

Sent a letter to Ukraine via registered mail - 2 months ago.

It has disappeared somewhere in the bowels of Ukraine. Vanished. Evaporated. Щезло.

In the meantime, has Yulka fixed the Ukrainian Customs Service since July, 2008?

Or maybe her singers can just sing about it.

http://eternalremont.blogspot.com/2008/07/subtle-pleasures-of-ukraine-customs.html

Our good friends over at the US-Ukraine Business Council sent their members a wonderful email detailing typical expierences in getting packages through customs. For anyone who has ever interacted with a Eastern European customs agent, it makes for a hillarious read.


The highlights:

--A major soft drink company imports samples of plastic bottle caps with their logo on them...Shipment is not released because Ukrainian customs requires an official letter from the company that the bottle caps will not be used for medical purposes.


--While on a business trip a person forgot his pants in the hotel. The hotel sent them to the person in Kyiv by express mail indicating a value of $50. Ukrainian customs increased the value to $400. The person refused to pay the $40 duty required by customs for his own pants. Pants shipped back to hotel.




More at the link

Taras said...

Elmer,

Thank you for the link! Let's use email, UPS and DHL. Вони працюють:)


Ropi,

Csikló-csukló… I’ll keep that in mind:)

Commonly confused words and false cognates definitely spice up languages!

In Czech, holka means girl; in Ukrainian, it means needle. Also, in Czech, život means life; in Russian, it means belly.

Btw, a few days ago, I misspelled penetration aids as penetration aides:)

elmer said...

Ah, but Taras, in Church Slavonic, живот (zhivot) also means life,

As in Ісус живот дарував (Jesus gave his life)

Lingüista said...

As I recall from my trip to Bulgaria, прямо there means '(to the) right,' not 'straight ahead.' You can imagine the problems in following directions.

Slavic languages being so close to each other, such similarities are probably unavoidable. Even with Baltic languages there are often humorous situations (like Latvian "strādāju", which means 'I work, I am working', from "strādāt" 'to work'...)

elmer said...

No need for Tymo to worry about criticism - a Kyiv court has banned any and all ads, in whatever form, and by whatever medium, that are critical of Tymo's work and "not in good conscience."

Criticism is verboten.

Because such ads, according to the court, have an anti-social character and discredit Tymo in the eyes of society, and could lead to social tension and other negative consequences."

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/9/24/102138.htm

Taras said...

Lingüista,

Strādāju? Lol! Thank you for expanding my vocabulary of false friends:)!



Elmer,

That proves once again that "She's working."