Today, Yevhen and I met at the TAMKO office to dive into vocabulary for seasons and festivals. The cozy atmosphere of the student hub was the perfect setting to discuss how life changes throughout the year in Ukraine and Taiwan.
We started by mapping out the four seasons, and I finally mastered the transition from Зима (Winter) to Зимой (in Winter). Yevhen shared how major holidays like Новый год (New Year) are celebrated back home. Interestingly, our original plan was to memorize a long list of specific religious holidays, but we ended up spending most of our time discussing Christmas. We found out it’s quite a different festival in each of our countries, it’s more commercial and it doesn’t feel so authentic in Taiwan due to weather and religious reasons.
Even though we drifted from the “strict” list, it was a great way to see how language and culture intersect. Seeing the similarities between the Ukrainian Свято and Polish Święto for “holiday” was another “aha!” moment for me!
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