Ukraine is game to you!?

Between American movies, TV shows and music; most Ukrainians have created their personal opinion of life in America. Of course, the chance that these beliefs are accurate may be a little far fetched. (However, I do think that it is possible that a general knowledge of American culture, history and geography can be learned from these same sources.) I assure you that while the characters in the sitcom “Friends” may be able to afford a large apartment in New York City working as  a struggling actor or in a coffee shop no one else in the city could possibly do this (except maybe for the characters in Seinfeld?). Americans are generally not very good at geography. In fact, most foreigners consider it an insular country. Only about 37% of Americans have a passport and many of those may be foreign born that have recently become naturalized. Let me tell a joke:

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?------trilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks two Languages? ------bilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks one language?-----an American.

Most Americans know very little about Ukraine but usually they have at least heard of the country and know that it was formally part of the Soviet Union. I think they may remember the Crimean War and the Yalta Conference from history class but these are probably remembered as being associated with Russia and the USSR respectfully. I assume that there are probably only four things that most American minds can conjure up when Ukraine is mentioned. First would be that “the Ukraine” was the breadbasket of the USSR and that Hitler sent his armies to capture it, secondly they might think (incorrectly!) that Chicken Kiev is the national dish. The next item would be the disaster at Chernobyl. This happened not too long after our own Three Mile Island. Once more, it is possible that people remember this happening in the USSR and they might not be aware that it is located in the present country of Ukraine. The most recent source of information about Ukraine would be from the aforementioned Seinfeld sitcom. In one episode, two of the characters were playing the board game called “Risk”. The characters could not play the game in one sitting and there were concerns about cheating. When one of them had to run an errand he insisted that he was taking the board with him and then the other fellow demanded to come along also. They ended up taking their inexhaustible game on the subway. The following clip shows what happened next:  http://youtu.be/fzLtF_PxbYw.

Posted by John 

P.S. I would like to hope that the Ukrainians that know me think I am an exception to the last paragraph. I am mediocre at dozens of things but I have at least traveled to almost every county in Europe as well as six continents. I think I can also remember picking up a minor in geography from some school out west. Additionally, I have studied both Russian and Ukrainian History.