People are Strange: Part II. Those foreigners!

Ukrainians have an equal attitude to all non-Russian/Ukrainian speaking visitors. It doesn’t matter where you are from or how wide the smile is on your face because most people just HATE you. Initially, I think in some minds there is a Soviet mentality of evil spreading from the West. Others will detest you because they don’t know how to communicate beyond their own language. A less rational reason for hatred is that they do not quite understand what in hell brought you to the UA from your well-ordered perfect US/Canada/Germany/Sweden etc. Did you get so bored with everything being perfect at home that you decided to try your luck in a place which some people think of as the Third World? If this is true then we will show you “where a crayfish spent winter”! Also if people do not understand what you are doing here, you will instinctively be considered dangerous. Furthermore everything we are afraid of, we hate, since it reveals our own weakness.

In other words, most Ukrainians aren’t open-minded, so you should expect bumping into a lot of “walls” before you find a common language. However, there are some types of people, mainly translators/interpreters, travelers, students, who would talk to you with pleasure and with whom communication will be easier. The younger generation is curious and doesn’t mind foreigners mingling in their narrow world. It is the exact opposite with people over 30 who also don’t belong to aforementioned categories. If you try, you will meet a strong resistance, people walking away quickly, or pretending that you don’t even exist. This could be proven by one volunteer action I took part in this summer, the main idea of which was to find out whether or not the citizens of Kharkiv are ready to meet foreigners during Euro 2012. As part of our training, we did some role-playing. We pretended like we couldn’t speak Russian and that we needed some help to get around the city. We tried to receive some information from the unsuspecting people of Kharkov.  The reactions were not all the same, but the general statistics were rather upsetting. Even a policeman, quite young, promised to find somebody who could help us in English (he didn’t speak it by himself) and then he disappeared. Poor foreigners! They could have waited for help until Euro 2120!

Kharkov, being a city of students, might be the municipality with the most foreigners in Ukraine. This makes our town more liberal. But I have to admit that I don’t like that the Chinese represent almost half (and the amount is increasing) of the students in my University. Although, I have gotten used to Koreans who have been running their businesses in the Kharkov market for years. The older people would rather not hear German for well-known reasons. Giving foreigners a cold reception in Ukraine may have its consequences. As a result, in Hollywood the worst drug dealers and Mafiosi in movies seem to be Ukrainians or RussiansJ.

The picture I painted here might seem creepy, but I’ve tried to think about the dreadful occurrences which usually happen to foreigners (not because of their own mistakes), and the only one I know for sure is overcharging in taxis. Once the driver realizes you don’t speak Russian he will ask for twice the usual price. So, find a Ukrainian friend who will order you a cab and have some fun!

Posted by Helen