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rickardspaghetti · Joined:Fri 17 Apr 2009 2:28 pm Posts:204 Location: Sweden

A friend of mine made a "false friend"-ish mistake when speaking English. A group of Filipino dancers had made performance at our school, and during lunch he walked over to their table and said "it was a very good show you visited". He thought he had said "it was a very good show you showed" for he had mistaken the word "visit". He thought it had the same meaning as the Swedish word "visa" which means show. The Swedish word for "visit" is "besöka". We had our good laughs. :lol:

formiko · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 8:31 am Posts:404 Location: Angola

Sobekhotep wrote:

formiko wrote:

My friend Misha lives in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and he's darker skinned (like Israeli) and his entire family is from St. Petersburg.

Eh? Most of the Israeli Ashkenazim I've seen have had rather light complexions. I suppose they may be ever so slightly darker than the average Russian but they're all "white" to me.

I meant to say Sephardic. Он сефардских евреев

dtp883 · **Posted:** Fri 16 Oct 2009 1:59 am

Sephardim aren't the Jews that lived in Russia though. I'm pretty sure it refers to the Jews who settled in Spain and North Africa...

Sobekhotep · **Posted:** Fri 16 Oct 2009 2:24 am

linguoboy wrote:

Sobekhotep wrote:

But don't worry, I'll spell it out specially for you: formiko mentioned that Brooklyn has a huge RUSSIAN immigrant population. Then he added that it's called "Little Odessa". Since Odessa is in UKRAINE it makes little sense to me for it to be used as a nickname for an area known for its RUSSIAN immigrants.

If you knew anything at all about the demography of Ukraine, then you would've gotten my point. Odessa is essentially a Russian city in Ukrainian territory. (And since you didn't understand my reference to Riga, let me spell it out for you: Despite being the capital of Latvia, less than half its population is Latvian-speaking. No prizes for guessing what the most commonly-spoken language in Riga is.)

I know full well that Ukraine & Latvia have lots of ethnic Russians. :roll:

Look, if a person is from Ukraine, that makes their nationality Ukrainian, regardless of what language they speak natively. I assumed that when formiko mentioned Russian immigrants he was talking about Russian nationals and not Russophones or ethnic Russians, especially since he added that many of them are Jews.
But, hell, I could be wrong...

linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1001

Sobekhotep wrote:

I assumed that when formiko mentioned Russian immigrants he was talking about Russian nationals and not Russophones or ethnic Russians, especially since he added that many of them are Jews.

So you assumed wrongly. Moreover, identifying as "Jewish" doesn't preclude identifying as "Russian". Not to mention the fact that many of the so-called "Russian Jews" are only nominally Jewish, since "Jews" were a group for which special provisions were made to facilitate emigration at a time when many millions would dearly have loved to flee the USSR but were held back at the point of a gun.

Talib · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 8:22 am Posts:768 Location: Canada

Sobekhotep wrote:

Look, if a person is from Ukraine, that makes their nationality Ukrainian, regardless of what language they speak natively.

What about ethnic Russians in Ukraine?v

Quote:

Sephardim aren't the Jews that lived in Russia though. I'm pretty sure it refers to the Jews who settled in Spain and North Africa...

Originally, although there could have been some Sephardim in Russia. I'd expect any Jews from that part of Europe to be Ashkenazim though.

formiko · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 8:31 am Posts:404 Location: Angola

OK, he's not Sephardic.

I just guessed. He's Jewish in name only, I don't think he even had a dreidel

He reminded me of my Georgian friend, so he MAY have been related to the Black Sea folk

I no longer have his contact info, so I can't even ask him.

Talib · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 8:22 am Posts:768 Location: Canada

A dreidel isn't a very important part of being Jewish, from a religious standpoint. It's like being Catholic and not having a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Anders · Joined:Wed 20 May 2009 10:23 am Posts:52 Location: Sweden

rickardspaghetti wrote:

A friend of mine made a "false friend"-ish mistake when speaking English.

"it was a very good show you visited".

Here is what another Swede wrote:

"a drivers licence guilty in Sweden"
ett körkort giltigt i Sverige

He should try valid next time.

rickardspaghetti · Joined:Fri 17 Apr 2009 2:28 pm Posts:204 Location: Sweden

Anders wrote:

rickardspaghetti wrote:

A friend of mine made a "false friend"-ish mistake when speaking English.

"it was a very good show you visited".

Here is what another Swede wrote:

"a drivers licence guilty in Sweden"
ett körkort giltigt i Sverige

He should try valid next time.