Something that’s very prevalent in Ukrainian culture is belief in superstitions. Superstitions affect many parts of life and people take them quite seriously, so as a foreigner, you need to be aware. Never buy an even number of flowers for someone, except for a sad occasion like a funeral – it’s bad luck. Don’t whistle inside, you’ll lose your money. Don’t shake hands over a doorway, it’s bad luck, etc.
The other day in my English class my students were learning “first conditional” sentence structure, i.e. If/will statements. If you eat 10 hot dogs, you will get sick. If you toss a penny in a fountain, you’ll have good luck. Perfect for superstitions. So I gave them a list of American superstitions and we talked about them. Then they wrote down their own Ukrainian/Russian superstitions, and shared with the class. The activity could’ve lasted all afternoon. Even after the written lists were exhausted, the superstitions kept coming. If you meet a person with an empty bucket, you’ll lose your money. If you sit on the corner of a table, you won’t get married. If you forget something and go back home to get it, you’ll have bad luck. If a pilot says goodbye to his friends, he won’t come back. And on and on.
So here was my golden opportunity to ask for clarity about a few “superstitions” that had proved to be particularly strange to me. So I asked about my favorite – If a woman sits on concrete (such as a step or ledge), she won’t have kids. (Apparently they say your ovaries will freeze). The prevalence of belief in this superstition was experienced firsthand by friends of mine who were sitting on the steps at the train station, enjoying the nice warm weather, when a babushka scared them away with her fury. I figured this was maybe a superstition of the older generation and that my young, intelligent, educated students could give me some background. My students’ explanation? “That’s not a superstition, it’s medical advice.”
Ok, so I won’t be sitting on cold concrete anytime soon. But hopefully my students know first conditional.Laura
