For many foreign citizens, Ukraine is a bizarre country with ramshackle Soviet-style buildings surrounded by modern skyscrapers and jam-packed yellow buses dubbed as “marshrutkas.”
But there’s another peculiar thing about Ukraine — its diverse and complicated for many language, especially slang words that are popular among youth.
Understanding slang helps understand the country better and overcome cultural shock faster. For that reason, former American Peace Corps volunteer Katherine Fitch, 27, and Ukrainian philologist Tetiana Sen, 22, created an Instagram page that teaches Ukrainian slang vocabulary.
Called Ne Tryndy, the page was primarily used by other volunteers who work with youth in Ukraine through Peace Corps, the United States government’s program that sends its citizens abroad for two years or more to work with schools, nonprofits, businesses, and governments
But then the page started spreading among the general public and eventually gained over 4,000 followers since its launch in February.
It was Sen who came up with the project’s name that combines the Ukrainian slang word “tryndity” (to chatter) and English adjective “trendy.”
“I called it Ne Tryndy to sound bold and brash, as modern youths often portray themselves,” Sen told the Kyiv Post.
Each picture on the page translates a certain Ukrainian slang word or expression into English and gives an example of using it. For example, Ukraine’s “businka” is the equivalent of English “cutie patootie.” Originally, “businka” is a Russian word for a single bead.
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Another post explains why Ukrainians use parenthesis at the end of their messages. The round brackets are used instead of emojis: A closing parenthesis at the end of a word stands for a smiley emoji, while an open one means a sad emoji. The number of round brackets also matters, as they are used for different moods: One parenthesis is neutral or friendly, while three brackets are used to express excitement, laughter or even sarcasm.
Each post also features an illustration by Sen, designed to help to remember words and expressions better.
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Although Ne Tryndy is an educational project, it started as a joke at the English speaking camp in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, where Fitch and Sen volunteered as teachers and counselors.
Fitch loves the Ukrainian language and says that slang helped her learn it. She first came to Ukraine in 2016 as a volunteer for the Peace Corps.
Having spent nearly four years in Ukraine, Fitch mastered the Ukrainian language and learned the most popular slang words because she worked with teenagers and had to be on the same page with them.
In March 2020, Fitch was evacuated from Ukraine due to the global coronavirus pandemic, she’s now in the U.S. Fitch keeps working on the Instagram account because she misses Ukraine.
“In the Ukrainian language, anything can become a slang word if you would like it to become one,” Fitch said. She thinks that is exactly what makes the language so unique.
Many Ukrainian slang words are not offensive and young people often use them for fun. Some words like “kul’ok” (a plastic bag), “takoye” (suchlike or whatever) or “businka” come from surzhyk, a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian widely used across the country. But other expressions like “profukaty” (to miss or lose something), “volayu” (lmao) or “vykabelyuvatysya” (to behave like a circus monkey) are uniquely Ukrainian.
According to Sen, slang words add new “layers” to expressions. “Mundane everyday things suddenly start to sound fun, cute or important,” she said.
For example, in Ukraine young people sometimes don’t explain why they are frustrated but say “oy vs’o” (that’s enough) and keep silent.
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As Ne Tryndy continues to gain popularity, even among Ukrainian teenagers who use it to learn English equivalents to Ukrainian slang, Fitch and Sen are thinking about turning it into a business by selling T-shirts and stickers with some of the phrases.
Meanwhile, they will keep posting new words to their slang vocabulary on Instagram.
“We want to keep making the Ukrainian language cool because it is our primary focus,” Fitch said.
