nobody knows about Estonia!!! :o(
Yesterday night our landlady taught me how to make jewelry from beads! Some years ago she used to make lots of neclaces, bracelets and earrings from beads and sell them. But the business wasn't too good, because everyone is doing it here! I wish she was in Estonia! We don't even have a bead shop....
So, yesterday I made my first necklace and a pair of earrings!
***
Now about something which is becoming really annoying already - people have never heard of Estonia!!! It's unbelievable... I still haven't met a South African who knows anything about Estonia! Everyone is asking "where are you from?" and when I say "Estonia", I usually get the answer "Oh, ok" and a strange look. And I can tell right away that they have no idea what I'm talking about. Some people then ask "Where is it?" and others are afraid to admit that they've never heard of it. So, I ask them myself "Do you know where it is?"
Actually, I've learned that it's not so bad to be asked "WHERE Estonia is?" - it's much worse when people ask "WHAT it is? Is that a country?!?".
When people ask where Estonia is, I always ask them back: "Do you know Finland, Sweden...?...(in most cases people know Scandinavia) Well, it's near there.. It's a very small country, only 1,5 million people.." (I never mention that we are close to Russia, unless they ask themselves). I've said those sentences countless times already..
Ok, I understand if the South Africans don't know about Estonia - I don't know the location of all African countries or the names of their capitals either.
But it's much worse and it really makes me sad when some of the Europeans I've met here have never heard of Estonia!! Hello, did you know that there are some new members in the EU?!?
And I wish I had brought more material with me to introduce Estonia to people. Especially, music and films so that they could hear how nice our language sounds (By the way, just yesterday I was asked (by a European!) - "So, you are using the Cyrillic alphabet there, right?")!!!
In some cases, when I feel it's really no use explaining some people where I'm from or there simply isn't enough time to do that, I just say that I'm from Europe and hope that they don't ask any further questions, because I'm getting tired of explaining it all over again..
So, yesterday I made my first necklace and a pair of earrings!
***
Now about something which is becoming really annoying already - people have never heard of Estonia!!! It's unbelievable... I still haven't met a South African who knows anything about Estonia! Everyone is asking "where are you from?" and when I say "Estonia", I usually get the answer "Oh, ok" and a strange look. And I can tell right away that they have no idea what I'm talking about. Some people then ask "Where is it?" and others are afraid to admit that they've never heard of it. So, I ask them myself "Do you know where it is?"
Actually, I've learned that it's not so bad to be asked "WHERE Estonia is?" - it's much worse when people ask "WHAT it is? Is that a country?!?".
When people ask where Estonia is, I always ask them back: "Do you know Finland, Sweden...?...(in most cases people know Scandinavia) Well, it's near there.. It's a very small country, only 1,5 million people.." (I never mention that we are close to Russia, unless they ask themselves). I've said those sentences countless times already..
Ok, I understand if the South Africans don't know about Estonia - I don't know the location of all African countries or the names of their capitals either.
But it's much worse and it really makes me sad when some of the Europeans I've met here have never heard of Estonia!! Hello, did you know that there are some new members in the EU?!?
And I wish I had brought more material with me to introduce Estonia to people. Especially, music and films so that they could hear how nice our language sounds (By the way, just yesterday I was asked (by a European!) - "So, you are using the Cyrillic alphabet there, right?")!!!
In some cases, when I feel it's really no use explaining some people where I'm from or there simply isn't enough time to do that, I just say that I'm from Europe and hope that they don't ask any further questions, because I'm getting tired of explaining it all over again..
posted by Kadri Aavik at 12:20 AM
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