Sometimes communicating with someone is harder than it first meets the eye. On my second or third trip to Rīga, I realized that Natasha really did not understand the words that were coming out of my mouth. That was not the worst part; the worst part was the fact that she felt trapped by not understanding me. I never wanted to make her feel bad or to do anything but be her friend. Ok, I will admit it, I wanted to be her angel, I see that will probably never happen, so the least I can do is to try and understand her a little bit.
Like all couples we had our own language. Ours was kind of out of necessity, because our relationship did not feel empowered by the language barrier. Here are some of the phrases we use when speaking “Natasha”:
- “aga” – this is the compliment to “ugu”, see below.
- “Allo!” – Russian for Hello!
- “Good weather” – it is not raining and probably will not be where we are going.
- “Hi! My boy!” – probably the sexiest thing that can be said to you at an airport
- “I am normal.” – Yet another Russian feeling. More like I do not feel bad, but I am trapped, and I do not understand how to make you understand how to help me.
- “I’m cafe and cig” – the breakfast of champions, coffee and a Winston 100 cigarette.
- “Send me message!” – it is the equivalent of “smsička” in “V”
- “So, so” – This is a general feeling of blasé. It conveys a certain unable to change anything-ness that can only be felt in a Russian heart.
- “ugu!” – It took me a long time to figure this one out. I was told it was short for “Дa!” Can you get shorter than that? It actually means “um-hmm” or “uh-huh”.
- “Wake Up!” – This does not mean what it says. On the contrary, it means “give me attention please”
- “Szanks!” –when accompanied by a smile is very clear. Without the smile, it could mean anything, seems untranslatable.
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